|
Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
Flip to back
Flip to front
Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques Paperback – July 12, 2003
$18.22
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
Only 18 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
 If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle edition for only $2.99 (Save 79%). Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon. Learn more. |
Start reading Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques on your Kindle in under a minute.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Discover books for all types of engineers, auto enthusiasts, and much more. Learn more
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?.
|
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Lee Parks has been racing for over 16 years, and he won the 2001 G.M.D. Computrack National Endurance Series Championship in the Lightweight class. He also finished 2nd in the 1994 AMA 125GP national championship in its exhibition year. He spent five years as the editor and chief test rider of Motorcycle Consumer News where he road tested every new street motorcycle available in the U.S. and became one of the top performance-testing journalists in the world. He is based in Victorville, CA.
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 58 people found the following review helpful
By
Marcelo A. Soto Quiroga
on March 13, 2004
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
Well explained topics, full of graphics and photographs, this book is a perfect aid for those riders wanting to get the most of their bikes. It deals with technical subjects like suspension set-up and aerodynamics, as well as human topics like attitude, fear and fitness. Don't get misled by the title, since the techniques taught there apply to every bike type, not only to hi-performance superbikes. Written in a plain understandable language and including just the right and needed math formulae, Mr. Parks leads the reader through the entire book without much pain even for the complete novice rider. He even adds the right amount of subtle humour also.
Great book, highly recommendable.
Great book, highly recommendable.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful
By
2 Wheel Tony
on November 23, 2004
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
Overall impression:
First, the book "Total Control" was an exceptionally well paced and visually pleasing read! It is immediately obvious that you have spent a great deal of time and thought on the material placed within its pages. It's technical enough to clearly present the necessary data within the defined concept, without going so deep that it becomes difficult to navigate. Nor is it so simplistic that the reader would feel slighted by being overly "hand-held" or "kid-gloved". If there were three bears and some porridge handy, I'm sure "it's just right" would be the theme of the day.
Details:
While the majority of these concepts are not new to me, it is still nice to have someone else positively reinforce said concepts, and at times, distill them down to more accurate truths. This happened several times throughout the book when I would find myself nodding along with a passage, a bubble of remembrance surfacing in my mind as I recalled the event(s) that first led to the discovery of these factoids, usually in a much less desirable way. Often I had to set the book aside, while I mentally re-examined an idea I thought I knew backwards and forwards, yet was being presented from a different perspective. This of course, leads to additional insight and greatly increased understanding of not only the outlined principle, but also how these principles are all connected to one another. It's one thing to know a bunch of individual concepts, it is quite another to see them as a contiguous whole.
Without doubt, the most enjoyable chapters in the book for me are Ch. 4, 5, and 6 titled "Fear", "Concentration", and "Right Attitude" respectively.Read more ›
First, the book "Total Control" was an exceptionally well paced and visually pleasing read! It is immediately obvious that you have spent a great deal of time and thought on the material placed within its pages. It's technical enough to clearly present the necessary data within the defined concept, without going so deep that it becomes difficult to navigate. Nor is it so simplistic that the reader would feel slighted by being overly "hand-held" or "kid-gloved". If there were three bears and some porridge handy, I'm sure "it's just right" would be the theme of the day.
Details:
While the majority of these concepts are not new to me, it is still nice to have someone else positively reinforce said concepts, and at times, distill them down to more accurate truths. This happened several times throughout the book when I would find myself nodding along with a passage, a bubble of remembrance surfacing in my mind as I recalled the event(s) that first led to the discovery of these factoids, usually in a much less desirable way. Often I had to set the book aside, while I mentally re-examined an idea I thought I knew backwards and forwards, yet was being presented from a different perspective. This of course, leads to additional insight and greatly increased understanding of not only the outlined principle, but also how these principles are all connected to one another. It's one thing to know a bunch of individual concepts, it is quite another to see them as a contiguous whole.
Without doubt, the most enjoyable chapters in the book for me are Ch. 4, 5, and 6 titled "Fear", "Concentration", and "Right Attitude" respectively.Read more ›
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
88 of 98 people found the following review helpful
By
Alex P Pearsall
on November 12, 2003
Format: Paperback
2 Comments
Sending feedback...
