(03-24-2022, 04:54 PM)Ray Wrote:(03-24-2022, 04:09 PM)Grumpy Goat Wrote: 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....right....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 ...
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....
"Oh, NOW I get it! - Mark Barnes ON - May 2022
So opened my Owners News today, turned to Mark Barnes column, and voila - a great review of the RS, creatively contained in the story of his journey to ownership and refinement of a used 2020.
And..."Now I get it - no wonder the Beemer crowd routinely traverses continents! I've enjoyed motorcycle travel in the past, but never felt much desire to ride continuously for days on end. I guess I never had the right bike for it....
Most of you have known this feeling for decades. I'm embarrassingly late to the party...."
But he's here.
Party on, Mark....
"A good man always knows his limitations...."