Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well | David L. Hough

Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well | David L. Hough | Good Book

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Proficient Motorcy...

	Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well David L. Hough BowTie Press, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 178 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This fresh update of the world's best introduction to safe street-riding techniques now marries color imagery and contemporary road scenes with expanded content and more real road hazard strategies written in clear, concise,easy-to follow instruction that has made the book #1.

Essential reading

This book is essential reading for the new biker. If you have not already figured it out, this book is the bible for motorcycle safety.

Good Book

I got this bike to expand my knowledge of motorcycling. I've been riding for 6 months, now, and have taken 2 closed-course skills classes (MSF Basic and Experienced course), but now winter is approaching and I'm likely to ride less but wanted to do something to keep the skills and mindset fresh.

This book fits the bill quite well. The book targets the social rider or commuter, and describes the skill set and mindset that someone commuting to work, touring, etc. will need, and touches on various riding situations that you'll need to know how to address -- curves, animals, bad weather, wind, etc.

I think it's a great all-around motorcycle book and will give me something to digest this winter before hopping back on next Spring.

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Lives up to the promise

This book, which is referenced and applauded by every other motorcycle instruction resource, lives up to all expectations. For the beginner it should be considered their two-wheel bible. More experienced riders can benefit by gaining insights before riding off into unfamiliar environments: the urban rider crossing a high mountain pass for the first time or what the farmer can expect passing through the desert. Anyone considering a trek across country should make reading this book part of their preparations. Think safety! Keep the Ride Alive!

Very Nice Book......Half Of It Not Relevant To India

This is a good must read book for every motorcyclist newbie or seasoned, who loves to ride and would like to live to tell the tales. It has given me fabulous insights to handling the bike, leaning through corners and very good tips to ride safe. However, in India, where most of you westerners would have small heart attacks just riding around in cars, the tips and lessons on road and traffic is all but irrelevant. Here sharing the same lane with someone is the accepted thing. Still a good book and a must read for all

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Great Information, Flawed Presentation

I just bought a new motorcycle after about 18 years out of the saddle and decided I needed to brush up on some riding tactics. I bought "Proficient Motorcycle" by David Hough to give me the refresher I needed.

The book itself is solid stock, with nice thick high quality gloss paper. The cover is even thicker paper that folds inward at the edges to prevent wear as you thumb through the pages. The binding is glued and threaded with fourteen strong stiches... high quality all around.

But wait... do you like sticky gooey residue all over the back cover of your books? No, you say? Well, you may be a little disappointed then. The "Free 144 Bonus Pages" is actually a CD-ROM attached to a plastic holder on the back of the book. The CD has a huge yellow warning sticker on it, "If you break this seal you cannot return the book". Ok fine. The problems start when you go to "break the seal". You have to literally destroy the plastic sleeve to get the CD out, which requires you to pull it from the back paper cover. This will rip some of the back cover off with it. And now there is a sticky adhesive mess all over the back cover that will stick to the back page when you shut it. I had to put tape all over the back cover in order to "seal in" all the adhesive residue from the advertisement CD.

And that's what the "144 bonus pages" are... advertisement for the Motorcycle Consumer News magazine. You get three old issues with plenty of oppurtunities to subscribe. They should have left this out, no one want this CD and it destroys the book cover.

So, a little worse for the wear, I cracked open the book and read it from cover to cover.

The information contained was useful and enjoyable to read. But the "enjoyable to read" part actually has an expense to it. The motorcyle lingo and the off-the-cuff casual nature will put you at ease, but when this style sours into heavy sarcasm, it can be confusing.

For example, on page 38 shows a photograph of a couple on a motorcyle wearing the lid-style helmets. Perfectly legal and popular where I live. The caption says, "You don't really need a real helmet if you are clever enough to avoid crashes." Yes, pretty obvious sarcasm but possible misleading.

There is other questionable language in the text also. Sometimes Hough will refer to crash victims as "road stains". That's always tacky, regardless of context. On more than one occasion he refers to scruffy bikers that like to wear black leather with metal studs as "terrorists" and at other times as "biker trash". This is type of language is not funny and not necessary.

Those negatives aside, however, I really enjoyed the writing style. Hypothetical characters like "Interstate Al" and "Biker Bob" are not only enjoyable to read about, but made me think of their situations when I was out on the road. This is a very effective teaching tool that I found enjoyable and informative.

Overall, I think this book is worth the money. The information is very valuable and it is presented in a enjoyable way. I am without a doubt a better rider after reading "Proficient Motorcycling". I am even thinking about buying Hough's next installment, "More Proficient Motorcycling". I may have pointed out a few negatives about the presentation here, but I am happy I bought and read this book, and my overall impressions are positive.

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