Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance begins as a narrative account of a motorcycle trip that author Robert Pirsig took with his son Chris. It quickly becomes much more than a travel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is a book by Robert M. Pirsig first published in 1974. It is a work of fictionalized autobiography and the first of Pirsig's texts in which he explores his concept of Quality . Zen has been celebrated as a smart discussion of the issue--with the motorcycle as the central example. "Although motorcycle riding is romantic," Pirsig writes, "motorcycle maintenance is purely classic." As millions have discovered, the motorcycle is far more than technological fluff. pI3OG.