GESTALTEN'S 'DO THE RIDE THING'

Shot mostly in Biarritz during Wheels+Waves last June, this short film includes many of the machines featured in the the Gestalten/BikeExif book, 'The Ride', which arrived at the publisher's offices in Berlin just yesterday.  The film has interviews with Roland Sands, Ola Stenegard (BMW chief designer), David Borras (El Solitario), Vincent Prat (Southsiders), and Chris Hunter (BikeExif).


Do the Ride Thing – The Bikes, the Builders, and the Book from Gestalten on Vimeo.

Myself, Chris Hunter (BikeExif), Gary Inman (Sideburn), and David Edwards (BikeCraft) wrote the text for the book, which is available here: artist Maxwell Paternoster (Corpses from Hell) made a sew-on patch for the limited-edition slipcase version of 'The Ride', which is pretty good in itself (Max is painting up an outrageous motorcycle jacket for me at the moment - I'll post it when it arrives!).  As I was riding a loaner BMW K1300S at Wheels+Waves, I wasn't cool enough to make the film!  Still, there's a shot of me behind Nico/Ornamental Conifer (with a slingshot) from last year's W+W...

Here's the link to Gestalten's web page to buy the slipcase edition of 'The Ride'. 

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'THE RIDE' HITS THE BOOKSHOPS

Apologies for being near-absent a few weeks on TheVintagent, but I've been finishing my contribution to the BikeExif book, 'The Ride', published by Gestalten in Berlin, which I co-wrote with Chris Hunter, David Edwards (Bike Craft, Cycle World), and Gary Inman (Sideburn).  Gestalten publishes big, beautiful art books; this is their first motorcycle book, but as 'The Ride' is already #1 on Amazon's 'motorcycle' search results, they'll likely publish another!  I met with Robert Klanten (publisher at Gestalten), in both Biarritz (for Wheels and Waves) and in his offices in Berlin; as a lifelong rider, he's the perfect guy to pursue the subject.

'The Ride' is a survey of contemporary Custom motorcycle-building culture via the BikeExif slant - ie, what's cool and new-school, and the current trends in various 'styles' - Cafe Racer, Bobber, Board Tracker, Street Tracker, Chopper, etc.  And finally, of course, it's possible to hold a book in your hands to look at these machines, rather than pixellated images limited to 250kb/32dpi....

The book is available on special offer via Amazon.com now.  And of course, I'm in the middle of writing a second book!  Based on the 'Ton Up!' exhibit which I'm installing -right now- in Sturgis, for Bike Week, all about Cafe Racer culture from the 50s to today - bikes, art, photography, writing.  It will be published by Motorbooks, and I'll keep you posted on developments!

Here's the unwieldy link to the Amazon order page (sorry, my iPad Blogger app doesn't do hyperlink text!) http://www.amazon.com/The-Ride-Custom-Motorcycles-Builders/dp/3899554914/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375367499&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=the+ride+bikeexif

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