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Obsessions Die Hard: Motorcycling the Pan American Highway's Jungle Gap | 
 enlarge | Author: Ed Culberson
Publisher: Whitehorse Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $8.62
You Save: $11.33 (57%)
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 480349
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 188431306X
Dewey Decimal Number: 918.0439
EAN: 9781884313066
ASIN: 188431306X
Publication Date: September 1, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Obsessions Die Hard chronicles Culberson's determination to fulfill his dream. Ever since he was a teenager he had a fascination with the Pan American Highway System, which runs the length of North and South America. In his early forties, he acquired another passion--motorcycling. It was only natural that he would merge the two. Culberson, then a retired U.S. Army officer, wanted to ride his motorcycle along the Pan American Highway's entire route between Alaska and Argentina, but in eastern Panama and western Colombia's Darien region the road is broken by an 80-mile gap filled with jungles, rain forests, rivers, and swamps, forcing travelers to detour around it by boat or plane. The area is so inhospitable and unexplored that a myth about its impenetrability has evolved over the centuries, and a curse aimed at Darien trespassers shrouds the region. But the Darien Gap, known as "el tapon del Darien"--the Stopper, didn't stop Culberson's dream. It turned it into an obsession. Culberson set his sights on riding Amigo, his BMW R80 G/S, the entire length of the Pan American Highway--including the Darien Gap, a feat never before accomplished by a motorcyclist. He suffers failure before meeting success, encountering killer bees, arrest by a corrupt law officer, cycling injuries and back-breaking labor to get himself and his motorcycle through the torturous jungles and swamps. A story of one man's struggle with his own obsession, Obsessions Die Hard is an amazing tale of human endurance and perseverance in the face of staggering obstacles. The new edition of this classic adventure tale includes an updated Epilogue written by Culberson shortly before his death, and a new Conclusion by writer and motorcyclist Bob Higdon.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great book! April 29, 2007
R. Labat (Louisiana)
He is the Tom Sawer of Motorcycling!!! pulling and riding a bike thru the Jungle! What a man! Great Adventure
 Only for the hard core March 21, 2005
example mark twain (New York, NY United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'll read anything about motorcycle travel but I would skip this if that doesn't sound like you. Culberson writes like you might expect a military man to. Fairly dry, straightforward and lacking in stylistic prose. It's not really a bad thing since you probably don't care if what you want to hear is the story of motorcycle adventure.
Personally I ended up a bit disappointed in the actual way in which the trip was done - it almost felt like cheating to me. Being towed halfway through the 80 mile Gap and then going home to rest and repair the bike only to return the following year to complete towing the bike seems like saying you ran a marathon 26 one mile runs a day. He did do it though so hat's off to him. I think the time the book was written was the beginning of the whole "adventure traveler" thing so you'll read this now wondering why the hell he didn't take a bike 200lbs lighter. Oh well.
More about jungle survival than motorcycling August 21, 2000
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
For me the story really bogged down when he got into the jungle. Got tired of reading about winching the bike up the hill then winching it down the next one, getting caught in bushes, slipping and sliding, etc. If you are into extreme physical effort you might enjoy this.
A great book that makes you feel like you are with him! November 20, 1999
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I think this is a story that an adventurist will find gripping, he showed that life is about taking risks and living it to the fullest!
For the die-hard motorcycling adventurer. November 5, 1997
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
This book definitely is not for the average reader, or traveler. It is an account of one man's life-long obsession to ride a motorcycle through the most impenetrable land mass on the face of the planet. If you have no interest in what endurance motorcycle riders call "adventure touring," skip Mr. Culberson's book. But if you ride, and sometimes ride hard and long, or off-road, and have wondered what it might be like to ride where no man has gone before, you will find this both a riveting adventure story and a practical guide to this exotic and dangerous sport. I myself am a motorcycle adventurer (though definitely not of Ed's stature), author, editor and former friend of Ed Culberson. Ed passed away recently, and the bike he made this monumental journey on, a BMW GS he named "Amigo," now sits in a place of honor in the museum at the BMW manufacturing plant in Greenville, South Carolina. His account of his two-wheeled adventures have inspired many other motorcyclists to follow their dreams, and a national award for the betterment of the sport of motorcycling has been renamed the Ed Culberson Memorial Award in his honor.
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