Motorcycle by Steven E. Alford and Suzanne Ferriss

In a world full of books about motorcycle factories, designers, racers, events etc, it is interesting to come across a book that draws everything together and gets you thinking about the motorcycle as the perfect vehicle. 

As the co-authors Steven E. Alford and Suzanne Ferriss (Professors who both teach at the Nova South-eastern University in Fort Lauderdale) put it, ‘The motorcycle is global icon of untamed freedom, symbolising daring and reckless adventure’. Not probably the sort of thing you have ever thought about, I know I hadn’t until I read through the 240 pages of this soft-bound tome.  

The book charts the evolution of the motorcycle and the resulting effect on society right up to the current perceived modernist object that is ‘designed to unify the rider and machine in perfect balance.’

It is a comprehensive look at history, technology, literature, film and fashion, along with aesthetic design, resulting in a thought-provoking inquiry into our fascination with motorcycles.  

The excellent References and Bibliography at the rear make this a brilliant and useful academic work, but don’t let that put you off, from buying a copy, because it is written in a very readable style that is far from heavy, or in any way boring.   

Broadly split into four chapters of Design, Identity, Images and Aesthetics with a Conclusion at the end, it certainly makes you think abut motorcycling on a global scale and makes you look beneath the glossy paint and plastic of a modern, or for that matter classic, motorcycle. 

As one reviewer has already succinctly put it, ‘This book is like a good motorcycle ride in that it leads you into new territory and gives you a fresh sense of familiar terrain’. I can’t think of a better way of putting it, other than to say ‘open your mind in the same way you would open the throttle and enjoy the read/ride!’.