The Cw Library
THE CW LIBRARY
The Bikeriders
iding a classic is one thing, but reading a classic? That's n entirely apt description of Danny Lyon's book, The Bikeriders, a seminal work of photojournalism originally published in 1968, and lucky for us now available in reprinted form.
When it first hit shelves 36 years ago, the book sold for $5.95 in hard cover, $2.95 in paperback. At the time, it came and went largely unnoticed and unreviewed, but by 2002 Lyon had been recognized as a master muckraking photographer, a gritty, slice-of-life chronicler who had won critical acclaim for his images of prison life, the gentrification of Lower Manhattan, the civil-rights movement, the plight of the American Indian and, of course, rough-and-tumble 1960s motorcyclists who weren’t especially nice and definitely did not ride Hondas. Out-of-print editions of Bikeriders traded for $1000 on eBay!
This 2003 re-issue goes for considerably less and includes a bonus 29 photos previously unpublished, plus additional commentary by the author.
Material for the book was gathered from 1963-67 when Lyon joined the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club, strapped his Nikons and a reel-to-reel tape recorder to his ratty, open-pipe Triumph 650, and set out to record his friends’ activities in images and interviews. This is pre-digital, pre-Discovery Channel stuff, when photographs were hand-printed in grainy black & white and choppers were actually built by the owner, not ordered from a catalog and rung up on a Gold Card. Much more than an album, this is a documentary of the biker lifestyle before Madison Avenue got into the act. It takes us from scrambles tracks to road runs, from pool halls to picnics, from bike blessings to funerals, one memorable frozen moment at a time.
Okay, if you have kids, the language in the accompanying essays is rated NC-17 (and then some), but buy this book for its wonderful, evocative photos. There’s a reason so many of Lyon’s Bikeriders prints are hanging on the walls of art museums around the world. They, like the man who made them, are the
real deal.
David Edwards
The Bikeriders, Danny Lyon, 128 pages, $23; First Chronicle Books, 85 Second St., Sixth Floor San Francisco, CA 94105; 800/722-6657; www.chroniclebooks.com
Birth of a Legend
I f you need a gift for a Ducati-own ing relative or friend, look no far ther. Or, if you are personally inter ested either in Ducatis or the process by which a new motorcycle concept becomes reality, you will find this book about the 999's origins interesting.
It's not easy to write a Ducati book because owners are very partisan and accustomed to a certain admiring style of expression. Read any Ducati press release and you will find the word "pas sion" in every other paragraph. Presum ably other manufacturers operate only to serve the crass goal of remaining solvent. The authors supply this admiration in the early chapters, making obeisance to Ducati's history and colorful cast of characters, headed by the founding ar chitect of desmodromics, Dr. Taglioni. This part of the book was hard for me because it so closely resembles ad copy. Fortunately it improves, and every page is beautiful, even if the attractive photo graphs limit the amount of text-you will read through this book in a weekend. How designer Pierre Terblanche and Ducati's engineers made the 999 both distinctive and functional is described in ordered detail. Terblanche cares as much for function and producibility as for shapes, so much of the story is about how this motorcycle was made to suit a wide range of riders, while production costs were controlled by in tegrating functions into fewer parts, achieving simplified assembly. Whether you love or hate the 999, you will find insight in this book.
Kevin Cameron
Birth of a Legend, A/an Cathcart & Marc Cook, 192 pages, $50; David Bull Publishing, 4250 E. Camelback Rd. #K150, Phoenix, AZ 85018; 602/852-9500; www.bullpublishing.com
