What are the absolutely essential basics of a cycle-buff's bookshelf? Here is my list:
1. Richard's Bicycle Book (1983 Edition), Richard Ballantine. This is the grandaddy. Richard Ballantine was the Apostle of the Bike Boom, and this was the Bible. Before Sheldon, before the internet. A mash-up of cycling history, personal recollection, advocacy, and workshop manual. Passionate and refreshingly un-PC in its intemperate style. RB taught me how to service a bottom bracket. More importantly, he nurtured a passion for all things bike. If you do vintage you need this book.
2. Bicycles & Tricycles: A Classic Treatise on Their Design and Construction, Archibald Sharp (1896). Most of the century that followed Sharp's work was spent forgetting, and then rediscovering as if a great breakthrough, the fundamental truths that he systematically describes.
3. The Rules, Velominati. From the sublime to the ridiculous; an instant classic. We all know its truth. I maintain a personal dispensation applies for anyone who took to the wheel before the Advent of the Prophet Merckx.
4. Bicycle, David Herlihy. The definitive (for now) history.
5. Around the World on a Bicycle, Thomas Stevens (1886). Main equipment was a high-wheeler and a revolver. Epic adventure of a type that can no longer be.
6. Cyclecraft, John Franklin. A Stationery Office publication explaining where the Highway Code gets it all wrong.
7. Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Cycling, Greg LeMond and Kent Gordis. As it says on the tin, by 'Le Man' himself.
8. Bicycling Science, David Gordon Wilson (2004). A bit dated now, but a fascinating compendium.
9. Fast After Fifty, Joe Friel (2015). Okay, so this just reflects where I'm at personally.
10. The Story of the Tour de France, Bill and Carol McGann. I swithered over this. Le Grand Boucle has become more of a distraction than a showcase for the real world of cycling. But this is so full of legendary exploits I forgive it.
Near misses? I haven't included any biographies, they are such a personal choice. I would probably highlight: Put Me Back On My Bike (Tom Simpson), In Search of Robert Millar, The Flying Scotsman (Graeme Obree), and Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike. But I'm sure others have different opinions.
1. Richard's Bicycle Book (1983 Edition), Richard Ballantine. This is the grandaddy. Richard Ballantine was the Apostle of the Bike Boom, and this was the Bible. Before Sheldon, before the internet. A mash-up of cycling history, personal recollection, advocacy, and workshop manual. Passionate and refreshingly un-PC in its intemperate style. RB taught me how to service a bottom bracket. More importantly, he nurtured a passion for all things bike. If you do vintage you need this book.
2. Bicycles & Tricycles: A Classic Treatise on Their Design and Construction, Archibald Sharp (1896). Most of the century that followed Sharp's work was spent forgetting, and then rediscovering as if a great breakthrough, the fundamental truths that he systematically describes.
3. The Rules, Velominati. From the sublime to the ridiculous; an instant classic. We all know its truth. I maintain a personal dispensation applies for anyone who took to the wheel before the Advent of the Prophet Merckx.
4. Bicycle, David Herlihy. The definitive (for now) history.
5. Around the World on a Bicycle, Thomas Stevens (1886). Main equipment was a high-wheeler and a revolver. Epic adventure of a type that can no longer be.
6. Cyclecraft, John Franklin. A Stationery Office publication explaining where the Highway Code gets it all wrong.
7. Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Cycling, Greg LeMond and Kent Gordis. As it says on the tin, by 'Le Man' himself.
8. Bicycling Science, David Gordon Wilson (2004). A bit dated now, but a fascinating compendium.
9. Fast After Fifty, Joe Friel (2015). Okay, so this just reflects where I'm at personally.
10. The Story of the Tour de France, Bill and Carol McGann. I swithered over this. Le Grand Boucle has become more of a distraction than a showcase for the real world of cycling. But this is so full of legendary exploits I forgive it.
Near misses? I haven't included any biographies, they are such a personal choice. I would probably highlight: Put Me Back On My Bike (Tom Simpson), In Search of Robert Millar, The Flying Scotsman (Graeme Obree), and Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike. But I'm sure others have different opinions.
. Along with Its All about The Bike.
