Like sailing, hunting, and other emancipating endeavors, motorcycling seems to invite romanticization. The pithiest and most prevalent examples might be variations of “If you know, you know” scrawled across a nondescript helmet-cam clip posted to TikTok, or perhaps the two-fingers-down wave flicked at a fellow rider in an oncoming lane.
I’ve attempted to contribute original thought to motorcycle mythology in articles recounting and reflecting on my own journey, which began when my dad and I got our first bikes together. “By my age, many people have begun looking back fondly on memories they’ve created with their fathers,” I wrote in a story for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. “Motorcycling has given us the opportunity to continue making more.”
Whether it’s told in a social media post’s caption, magazine story, or book, a single person’s experience can only offer so much insight. In that light, Motorcycle Life: Stories, Wisdom, and Obsession from Riders Around the World shines brighter than perhaps any other writing on the topic of two-wheelers. Published by Hachette Book Group and written by Eric Hendrikx—a journalist with bylines in Rolling Stone, Revolver, and Men’s Journal who co-wrote Bring Metal to the Children with Zakk Wylde—the 354-page work comprises interviews with celebrities, customizers, designers, artists, enthusiasts, and commuters. The common thread, of course, is their love of motorcycles.
“I’ve reviewed everything from high-performance superbikes to stripped-down desert scramblers,” Hendrikx writes in his book’s preface. “I rode alpine switchbacks in Switzerland, canyon-carved pavement in California, and neon-lit alleys in Tokyo. Everywhere I went, I met people whose lives had been shaped—or sometimes saved—by motorcycles. This book grew out of that observation. It’s an attempt to understand why motorcycles, across cultures and generations, continue to reveal the same human truths.”
With contributions from more than 100 riders, Motorcycle Life fascinates in showcasing how common themes can be expressed in unique ways. As Mike Wolfe of American Pickers fame points out in the book’s introduction: “This isn’t lifestyle fluff. And it sure as hell isn’t nostalgia porn. This is observation. Participation. Pattern-spotting. It’s proof. Eric is documenting how humans relate to motion, risk, and presence, and how motorcycles reveal something fundamental about how we want to live.”
Keanu Reeves, one of the title’s marquee names, offers this when asked about the greatest lesson he learned through motorcycling.
“It’s helped me really examine what I call the cost-benefit program,” says the Matrix star. “You take into account the danger, the projected consequences, and then you ask yourself: What do you want to do? How do you want to live? How do you enjoy your life? Deciding to ride a motorcycle—and loving it so much—translated into other parts of my life. It’s like: Let’s go for it. Let’s try it. But with awareness. You look at the cost, you look at the benefit, and then you choose the benefit.”
Master builder Gard Hollinger—with whom Reeves co-founded bespoke, low-volume brand Arch Motorcycle—similarly touches on the inherent danger when asked the same question.
“For me, riding is about focus and presence. I’m aware it’s dangerous, but I don’t approach it with fear,” Hollinger says. “I approach it as an opportunity to be completely in the moment—to not be distracted by anything else. That mindset carries over into life. If you can stay focused and present, a lot of things become clearer.”
Jason Momoa, another of the book’s most famous contributors, also discusses risk, but in the context of how it helped shape what he cites as his “most memorable motorcycle ride.”
“A few years ago, I rode with the Frozen Few—a small group of riders who come from all over the world to race vintage Harleys on snow and ice,” the Aquaman star says. “The conditions are brutal. You’re pushing both your body and these old machines to the edge, sliding through frozen turns and riding across open tundra. The bikes are fitted with tires studded with hundreds of metal screws—if you go down, alone or with someone else, they can tear you up. There’s real risk in it. But that’s part of what makes it so meaningful. You’re out there together with your brothers, honoring legacy and what these machines were built to endure.”
Equally interesting are the more esoteric thoughts and reflections. Jim Root, one of two guitarists in masked metal juggernaut Slipknot, describes a parallel that only a bike-riding rock star could.
“There are two things in life that demand total presence: riding a motorcycle and performing on stage,” he says. “On stage, I get into this intuitive flow state, anticipating what my bandmates will do before it even happens. It’s like we’re a single organism, moving in synchronicity. Riding is similar. When you’re out with a group of friends, you’re in tune with every bike around you, with the traffic, the patterns, the sounds—it’s like a symphony. Over time, you start to anticipate each other’s moves, flowing together in a kind of beautiful, instinctive ballet.”
Among the most unique perspectives is that of Janelle Kaz, a biologist and wildlife conservation journalist who has spent years covering biodiversity and illegal animal trafficking while practically living on a motorcycle.
“While working as a teacher in Thailand, I had some time off for the holidays but couldn’t afford to go home. Instead, I rented a bike and traveled solo throughout northern Thailand,” she says when asked why she chose motorcycles as her primary transportation mode.
“Each night, I stayed in a new place, sleeping in a hammock—it was an incredibly special experience that helped me overcome my fears and hesitations about traveling alone. From that moment on, I embraced motorcycles as my primary way to explore. Wildlife preserves and sanctuaries are often in remote, hard-to-reach areas, so I bought a Yamaha Serow 225cc dirt bike and rode all over Vietnam and Laos, doing conservation work along the way.”
Motorcycle Life is ostensibly about motorcycles, but it’s these deeply human insights that keep the pages turning. As The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus writes in the book’s foreword, “That’s the part I love most—the people.” From $18.99
