Author Topic: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...  (Read 19467 times)

Offline Motorhobo

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I read it when I was 19. It was incomprehensible gibberish to me but I read it anyway. I remember skipping over the wrenchy parts because I had no interest in them and I remember that I didn't understand the philosophical parts, so basically I looked at each sentence, found the period, moved to the next sentence, and then told people I'd read the book.

Maybe I'll give it another try now that I'm older...but with my deteriorating eyesight I probably wouldn't even be able to find the period.
1994/1995 K75 ABS Frankenbike: original engine 136k miles, frame from Gary Weaver (RIP), 173k miles -- Current Odometer: 193k miles
1994 K75 since 2013, 76,000 mi (11k mine) w/California Sidecar Friendship II Sidecar & Black Lab 'Miss B'

Past: 1974 Honda 550/4 (first bike), 1994 K75 (sold), 1995 K75 ABS (parts bike), Sidecar Dog & Best Bud 'Bo' - RIP

Offline Chaos

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2017, 10:54:21 AM »
I have vague memories as a teenager and always meant to re read it.  I did leave me with very little respect for British engineering so my first string of cars and bikes were Triump's and MG's, naturally!

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Offline The Mighty Gryphon

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2017, 12:08:41 PM »
I have vague memories as a teenager and always meant to re read it.  I did leave me with very little respect for British engineering so my first string of cars and bikes were Triump's and MG's, naturally!

Boy, I'll bet that REALLY built up your respect for British engineering.
  • In my garage in Marilla, NY
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Current:
'91 K100RS16V "Moby Brick Too"

Past:
'94 K75RT "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS"
'92 K100RS16V "Moby Brick" (RIP, deceased in a vehicular assault)
'94 K75S Special Edition Dakar Yellow "Cheetos"
'89 K100RS Special Edition "Special Ed"

Offline The Dude

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2017, 03:24:42 PM »

Commiserations.I read his book twice when it came out,to get both parts comprehended.Failed,mostly.
In the end I just wanted to find out what bikes they were riding.That was hard enough for me.
  • Auckland, New Zealand
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Current.
TR6R 1973 from new.
Moto guzzi 850 III .1983 from,almost, new.
K75S 1986 from new.vin-0103141
On my second millionth km.give or take a hundred k Kay's.
"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there."
All the best!

Offline Laitch

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2017, 04:13:11 PM »
That was hard enough for me.
Did you find out?
  • Along the Ridley in Vermont.
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I wept because I had no radials until I met a man who had no splines.
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Offline The Mighty Gryphon

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2017, 04:21:38 PM »
I remember seeing a paperback of that book at a friend's house back in the day.  He said it really sucked.

I suspect that it was a really hip book title that came to the author in a cloud of psychedelic colors.  The problem was that the "author" needed some pages of text behind the cover.  Being the age of beatnik/hippy literature(Naked Lunch), that wouldn't be too hard.  All you had to do was write some disjointed stream of consciousness and leave it to the reader to figure out what you were writing about. 

What I recall from reviews about it was that it was another in the "journey of personal discovery" genre that was very popular at the time.  These were books written by self-absorbed 20-something trust fund dorks who went through some experience that enabled them to convince themselves that they really weren't assholes after all, despite what everyone around them thought.

Being the late 60's youth culture the title was brilliant and sold a couple million copies...

...that nobody read.  Of course, you couldn't admit it.  That would be uncool.
  • In my garage in Marilla, NY
  • '91K100RS White/Blue
Current:
'91 K100RS16V "Moby Brick Too"

Past:
'94 K75RT "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS"
'92 K100RS16V "Moby Brick" (RIP, deceased in a vehicular assault)
'94 K75S Special Edition Dakar Yellow "Cheetos"
'89 K100RS Special Edition "Special Ed"

Offline Martin

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2017, 04:25:54 PM »

Never read it, didn't even want to, so now I am condemned and uncool. I went in the army in 1969 also uncool. :dunno
Woe is me.
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Offline Filmcamera

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2017, 04:27:43 PM »
I read it and enjoyed it. 


Most of it has long ago been forgotten but I still remember one passage where they are pending the night by the side of the road on a steep hill and keep getting disturbed by 18 wheelers downshifting to make the climb.  Not sure why but that a very evocative passage and one I often think about to this day as I down shift passing a house or something on the side of the road.


