50bookchallenge 18/50: <u>The Moto Guzzi Story</u>, Ian Falloon

Not recommended for anyone who isn’t fascinated by motorcycles, this well-researched and photographed coffeetable book is hard to read only because there are so many photos of beautiful motorcycles distracting from the text at every turn of the page.

Falloon presents a surprisingly evenhanded overview of the history of the Italian motorcycle company, but betrays his love for the Moto Guzzi on occasion with words like “unfortunate” and the occasional aesthetic judgment. It’s always clear where he thinks a bike is ugly rather than just not well-received by the public.

What’s surprising to me is how little pull I feel toward the older models. I love the V7 Sport, which is the distant ancestor of my own California Stone, but so many of the motorcycles from the 70s and 80s, and even the 90s exhibit too many squared plastic corners to generate any interest in me.

It’s sort of a coffeetable book and was lent to me by the owner of Subterranean Cycles here in SF. It is full of text though and in addition to looking at all the pretty pictures, I did go from cover to cover. Now that I’m done with it, I’ll have to give it back. But that’s OK, I’m sure that there are other motorcycle books for me to read!