Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph

However, the best motorcycling touring book is "Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba," which I consider one of the best travel books ever written. It's a fascinating and sometimes hilarious, sometimes hair-raising story of a 7,000-mile journey and justifiably the winner of both the 2002 "Travel Book of the Year" and the North American Travel Journalist Association's Awards of Excellence "Grand Prize."


Four years on two wheels condensed into 447 pages.   August 22, 2003
 12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Hard to determine how to rate this book. I just finished the last page...

I have to admit that it's truly a travel book. ZMM by Pirsig is much more of a philosophy than a book about travel. Simon instead takes you through Africa and the Atbara desert, roads that had channels cut through them deep enough that he had to keep his legs up near the handle bars, various bribes at numerous country borders, and tea stops along the way for rest. He also intrigues you with a prison escapade in Brasil and a fever in India as well as waiting for rivers to drop in Austrailia while drinking stubbies and eating steaks with truckies at a local outback cafe.

My negative comments are relatively simple: 1) No hard description of what he's up to in the beginning, just jumps right in, and all of a sudden you're in Africa. 2) A great lack of description of most of the mileage (runs from place to place sometimes). Perhaps this is a given for such a long trip. [Please don't be deterred by this... he's very descriptive for most of the journey.] 3) Lack of a map showing the whole trip. [Small maps are given in each "Chapter"- if the chapters could be called that.]

Writing style compared to Pirsig is very different and much less refined, but in a way this also allows us to go along with Simon on his great adventure. The writing and the road-miles seem to roll together. And in this way I think it's true to form. I have to admit that it was a great book even with the minor faults above. And as far as the god-talk previously mentioned, it's easy to forgive someone who can recall his experiences, in most of the major countries on the globe, first hand a slight misplaced grandiosity. :^) Especially with how much he's been through by the end.

From one rider to the other, my hat's off to Simon.


Wake me up!   January 21, 2003
 3 out of 12 found this review helpful

Kept waiting for the book to get better but ran out of pages before it did. I felt Simon left out too much and was just riding to put on miles. Would agree with an earlier reviewer that there was too much (fuzzy) philosophy. I also thought the material was too dated and could have been updated somewhat. I was disappointed probably because I expected much more judging by the other reviews.


A Classic Adventure.   October 22, 2002
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

A great adventure from one of the first motorcycle adventurers. His tales are genuine and his connections with the people in the countries he visits are real. What I find refreshing is he is a sincere person with real anxieties and doubts. He doesn't hide his fears and lays it on the line.

To comment on previous reviews. I did not find his observations that he was God or Jupiter bothersome. He was only commenting in the context of his long period on the road and did not detract from the book.


One of the best books ever written   July 8, 2002
 28 out of 29 found this review helpful

This book captures first hand the now little known adventure of a British journalist who set out to ride around the world on a motorcycle. It is an incredible story and something any reader should enjoy. Every teenager/student should be issued with this book so that they can understand what adventure is [they should also be issued with Ernest Shackleton's story]. It is also a period piece capturing something of the flavor of the early 70s -- although not so obtrusively that it would offend those who scorn that period. The writing is direct and honest. The author does not shy away from ridiculing himself at times -- the linen suit incident still stays with me 15 years after I first read this book. This book provides insight into not just the authors thinking but the behavior of people in different cultures across the world (Ted came to accept problems calmly as help always seemed to come along). I read this book while in hospital and sadly gave it away to a fellow patient who I had been friendly with. It probably changed my life, as I still sometimes think of some of the incidents described. I will buy a copy for my son one day so that he will understand what adventure is. [Contrast this to that dreadful "Zen & the Art of..." book]. Ted travelled around the world on a Triumph Trident (perhaps the last ever made) -- not a BMW or a Harley. No support team, cell phone or GPS satellite navigation. This book let's you share the experience.