Klancher, L: Motorcycle Dream Garages

Born and raised on the banks of the Brill River in northern Wisconsin, Lee Klancher has been chronicling motorcycle and outdoor adventures big and small since the early 1990s. The writer and photographer loves to explore off-beat topics and places that range from covering bitterly contested land use issues in Northern Minnesota to exploring how New Orleans rebounded from the ravages of Katrina for the 2006 Mardi Gras celebration. His favorite adventure articles have covered riding the treacherous 300-mile track that crosses the Bolivian portion of the Amazon jungle, scaring himself senseless on Slovenia's Mount Triglav, crossing the northeast Australian Outback on Honda XRs, and hustling a Kawasaki 400 through the tight curves of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. His other interests include mountain biking, dive bars, racquetball, and college hockey. His writing and photography appears regularly in "Men's Journal," "Motorcyclist, Ultimate Motorcycling, Draft, Motorcycle Product News, "and "Motorcycle Cruiser." Lee lives in Austin, Texas, and you can see more of his work at www.Leeklancher.com. www.motorcycledreamgarage.com Kevin Cameron is one of the world's premier motorcycle writers. His feature stories and monthly column have been appearing in the industry's largest-circulation magazine, Cycle World, for more than 20 years.

"""Motorcycle Dream Garages"""" is a fascinating and beautifully photographed homage to dozens of folks who are obsessed by motorcycles as well as to the spaces they create to house those obsessions. Klancher (along with Kevin Cameron--who wrote the foreword--and collaborators Rick Schunk, Mike Seate, and Kris Palmer) has done an excellent job illustrating these with his excellent photography. In some of the photos, we can almost smell the grease and feel the grit of the parts-packed spaces. Additionally, Klancher manages to capture the character of his subjects with spare and succinct text that both tells us what drives these people as well as keeps us entertained. (His write-up on the secretive Hollywood fellow with the incredible toy collection is a masterful--and funny--portrait in words.)""""In the end, ""this book certainly deserves a space on the garage bookshelf of anyone who has ever longed for a bigger/better/badder barn for their bikes. And yes, the $35 price tag on this tome might be a bit steep to some in this climate, but just think of it as research or inspiration. Someday...someday..." - "Friction Zone"