Travelling by Motorcycle Through Reading

Travelling with your imagination, living the adventures of others who were lucky enough to take the most desired journey, or simply enjoying a pleasant moment of reading about subjects that attract us because we share common passions—all of them revolving around motorcycles.

Books about motorcycle journeys around the world have become their own category within the Adventure genre, adding new titles year after year. In this article, we will mention a few books that come to mind and may serve as a reference. These are not strict reading recommendations—just a small selection among the many that exist and that might catch our attention through affinity.

They are all here… but not all of them are.

Setting Free the Bears — John Irving

This is not exactly a pure adventure book, but rather a novel in which motorcycles play an important role in the story. Set in a somewhat peculiar Europe of the late 1960s, Siggy and Graff travel through Austria on a Royal Enfield 700cc in search of sex and adventure. Throughout the plot, a 1934 N.S.U Grand Prix appears, along with several German BMWs from the Wehrmacht’s “Balkans 4” battalion.

Jupiter’s Travels — Ted Simon

A journey around the world told by a traveller on a motorcycle. Pay attention to this definition: Ted considers himself a traveller before a biker, and although that statement might seem discouraging at first, nothing could be further from the truth.

Through these pages, many riders have become addicted to travelling with their motorcycle. The journey begins in 1974, when Ted, together with his 500cc Triumph Tiger, sets out to cover 120,000 kilometres of experiences, encounters, and reflections as a journalist turned observer of the world on two wheels.

Amazigh. By Motorcycle to the Desert — Quique Arenas

A trip to nearby yet still distant Morocco immerses us in an enjoyable read about the particularities of travelling to a world that many will recognise from personal experience. A well-told story, truly engaging.

360 Degrees. A Woman, a Motorcycle and the World — Alicia Sornosa

A novel blending reality and fiction throughout a life journey. It focuses more on her personal story than on the specific travel details, but it remains interesting as a whole.

Motorcycle travel literature has also given us other great names, easy to remember for their adventures and records: Helge Pedersen , Emilio Scotto, the Ratay couple, Grant, Elspeth Beard , or Susan Johnson, among many other well-known—and lesser-known—figures who make us devour lines of text just to live them through their stories.