Product Description

A broken heart and a moment of drunken bravado inspires middle-aged, and typically rather cautious, journalist Mike Carter to take off on a life-changing six month motorcycle trip around Europe. Never mind that he hadn't been on two wheels since an inglorious three-month teenage chapter involving a Lambretta, four crashes and an 18-month ban for drink-driving, a plan had begun to loosely form...And so, having completed a six day residential motorcycle course and hastily re-mortgaged his flat, Mike sets off alone, resolving to go wherever the road takes him and enjoy the adventure of heading off into the unknown.He ends up travelling almost 20,000 miles and reaching the four extremes of Europe: the Arctic Circle in the north, the Mediterranean coast in the south, the Portuguese Atlantic to the west and the Iraqi border of Turkey in the east. But really it's a journey inwards, as, on the way, Mike finds his post-divorce scars starting to heal and attempts to discover what he, as a man in his forties who hasn't quite found his place in the world, should be doing. Self-deprecating, poetic and utterly engaging, his is a heroic journey taken for the rest of us too scared to leave our 9 to 5 office-bound existence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2254 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

The Observer
"Uneasy Rider is where emasculation and escapism meet...Carter is a genial companion on this road trip through the male ego, often funny and always unsparing on himself"

Charley Boorman, author of The Long Way Round
"A fantastic read"

Tim Moore
"As wise and witty travelling companion as you could wish for"

Customer Reviews

Lots of laughs and some enlightenment
I found Uneasy Rider not only to be very funny but also compelling reading. A clockwise journey around Europe is undertaken on a BMW R1200GS covering 20,000 miles over six months.
Mike is a (another) journalist (see also Geoff Hill) on a journey, who having decided on the trip must first learns to ride a motorcycle. The new bike is duly purchased and we set off on an amusing voyage into the mental state of middle aged men - Mike seems far more concerned with his own pulling power than that of his motorcycle - but of course there could be no doubts about the adequacy of the big BMW.
Towards the end of the book things don't seem so funny any more and I was left feeling rather cheated of France, Spain and Portugal. They were ridden through (and are to be thoroughly recommended by motorcycle) but don't get a mention; one minute he was in Corsica and the next back in London.
A jolly good read with lots of laughs and plenty for those of a certain age to think about. I am pleased to reflect now that I have a better understanding of the disillusionment of mid life. The book is probably aimed at male readers, and indeed I bought it for my husband but was hooked after the first few paragraphs, and as a middle aged female motorcyclist found it most entertaining.

Uneasy Rider
Uneasy Rider is one of those rare books which manages to straddle genres and defy categorisation, whilst at the same time remaining immensely readable and hugely entertaining. This is a book which will appeal to men and women alike, bikers and non-bikers, the adventurous and the armchair traveller. It's a book about dreams broken and pieced together again, about making sense of the past and uniting it with the present and of bonds forged and boundaries crossed. It is a book about people written with insight, humanity and humour.

Mike Carter has achieved a fine balance between travelogue and self-confessional, which makes his book so much more than the usual series of postcards from a journey. The descriptions are lusciously vivid and his landscape is peopled with remarkable, quirky and wonderful characters. The theme of a mid-life crisis, its manifestations and the possible reasons for it, is woven through a series of beautifully realised vignettes, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes heart-rendingly poignant, strung together by the narrative of the journey.

There is an honesty and frankness about Uneasy Rider which is as appealing as the self-deprecating humour and it is written with such confidence that the erudition (of which there is plenty) is neither laboured nor inaccessible. Personally, I would have been happy to learn more about the author's life (because I'm nosey like that!), but then it's also the mark of a good book when you are so engaged that you care what happens after you close the cover. I wanted to know more - what became of Margaret, did he ever go to see the Aussies on their home territory, what happened to Hanne....

Uneasy Rider made me laugh out loud and brought tears to my eyes. I finished it thinking that I had found not so much a travelling companion as a really good friend.

Excellent entertainment and insight into the mid life crisis
I have read nearly every motorcycle travel book availible and i must say this is probably the most entertaining. As i approach my own 40th birthday i now understand my own 'mid life crisis' so clearly explained by the author. That aside, this book has been a true joy to read, funny, serious, happy, sad, bike travel, adventures etc etc etc. If you like travel books and/or are approaching middle age (crisis) and/or enjoy good reading you must buy this book. I truly hope to be able to follow Mike on his next trip, ride soon!