Topic: Lighter side of ZAMM- A study of the trip

[MCRider]

Hello:
There has been a discussion of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) here: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=46479.0 opened by "seven".

Lets keep this thread to a wintertime discussion of the trip itself. Now many of us have made similar or even more spectacular trips than this. But few have been as documented and examined. maybe this will inspire us to new trips and spark memories of old.

While we beat up the book, plus and cons, we can all agree there was not enough about the trip, the title sucked us in, and the content kept some of us, and turned others off. But the trip was quite something. Never in the book is it disclosed what he rode, though he spoke of it quite often. It was a 1964 Honda CB77 Super Hawk. Honda used the hawk name over several times since then.
http://zamm.home.att.net/Bike.htm
At the bottom of the link is John Sutherlands BMW.

[MCRider]

Travelogue: Click on the days at the top to progress. Scroll to the bottom of the map for commentary. Check out the LINKS linkat the bottom of the first page.
http://zamm.home.att.net/Contents.htm

[MCRider]

The very first blue line of this link is the 12 pictures Pirsig took of the trip. Scroll to the bottom of each for commentary and additional links.

http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/gallery/albums.php

Chris is usually smiling. In a recent interview 2006, Pirsig was asked and answers that Chris didn't like the book. He said Chris said he had a great time on the trip and he didn't see it the way his dad did at all.  Admittedly, Pirsig wrote the book after 20 electroshock therapy treatments, enough to melt many people, and he still struggled with mental illness. We'll never know.

The sections following the first are more pictures taken of the route, but in recent times.