Great reading for an old motorcyclist who did not keep up with the times. Things are different from 25 years ago and the messages were simple to get and practice. The goal of a safer and smarter rider was laid out in a very straightforward manner and appears attainable. I am a more confident and safer rider now that adds to my enjoyment to my Sunday rides on my fav Honda 650Cx.

I got this bike to expand my knowledge of motorcycling. I've been riding for 6 months, now, and have taken 2 closed-course skills classes (MSF Basic and Experienced course), but now winter is approaching and I'm likely to ride less but wanted to do something to keep the skills and mindset fresh.

This book fits the bill quite well. The book targets the social rider or commuter, and describes the skill set and mindset that someone commuting to work, touring, etc. will need, and touches on various riding situations that you'll need to know how to address -- curves, animals, bad weather, wind, etc.

I think it's a great all-around motorcycle book and will give me something to digest this winter before hopping back on next Spring.

This is a good must read book for every motorcyclist newbie or seasoned, who loves to ride and would like to live to tell the tales. It has given me fabulous insights to handling the bike, leaning through corners and very good tips to ride safe. However, in India, where most of you westerners would have small heart attacks just riding around in cars, the tips and lessons on road and traffic is all but irrelevant. Here sharing the same lane with someone is the accepted thing. Still a good book and a must read for all

This book, which is referenced and applauded by every other motorcycle instruction resource, lives up to all expectations. For the beginner it should be considered their two-wheel bible. More experienced riders can benefit by gaining insights before riding off into unfamiliar environments: the urban rider crossing a high mountain pass for the first time or what the farmer can expect passing through the desert. Anyone considering a trek across country should make reading this book part of their preparations. Think safety! Keep the Ride Alive!

I just bought a new motorcycle after about 18 years out of the saddle and decided I needed to brush up on some riding tactics. I bought "Proficient Motorcycle" by David Hough to give me the refresher I needed.

The book itself is solid stock, with nice thick high quality gloss paper. The cover is even thicker paper that folds inward at the edges to prevent wear as you thumb through the pages. The binding is glued and threaded with fourteen strong stiches... high quality all around.

But wait... do you like sticky gooey residue all over the back cover of your books? No, you say? Well, you may be a little disappointed then. The "Free 144 Bonus Pages" is actually a CD-ROM attached to a plastic holder on the back of the book. The CD has a huge yellow warning sticker on it, "If you break this seal you cannot return the book". Ok fine. The problems start when you go to "break the seal". You have to literally destroy the plastic sleeve to get the CD out, which requires you to pull it from the back paper cover. This will rip some of the back cover off with it. And now there is a sticky adhesive mess all over the back cover that will stick to the back page when you shut it. I had to put tape all over the back cover in order to "seal in" all the adhesive residue from the advertisement CD.

And that's what the "144 bonus pages" are... advertisement for the Motorcycle Consumer News magazine. You get three old issues with plenty of oppurtunities to subscribe. They should have left this out, no one want this CD and it destroys the book cover.

So, a little worse for the wear, I cracked open the book and read it from cover to cover.

The information contained was useful and enjoyable to read. But the "enjoyable to read" part actually has an expense to it. The motorcyle lingo and the off-the-cuff casual nature will put you at ease, but when this style sours into heavy sarcasm, it can be confusing.

For example, on page 38 shows a photograph of a couple on a motorcyle wearing the lid-style helmets. Perfectly legal and popular where I live. The caption says, "You don't really need a real helmet if you are clever enough to avoid crashes." Yes, pretty obvious sarcasm but possible misleading.

There is other questionable language in the text also. Sometimes Hough will refer to crash victims as "road stains". That's always tacky, regardless of context. On more than one occasion he refers to scruffy bikers that like to wear black leather with metal studs as "terrorists" and at other times as "biker trash". This is type of language is not funny and not necessary.

Those negatives aside, however, I really enjoyed the writing style. Hypothetical characters like "Interstate Al" and "Biker Bob" are not only enjoyable to read about, but made me think of their situations when I was out on the road. This is a very effective teaching tool that I found enjoyable and informative.

Overall, I think this book is worth the money. The information is very valuable and it is presented in a enjoyable way. I am without a doubt a better rider after reading "Proficient Motorcycling". I am even thinking about buying Hough's next installment, "More Proficient Motorcycling". I may have pointed out a few negatives about the presentation here, but I am happy I bought and read this book, and my overall impressions are positive.

I just bought a new motorcycle after about 18 years out of the saddle and decided I needed to brush up on some riding tactics. I bought "Proficient Motorcycle" by David Hough to give me the refresher I needed.

The book itself is solid stock, with nice thick high quality gloss paper. The cover is even thicker paper that folds inward at the edges to prevent wear as you thumb through the pages. The binding is glued and threaded with fourteen strong stiches... high quality all around.

But wait... do you like sticky gooey residue all over the back cover of your books? No, you say? Well, you may be a little disappointed then. The "Free 144 Bonus Pages" is actually a CD-ROM attached to a plastic holder on the back of the book. The CD has a huge yellow warning sticker on it, "If you break this seal you cannot return the book". Ok fine. The problems start when you go to "break the seal". You have to literally destroy the plastic sleeve to get the CD out, which requires you to pull it from the back paper cover. This will rip some of the back cover off with it. And now there is a sticky adhesive mess all over the back cover that will stick to the back page when you shut it. I had to put tape all over the back cover in order to "seal in" all the adhesive residue from the advertisement CD.

