BOOK REVIEWS
Bonneville: Go or Bust
Títle: Bonneville Go Or Bust
Writer: Zoe Cano
Year: 2014
R
Títle: Circle To Circle
Writer: Shirley Hardy-Rix &
Brian Rix
Year: 2013
On first reading of Zoe Cano’s Bon-
neville: Go or Bust you might ask the
question, ‘what’s the big deal?’ For
some, it would be no big deal, it’s just a
ride through a few states of the world’s
most powerful, most ‘developed’ na-
tion. Main road riding through towns
and cities, never too far from help. For
Zoe, it was so very much more.
Zoe had ridden bikes in her native
UK and Europe, yet she’d never taken
on a ride of this nature; a long dis-
tance, cross country ride, in a less fa-
miliar setting, aboard a non-American
bike. That was the big deal, Zoe did
what many others only talk about, she
climbed aboard her Triumph Bonnev-
ille T100 and started riding.
Bonneville: Go or Bust takes the
reader on a road trip across the Unit-
ed States, on well ridden highways,
and backroads very rarely ridden. The
whole time you get to share Zoe's fears,
her failures and her sense of joy at be-
ing able to achieve what she did.
E
Circle To Circle
Circle To Circle is the second book
in a current trilogy by Shirley Har-
dy-Rix and her husband Brian Rix,
and it continues exactly where the
first left off, the couple travelling the
world, two-up aboard their BMW.
Sixteen months, 32 countries and
83,000 kilometres they rode from the
tip of South America to the Arctic cir-
cle in North America, before heading
through Asia, Europe and Australia.
It’s an epic journey told as a travelog
with personal feelings and emotion
throughout.
There’s no doubt that when the
Rix’s do something, they really do it
and Circle To Circle is a prime exam-
ple of that however, such a massive
journey doesn’t seem to be done jus-
tice by a 340 page book. The reader is
TRAVERSE
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It reads as a diary, as Zoe opens us
to her inner most feelings; a novice
motorcycle traveller, in less familiar
territory, with little or no experience
in what to do if something goes wrong.
It’s this that guides the reader into un-
derstanding what the big deal is all
about. It’s this that is proof that adven-
ture is about experience, about discov-
ery, about finding roads less travelled
and yourself.
Bonneville: Go or Bust is a perfect
read for anyone who has spoken about
travelling by motorcycle yet never ac-
tually taken it up, for someone who
reads of overland travel and is terrified
by the prospect of breaking down in
the middle of a waterless expanse or
being kidnapped by militia in a foreign
land. Or just someone who thinks, it
all too hard.
Bonneville: Go or Bust is proof that
it can be done, and that adventure is
more about your mind and opening it
up. Give it a read, be inspired.
V
left wanting more. More detail. More
personal insight. Just more. Perhaps
that’s the authors intention … to leave
you wanting more, encouraging you
to find out for yourself.
Circle To Circle is easily read, writ-
ten in a simple, flowing manner, en-
couraging you to continue, encourag-
ing you to seek out greater detail and
further the experience, to pack your
bike and discover the Americas for
yourself. To go Circle To Circle …