Both of the above are little quips from the author in his own short introduction to the book - his main point is that nobody should confuse the book with any work on Zen Buddhism. I just remembered these lines from the book's intro reading it many years ago, The line about motorcycles is him just being modest - he knows how to fix his bike, this does feature in the book.

It is a philosophy and adventure book, not about Zen, but filled with many of the author's own unique ideas. He studied Eastern religions and they do inform some of his ideas, which he combines with Western thought in an interesting way. It's off-beat, but I personally found it to be pretty inspiring and would definitely recommend reading it for anyone interested in philosophy.