The Road : A Motorcycling Anthology - Volume One

Between magazines - with their short stories, recyclable nature and lots of advertising - and books that cover a specific story at length, there's the anthology. The Road, a motorcycling anthology brings together stories too long for a magazine, but too short for a book. Or perhaps too reliant on imagery to truly sing on the lightweight paperstock that magazines use to keep costs down. Or need full colour throughout where most books stick to simple text and a few illustration, again to keep costs down.

Yes, The Road's expensive. But with the best part of 50,000 words and 200 advert-free pages it is on the scale of a book yet with the variety of a magazine. The format allows the photography and imagery to really sing, something beautiful enough to drag in readers with only a passing interest in any given story, yet valuable and collectible to the real enthusiast. The Road, a motorcycling anthology is a genuinely new type of motorcycle publication, one not obsessed with any particular marque or era but with an eye for the interesting and unafraid to occasionally speak of something other than motorcycles and their riders. But always stories that connect us to the legends of motorcycling.

Why call it The Road? It's after perhaps the finest expression of the motorcycle experience ever written. Penned by the man known as Lawrence of Arabia in 1929 it was, at Lawrence’s insistence, only published posthumously in 1955. So take it as a mission statement for this new venture. More images are at https://www.instagram.com/theroadanthology/

CONTENTS VOLUME ONE by Greg Pullen and friends.
WELCOME...
to a brave new world inspired by motorcycling’s gods and glorious history.
THE ROAD
The finest prose in the English language on the joy of a motorcycle ride. By TE Lawrence
BROUGH V BRISTOL FIGHTER
Dept. of spurious enquiries: could a motorcycle outrun the RAF’s finest?
ALTERNATIVE BROUGHS
More meaty vintage V-twins from Royal Enfield, Montgomery and Coventry Eagle.
SHEENE: EPISODIA RACIANA 1
Adumbration of a flawed superstar. Part one: Our Barry. By Richard Skelton
BUT IS IT ART? THE 916 AT 25
Ducati’s most famous motorcycle.
TAMBURINI
The man who made the 916. And Bimota. And the MV Agusta F4. And...
BUT IS IT ART? TAKE TWO
Soichiro Honda’s quest for beauty and 1975 brochure images.
HONDA 400 FOUR
The poor kid’s superbike. History, buying, racing and riding.
CLIVE HORTON
On racing with the gods, cheered on by his wife. By Sue Horton.
BOOK CLUB
Reviews and recommendations, including photographic essays on one of motorcycle racing’s golden ages.
MOTORCYCLES IN LITERATURE
Fewer than we’d wish, but here are recommendations for fans of non-fiction.
BARRY'S BIKES
Sheene's Suzukis from the TR500 to the RG500 raced against Kenny Roberts in 1979. By Phil Aynsley
BEING LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Winston Churchill said it of Russia, although he could have meant his friend Thomas.
A LIFE AWHEEL
Upstanding opinions on Scotts, Rudges and Egli Vincents. By W de Forte.
THE RISE OF THE FOURS
How four cylinders across a frame became motorcycling’s blueprint.
MOMENT OF TRUTH
‘Searching for Spadino,’ annotated revisits the the Mont Blanc tunnel fire twenty years on. By Mark Gardiner
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT...
Broughs. Riding a 1937 SS100: the most fantastic and desirable machine in the history of motorcycling? By Alan Cathcart
SHEENE: EPISODIA RACIANA 2
Adumbration of a flawed superstar. Part two: Barry on top of the world. By Richard Skelton.
192 A DAY IN THE LIFE...
of Ben Walker, head of Bonhams motorcycles.