Читать книгу Proficient Motorcycling - David L. Hough - Страница 6

Preface

I’ve always been interested in how things work. I remember taking apart my new cap pistol when I was six years old, then hiding it when I couldn’t get all the springs back inside. After a few more years of dabbling in things mechanical, I could overhaul the planetary geared hub on my bicycle and respoke wheels. I worked on outboard motors and built a few boats. In college, I took some mechanical engineering courses and learned about machining, casting, and welding before I switched over to industrial design. I started maintaining the family automobiles out of necessity, and when we needed a new house for a growing family, I learned concrete work, carpentry, plumbing, and electrical.

When I started riding motorcycles back in the 1960s, it was natural for me to wonder about the curious behavior of two-wheelers. I realized that riding a motorcycle involved not only the mechanics but also the dynamics of how to control them. My commuting to work by motorcycle eventually extended to thirty years, during which time I absorbed more than a few lessons about motorcycle dynamics as well as the joys and challenges of long-distance touring, group riding, foreign travel, three-wheeled motorcycles, off-pavement riding, motorcyclist rights, rider training, and yes, writing about it all. In the mid 1970s, I started putting down my thoughts on paper, contributing occasionally to Road Rider, a small Southern California touring magazine with a fiercely loyal family of subscribers. I began to offer safety tips at the local motorcycle club meetings, and I taught several “road survival” courses. When the Motorcycle Safety Foundation came into being, I became an MSFCERTIFIED instructor.

The “Proficient Motorcycling” column sprang to life in the May, 1984 issue of Road Rider, after editor Bob Carpenter asked me to write a six-part skills series, which he intended to publish every other month for one year. I didn’t want to call this a safety column because I didn’t think people rode motorcycles to be safe. I figured readers might rise to the challenge of getting more proficient. So I named it Proficient Motorcycling. Bob immediately decided to make it a monthly column, which I contributed to for several more years. Little did we realize at the time that “Proficient Motorcycling” would outlive Road Rider, capture a few awards from the motorcycle safety folks, stretch out another fifteen years, and start a trend toward the inclusion of riding-skills articles in other enthusiast publications.

By 1991, Road Rider magazine had been purchased by Fancy Publications and was reborn as Motorcycle Consumer News (MCN), a black-and white, no-advertisements, no-nonsense, quick-turnaround, product-oriented monthly. The “Proficient Motorcycling” column jumped the gap from Road Rider to MCN almost without skipping a beat

MCN editor Fred Rau recognized the value of skills articles and encouraged me to keep the column going. Today, it’s still a popular feature of the magazine. Back in 2000, when I put this book together from years of past “Proficient Motorcycling” columns, I was approaching age 65, and I recognized the column might well outlive me. So I helped train my replacement, Ken Condon. Ken now writes the “Proficient Motorcycling” column for MCN.

When i-5 Press decided to publish the first edition of the book Proficient Motorcycling, no one really understood the potential, and it was made very economically. Everyone was surprised and relieved when the first run quickly sold out. Since then, more than 120,000 copies of Proficient Motorcycling have found their way into the hands and minds of motorcycle enthusiasts. More than a few readers have told me proudly that they lent their first copy to other riders, couldn’t get it back, and had to buy a second copy for themselves.

Considering the enthusiastic reception to the first edition, it’s time for an update, so here’s the second edition—a little bigger, sharper, and better organized. I hope you find it useful.

Note: contents based on the “Proficient Motorcycling” series as published in Motorcycle Consumer News and Road Rider magazine, 1981-1999.