Mark Barnes - Great Ambassador for the RS

[Ray]

Not sure if I've read any of his articles in the ON.
I'll check it out.

I find many of his articles not so easy to read with minimal effort. I usually read ON at bedtime when I don't want to exert my brain. I find I like Ron Davis's column best at that time, maybe followed by Jack Riepe ...

I know Ray is a big Mark Barnes fan ...

...right....
Just the opposite of you, when I read one of Ron "Everyman" Davis's books (collection of columns), I stay up way too late to read more and more, until I finally get dressed (about the time Darrell gets up) and go for a ride. This in spite of Ron's dry and Wisconsin-bred, even-keeled style of writing. He gets it.

Like Ron, Jack really "gets it," and although his outrageous style seems to get away from him at times, I enjoy his gonzo literary wanderings that feel like a ride all by themselves. They too could keep me up at night (if not cause nightmares). (Now if only he could get himself in shape to give us another decade of amusement.)

I've never met or communicated with poor Mark Barnes, who, like Pirsig, doesn't "get it," but insists on taking us all along on his mental explorations and queries into why he rides. Some of it is fun (like his list of physiological benefits of riding), but many of his columns somehow degenerate into pseudoscientific psychobabble.

If I want to fall asleep quickly, I read one of Dr. Barnes' books.

A little surprised that he hasn't stumbled across this forum while searching for answers to mechanical questions or simply googling his own name. Of course with pseudonyms, he could be anyone of us....