Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
Author Garri Garripoli examines movement through life, which he terms "the Ride," with a capital R. The Tao of the Ride is Garripoli's deft interpretation of the two worlds of motorcycling and Eastern spirituality, and the relationship between them. In his view, readers can best understand the Ride as it refers to the motorcycle: the need for balance, the confronting of one's own mortality, accelerating, braking, refueling, tuning-up, accepting passengers, being in accidents, and on and on. To that end, the motorcycle becomes the metaphor for freedom - whatever it is that returns us to our natural selves. This metaphor then serves to illustrate principles of Eastern spirituality, including such timeless Chinese philosophies and concepts as Tao and Qi, to name but a few. Tao entails living in a natural way, accepting nature and following its rhythms - in short, Tao is balance and acceptance. Qi is the life force, the cosmic energy that flows through every human being. The metaphor of motorcycling, which requires balance, acceptance and evenly flowing energy, illustrates these principles effectively and concisely.
The Tao of the Ride, with its unique and down-to-earth metaphor, illuminates with crystal clarity and offbeat humor heretofore elusive Eastern philosophical precepts. Its division into concise, easy-to-read chapters, presented with humor, joy and wisdom, render it accessible and especially inviting.
Whether you hail from the beat generation or generation X, whether you drive a Fatboy or a minivan, if you enjoy Eastern philosophy and crave a better, more down-to-earth understanding of it you'll love this book. The Tao of the Ride - destined to become a must-read, New Age classic.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
It's about the ride...
Customer Rating:
I loved this book, the analogies, the written thoughts...If you ride, it's a must read-
Nice - enjoyable read
Customer Rating:
I read this as soon as it arrived....only took a few hours. No tough reading, just an enjoyable winters read, while wishing you could be riding.
Saddlebag Worthy
Customer Rating:
This book offers a new slant on some Daoist principles for living, but you should probably be a biker to fully appreciate his descriptions and metaphors. I would've packaged the book a bit different and left out the short stories from Garri's friends, but hey, it still has a great message on finding your path and he offers us some real quotable gems of wisdom. It's short and I like that - just the right size for a weekend solo ride. Worth the money.
Disappointed
Customer Rating:
To be fair, I only made it through about 25 pages of this book, but that is because it was such a tremendous disappointment to me. His connections between Taoism and motorcycles were weak at best, the book was incredibly repetitive, and was just not that informative on any topic, really. Maybe someday I will pick it up again and love it, but for now I have started Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and am in love with it. For the money, buy it instead.
Not for most RIDERS
Customer Rating:
My wife (the book nut) bought this for me. I can read a technical manual from cover to cover and enjoy every word, I am a biker, I love bikes. I really don't need some prophet of psycho-babble to tell me why I like to ride. Yes, there were a few universal statements that fit the attitude of most any biker, but, bikers are unique individuals, not to be generalized, classified or categorized. Admittedly, I skimmed most of the book and was unable to complete the whole thing. Do you want to by a biker friend/spouse a book?....get them a manual, better yet, buy them a tool.
Select button not working? 
