Publishing the best in books on motorcycling, motorsports, and adventure travel.
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Rubber Side Down
The Improbable Inclination to Travel on Two Wheels
ISBN-13 9781890623746, $19.99, 254 Pages, Softcover
Like Ron Davis’s first book, Shiny Side Up, Rubber Side Down: The Improbable Inclination to Travel on Two Wheels is a compilation of stories with some connection to the motorcycle life; however, it also includes not only new motorcycling stories, but reviews, personality profiles, and a few memoirs. Ron said, “One of the most gratifying responses I heard to Shiny Side Up was that you didn’t have to be a motorcyclist to enjoy it. I hope that’s even more true with this second volume.”
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I’ve enjoyed Ron Davis’s columns and stories in BMW Owners News (and other vessels of general motorcycle enthusiasm) for a long time, and not just because he has the good sense to live in Wisconsin and ride in our scenic and very special range of hills and valleys called the Driftless Area, or because he seems to be drawn to many of the same motorcycles I am—at almost exactly the same time in his life. I think it’s because he writes about these things with insight and a knack for detail that captures both the fun and mystique (and occasional absurdity) of our shared motorcycle infatuations at the same time. Although Davis writes with expertise, he never poses as an expert, and he shares his experiences with modesty and humor, as one who is learning as he goes along. Which is what we all do in real life. And he does what all the best motorcycle writing does: he makes you wonder why you aren’t out there riding your own bike, right now…his work simply helps you stay sane until spring.
—Peter Egan, Cycle World columnist and author of Leanings 1, 2 and 3 and The Best of Peter Egan.
This collection of relaxingly sweet remembrances and stories covers a wide range of moto-related experiences and topics. It’s partly an anthology and partly a memoir and makes a perfect way to take your imagination far from a long winter’s seasonal hibernation. You may not learn too much, at least not consciously, but you’ll enjoy every easy minute spent with this gently humorous and humble scribe.
—Mr. Subjective (Andy Goldfine, founder of Aerostich Rider Wearhouse)
Plainspoken, amiable and dry-witted, Ron’s humble manner ironically makes you curious what he might have to say about all sorts of things. With this second collection, it’s easy to sit down and enjoy more of his amusing musings on two-wheeled life, no digging through magazine archives required. Readers also get a glimpse of his breadth via several pieces composed for audiences outside the world of motorcycling. Actually, this works both ways: even when pondering bikes and all we love about them, Ron captures the human element, appealing to non-motorcyclists, too. Heartfelt tales of pursuing joy, mastery and wisdom—along with the misadventures inevitably involved—are great fun for everyone (though riders will groan most loudly at familiar travails).
—Mark Barnes, Author of Why We Ride, columnist for Motorcycle Consumer News, and creator of the podcast The Ride Inside
Rubber Side Down has received praise from big names in motorcycle writing and—like its predecessor [Shiny Side Up]—is a great read for even non-riders."
—Roadrunner magazine
The Tom Report
Seattle to Santiago on Motorcycle
ISBN-13 9781890623821, $22.99, 378 Pages, Softcover
“These are not bedtime stories. If reading the rough spots from this journey is getting you down,then try riding them. Pick up a Lonely Planet if my realities are too harsh because this is an adventure. Now hold on tight!”
Read no further if you’re looking for a glossy guidebook offering tips and advice on how to overland. The Tom Report is a 24-year-old Eagle Scout’s nine-month ride report taking you straight to the unfiltered action from Seattle to Santiago.
Prepare to laugh and cringe frequently with a cast of thrill-seeking characters throughout 20,000 miles of the Pan-American Highway. Tropical paradise, technical riding, and true camaraderie await, as do adverse weather, broken bones, and cartel gunpoint.
Now, grab your helmet and come along for the ride.
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Chasing Northern Lights
Chronicle of a Motorcycle Ride from New York City to the Arctic Circle
ISBN-13 9781890623845, $20.99, 228 Pages, Softcover
One man. One bike. One ride to see it all . . .
When Latino immigrant Miguel Oldenburg became an American citizen, he decided to celebrate in an unique and personal way. An experienced motorcyclist, Miguel set off on a sprawling series of road trips, seeking to visit every state in his new home. But there was one place that eluded him: Alaska.
Saddling up on the wrong bike with the right attitude, Miguel was determined to conquer this last frontier. The challenging journey took him thousands of miles, from New York City to the Arctic Circle in Northern Alaska. He travelled across mud-soaked roads, through magnificent forests, and past endless stretches of lonely countryside. It wasn’t an easy ride. But what he found was something few have truly experienced . . . America.
Now, Miguel shares his story, taking readers along with him on this epic cross-country ride. Chasing Northern Lights is packed with colorful details, warm humor, and a spark of rebellious freedom. Motorcycle enthusiasts and wanderers of all kinds will love this inspiring tale. It’s a story that speaks to the power of travel to transform . . . and the ultimate journey that lies within us all.
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Known as "Motorwolf," Miguel Oldenburg is a four-time Emmy Award winner, Creative Director, and multidisciplinary artist from Venezuela. A passionate motorcycle enthusiast, known for his long distance rides throughout numerous countries aroudn the world.
