I received this email from an Off The
Grid reader this weekend:
Hi Dan,
Just wanted to say your book
was a very good read. Glad that I purchased it. Thank you for all the effort of
writing it. Have any readers that are "Harley" fans mentioned that
they have 4 cycle engines not 2 cycle?
 |
| This is the type of electric motorcycle I wrote about in Off The Grid. |
In going back and looking at
the one Harley-Davidson mention in Off The Grid, I realized that he was right. H-D
did make some 2-stroke engines several decades ago, but I didn’t make the
two-cycle engine reference because I had some special insight. It was sloppy
research on my part.
There is just one section
pretty early in the book when Luke rides an electric motorcycle when he is in
Mill Creek (this is a bit in the future mind you.) Here’s what I wrote: “The motorcycle was remarkably quiet, except for the
government-mandated whirring noise it made under 10 miles an hour. The era of
thunderous Harley-Davidson’s with two-cycle gas engines, rattling the windows
of nearby houses was long gone. The economical, lightweight machines were a
favorite among commuters in big cities. With a range of more than 400 miles,
the bikes could be used for days without the need for a charge.”
The trouble is that Harley makes
four-cycle engines, except for some limited instances. My intention was to
contrast the quiet electric bike to a combustion engine with a noisy tailpipe,
but didn’t get the research right. It one of the things that independent writers
have to deal with - independent research. I could have taken the time during
the writing process to study-up, and who knows? Maybe I would have caught my
mistake. Unlikely though. I’d already moved on and had 94,000 more words to
write.
It’s always a question of researching
everything you write (and slowing down the creative process) or blowing through
it and hoping for the best. I did a bit of both in Off The Grid. In the grand
scheme of things, this error was not a showstopper, but I’d rather have avoided
it.
I’m thankful for the reader note, but
more thankful for the reader who said he enjoyed the book and glad my goofy error
didn’t turn him off.
