BOOK REVIEW:

Review written by Dan Hankin

Leanings is a collection of Cycle World® Magazine columnist Peter Egan's favorite columns spanning his nearly 30 year (and still going) journalism career.

The book begins with a foreword from Allan Girdler, the former CW editor who recognized Egan's talent, and leads into "Dateline Missoula", Egan's first published piece, featured in the December 1977 issue of CW. The adventure ends with "So Many Bikes, So Little Progress", featured in CW in January 2002. Each column includes a few words from Egan explaining why that particular column made his list of favorites.

For those familiar with Egan's work, Leanings is a wonderful collection of his highlights. Even if you've never heard of Peter Egan, the book is a fantastic read for anyone with a love of motorcycles or a healthy sense of adventure.

Arranged in chronological order, each column offers a glimpse into Egan's life as he shares his thoughts and adventures, and gives the reader an opportunity to watch him mature and learn from his experiences, with some stories detailing his adventures as far back as the 1960's.

Egan is an everyman, connecting with the reader at the core of whatever it is that drives our passion for motorcycles and adventure. His descriptions of places and characters, everyone from his wife, Barb, to childhood friends, to people and destinations in his travels, are so well worded you can almost picture yourself riding along with them.

Egan's travels have taken him around the globe multiple times from U.S. destinations including a trek from Wisconsin to New Orleans for coffee, a search for the original Route 66, to Canada as a college student in the 60's, to England, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Japan, and beyond. If you've ever dreamed of a motorcycle trip, Egan has probably done it.

Another major component of Egan's life, and logically, his writing, is his love of old British motorcycles. Many of his early columns mention his longing for a vintage Triumph, a 1967 TR6C in particular, though in most of the early stories he rides a small bore Honda for the same economic reasons most of us didn't start riding on the bike of our dreams. When Egan tells us the story in September 1990 of acquiring and restoring a '67 TR6C, you can't help but feel happy for him. He has, at this point in the book, become your friend. Or at the very least, an acquaintance that you really like a lot.

Other subjects include Egan's thoughts on minibikes, how many bikes you really need, a farewell to Soichiro Honda, the Dylan crash, and much more.

 

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