About motorcycles

The November Harper’s Magazine has an interesting memoir by poet Frederick Seidel entitled “About Motorcycles.” Identified as a “Memoir,” I had trouble believing it was entirely or even mostly true. I thought it might be some kind of rider’s fantasy disguised as autobiography. Among other things, Seidel claims that two different factories, MV Agusta and Ducati, prepared one-off street legal versions of their Moto-GP race bikes for his personal collection. Completely unlikely, especially since he describes the Agusta as a shaft drive for some reason. So far as I know, only BMW ever fielded shaft drive racing motorcycles.

Also dubious is the list of who’s who in motorcycle racing that he describes as personal friends or close acquaintences, including Agusta’s and Ducati’s factory owners, top designers, and team managers. Plus a couple of the world’s most beautiful movie stars.

But it seems likely the whole thing is true. Wikipedia provides this bit of information: “Seidel is independently wealthy-- that is to say, he inherited rather than earned his personal fortune-- and is fascinated by Ducati motorcycles, of which he owns four.”

As a reminiscence about a lifelong love of motorcycles, I don’t find it to be all that compelling and would recommend instead The Perfect Vehicle: What It is about Motorcycles by Melissa Holbrook Pierson. A girl who loves her MotoGuzzi: talk about unlikely!

Still, if you’re a rider and have an extra $6.95, you should probably pick up the November Harper’s, or just stop by and borrow mine.