RideFast Aug2020

BOOK REVIEW: BY DONOVAN FOURIE
THE WISDOM
OF THE ROAD
GODS BY BORIS
MIHAILOVIC
Lockdown is a period of selfreflection,
self-improvement,
self-actualisation and running
away from self out of sheer
boredom. Donovan Fourie has
metaphorically left his bachelor,
Lego-filled world for some blissful
moments reading the new book
by famous Australian motorcycle
author Boris Mihailovic, and finds
that it annoys him.
I hate it when people are better than me
at stuff. More infuriatingly, the list of stuff
people do better than me is long: an MX rider
scrubbing a triple jump that I rolled over in
white-knuckled terror. A chisel-jawed jock
achieving lap times around Red Star I can’t
match. Someone who can solve complex
mathematical equations that I gaze upon
with gormless stupefaction. Anyone who
can tighten a bolt without their motorcycle
catching fire. Four-year-olds who can
catch a ball without knocking themselves
unconscious. The list goes on.
Generally, I’m rubbish at nearly
everything. The only island of grace in
my vast sea of ineptitude is my
ability to write; generally, people
reading my stories have some
vague idea of what I am going on
about, and I dare say that people
even find some of it enjoyable.
With this flimsy twig holding
my entire ego aloft, I then read
the words of Boris Mihailovic
and my grievances at somebody
being better than me reach
incandescent levels.
Boris is an Australian biker, and
when we say biker, we are not
talking about a Sons of Anarchy
patch and a three-year-old bike
with 2000km on the clock. He
was the president of an outlaw
club in the 80s, the sort that
had their photos up on police
station walls, and lived their
lives around motorcycles
accompanied by a fog of
booze, drugs, women and
brawling.
In his next life, he switched
from police chases to
journalism – as an article
writer, an editor and later
a book author. He has his
own website at www.
bikeme.tv and has written for
publications in Australia and
throughout.
Non-Australian readers
might be more familiar with
his satirical work at the Dear
George page on Facebook,
and more recently his Dear
MotoGP page.
Reading his road tests,
reports, anecdotes and satire
fuels enragements within
my soul that I did not know
existed. Beneath the bouts of
outward laughter at his written
wit, the inward me is sobbing
at the anguish of knowing that
my writing will never be that
good. Especially when we write
similar stories and I peruse his
writing with my own cussing
voice-over often questioning the
reasons I didn’t write it like that.
Previously, he has published
two books – the hilariouslynamed
My Mother Warned Me
About Blokes Like Me and At
the Altar of the Road Gods. Each
is a series of anecdotes about
Boris and friends’ mad-capped
adventures of biking, booze,
drugs, women, police and the
life of an outlaw biker. Featuring
prominently are the stories from
the “Green Pirate House”, a rundown
dwelling in Sydney that he
and his friends chose based more
on its spacious garage rather
than whether the windows had
glass in them or not.
The stories vary between
memories from starting his
biking life while in high school,
to moving through the world
of an outlaw biker and the jawdropping
tales that ensued, to
his later life as a motorcycle
journalist and the journeys that
inspired. Each story will resonate
78 RIDEFAST MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 RIDEFAST MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 79