Cycling books.

[AndyRM]

How I Won the Yellow Jersey (Ned Boulting) is also a great read.

@infinityleague - I've got all the books I've mentioned kicking around. Drop me a PM if you'd like them and I'll send them your way.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Loads of good ones above, Kimmage, Tim Moore, Matt Seaton, Fignon.

The majority of sports autobiographies I find to be terrible and consist of ghost written slop and a bit of score settling (and now we come to Liars ...). But there are some genuinely good ones.

Nicole Cooke's The Breakaway is very good as is Graeme Obree's Flying Scotsman.

 

[stephec]

Not sure i follow your line of thought on that one but ....
View attachment 791430

Maybe hatchet's not quite the right word, but I love the way he wasn't frightened off by threats of legal action and didn't hold back when no one else seemed to be standing up to Armstrong.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Japanese Steel.

a great book for those who didn’t realize that the Japanese really did build bikes that were a good as the best in the world in the seventies and eighties.

bike porn

 

[Dogtrousers]

Japanese Steel.

a great book for those who didn’t realize that the Japanese really did build bikes that were a good as the best in the world in the seventies and eighties.

bike porn

In that vein: The Dancing Chain (Frank J Berto). An incredibly detailed history of the derailleur and bicycle gearing in general.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

In that vein: The Dancing Chain (Frank J Berto). An incredibly detailed history of the derailleur and bicycle gearing in general.

I found that book rambled and repeated itself far too often. A good reference but a bad read. I wanted my money back.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I found that book rambled and repeated itself far too often. A good reference but a bad read. I wanted my money back.

I never tried to read it end to end TBH

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

I never tried to read it end to end TBH

Bad idea. Don’t bother, I found it a slog.

and I enjoyed War and Peace.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Japanese Steel. Very Good book! Great read, lots of beautiful bikes pictured which verge on porn.

Jan Heine’s monster book on Rene Herse. Excellent read, lots of old catalogue shots and line drawing from the forties and fifties. Costs an arm and a leg and perhaps a left nut, but is worth at least the arm and the leg…

I’ve also read Jan Heine’s book on the “All Road Bike” and found it wanting, I don’t have a picture of it because I threw it out, which I guess says it all.

Below… another great read on the history of cycling…lots of shots of really old bikes, most of which I now want.