I bought "Riding South" because it was referenced from Horizons Unlimited and recommended a couple of times in the bulletin board. The amount of information you will find there is quite limited and very much diluted into tons of fluff. Half the book consists of photocopies of visas and official forms, and uninspiring grainy black-and-white pictures of road signs, hotels, gas stations and motorcycles (all of a printing quality that hardly matches a daily newspaper). Another quarter of the book is taken by the emails Mr Frazier exchanged with his friends during the trip, with an emphasis on digestive problems, traffic accidents and mechanical breakdowns. The text and pictures from this book are definitely an antipode to the wonderful "10 Years on 2 Wheels". I'll keep it as proof of my admiration for the ordeals that Mr Frazier went through and as my contribution to the interesting lifestyle he has chosen. It can only be recommended to those who already know that they are going to leave. Other people might just be put off after reading it.

While browsing Greg Frazier's catalog on the same page I noticed and ordered at the same time the new "BMW GSing Around the World". This one is a real rip-off and I'll send it back. It is 170 pages long (instead of 200 as advertised) and 30 of these are just advertising for partner companies or for the other books from the same author. Remain 30 pages of text (one third of it for the "Big Dog" ride alone) and around 100 pages of pictures of an even lower quality and interest than those in "Riding South". Half of these show Mr Frazier's motorcycle in front of a road sign or at a mechanical workshop. The other ones show the motorcycles of Mr Frazier's encounters on his trips along with their owners in uptight poses. Unfortunately nothing is said about these very interesting people (hey, it could have been me!) except for their citizenship and the model year of their faithful GS. At $25, "BMW GSing Around the World" is not only a rip-off but a show of disrespect for other long distance riders.

In fact instead of sending it back right away, I'll wait a few days and ship it free of charge to any regular contributor of Horizons Unlimited who was considering buying it, or who would be interested in giving a second opinion to the benefit of the community. Please contact me by email, mentioning your HU user name, if you would like to do a review.

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Pierre
http://www.geocities.com/skypie999/bikes/

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Pierre Saslawsky
http://photobiker.com