From BRCLARKE@FWHDEPT.env.gov.bc.ca Thu Nov 9 17:13:50 EDT 1995 Article: 36477 of rec.motorcycles Xref: news.nsw.CSIRO.AU rec.motorcycles:36477 Path: news.nsw.CSIRO.AU!mel.dit.csiro.au!merlin!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!not-for-mail From: BRCLARKE@FWHDEPT.env.gov.bc.ca (Clarke, Bruce {SO}) Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles Subject: REPOST: 2 good books on moto tours. Date: 11 Oct 1995 17:47:50 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Lines: 78 Sender: nobody@cs.utexas.edu Message-ID: <307C48F1@envgate.env.gov.bc.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.cs.utexas.edu Book Review: "One Man Caravan" by Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. (c) 1937. Picture a formal dinner party in London sometime in the mid-1930s. Several people are sitting at the table, talking about American architecture. One of the guests, a recent architecture graduate of the University of Vienna, is asked if he is looking forward to returning to his home in the United States. "Oh, no," is his reply. "I'm going around the world on a motorcycle!" Most of the guests laugh at the 23 year old man, thinking him a young fool. But one man takes him seriously and replies,"If you haven't your motor yet, old man, then how about letting me furnish it? You know, we have the Douglas motor works. Fine engines. We must talk this over. It sounds interesting, very interesting." A few weeks later Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. set out on the donated motorcycle for a journey that would take him through 23 countries around the globe in seventeen months. His book, "One Man Caravan", describes his ride in detail. The bike he used was a Douglas 650 CC opposed twin, similar to a BMW boxer (but with the cylinders in-line with the frame). The bike's engine put out about 12 or 13 horsepower, and had a top speed of 65 MPH. On his tour he rode a total of 40,000 miles. Fulton's novel is well-written and contains various anecdotes of people and problems he encountered on his trip through Europe, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Sumatra, China and Japan. Each chapter starts with a map outlining his route through the regions he rode. The book also contains 132 black-and-white photographs and 62 sketches the author made. I've read a handful of books (Jupiter's Travels, Investment Biker, Coming Home, The Endless Ride) and Fulton's book is easily my favorite. Whether you are interested in someday riding around the world yourself, or just feel like taking an "armchair journey," I highly recommend this book. This book was published in 1937, and I believe it has been out of print for many years. I managed to get it as an inter-library loan from the Vancouver Public Library in Vancouver, B.C. As a footnote, a well-known German motorcyclist named Bernd Tesch traveled through the United States in January 1995 to interview famous 'global' tourers such as Jim Rodgers and Ted Symon. In Connecticut, Tesch interviewed Fulton, who at 85 years old was still healthy, fit, and remarkably enough, still owns and rides that Douglas he took around the world! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOOK: Three-Wheeling Through Africa by James C. Wilson (c) 1936 Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill DT12 W55 AFter posting a review of the book "One Man Caravan" (about a guy riding around the world on a Douglas in the 1930s), someone recommended this book to me. It's the true story of two Americans named Wilson and Flood who decided to ride across Africa in 1927 on a couple of Triumph motorcycles. The book describes in detail their six month journey over 3800 miles of sand and jungle from the Atlantic port of Lagos, Nigeria to the Red sea port of Massawa, Eritrea. The bikes they used were two three-speed Triumph 5 HP single-cylinder bikes with sidecars. Wilson goes into a lot of detail describing the journey and the troubles they encountered. One of my favorite parts of the book is Wilson's describing how he made a new magneto breaker bearing out of Flood's false teeth - you really have to read it to believe it. This book also contains several dozen photos - it's a good thing too because some of the trials they describe seem unbelievable to me. The pictures tell the story though; these two were the first to cross Africa west to east on a motorcycle. -- Bruce Clarke AMA 356285 '90 Kawasaki EX-500 brclarke@islandnet.com