Thursday, March 15

Thanks Mr Ball

Keith R. "Bandit" Ball has pretty much seen and done it all; he joined Easyriders in 1972 and became Associate Editor, then later created Bikernet.

He has also published a number of books, and I enjoyed a regular non-fiction column he wrote in The Horse magazine featuring his reminiscences from the road.

Anyway, he sent me his latest book to review for the mag. It's a biography of Terry 'the Tramp' Orendorf of the Vagos MC. It's very readable as you might imagine, but the most interesting section for me was the opening where the author details the murky links between the AMA, Harley-Davidson and the motorcycle magazines of the day... read this and wonder no more why British motorcycles weren't more common in the USA until the 1950s!

There's a nice profile of Keith Ball in his greasy chopper-riding heyday by Irish Rich here and if you want to pick up a copy of the book, you'll find it in all the usual online retail outlets.

4 comments:

Neo Dutch said...

I bought this thinking it was about the other Terry the Tramp.

I'm sure this Terry has lead a wild and varied life, but unfortunately I just couldn't get into Mr Ball's writing style.

Guy@GK said...

I think it's pretty clear from the cover it's not about the famous HA Tramp.

Rowan said...

yep that was a very interesting bit about not awarding a rider of the year cos they were not on a harley... tut tut shame on them !!!

Neo Dutch said...

Didn't have a visual of the cover when I ordered it, went by name only.
If folks like Mr Ball's style they should buy it, there's plenty of info in it.