Big Sid's Vincati: The Story of a Father, a Son, and the Motorcycle of a Lifetime »

Matthew Biberman teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Louisville. He also works on Vincent motorcycles in his garage with his father, "Big Sid" Biberman.

A father and son build a legendary motorcycle and, along the way, reconstruct their relationship in this moving memoir

When his father had a near-fatal heart attack and gave up the will to live, Matthew Biberman panicked. Impulsively, Matthew promised his father, an expert motorcycle mechanic, that they would build a Vincati motorcycle together. The Loch Ness monster of motorcycles, a Vincati-half Vincent, half Ducati- had never been completed in North America. Building a Vincati was considered, at best, a fool's errand; at worst, an expensive waste of motorcycle parts.

But for nearly sixty years, "Big Sid" Biberman was the mechanic to see to refurbish and repair motorcycles, especially British-made Vincents. If anyone could build a Vincati, it was Big Sid. Despite sharing his father's passion for motorcycles, his son Matthew lacked Big Sid's mechanical gift, gave up on tools, and became a Shakespearean scholar. As adults, father and son barely spoke. But after his father's brush with death, Matthew vowed to learn the techniques that had made Big Sid a legend among bikers. Reminiscent of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Big Sid's Vincati is an irresistible combination of step-by-step motorcycle construction mixed with a powerful story of fathers and sons, and shows not only how the Bibermans built their Vincati (which was featured in Cycle World and Classic Bike) but also how the two men reconstructed their relationship, one motorcycle part at a time.

Prologue: In the Hospital xi

Part 1 How Sid Got Big

Chapter 1 Flat Out 3

Chapter 2 Last Train to London 19

Chapter 3 A Score to Settle 27

Part 2 Sid's Kid

Chapter 4 Why God Made Sunday 45

Chapter 5 Near Miss 51

Chapter 6 Another Jewish Faulkner 69

Chapter 7 Getting Back On 87

Part 3 The Build

Chapter 8 Sid's Return 95

Chapter 9 The Land of the Righteous 113

Chapter 10 The Last Piece 129

Chapter 11 The Mechanic and the Professor 153

Chapter 12 Lucy's Bike 163

Part 4 The Road

Chapter 13 Last Rides 183

Chapter 14 Locked Up 195

Chapter 15 First Start 217

Chapter 16 Sid's Gift 237

Chapter 17 Strange Beach 255

Epilogue: Every Day 259

Notes 263

The vincatis 263

Polly's specs 263

Acknowledgments 267