Mel Stern’s days as a top-level motorcycle trials rider are over. He has built a successful motorcycle dealership and is determined for his family to make an impression amongst his affluent middle-class neighbours who are colonizing the country village where he lives. Mel wants his young daughters to ride ponies and have the things that his wife, Sheila, aspired to but couldn’t afford as a teenager. He comes to wish that perhaps he had chosen a different career path, something that his class-conscious circle of friends and acquaintances could admire rather than pity.

But somehow Mel can’t replace the thrill he used to find in competition. He is envious of his motorcycle riding protégé Shaun and his successes. He longs for a son who he can mentor and guide to national victories to match Shaun’s achievements. Mel’s continuing dreams of glory and his ruthless competitive streak lead to a series of contradictory life choices that become increasingly self-destructive.

Spin-Down is a new twist on the classic story of the adventurer who won’t settle for the comfortable life but keeps striving towards some ephemeral concept of recognition and respect.

Geoff Ingram

Geoff is a keen motorcyclist and observer of human nature. Spin-Down is a first novel. Geoff is married with three grown up children and lives with his wife in the Cotswolds.