Peter Egan - Leanings 3: More Moto-philosophy and Tales from the Road

First published in 2014 by Motorbooks, an imprint of The Quarto Group, 401 Second Avenue North, Suite 310, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. Telephone: (612) 344-8100 Fax: (612) 344-8692

2014 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.
Text 2005-2013 Bonnier Corporation

All photographs are from the authors collection unless noted otherwise. Photos starting to the end of the book courtesy of Cycle World

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Digital edition: 978-1-62788-395-5
Softcover edition: 978-0-76034-642-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Editor: Zack Miller
Senior Art Director: Brad Springer
Cover Designer: Simon Larkin
Book Designer: Diana Boger
Layout: Helena Shimizu

On the cover: Photo by Cycle World

On the Road and in the Garage with Cycle Worlds Peter Egan

Before ever meeting Peter Egan, I felt a rare brotherhood with him, a connection forged through common experience and interests unlike any Id ever felt. He somehow brought to life all these vague but very real feelings and ideas I had when riding and working on my motorcycles. Man, it was like he knew exactly what I was experiencing and had just been on the same ride I had.

Thing is, he does that to everybody who reads his work. And thats the power of Peter Egan. Our monthly date with Leanings and his other pieces in Cycle World over the past three decades is like that great meeting you have with an old friend to talk about the things that really matteryour friend who gets to go places and do things that most people never do.

When I first subscribed to Cycle World as a 13-year-old, I wasnt really cognizant of the staffers who did the writing I so eagerly devoured. Still, it didnt take long to figure out this Egan fellow wasnt your typical moto scribe.

For me and so many others, it was through his writings that I actually learned how to become a motorcycle enthusiast. I learned the subtleties of feeling and experience that formed the core of a rich motorcycle life, got thoughtful glimpses into two-wheel history and developed a better understanding of how motorcycles worked.

And its all been delivered in world-class storytelling. Peter picks you up beautifully at the beginning of a story, carries you along nicely and sets you down ever so wonderfully at the end, revealing inalienable truths about life and motorcycling along the way.

We are lucky that his flimsy vow of retirement from writing Leanings every month in Cycle World has been just that: flimsy. Hes still filing the occasional column, essay or feature, while restoring Norton Commandos or similar and generally enjoying the motorcycle life hes so ably shared.

Ive been fortunate to work with Peter at Cycle World since 1999. During that time, weve become good friends, playing guitar in his shop and examining closely the many great motorcycles (and cars) hes had there during my visits. And weve shared a few fine beers after a long days ride. Hes that same cool guy in person that he is in writing, and to know him on the page is to know him.

Its that truth and authenticity in his work that has drawn us all here together in Leanings 3. So Im going to make a long pour with a motor-oil-hued English ale, sit back and step out of the way. Heres to Peter, our brother on the road. Cheers, and thanks for making the world of motorcycling a better place.

Mark Hoyer

Editor-in-Chief, Cycle World Magazine

I BELIEVE THE TREND FIRST STRUCK ME ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO, as the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang wended its way through the green hills of Wisconsin toward an overnight stay at the little village of Alma on the Mississippi. As we rode along, I pondered the bikes on the road ahead of me, and those in my mirrors as well.

There were about 15 of us strung out along the twists and turns of Highway 33, and I gradually became aware that nearly everyone I could see in both directions was sitting relatively upright in the saddle, with his feet beneath him and his elbows slightly out, dirt-track style.

I, on the other hand, was leaned well forward into the bars of my Ducati ST2, and only two other ridersboth on Airhead R100RSswere seated in similar, if slightly less radical, riding positions. For perhaps the first time in years, there was only a single committed sportbike with clip-ons and rearsetsa much-modified old Moto Guzzi LeMans. Otherwise, there was little evidence of the classic caf-racer riding position so prevalent in the group not long ago.

Instead, the bike of choice was the Cagiva Gran Canyon. There were at least six of these adventure/tourer/whatever Italian V-Twins in the group. Add in a couple of Ducati Monsters, a BMW R1100GS, and a Suzuki Bandit 1200 with wide, comfortable Superbike-style bars, and you have the complete picture. My ST2 and the Guzzi were beginning to look like a pair of low, rounded submarines traveling in a fleet of square-rigged sailing vessels.

Which is all a long way of saying that it has not escaped the notice of a really sharp guy like myself that nearly all of my lifelong, sportbike-riding friends are gradually metamorphosing toward a more upright riding position, some slightly taller and more modern version of the peg-bar-seat relationship found on my ancient 1968 Triumph Trophy 500, one of the original dual-sport bikes of the Triumph line.