I modified my original review, and here's what's actually posted on Amazon.com:
"Picked this up at a local bookstore because it looked entertaining. The author spends the first chapter trashing Japanese bikes and saying that Harley is the end-all/be-all, and that anyone who rides a Japanese bike is a "wannabe." The book is loaded with F-bombs and anecdotes that center around being a drunken idiot on two wheels. Further, when people have posted poor reviews, the author has commented back like a screaming little girl, with atrocious spelling and grammar, to boot. I really pity his editor and proofreader... Color me unimpressed.
There was very little "handbook" about this book, and Mr. Barbieri is the kind of goofball that I do my best to avoid. I've ridden a number of different Harleys and they are fine bikes, but the metric cruisers (Yamaha Road Star, Suzuki Boulevard, Kawasaki Vulcan, etc.) compare very favorably and in many ways, surpass Harley, and for about half the price.
I ride a Yamaha Road Star 1600. The only "wannabe" I wanna' be, is on my bike, out on the road. (And if some Harley rider, or ANY rider, was pulled over and having trouble with his bike, I would pull over and give him a hand.)
To real bikers who are steeped in the "culture," it's not WHAT you ride. It's the fact that you ride. Period. A bunch of us get together and trash-talk each other's bikes because some of us ride metric and others ride American. What we are passionate about and what's really important, is riding and the brotherhood of the road and the wind.
If some ignoramus feels the need to look down their nose at another biker for the machine that they ride, perhaps that says more about that person, rather than the rider.
As for the rest of the anecdotes, they were entertaining, I guess. I can hear stories like that from just about any of my buddies, and I can tell a few, myself.
In short, I don't feel that this book was anything even close to what its title suggests. Pretty disappointed with it, all the way around."
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I got tired of him busting other reviewers' chops and acting like an angry 4-year old. I figured I might as well preempt him, while I was at it. (I also fixed the "one third the price." )
Favoured: 0
BB
