Travel writer Ted Simon circumnavigated the globe in the 1970s on a Triumph Tiger 100, riding across 45 countries, a story he tells in Jupiter’s Travels.īut perhaps the most influential book on motorcycle travel is Pirsig’s Zen, published in 1974. The practicality of a motorcycle-a small and light vehicle with low fuel consumption and an easily accessible and simple engine-naturally appealed to many of the adventurous travelers of the 20th century.Ĭhe Guevara famously developed many of his revolutionary ideas while on a motorcycle trip across South America in 1952, riding a 1939 Norton named La Poderosa II, or “The Mighty One II,” as chronicled in the The Motorcycle Diaries. The motorcycle as a mode of long-distance transportation has a certain aura surrounding it, rooted in the simple and versatile bikes developed for soldiers during the two world wars.
A manuscript copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a signed first edition of the book are also part of the donation. The cycle was previously stored in the family’s garage and was recently restored to riding condition. Pirsig, along with the leather jacket, maps and other gear from the ride.
The 1966 Honda Super Hawk ridden by writer Robert Pirsig when he took the trip that inspired the book of travel and philosophy, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, was donated to the museum by Pirsig’s widow Wendy K. One of the most famous vehicles in literature is coming to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
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