Author Jay Hamilton’s Talk & Book Signing

As part of the continuing Local Author Series, Jay Hamilton will discuss his book How To Buy a Car Without Losing Your Shirt at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 19. The talk, at the Alachua County Library headquarters, is free and open to the public.

“When you walk into a car dealership to look for a car, who do you think has the advantage?” Hamilton asks. This book will tell you what to watch out for, and how the salesperson is trained to control the customer.

Hamilton was a freelance photojournalist specializing in motorsports through most of the 1970s. His work was published in national magazines, such as Cycle Guide and Modern Cycle, and in smaller publications.

He got into motorsports when his father gave him a Travis motorized bicycle after he obtained his driver’s license. That old Iver Johnson frame had been brazed several times because it could not stand the vibration of the Travis motor, which mounted on the front fork and drove the front wheel with a “stone” held against the tire by the weight of the motor. He had to climb a mile-high mountain to get to school, so he got a lot of exercise pushing the pedals fast enough to maintain 20-25 mph up that hill.

He then got a Honda CL360, which he still owns, along with a 1983 Honda Shadow 750 that he will proudly tell you is the bike which made Harley-Davidson cry “uncle.” They asked Uncle Sam to put a tariff on Japanese motorcycles over 700cc. A few years ago, Hamilton rode the Shadow 750 over 3000 miles to a class reunion.

He is also a geek — has a Samsung Tab S 8.4 (wifi only), an old Gateway wide-screen laptop, and a P4 Desktop he built from parts found online. He has several Calico cats, and he misses his Chocolate Lab pup that was stolen a few years ago. He had a color photo lab in his home back in the day, but now uses digital cameras and seriously wants one of those new Microsoft Lumia 950 phones from AT&T. He has an old Chrysler Town and Country van for general transportation and occasional sleeping quarters, and he still has an old Honda Wagovan. He says his home is “wherever I happen to be.” He stays in touch mostly over the Internet. He has a small travel trailer which stays in a campground, and the other vehicles are kept in a rented storage unit near his parents’ home.