These Are Not Inspirational Books.
I do not write to motivate you. I write because 150,000 km happened and someone had to put it on paper. If you want a book that tells you to "follow your dreams" — wrong address. If you want to know what it actually feels like to stand naked, injured and sick above a puddle of blood in a Siberian bus stop while a typhoon is coming — read on.
10 Inch Tales
150,000 km. 45 Countries. One Collection of Stories Nobody Asked For. Published April 2025 · DE · EN · ESThis is not a travel diary. It is not a bucket list. It is what happens when you spend eleven years on a classic Vespa and write down the parts that matter — the bizarre, the mechanical, the human, and the quietly beautiful.
The night in Kansas when a tornado dissolved a few miles from me and knocked out my lights. The mechanic in Istanbul who saved the world trip with a 40 year old rusty cylinder, a piston with a slightly domed piston crown and a handshake. The Siberian truck stop toilet I will never forget. The moment at 4:30am on Nordkapp when nobody was there except fog and cold and the exact feeling of being exactly where you are supposed to be.
No AI. No ghostwriter. No filter.
Out of Office
A Novel. Based on Real Events. Embarrassingly Close to the Truth. Published February 2026 · DE · EN · ES"No good story ever started with a man sitting in his ergonomic office chair drinking a cup of fennel tea."
Kai has a good job. A sensible car. A life that looks fine from the outside and feels like slow suffocation from the inside. When a cryptic final message from his dead friend Miguel arrives, he does the only logical thing: he gets on a rusted Spanish Vespa and rides into the sun.
What follows is a road trip through mechanical disasters, cultural misunderstandings, and the gradual, uncomfortable realisation that the life you escaped was the one you built yourself.
Based on real tours. Real breakdowns. Real moments of wondering what on earth you are doing and then doing it anyway.
No AI. No ghostwriter. No filter.
Vespaseo Ibérico
By Martina Gödert · The Same Trip. A Completely Different Story.6,390 km around the Iberian Peninsula. Markus drove. Martina watched, suffered, laughed, and wrote it all down from the pillion seat. Frequently funnier than the version Markus would tell you.
Buy on AmazonComing Soon
3,600 km from Portugal to Germany on a Piaggio Ape 50 forgotten on a farm for 15 years. No brakes. Top speed 48 km/h. One very confused border guard in Switzerland.
The complete account of the fastest documented solo Vespa circumnavigation. 27,113 km. 18 countries. 57 mechanical failures. One dislocated collarbone. No support team.
Still reading? Good. Now stop reading here and get your hands on a real book.
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Inch Tales is available in German (10 Zoll Geschichten) and Spanish (Anécdotas de 10 Pulgadas). Out of Office is available in German and Spanish. More languages are planned.
No. Not in writing, not in editing, only in translation. The Spanish translation of 10 Inch Tales was done with the help of Nacho Panero Gonzalez. Martina Gödert pushed the project over the finish line after years of procrastination.
At live events — Vespa meetings, speaker appearances and tours. Follow on Instagram for upcoming events.
All Vespa Adventures · About Markus André Mayer · Speaker & Keynotes