Rebuilding the Indian

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, easy to read story of a brief point in life.
Review: I couldn't put the book down. The focal point, the Indian Motorcycle, deals with a subjet I can relate to, along with the daily aspects of life. If you like "people" stories, without the fancy backdrops, you may just enjoy reading Freds, Rebuilding The Indian. It centers around a subject the brings the author in contact with people he would normaly not build a relationship with. If you're looking for a complex story, with suspence and action, look for a fiction book! If you want a real look at a brief slice of life of regular people, and you approach life with an open mind... you'll like this book a lot.

Rating:
Summary: I want to do it too!
Review: I read this book after hearing about it on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." The premise intrigued me, even though I've never ridden or driven a motorcycle (and probably never will.) But Fred (you too will refer to him by his first name after you've devoured his book) captures all the romance, heartbreak, and high drama of trying new things and restoring old things.

He inspired me to do something similar. Will I rebuild an old motorcycle? Come on, get serious. But revitalizing a tube-era radio receiver just might be within the limits of my expertise and budget ...

Thanks for the fun read, Fred. Only one quibble: why didn't the publisher spring for a color--rather than a B & W--photo of the Indian?

Rating:
Summary: I want to do it too!
Review: I read this book after hearing about it on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." The premise intrigued me, even though I've never ridden or driven a motorcycle (and probably never will.) But Fred (you too will refer to him by his first name after you've devoured his book) captures all the romance, heartbreak, and high drama of trying new things and restoring old things.

He inspired me to do something similar. Will I rebuild an old motorcycle? Come on, get serious. But revitalizing a tube-era radio receiver just might be within the limits of my expertise and budget ...

Thanks for the fun read, Fred. Only one quibble: why didn't the publisher spring for a color--rather than a B & W--photo of the Indian?

Rating:
Summary: I really wanted to like this book
Review: I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I just couldn't. The premise is wonderful however ultimately everything that follows on is flawed. Firstly I found the author's rebuilding of the bike is unsatisfying as he really didn't really rebuild it, but paid others to do it for him. What Fred does is reasemble. So I guess techheads are going to be disapointed on that score. But more importantly any allegories between rebuilding a machine and your life are simply lost. You can't rebuild your own life by paying another person to do it for you whilst you sratch rust off and work on the direction and pick the colour you want the bike painted. Sure you can get help to rebuild bikes and lives. Pay for guidance, advice, counselling and so forth. But if you really want to grow, then you have to address the problems. And when you do this you are ultimately alone. This is where the real test of your character is. Secondly, I found Fred's use of other people's lives, well, unfortunate to say the least. With a novelist, you are often left wondering how much of a life is being being recorded without the knowledge of the person characters are based on. But at least the names are changed. With "Rebuilding the Indian". I found parts of the memoir were like a violation of other people's lives. I mean you talk to a person in at least tacit confidence. Certainly you don't expect the English speaking world to read all about it. So given some of the confidences that Fred was made privy to, it's pretty hard to feel sympathetic to his (Fred's) plight when he turns around and winges, more or less, about his supposed friends irritating habits. But it's not all bad news, the author did buy another Indian. Maybe he'll write a sequel, where this time he does more of the work. Ultimately it doesn't matter with these rebuilds/restos/life renewals if the job is the best in the world. Best paint, best engine, "best enlightenment", etc. But rather what matters is that it was the best effort you could make or achieve. I'll definately buy a sequel if the author trys a resto like that.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ!
Review: I recommend this book to anyone you loves their motorcycle. Stroker brings his Indian to life with the help of Chaz.

Rating:
Summary: Juggling the Responsibilities
Review: I very much enjoyed and identified with this book. After a difficult divorce, I turned to motorcycling as a new way to enjoy being alone and found it to infect me with enthusiasm about the new life I had to adapt to. Rebulding the Indian talks not only about the author's restoration of a vintage motorcycle, but how the journey gave him new perspective on his life as well.

Rating:
Summary: Rebuilding the Indian and a Life
Review: I very much enjoyed and identified with this book. After a difficult divorce, I turned to motorcycling as a new way to enjoy being alone and found it to infect me with enthusiasm about the new life I had to adapt to. Rebulding the Indian talks not only about the author's restoration of a vintage motorcycle, but how the journey gave him new perspective on his life as well.

Rating:
Summary: Moto Kierkegaard
Review: Is he a frustrated English Major out to write a book no matterwhat? That's one explanation. Or perhaps been assigned a writingproject to augment counseling to deal with his end-to-end relationaltroubles with his son-from-first-failed-marriage as well as his ownfather-now-married-again-to-someone-not-the-author's-Mom? That wouldbe another explanation. Or is he the tree surgeon overspending on anexpensive hobby he can't really afford? Yes, yes, and yes. Thosewould be some author-centric comments, to which must be joined someexplanation of the motorcycle subject (the old Indian) and thedramatic sideshow issues (the types of people whom he encounters alongthe way to rebuilding the old motorcycle, and how commenting on themreveals the author's own story).

