Bailey motocrossing in 1972.
 

Thomas P. Bailey (born in 1948) is an American writer. He has published material on a wide variety of topics including bicycling, motorcycling, cars, firearms, boating, boat design, commercial fishing and politics. His writings frequently appear with the credit “By Tom Bailey” rather than his full name.
 

Bailey was born in the Hudson Valley in New York, but spent the early years of his life living in Wurzburg, Bavaria while his father served in the U.S. Army. When the family returned to the US they settled in Nyack, NY and he attended public school there. At the age of eleven Bailey took a ride on a friend's motor scooter, loved the sensation of operating the machine and soon after acquired an old lightweight motorcycle of his own. When he was thirteen he obtained a professional motorcycle racing license and began racing throughout the Eastern US. At the time the minimum age for such a license was eighteen but according to Bailey, “Apparently some sort of inadvertent error was made when filling out the license application which resulted in the racing authorities mistakenly assuming that I was of the required age.” His career of a professional racer took a downward turn when shortly after turning fifteen he went through a growth spurt which resulted in a gain of six inches in height and 90 pounds in weight.
 

Bailey doing stand-on-the-tank wheelie
to demonstrate that age does not
necessarily bring wisdom in 2013.
 

Bailey completed high school at age 16 and immediately thereafter participated in an arctic expedition which collected oceanographic data in the far north under the auspices of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. After returning from the expedition Bailey began writing for motorcycle magazines. He was initially hired by Magnum Royal Communications, a division of Lancer books, as a contributing editor for Performance Cycles and Super Cycle magazines. In short order he became editor of High Performance Cycles magazine and Super Cycle. He then moved to Countywide Publications contributing to Motorcycle World, Cycle Illustrated and served as editor of Dirt Cycle magazine. In addition he also wrote for Mechanics Illustrated and a number of automotive, boat, gun and commercial fishing publications.
 

Bailey is now retired but continues to ride motorcycles in the mountains of the Hudson Valley and pursue his life philosophy of joy through stupidity.

Tom's video