Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Lanterne Rouge: the Last Man in the Tour de France (Book Review)

Lanterne Rouge: The Last Man in the Tour de FranceLanterne Rouge: The Last Man in the Tour de France by Max Leonard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I recommended this to a colleague who I know occasionally reads books about professional cycling, who surprised I had read it given that I had announced I had not watched any of the current Tour de France or read much about it.

Oh well. Some things don't necessarily make sense.

I have read at least a dozen different books on the TdF, some that are like this that coverage the entire history of the event and others that focus on a particular race or individual or team. Thanks I guess to doping and the present evolution of the bicycles themselves in directions that seem less and less like a bicycle I might ever have anything to do with my interest in the TdF races of the 21st century seem to have disappeared, but I can still enjoy reading about races of the 20th century.

The trick is to find a book that has some new or interesting angle, and with its focus on the "lanterne rouge," that is, the official last-place finisher of each of the Tour races. This theme makes it possible for the author to recount different anecdotes than those that have often appeared in more than one previous book.

I also came away feeling I had learned a few things about the TdF - for example, that the race at times officially recognized the last place finisher in some way but generally has preferred not to, and in some cases changed the official rules to discourage riders from attempting to place last. (At certain points the "lanterne rouge" rider would be invited to criterium races after the TdF that were much more lucrative than anything that might be offered to riders who places say next to last.) And I gained some additional understanding why some riders finish towards the end, such as sprinters and domestiques.

It was a good and easy read. If some of the material about the early (or late) races is not so interesting, the generally chronological organization makes it easy to skip over such things.

This is a small thing, but I am puzzled by the lack of any effort to edit books like this published by English authors for the U.S. market other than having a computer go through and replace "colour" with "color" and the like. Oh well.





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Thursday, July 30, 2015

Gironimo! Book Review

Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of ItalyGironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy by Tim Moore

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I got half way through this and put it down and didn't pick it up again. That was enough.

This is a sort of travel/cycling/cycling history book. The author, who has written a book of this sort before, was inspired by the terrible-horrible-very bad Giro of 1914 to attempt to recreate that race today with his own individual grand tour attempt. The somewhat unusual touch was to do this using a period-correct (mostly) bicycle that he purchased and rebuilt for this purpose.

Much of the first third of the book focuses on acquisition of the right (which turns out to be wrong) bicycle for the trip and getting it into condition to be ridden. This part was amusing even if a little silly sometimes and I enjoyed it. The author does have this shtick of putting himself down that gets a little tiring.

Once the book transitioned to the actual trip, I gradually became less and less interested. For this genre an author will move back and forth from describing his present travels to some historical anecdotes that somehow relate. The way that this was executed in this book didn't hold my interest.







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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Bike Mechanic: Tales from the Road and the Workshop (Book Review)

Bike Mechanic: Tales from the Road and the Workshop (Rouleur)Bike Mechanic: Tales from the Road and the Workshop by Rohan Dubash

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I saw a one-sentence description of this somewhere and thought it was a bike mechanic memoir, to complement the many "my days as a road cyclist" books available. "Bike Mechanic takes a look inside the daily life of the unsung heroes of the peloton, the bike techs who keep the stars riding." But in the book itself, one reads, "this book is a collection of stories with some tips and hits that we thought would be useful to amateur mechanics and road cycling enthusiasts alike. It certainly isn't comprehensive; there just wasn't space."

The book table of contents is as follows:

ON THE ROAD
The Daily Grind
Bike Washing
Team Car
The Truck
Team Garage

HARDWARE
Tools
Workshop

THE BIKE
Frame and Forks
Bottom Bracket
Wheels
Tires
Brakes
Drivetrain
Contact Points
Cleaning and Lubrication

The "On the Road" section is the closest to describing what being a professional road race bike mechanic is like, but this is only about a quarter of the 272 pages; the remainder are a somewhat whimsically selected look at the tools, workshop, and use of these tools for caring for high end road bikes.

Although a paperback, this is a nicely produced book with good paper and well reproduced photographs.

The two authors convey stories or instructions on how to carry out a mechanical procedure with equal skill. They know their subject and their writing is interesting to read as well.

The photography is by Taz Darling - some of her racing photography is available online. The book includes both action oriented photography and the kind of photography appropriate to a "how to" book; both types are executed well.

If there is a drawback, it is that there is so much in it and I still am not sure of the best way to attack a book like this. I read the first third or so in a conventional start to finish way, but eventually started jumping around.



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Saturday, October 4, 2014

Pro Cycling on $10 a Day by Phil Gaimon (Book Review)

Road Rash and Ramen Noodles: True Tales of Pro Cycling on $10 Dollars a DayRoad Rash and Ramen Noodles: True Tales of Pro Cycling on $10 Dollars a Day by Phil Gaimon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The first odd thing about this is that the print edition I read had the title that the Kindle edition carries, Pro Cycling on $10 a Day: From Fat Kid to Euro Pro. Both editions are from Velo Press. This seems . . . odd.

Gaimon blogs for VeloPress, for example this blog post. Having read a few of these, I was hoping for an enjoyable reading experience and I was a little let down by what I found, thus three stars.