Here's what strikes me: Just whenyou think Fred has careened down the path of absorbing somelowest-common denominator biker behavior, he mentions having a Latt'ewith someone. Or having a dinner party at his house for poets andwriters. Then, from the other end, when he gets into a critique ofhis first failed marriage to a comparatively more-uptight academicwoman, he swings up into the trees with references to his preferencefor hanging out with marginal law-breakers who drink, cuss, and felltrees for a living. So in the interstices of all of that, he cleverlycatches readers who may be located anywhere within this spectrum ofmotorcycle enthusiasts.

For it is the motorcycle person who reallyloves this book. Anyone who has ever taken apart a lawnmover or amini bike will instinctively identify with the drama of getting theold Indian together and running, along the way meeting the types ofartisans so admired by Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art ofMotorcycle Maintenance.

Fred actually contracts-out a lot of thefabrication and procure ment of the rebuilding work, and this gets himinto the narration of the personality types involved in the process.It's a little like East of Eden as we see the human frailties ondisplay, from low-down ripoff artists, to wannabe aritsans who may bebetter than Fred, but not as good as iconic perfectionists whom Fredalso meets, or hears about.

I can't adequately capture his grasp ofpeople, because his language skills far outstrip mine. I especiallylike the use of the word "brio" to describe the way one guykick-starts his bike. What he does accomplish very well is anarration of how he fits into his own future, compared to how otherpeople are doing, and how he reconciles himself with his past, andartifacts from it (like his two kids from his first marriage). Theway he succeeds with the Indian then becomes incidental to the way hesucceeds, or finds some hope of succeeding, in reconciling his pastand building his future. So it's a better ending than thelater-edition of "Zen," in which Pirsig has to inform usthat his own son was stabbed to death in San Francisco--cutting shortthe father-son theme that Fred also covers. I hope Fred and Kyle getmore time together.

It's Kierkegaardian, because it's so intenselyintrospective. But it's not, because Fred avoids the preachiness andperfectionism with which Kierkegaard tortures himself and his readers.Where is Fred headed beyond himself? We're not sure. Is he moreprepared for the road ahead as a result of his Inidan project? Itseems so.

Favorite scene: Fred deciding to finish mowing the lawnwith a busted mower that has just spit out half of the inner bladehousing, as the mover gyrates wildly and the neighbors look on. Proofof the non-perfectionist streak that could have wrecked this book, ifFred had just given us a non-stop lecture about how perfect hisrestoration of the Indian had gone.

I flew through this book in aday. Then gave it to a friend. He read 60 pages on his way to theairport and sitting on the runway on the way out of town, calling mefrom the plane to discuss it. But then he also has a bike.

Error:Fred describes the same rider in two places as wearing first,motocross pants; and second, riding breeches. But don't let this stopyou from getting the book...

Rating:
Summary: Better than Zen
Review: Maybe it's because I received this book for my 52nd birthday, certainly because I've been riding motorcycles for more than 35 years, but Rebuilding the Indian really resonates. I've read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance repeatedly since its publication, although I'll admit to skimming over the didactic sections. Rebuilding the Indian covers similar ground, but more stylishly than Zen, and less bombastically than Gary Paulsen's Pilgrimage on a Steel Ride, another recent memoir about middle-aged men and motorcycles.

Haefele has a gift of observation, and in addition to a well-written narrative of transforming his collection of parts into a beautiful midnight blue and chrome motorcycle, he presents a gallery of rogues the fraternity of people who restore and ride vintage motorcycles, while providing keen observations about the West, fatherhood, growing up at the age of 52. I almost started looking for a motorcycle restoration project while reading Haefele's memoir.

The book will probably appeal most to middle-aged men, but their spouses and companions who have suffered through such projects, which can suck up practically all one's energy while draining a bank account, may enjoy seeing what goes on through the eyes of the obsessed. Rebuilding the Indian is the best of the bunch.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't fulfill its promise, but I'm glad I read it.
Review: One of the other reviewers perhaps said it best: I really wanted to like this book. As a mid-life motorcyclist (Harley) and pilot, with a penchant for old airplanes and motorcycles, I have long harbored the dream of restoring something really classic; a Harley J, a '32 Ford, a Stearman biplane, etc. So I grabbed the book without a second thought, anticipating a real restoration chronicle. What I got was part soap opera and part Pirsig, with a too-large serving of jobbing out a restoration to various subcontractors, and not enough nuts and bolts. Wish it had been edited bt Tom and Ray Magliozzi (The Tappet Brothers).