Hi. My name is Mark Gardiner. My column, Backmarker, first started appearing on the old Road Racer X web site in 2005. When that site went dark a few years ago, I was lucky to have Motorcycle-USA.com offer to pick it up. New Backmarker columns appear on Motorcycle-USA.com on the first and third Thursdays of every month. I also write the 'Classic America' column in the U.K. magazine Classic Bike.
In 2002, I quit my job, sold everything I owned, and moved to the Isle of Man to compete in the TT. My memoir of that experience, Riding Man, is now in development as a feature film at Escape Artists. The screenplay's being written by Skip Woods. There's also a nice documentary film about that period in my life, called One Man's Island.
When I got back from the Isle of Man, I worked as a Senior Editor at Motorcyclist. My feature stories have appeared in virtually every major English-language motorcycle magazine.
On Motorcycles: The Best of Backmarker is a compilation of the best columns and features I've written since the mid-'90s. (Note the apostrophe; I mean, the 1990s, not since I was in my mid-90s.)
My other motorcycle books:
- Mark Gardiner's Bathroom Book of Motorcycle Trivia
- Mastery of Speed: BMW Racing Motorcycles (with co-author Laurel Allen)
- Classic Motorcycles (out of print)
Non-motorcycle books:
- Year of the Raven
- Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's
