The Perfect Vehicle: What It Is About Motorcycles Paperback – May 17, 1998

This book will further your insight into why motorcyclists ride and why they think what they do about their bikes, motorcycling, and each other. But by the time Pierson is on to her second bike mechanic boyfriend, you will realize that you're going to have to see the truth for yourself, because the author has her hands so full with her own issues -- anxiety, delusion, hypocrisy -- that she can hardly help herself or her endlessly sick bike, let alone help you, the questing reader.She does give you all the clues you will need, so don't despair. It's just that you're on your own in figuring out what the clues mean.The Fallen Bike Incident is a good example of Pierson's lack of self-knowledge, and why this book is accused of male-bashing.In the rain, Pierson's bike has fallen over due to the soft, wet surface she has planted her side stand in. This is a classic blunder. It's in the curriculum of the motorcycle safety course (of which Pierson is a graduate) and she even mentions elsewhere in the book how, for this very reason, wooden blocks were passed out in the dirt parking lot of a motorcycle rally. You can easily conclude that it is her own damn fault her bike fell over, but you won't read her admitting it in so many words, and this lack of personal accountability is everywhere in The Perfect Vehicle.In her motorcycle class she has been taught how even a grandmother can lift up even a fallen Honda GoldWing (800+ pounds of bike), but for reasons unexplained, she is unable to lift her sub-400 pound Moto Guzzi. Again, no admission that she failed to learn the very thing she was specifically taught to do; you just read that it didn't work out and draw your own conclusion. So she asks a driver in an idling van for help, and he stares at her blankly, as she frantically begs "Quickly!" Finally the nice man gets out of his dry van, into the rain, and helps her right her fallen bike, to her eternal non-gratitude.Reflecting later, Pierson intuits, and apparently comes to believe, that the reason her benefactor didn't instantly leap into the downpour to assist her was because he was thinking that since she is a woman, she wanted help lifting a bicycle, not a motorcycle, and so she was once again the victim of rampant sexism. She will shortly use this incident as a springboard to launch into one of many catalogs of undeniably valid examples of cruel and unfair treatment women have suffered in the history of motorcycling. This stuff is good to know and you'll be glad you read about it, but keep in mind, these terrible things happened to other women, not Pierson.In several place we read explanations of her attraction to the woefully unreliable Moto Guzzi bikes, namely that they're stylish, sexy, and that fixing your bike all the time gives you a deep sense of self-sufficiency and personal identification with your machine.It's a fair characterization of the series of Moto Guzzi enthusiasts Pierson repeatedly enlists to fix her broken-down bike for her, gratis, but this admirable, self-reliant, hands-on individualist ain't Melissa Pierson. She apparently never begins to master bike mechanics in her 35,000 miles of riding. She's more the damsel in distress with delusions of rugged independence. You would feel some pity if she had left out all the haughty, off-hand dismissals of Japanese motorcycles for the crime of providing exactly what Pierson and millions just like her really need: an affordable and reliable bike, albeit one that lacks "character."She at least respects BMW and Harley-Davidson enough to give us fully-cardboard-cutout stereotypes of those riders, but those bland, bloodless Japanese aren't even worth the time. Oh, and in case you didn't know, "rice burner" is not really an epithet of derision. I bet "broad" is, though.It's an all-purpose snobbery. When in France she finds herself at a hotel that dares offer exactly what Pierson and millions like her really need (it's affordable and they've got a room), she sniffs "Holiday Inn, of all places!"So while the author only grows a little in the course of this book, you the reader will have the opportunity to learn much more in the ugly truth behind Pierson's inadvertent revelations, as well as benefit from the several places where she is actually on to something real and manages to convey it without getting hung up on her own issues. The florid descriptions of what it feels like to ride are quite fine if you accept them outside the context of the neurotic author's world of prejudice and denial.UPDATE: January 12, 2011In the 6 years since I first read this book and wrote this review, I've read a great many other motorcycling books that cover much of the same ground, and I've found none better than The Perfect Vehicle. The book's flaws are still its flaws: I think the author's attitudes are often unfair and tone deaf, but in spite of that, Melissa Pierson's scholarship is first rate and highly readable. So while I once again suggest you read between the lines, I still recommend nonetheless that you do read it.

I found Ms. Pierson's book very interesting as far as her impressions of riding a motorcycle and her adventures while doing so. She has an adventurous spirit and an adventurous way with words that rang true in me and stimulated my imagination in nice ways, while following her adventures and travails on her Guzzi.In buying this book, I was interested in her woman's view of the riding and how she overcame the inherant difficulties involved in an activity which ultimately needs not only riding skill but also the strength to handle a sometimes heavy machine, and the know-how to turn a wrench to service the machine or correct a difficulty.Ms. Pierson shows what I suspected all along, she is just a woman, albeit one who can ride and write. She does not know how to raise her own Bike, flaps, and has to ask for help, thus supporting the stereotype she is not strong. She relies on a succession of boyfriends or people she has pursuaded into action to help her do the smallest service on the bike. This supports a theory that women are not mechanically inclined. This is not a criticism, just a finding in her text.She also cannot stick to the point and mixes different things in this book. She cannot decide if the book is a history of her, or the history of the motorcycle, or the history of women on motorcycles. At one time she is deep into her personal narrative, and then suddenly dives into the history of the motorcycle from day one. Then we are back with more marrative, and then suddenly we are listing all the records on the motorcycle, then back to the story. Then given a long passage about women and motorcycles and their various achievements.She has a great skill with her history in summarising some of these great achievements briefly and accurately (as far as I know).Please don't let me give you the wrong impression, I was delighted by her woman's point of view, and delighted by her writing, and the points I raise here did not detract from a very easy read that was full of great images and impressions and information, but the real gem here is reading about her personal history and her adventures with bike and boyfriends. She would have done well to expand on that subject more and left the history to another book.

Holbrook Pierson does the best job of any writer exploring why motorcycling is so wonderful. If you’re jonesing for a ride, it’s a good time to read it, but be careful - it will make you want to ride more than ever.

Lots of moments in this read.

After 315,000 miles and 35 years, I may be too jaded to appreciate this book. I've ridden everything from a moped to a large sport-tourer, and I'd say it's all pretty well covered here. However, not much was news to me.Likewise the writing. As a professional business/ technical writer (36 years), I'd say the writing here is average. Which may put it ahead of other books about motorcycling but still, nothing special. (BTW, I am not even impressed by the very popular Robert Pirsig; although his "Zen" is a little more insightful than his "Motorcycle Maintenance").But as Pirsig says--and so does Pierson--the topic is feally "Art." Largely subjective. Very hard to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it. Needs a lot of poetry, I should think. Or some special unsight.Those are things I thought of before buying this book. I bought it anyway and I guess now I would say: You might really like this book if you've never ridden a motorcycle--or are just starting out. Especially the final pages. It's all here if you're looking for it.I'll see you on the road.

A must-read for motorcyclists!