A great book. When I was younger and into bikes I tried Harleys. The newer bikes were, sorry to say, clunky machines. Like Thompson I hated Japanese bikes (with the sole exception of the Kawasaki 650 single). So I ended up following Thompson's paths to British bikes, and ended up getting a Norton Commando. Yeah, high maintenance, but an awesome machine with a little bit of tweaking. The perfect ride, until I got too old, and refused to ride a BMW geezer machine...
Love HST, but the idea that bike riders ride defensivly and cars are out to kill them is laughable. Just the other day I almost killed a biker that decided to undercut me on the motorway about 5 seconds after I started indicating I was changing lanes. He was extremely lucky I follow the mirror, sygnal, manouver, then mirror again rule or he'd have been toast.