Ridin' High, Livin' Free: Hell-Raising Motorcycle Stories » (First Perennial Edition)

Ralph "Sonny" Barger is the author of Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. A master mechanic who has owned and operated his own bike shops, he currently lives in Arizona, where he rides every day.

Sonny Barger is the number-one spokesman for the motorcycle experience. His New York Times bestseller, Hell's Angel, was an exhilarating history of his adventures with the world's most notorious motorcycle club. Now he brings us rousing, moving, and wildly entertaining true stories of his renegade brothers and sisters in the relentless pursuit of liberty, individuality, and the "ultimate ride."

And what stories he has to tell — freewheeling, bare-knuckle tales of brawls and battles, brotherhood, breathtaking adventures, crazy quests, and the inevitable classic scrapes with "John Law." The most colorful legends and unforgettable characters of biker lore come alive in this book. In addition, celebrities like Steve McQueen, Johnny Paycheck, and David Crosby thunder through these pages in a sensational collection of rebel tales that runs the gamut from poignant and inspiring to thrilling and utterly outrageous.

Whether you ride, have never ridden, or dream of riding, Ridin' High, Livin' Free is a reading experience you won't soon forget — a fascinating glimpse into a unique culture of freedom that recognizes only one commandment: the code of the road.

Publishers Weekly

The latest literary effort from Hell's Angels chieftain Barger is "a collection of true stories, modern myths, and biker tales" submitted to him by other bikers. As such, few of them actually involve the legendary Barger. Barger selected and rewrote the stories himself (with help from the Zimmermans). He concedes that some are true while others are apocryphal, and it's up to the reader to decide which is which. Depicting fairly unspectacular hell-raisers including characters like DOA, Loaded Linda, Freewheelin' Freddy and One-Armed Paul most of the 38 tales are too uneventful to be mistaken for myth, leaving one to wonder if Barger is holding back the good stuff or whether he used up most of it in his earlier memoir, Hell's Angel. Some of the stories are engaging and even informative, such as the profile of an African-American motorcycle club and the piece detailing singer David Crosby's biker connections. But most meander toward abrupt endings, closing with a trite moral or clunky shoutout to the story's principal character. Barger illustrates a kinder, gentler rider; his characters are certainly not above wreaking a little havoc, but they're also quick to help a fallen biker or spread the word of God. The book works best when describing the simple pleasure of cruising through the American landscape at sunrise. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.