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What If I Had Never Tried It: The Autobiography |  | Author: Valentino Rossi
Publisher: Motorbooks
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $8.55
as of 11/21/2009 09:41 EST details
You Save: $16.40 (66%)
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Seller: thrift_books
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 100830
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 0760326827
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.75092
EAN: 9780760326824
ASIN: 0760326827
Publication Date: April 9, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
What If I had Never Tried It is the first autobiography of arguably the world's greatest motorcycle road racing champion, Valentino Rossi. Certainly he is the greatest in modern times and similarly the best loved. This is the official, personal story: fast paced yet insightful. Rossi’s record in the motorcycle road racing World Championship is supreme. First in the ultra-competitive 125 class starting in 1996; then in the 250 class only to graduate shortly thereafter to the big league of the 500s. In 2002 the premier class switched direction moving from 500 cc two-strokes to 990 cc four-strokes from then on to be known as MotoGP. Rossi rides for Honda and wins. He wins on a Honda the next year and then switches to Yamaha, to every race fans’ surprise, and wins against all odds. He wins again in 2005. No one is close. No one is faster. And all at speeds which approach 200 mph. Both on and off-track, on the ubiquitous TV screen or walking in the street, Rossi is idolized as though he were a rock star. From his native Italy to California, from Philips Island to Laguna Seca, he has raised the limits, reshaped the frontiers of the sport and set new trends. Rossi has become the 21st Century face of motorcycle road racing. Yet he remains faithful to himself—one moment the intelligent, articulate interviewee; the next a jokester; the next the single-minded, focused, strategic racer with split-second skills the rest of us can only dream of. |
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
 Vale the way he is? July 5, 2009
Rjm Theunens (Belgium)
You will certainly like this book if you're a Vale fan and know who he is and for what he stands. Those looking for indepth an technical analysis of motorcycle racing will be disappointed. Vale clearly has an ego, but the way how he expresses his views (and of course his phenomenal talent as a motorcycle racer) makes this book fun to read.
Great candid autobiography...Rossi let's us in his head! January 11, 2009
Carlo Malana (Texas, USA)
I don't read too many autobiography's but really wanted to get an insight into the head of probably the greatest motorcycle racer of all time (and his career isn't over yet!) The book delivers and lets the reader understand a little bit of how Vale thinks, not only about racing and motorcycles, but about life in general. Excellent read!
My Review November 26, 2008
Brandon S. Miller (Adamstown, Pa.)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This Autobiography of Valentino opens up a whole new light on how I view him. He tells of hardships and fun times throughout his life up until 2005. I understand this great racer better now and can appreciate him more thoroughly as a person.
 Excellent insight into a humble kids' life October 16, 2008
Nicholas Thompson (Chicago, IL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
You'd think that a guy who has constantly lived in the limelight and fame of championship motorcycle racing would have an ego a mile wide. But its interesting to read about what really drives Valentino to be the rider he is.
He does it for the purity of riding. Proving he can ride the wheels off any motorcycle, regardless of manufacturer. And most importantly, he conveys the importance of the race team itself, not the enterprise funding it (though both are important).
Buy this with the "Faster" DVD and you'll really get an inside glimpse of someone extremely gifted.
The book is well written and really gives you a ringside seat to many parts of his life both recent and past. You want to know what drives a champion rider to defect while on top of the premier Honda racebike (while he's winning the championship)? Read on. You'll understand and you'll agree with his decision. It really lets you know the richness of his riding soul. Fame and fortune are there, sure, but unlike some of his past rivals, he's not driven by those forces. Humor is abound as well. There were parts that had me laughing uncontrollably while on a long airplane flight.
Thanks, Valentino. I hope to read a sequel after another decade of life experiences.
 A Mixed Bag for Rossi fans July 30, 2008
Justarasta (Coral Gables, FL United States)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you are a Vale Rossi fan you may not want to read this book as after you read it you may no longer be a fan.
The book is not well written. It skips and the time and subject jumps it takes are wholly nonsensical. Some of the content is plainly repeated and some portions seem to be stuck in just to make page limits. It should make light and speedy reading but were I not stuck at LGA for six hours I might not have ever made it through the book as there is nothing compelling about it.
I could almost deal with that but Rossi, who has long been one of my heros, really comes across as a jerk. He calls his dad and mom by their first names as if they really are not related to him. He regales us with his exploits terrorizing other motorists in his home city. He freely admits to grossly mistreating people - and especially the Japanese - for his own entertainment. He dotes on his tribe which seems to exist only to compensate for his own lack of social comfort. Not once does he even allude to any romantic interest which makes you wonder about some stories told. All the other riders are wrong and he is always right no matter what the topic or corner. Even the one photo he has of Jeremy Burgess his crew chief has only Rossi in focus which is but one of many very egotistical points of the book.
In some respects I wish I had never read this book. I have in my son's room an autographed and framed photo of Rossi that he signed at Laguna Seca a few years ago. I loved the most recent race at Laguna Seca when he proved that he is really the world's best motorcycle racer and that he is not one to sit on his laurels. Having read this book I find it hard to reconcile the Rossi in my heart and now the Rossi I have in my mind.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
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