And that's what the "144 bonus pages" are... advertisement for the Motorcycle Consumer News magazine. You get three old issues with plenty of oppurtunities to subscribe. They should have left this out, no one want this CD and it destroys the book cover.

So, a little worse for the wear, I cracked open the book and read it from cover to cover.

The information contained was useful and enjoyable to read. But the "enjoyable to read" part actually has an expense to it. The motorcyle lingo and the off-the-cuff casual nature will put you at ease, but when this style sours into heavy sarcasm, it can be confusing.

For example, on page 38 shows a photograph of a couple on a motorcyle wearing the lid-style helmets. Perfectly legal and popular where I live. The caption says, "You don't really need a real helmet if you are clever enough to avoid crashes." Yes, pretty obvious sarcasm but possible misleading.

There is other questionable language in the text also. Sometimes Hough will refer to crash victims as "road stains". That's always tacky, regardless of context.

Those negatives aside, however, I really enjoyed the writing style. Hypothetical characters like "Interstate Al" and "Biker Bob" are not only enjoyable to read about, but made me think of their situations when I was out on the road. This is a very effective teaching tool that I found enjoyable and informative.

Overall, I think this book is worth the money. The information is very valuable and it is presented in a enjoyable way. I am without a doubt a better rider after reading "Proficient Motorcycling". I am even thinking about buying Hough's next installment, "More Proficient Motorcycling". I may have pointed out a few negatives about the presentation here, but I am happy I bought and read this book, and my overall impressions are positive.

This book is essential reading for the new biker. If you have not already figured it out, this book is the bible for motorcycle safety.

You definitely will benefit the most if you already have some riding experience, otherwise is too advance and technical. Also, a new edition should include better and more detailed drawings

This book is a great read and a good reference book for anyone that wants to improve their riding skills on a motorcycle. The author is very knowledgable and goes into great details about every subject dealing with riding. I would recommend this book to everyone.

as predicted by its reputation, a very good, thorough, and practical read. anyone can ride in a straight line. this book gives good advice about hazards, mindset, handling curves, and slow speed control, and more. very good, well worth it, good reference to revisit from time to time.

Any motorcyclist should have this one on the shelf. It expands on the basics taught in the MSF class, and provides some new insights. It won't teach you how to rip outrageous wheelies on your Ninja, but you'll come away a safer rider.

This is a well written book. David Hough explains all about the dynamics of a motorcycle, how it works, and so on. I like his prose, he keeps it from getting dry and boring. I read the whole book right before we went on a 3 day motorcycle trip. I have only been riding for 3 months and the book gave me good advice, made me more aware of what can happen, when, and why. Recommend every novice rider and even experienced returning riders read this book. You won't be disappointed.

"The service was excellent. Everything came as promised and in the condition promised. Wonderful job!"

After 30 years, the bug hit me and I bought a new crusier. Checked many sites for the best books out there, this one came highly recommended. It is a good book to refresh the basics and give you some simple exercises you can do to get the feel of the bike back. I will give it to my son to read too. I haven't taken the riding class yet, may, but not sure. One thing I learned from riding, better safe than sorry, speed will kill and the car wins every time. Ride safe and live long.

The book provides a lot of tips and useful information, a lot of it common sense and lot of it new knowledge, especially for a new rider. The only thing that holds it back from being a 5 star is the continuous lecturing on the dangers of motorcycling. The books starts off with the dangers with numbers and in almost every section, almost every paragraph it seems to continue the rant on the dangers. Its to the point that you just almost want to stop reading it because of the danger of a paper cut when you turn the page. But, in the end more knowledge about riding is better and this is a book that ties together information with stats, and reinforces good riding techniques.

I highly recommend this book to all beginners and experienced riders. No the book is not going to teach you how to ride a bike or everything you need to know. But it may give you that 1 tip that saves your life. The author does assume you have some basic knowledge. So if you don't know what a fork is or where the shifter lever is on a bike the MSF book would be a better place to start. I am a complete newbie to bikes right now and I couldn't imagine going to the streets without all the knowledge I gained from this book.

Highly recommended!

If you ride a motorcycle on the street, and you would like to know how to avoid accidents and control the motorcycle better in turns and braking, poor driving conditions like rain or gravel, how to lean, etc, this is the best book for you! Easy to understand with great pictures and even a cd!

I ordered this book and Motorcycling Excellence, and i prefer the latter. For a beginner, Motorcycling Excellence is a much more thorough, current, and easily readable book.

With that said, Proficient Motorcycling is not a bad book either. David Hough is an expert rider with decades of experience under his belt.
3 out 5 stars from me.

There really is a lot of helpful information in the book. I had previously purchased a basics book that was mainly big pictures so I was pleasantly surprised when I received this book and it took me more then a day to go through. I would say it's a must have if your looking to hone your skills.

As a new motorcycle rider, and taking courses to be safe, this book is a good guidebook to reminding me of what Not to do and What to do while riding. I highly recommend this book to riders of all experience levels.

I am a beginner and this book was very helpful. Stressed the coutner steering method quite a bit much but over all this was a great read.

I have learned more skills from this book, recommend every riders should read it before riding.