Geezer with a Grudge: Total Control, High Performance Street Riding Techniques, by Lee Parks

Jun 22, 2013

Total Control, High Performance Street Riding Techniques, by Lee Parks

Originally published in Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly #72 Winter/2004

Off season or on season, I read one or two books about motorcycles or motorcycling every month. They're more interesting than television and I almost always learn something that I can apply to my riding or bike maintenance. The Twist of the Wrist series, for example, are books that I've read and re-read a half-dozen times and I still get something new out of the books every time. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is another book I re-read fairly regularly, especially when I find myself getting mentally lazy and start considering taking my bike to a shop for repairs.

Unexpectedly, Zen and Total Control have a lot in common. Parks manages to make it almost 1/3 of the way into the book before liberal references to various eastern and western philosophies begin to slip into the text. By the time he's out of mechanics and into chapters on "Fear," "Concentration," and "Right Attitude," he's quoting everyone from Zen masters to L. Ron ("I'm not dead yet") Hubbard to Bob (my motorcycling hero) Hannah. Sections on "how do you create a positive road relationship?" may push your credibility buttons a bit too hard, especially in the 22nd Century's "might makes right" atmosphere. So, there may be a chapter or three that rubs you the wrong way.

However, the techniques and practical advice is incredibly detailed and totally useful. With chapters describing every motorcycling activity from suspension setup to riding with a passenger to stocking your garage/workshop with tools and equipment, Parks has done a good job of covering nearly every aspect of motorcycling.

In many ways, this book is a compliment to the Twist of the Wrist series. Where Code uses drawings, diagrams, and theoretical explanations for motorcycle actions and functions, Parks uses pictures, diagrams, and step-by-step descriptions. For instance, in the chapter on cornering, Parks uses 19 pictures in 9 pages to illustrate the right (and wrong) way to make a high performance turn. It's an effective approach and the breakdown of the sequence of events in a turn will provide riders with enough information to practice the technique.

Attempting to detail the details included in this book would result in a 150 page edition of the MMM. Since Parks does a fine job of managing his own descriptions, I'd recommend you read the book and decide what fits your style and what doesn't. At best, this is a great handbook for those wanting to learn a lot more about performance motorcycling. At worst, it's a great winter motorcycle book.

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The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.