Cycle World Book Reviews
Kenny Roberts
CYCLE WORLD BOOK REVIEWS
Barry Coleman United States Distribution by Motorbooks International P.O. Box 2 Osceola, Wise. 54020 $14.95
Biographies of motorcycle racers usually stand more on the man and his exploits than on the literary merit of the book itself. The typical racer’s bio isn't well-written.
But Barry Coleman’s book Kenny Roberts stands on its own merit as well as on Roberts’ considerable accomplishments (twice AMA Grand National Champion, thrice 500cc Road Racing World Champion), although to understand and enjoy the book a reader must know who
“Bugsy” is and be able to absorb without flinching the kind of language Mr. Editor Girdler won't let us use in this family magazine.
Coleman, a reporter by trade, was Roberts’ partner in The World Series, an alternative schedule of races that never actually happened but which, by its planning, forced the World Championship-sanctioning FIM to make concessions to rider safety and payment.
The World Series was, in effect, a threatened rider boycott of FIM races, and
Roberts and Coleman can jointly take credit for the results. It’s fair to say that this book is an inside job Coleman knows Roberts.
The book opens with Roberts' Big Crash, in 1980, a back-breaking, spleenrupturing collision with a steel barrier while testing in Japan. From, there Coleman takes the reader on a tour of dirt-tracking's roots, Roberts’ novice days, his romance of Patty Rapp, his youth, his forays into Europe it’s all there.
Coleman uses a quotationwithout-quotation-marks style which is sometimes hard to follow. At other points the going gets a bit thick even for professional word dealers.
And I doubt that even Roberts himself thinks he’s as good as Coleman says he is.
Making up for that, and any other flaws, is Coleman’s success in penetrating Roberts’ formidable entourage and intimidating legend. Coleman makes Roberts accessible, makes him human, shows him as he would appear if he were the mischievous kid who grew up next door to the reader. There are photos, too, photos of Roberts as a kid with his mom, as a young racer with mentor Jim Doyle, as a man among his friends, as World Champion with his fans and competitors.
Coleman’s insight into Kenny Roberts makes this book must reading for anybody who’s ever wondered about America’s greatest road racer Kenny Roberts will get you closer to Kenny Roberts than you’ll ever get otherwise, and it’s worth the trip.
Available through Motorbooks International; over the counter from Albion Scott Motobooks, 48 E. 50th St., New York City; mail order ($14.95 plus $2 UPS) from Hosking Cycle Works, RFD#1 Box 1 36 Accord, N. Y. 1 2404, or from local bookstores if you're lucky.
—John Ulrich
A Twist of the Wrist
The Motorcycle Road Racer's Handbook By Keith Code Acrobat Books BO. Box 480820 Los Angeles. Calif. 90048 $14.95
J^on’t buy this book.
You there! The one by the newsstand. Yeah, you. Drop that book. And you over there, the one sitting in the kitchen filling out a mailorder check for this book. Forget it. Get away from that order form. Stay out of the bookstore, too.
The fewer people buy this book, the better.
For me and all the other racers.
What Keith Code has done is produce a do-it-yourself manual for going fast on pavement, spilling the beans for all to see. Among the techniques he explains clearly and carefully is the one Ron Pierce told me the year he won the Daytona Superbike race, in hushed tones, preceded by the warning “Now, don't tell anybody, because this really works . . .
Eddie Fawson has written comments appearing in the wide margins of the book, giving examples and hints that parallel the text. And Wayne Rainey, Code's 1982 star pupil, wrote the preface.
It’s like this: anybody who can read and think can take this book and learn to go faster. Riders who already ride hard can use the techniques discussed to go even faster, and the more guys buy and use this book, the tougher the competition is going to be out on the racetrack.
Okay. I'm kidding about not buying the book. Buy it. Yeah, even the guy in the kitchen.
Because the application of the knowledge in this book will improve the quality of riding seen on America’s racetracks, and that not only means closer racing, but safer racing. John Ulrich