From my website ([...])
I did manage to buy a book, "Total Control" by Lee Parks. This book, is (in my humble opinon), the greatest motorcycle instruction book since the start of motorcycle instruction books. Very clear, very precise anaologies to things that everyone deals with in real life, to help one better understand the art that is, motorcycling. One line that I read in the book struck me as something that I needed to do. "If you have not practiced riding with a bit of fear, you will panic when presented with the unexpected." For awhile, I was riding fast, but I wasnt really afraid of riding. I wasnt afraid of sharp corners or this and that, because I usually took them at speeds only slightly above average. I didnt have any fear. I need to work on riding with a bit of fear, so instead of letting the fear CONTROL me in a situation where I need my wits, not my reactions, I can let the fear flow through me, and use the wits.
I also learned about steering my motorcycle more efficently. The author talked about how most people try to steer with both hands around corners, and while they believe that their helping the motorcycle, in reality, their hands are actually fighting eachother sub-conciously. I know, I didnt believe it either. What Lee Parks suggested doing, was relaxing the outside hand in a corner, so its barely gripping the handlebar, and to push with the inside hand ONLY to steer/lean the bike over.
HOLY CRAP! He was completely right. I'm not talking just a little bit, makes a 1/10th of a difference. I mean he was COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY on the money. I came into a 25mph turn on a road I like to test/learn my skills on, and I did as he said.Read more ›
I did manage to buy a book, "Total Control" by Lee Parks. This book, is (in my humble opinon), the greatest motorcycle instruction book since the start of motorcycle instruction books. Very clear, very precise anaologies to things that everyone deals with in real life, to help one better understand the art that is, motorcycling. One line that I read in the book struck me as something that I needed to do. "If you have not practiced riding with a bit of fear, you will panic when presented with the unexpected." For awhile, I was riding fast, but I wasnt really afraid of riding. I wasnt afraid of sharp corners or this and that, because I usually took them at speeds only slightly above average. I didnt have any fear. I need to work on riding with a bit of fear, so instead of letting the fear CONTROL me in a situation where I need my wits, not my reactions, I can let the fear flow through me, and use the wits.
I also learned about steering my motorcycle more efficently. The author talked about how most people try to steer with both hands around corners, and while they believe that their helping the motorcycle, in reality, their hands are actually fighting eachother sub-conciously. I know, I didnt believe it either. What Lee Parks suggested doing, was relaxing the outside hand in a corner, so its barely gripping the handlebar, and to push with the inside hand ONLY to steer/lean the bike over.
HOLY CRAP! He was completely right. I'm not talking just a little bit, makes a 1/10th of a difference. I mean he was COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY on the money. I came into a 25mph turn on a road I like to test/learn my skills on, and I did as he said.Read more ›
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By
Guillermo Castaño Acevedo
on February 15, 2006
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
This is simply an excellent book. The techiques it presents for turning, braking, U-turns, driving with pigeons and so on are really excellent and works perfectly.
The initial chapters explaining the physics involved in driving are explained in order to be understood for everyone but at the same time are very technical and deep. You actually understand how your bike works.
It has a lot of illustrations and photos that help a lot the examples. A lot of them show the Correct and Incorrect way to do some particular exercise, so you can check both easily.
The book shows a lot of Sport bikes on their pictures, but it's not written only for sport bikes. The techniques and explanations works with any kind of bike.
My only warning: I don't think this is a good book for total novices, it's better to have some mileage before you read it.
But it certainly is an EXCELLENT book for any rider with a couple of months of experience.
The initial chapters explaining the physics involved in driving are explained in order to be understood for everyone but at the same time are very technical and deep. You actually understand how your bike works.
It has a lot of illustrations and photos that help a lot the examples. A lot of them show the Correct and Incorrect way to do some particular exercise, so you can check both easily.
The book shows a lot of Sport bikes on their pictures, but it's not written only for sport bikes. The techniques and explanations works with any kind of bike.
My only warning: I don't think this is a good book for total novices, it's better to have some mileage before you read it.
But it certainly is an EXCELLENT book for any rider with a couple of months of experience.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Customer Images
Most Recent Customer Reviews
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