Funny what sticks in the memory.
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Offline Laitch

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2017, 04:41:29 PM »
I did leave me with very little respect for British engineering so my first string of cars and bikes were Triump's and MG's, naturally!
Interesting. One of the bikes used on the trip was Japanese; the other was German.
  • Along the Ridley in Vermont.
  • 1995 K75 89,000 miles
I wept because I had no radials until I met a man who had no splines.
https://tinyurl.com/RillRider

Offline The Dude

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2017, 05:26:13 PM »
Did you find out?
Sort of.
The CB77 was not imported where I was a lad.I imagined a CD 175 cc but bigger.My memory sees  only CB's beyond 175. The Beemer was more identifiable.
'Should'ave gone on my contempory Triumph.
 The Art of Motorcycle Maintenace and Zen.
  • Auckland, New Zealand
  • K75s
Current.
TR6R 1973 from new.
Moto guzzi 850 III .1983 from,almost, new.
K75S 1986 from new.vin-0103141
On my second millionth km.give or take a hundred k Kay's.
"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there."
All the best!

Offline Laitch

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  • Along the Ridley in Vermont.
  • 1995 K75 89,000 miles
I wept because I had no radials until I met a man who had no splines.
https://tinyurl.com/RillRider

Offline jakgieger

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #11 on: April 25, 2017, 05:43:47 PM »

 The Art of Motorcycle Maintenace and Zen.
:hehehe :hehehe
I read the book multiple times, enjoyed the book, and still have a copy.  I have had my kids read it.  The profound point from the book is that the machine you are working on is YOU.  You can call it self-help/hippie  genre, but it is more than that.  We are not all German engineers from birth :bmwsmile .  The reality is that we all face mental/mechanical logjams when working on machines...this site is kinda geared towards that.  My first one was on my K on initial start. Fuel pump running only when the start button is pushed was a foreign concept to me based upon previous experience.  Came to this site, was welcomed by a few, slapped by a few, but am still here.  I think what keeps me here is the humor and mechanical intrigue.  Back to Zen and the ART of MM...how you approach/perceive a problem is of more significance than the problem itself AND often has a direct bearing upon the solution.  YOU CANNOT SEPARATE ART FROM MECHANICS!
  • Kansas USA
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"What we've got here is failure, to communicate.  Some men, you just cain't reach.  So you get what we had here last week.  Which is the way he wants it...Well, he gets it.  I don't like it any more than you men do."

Offline Laitch

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #12 on: April 25, 2017, 08:16:10 PM »
The profound point from the book is that the machine you are working on is YOU. . . . 
Piffle!

A work that does that with infinitely more skill and less arcane verbosity is John Muir's How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive and it actually helps the reader repair something. :giggles
  • Along the Ridley in Vermont.
  • 1995 K75 89,000 miles
I wept because I had no radials until I met a man who had no splines.
https://tinyurl.com/RillRider

Offline jakgieger

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #13 on: April 25, 2017, 08:27:00 PM »
Piffle!
:bmwsmile Had a witty response...then thought why bother?  Never owned or worked on a Volkswagen.   I have worked on several BMW's, do enjoy ,  and have dealt with children of a troubled nature.  That's why farming appeals to me!  I guess ART (literature) appeals to different people differently. 
  • Kansas USA
  • 1989 K100rs se
"What we've got here is failure, to communicate.  Some men, you just cain't reach.  So you get what we had here last week.  Which is the way he wants it...Well, he gets it.  I don't like it any more than you men do."

Offline Laitch

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #14 on: April 25, 2017, 08:45:30 PM »
I guess ART (literature) appeals to different people differently.
I agree, jack, and it is found in the most unlikely places. Divine Right's Trip is a brilliant handbook on discovering and nurturing a competent self. It unfolded among the pages of the old Whole Earth Catalog. It's right up there with Nicholas Nickleby in that regard.
  • Along the Ridley in Vermont.
  • 1995 K75 89,000 miles
I wept because I had no radials until I met a man who had no splines.
https://tinyurl.com/RillRider

Offline Filmcamera

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2017, 09:06:00 PM »
Personally I found The Selfish Gene one of the most thought provoking books I have read. 