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The Hog the Dog & the Iron Horse
Travels through America
by Alex Kendall
ISBN-13 9781890623876, $20.99, 254 Pages, Softcover
Travels through America using the iconic Greyhound buses, the Amtrak trains, and an Indian Motorcycle. Alex Kendall wanted to see the “real” America and experience life on the road once again.
Along the way, he travelled 20,000 miles; destroyed his spinal column; got mistaken for a model; had breakfast with a stuntman; survived for three days on two packets of nuts; hung out with gold miners, ex-cons and famous comedians; nearly drowned on a motorcycle; and became a drug smuggler.
This book is a combined guidebook, travel journal, and a warning to dreamers.
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A Year in Motion
On the Road after Recovery
by Michael Fitterling
ISBN-13 9781890623913, $20.99, 340 Pages, Softcover
On the heels of a catastrophic eye injury, multiple surgeries, and years of recovery, on a dark night on the Blue Ridge Parkway, finally back in the saddle of his motorcycle, the author’s return to riding grinds to a crashing halt. In an instant, there’s a deer in his windscreen. Everything goes black then he wakes up on the pavement. Wrist surgery is followed by more recovery…then another setback. On the eve of his return to riding, the sight in the good remaining eye darkens at the edges—a detached retina. The next day he is in surgery again…and recovery…again. In his mid-sixties, the time left to ride to all the places he’d dreamed about now seemed limited, but he vows to himself he’s not done yet.
By October of 2021, doctors say he can ride again. Between then and the following October, 24,000 miles roll under the wheels of the new Tiger he’d bought to replace his wrecked Bonneville as he explores the United States. These are the stories of that year in motion.
Motorcycles, Minotaurs, & Banjos
A Modest Odyssey
by Steven Shrrill
ISBN-13 9781890623890, $23.99, 472 Pages, Softcover
This book is about twenty-one days, and sixty years. A motorcycle ride down the spine of Appalachia, with a little banjo and big myth for company, to play and sing at the graves of dead banjo heroes. About making a life about making work. This book is about outsiders. Interlopers. Class migrants. Motorcycles. Myths of all sorts. Death. Decisions. Awakening. Creative Process. Growth through risk-taking. It’s a book about ghosts. Music. Writing. Not writing. What’s this book not about? “Finding myself.” I know who I am.
Steven Sherrill is a high school dropout, a nearly retired professor, a family man, a ne’er-do-well banjo player, a motorcyclist, an aquarist, a sonic/video muckraker, and a novelist with five books in the world, one of which (The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break) is a cult classic.
A crazy idea, when it arises from passion’s fire, is always the best idea. “Motorcycles. Banjos. Graves.” Notionally, Steven Sherrill’s quest to visit the final resting places of his banjo heroes and play in homage is simple, private, quixotic. But his account proves the opposite: his is a complex journey that ends at the crossroads of the Appalachian region and the music it gave birth to, the author’s own history, the idea of the journey of each individual’s life, and the deep mysteries of creativity. He takes an odyssey into the nature of the odyssey itself. The dreamlike voice of Motorcycles, Minotaurs, & Banjos—funny, sharp, melancholic yet finally triumphant—is sui generis, as is this book. The ostensibly unrelated constituents of the pilgrimage it recounts fuse into an indivisible whole that is unlike any work of literature you will ever read. —Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of The Perfect Vehicle
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[Motorycles, Minotaurs & Banjos] in which Steven Sherrill pays homage to the ghosts of Appalachian folk music and takes us on a thrilling journey to the heart of America. As in the best road trip stories, the goals become urgent and yet mysterious, the destination proves unexpected, and the answers show us questions that we didn’t even know we had. This volume sits on the shelf among the masters of the open road—Jack Kerouac, Cheryl Strayed, and Robert Persig. Hold it to your heart and get ready to find stillness amid constant motion, wisdom above the rumbling motor of a Royal Enfield 650, and shelter inside the quirkiest Airbnbs of all time. —Elizabeth Kadetsky, author of The Memory Eaters
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Steve Sherrill really takes off on this one, a mystical ethereal illustrated journey down the Appalachian spine to visit the graves of America’s legendary folk banjo frailers. On the trail of some kind of personal equipoise through musical communion with these lost soloists, he finds their graves, peace offers figural totems, plunks out and sings their signature songs, rain or shine as day or night winds wail. Talk about ride sharing. Minotaurs, Motorcycles, & Banjos is an odyssey worth taking.— Jerry Zolten, author of Great God A’mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds
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If you’re overly-concerned about being obsessive, please read Motorcycles, Minotaurs, and Banjos. Steven Sherrill has you beat. This diary of a man intent on commiserating with dead 5-string icons, riding a named motorcycle, shackled with a named banjo, badgered by past foibles—taking on a journey befit for Odysseus—will leave you in awe. If “in a long, strange trips it’s been” hadn’t already been used, rightly, I’d use it. —George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories
The author's novel Visits From the Drowned Girl was nominated by Random House for the Pulitzer Prize
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Other Books by Steven Sherrill
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time
Joy, PA
Ersatz Anatomy
The Locktender’s House
Visits From the Drowned Girl
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