On the whole though I am more of a literature reader than anything.  Nothing beats a good novel. My mother wa a novelist, journalist and book critic so there was always vast numbers of books in the house. Reading is a habit I have tried very hard to instil into my children with a spectacular lack of success, to my eternal regret.
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Offline riots100

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #16 on: April 25, 2017, 11:32:50 PM »
My Dad brought home a junked/non-running 1963 Volkswagen Beetle and gave it to me for my first car when I was sixteen.  He also gave me a copy of the aforementioned "How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" and told me to get to work if I wanted a car when I was sixteen.  Around the same time he bought a Honda CB175 for himself.  I later wrecked the VW and the Honda became my first motorcycle. (which I also wrecked and ended up in the ER)  I've read both How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. (around the same time actually)  They are both excellent works.


From the NYTimes obit, “The motorcycle is mainly a mental phenomenon. People who have never worked with steel have trouble seeing this.” “A study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself.”


Plato's Cave analogy goes a long way here...
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----
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Offline Andy FitzGibbon

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #17 on: April 26, 2017, 08:20:53 AM »
I started reading it for the first time recently. Sort of had a hard time getting into it, and put it down. My initial thoughts were A. everything he's describing here I could just go do myself, on my own bike, which would be more fun and B. this guy sounds like a real pain in the ass to travel with.


With his passing, I may give it another go.


Andy
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Offline Motorhobo

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #18 on: April 27, 2017, 06:28:14 AM »
All you had to do was write some disjointed stream of consciousness and leave it to the reader to figure out what you were writing about. 




That's what they said about Socrates and Deuteronomy.
1994/1995 K75 ABS Frankenbike: original engine 136k miles, frame from Gary Weaver (RIP), 173k miles -- Current Odometer: 193k miles
1994 K75 since 2013, 76,000 mi (11k mine) w/California Sidecar Friendship II Sidecar & Black Lab 'Miss B'

Past: 1974 Honda 550/4 (first bike), 1994 K75 (sold), 1995 K75 ABS (parts bike), Sidecar Dog & Best Bud 'Bo' - RIP

Offline Laitch

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #19 on: April 27, 2017, 07:13:22 AM »
That's what they said about Socrates and Deuteronomy.
:hehehe
  • Along the Ridley in Vermont.
  • 1995 K75 89,000 miles
I wept because I had no radials until I met a man who had no splines.
https://tinyurl.com/RillRider

Offline koapono

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #20 on: April 27, 2017, 06:57:15 PM »
I have vague memories as a teenager and always meant to re read it.  I did leave me with very little respect for British engineering so my first string of cars and bikes were Triump's and MG's, naturally!


who out there, besides me, owned a Hillman Minx?????
american standard, metric, british wentworth all those options made a crescent wrench the "go to" tool!
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Offline Filmcamera

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #21 on: April 27, 2017, 07:27:43 PM »
Hillman Minx no but I did have a Hillman Hunter Estate in 1982 - the car was a 1970 I think.  It was my second car aged 18 which I drove down to the South of France from London with some friends.  It did great - until I wrapped it around a French tree because I was trying to rally drive down a narrow french lane. I still miss that old tank in a strange way.
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Offline stokester

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #22 on: May 05, 2017, 06:03:45 PM »
Commiserations.I read his book twice when it came out,to get both parts comprehended.Failed,mostly.
In the end I just wanted to find out what bikes they were riding.That was hard enough for me.
Yup.


Too much Zen and not enough about bikes for me.
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Offline MIbrick

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #23 on: May 05, 2017, 11:13:09 PM »
Piffle!

A work that does that with infinitely more skill and less arcane verbosity is John Muir's How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive and it actually helps the reader repair something. :giggles


Rescued and restored two Super Beetles in my youth. That book holds a special place in my heart (and mind). Used to sit and admire the illustrations.
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Offline Christopherguzzi

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Re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author passes on...
« Reply #24 on: September 23, 2017, 10:34:00 PM »
If you own a motorcycle you should read it.  It's been many years since I have, but as I recall, some parts are a bit boring but overall it's an interesting read with a practical message as well as deeper meaning.
  • Little Canada, Minnesota
  • 1986 K75C
Christopherguzzi

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