I am a long time bike commuter and I have the usual too-many-bikes and even blog about cycling history myself but I realize that my interest in professional bicycle racing these days is pretty low. I was more interested a few years ago, but unlike those who were turned off by doping, I am turned off by the adoption of new bicycle technology and parts that are clearly I will never adopt, I suppose largely because of the cost but also because the marginal gains are so small. And yet I still look at VeloNews many days of the week and read a few stories and vaguely follow some of the big stage races. So one question is why I even read a book like this - I guess because bicycle racers are the most noticed practitioners of cycling in our society and because I have read a number of such books and enjoyed some of them in the past.

Phil Gaimon is now a rider for Garmon-Sharp. The book (memoir?) in an autobiographical account of what it took to get to that point, including a longer-than-usual amount of time in what amounts to the minor leagues of cycling before arriving in the big leagues.

Right at the start, Gaimon announces he is clean and that in this his book is different than the Tyler Hamilton etc body of work that has been published by former dopers. OK fine; the attempt at humor he used to announce this at the start of the book alerted me to a problem I would have throughout, which is that Gaimon has one sense of humor and I have a different one and most of what is recounted as humorous didn't seem very funny to me. He also boasts that "these words are mine" (that no ghostwriter helped) which is fine, but one wonders about the editing - the writing could have been better.

Aside from not being written by a doper, a major plus this book has over recent cyclist memoirs by Tyler Hamilton types is that it skips details on his upbringing and proceeds quickly to what most readers are interested in. So that is a plus.

The book has a "confession," a preface, and introduction, then eight chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are entirely chronological. Fine - but (I guess) because he is someone who has published lots of blog-length writing, each chapter is subdivided with headings in bold, like "stop and smell the ham sandwich" or "speeding gets you there faster." Since the book flows chronologically in its telling, there is no particular reason for this approach except to simplify transitions, or so it seems to me. Perhaps this is more about how I read than a valid criticism, but I feel the book would be a more pleasing read without this choppy approach. (A Dog in Hat, also published by VeloPress, demonstrates this is possible - it is a much more flowing read.)

VeloPress is a niche publisher of cycling books, but I got mine from a public library. Presumably the audience is expected to be people who know a fair amount of bicycle racing, particularly in the United States, because there was little background information provided if the reader didn't already know these things. (There is a silly glossary at the book that in several pages tells you more about Gaimon's sense of humor than anything else.) What I'm getting at is that readers who don't know something about professional bicycle racing and races in the U.S. may lack the context to understand some of this.

I pay far more attention to my local professional baseball team than I do to professional cycling and I have the strong impression that the baseball players often have rather juvenile ways of acting out to amuse themselves and others. I think Gaimon went further than necessary to provide examples of such behavior among his fellow cyclists.

Gaimon criticizes a few people quite directly by name; since most of these names didn't mean much to me this provided mild entertainment but I assume some of these people are pretty annoyed. He has a particular problem with Francisco Mancebo, to the extent that he ends up something like the villain - he is still muttering about him in the last pages of the book.

The highlight moments of the book are when he retells some of his race experiences in detail, when his unusual choice of words works in combination with his efforts to convey what is like for him in the moment. There are a lot of good moments like that in the book.

I hoped for more than I got, but it is good. You have to give Gaimon credit for trying.




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Saturday, September 6, 2014

Life is a Wheel: Love, Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America (Book Review)

Life is a Wheel: A Passage Across America by BicycleLife is a Wheel: A Passage Across America by Bicycle by Bruce Weber

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


A few years ago when I read the NYTimes more regularly, I saw an article by this fellow describing part of a bike trip he was making solo coast to coast across the US. I read it but for some reason I found it less than compelling and didn't bother to try to find other articles in the series.

More recently while trawling in an online catalog for new-ish books about cycling, I found a record for this book, which he created by reworking and expanding on the articles published in the Times. Somewhat oddly, the sub-title as reported in GoodReads isn't the same as what is on the book itself, which is "Love, Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America" (and not "A Passage Across America by Bicycle").

Keeping in mind that the GoodReads "my rating" reflects _my_ impression of the book and is not a more general (or generic) assessment of the book as others might find it, I gave it one star because I simply lost interest (as in completely - I stopped reading it at page 83). People have been writing books describing their long distance trips by bike since bikes were first invented (a particular favorite of mine is "Around the United States by Bicycle" published in 1906 - the authors managed to ride at least a bit in each of the states in the continental U.S.) and there is a kind of continuum from "more about the _bike_ trip" to "more about the _author_."


Around the United States by Bicycle (1906) - route map

When on page 83 of the print edition he starts in on "background" about one of his past girlfriends (not his current girlfriend at the time of the trip), that was the end for me. I felt like this was too much memoir about this fellow who had drawn me in with a promise to describe a bike trip that only appeared in the narrative from time to time and was not sufficient to hold my interest.



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Monday, September 1, 2014

Etape: The Untold Stories of the Tour de France's Defining Stages (Book Review)

EtapeEtape by Richard Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read Moore's "Slaying the Badger" about the competition between Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault (known as the Badger) - it was a compelling read about the Tour de France towards the end of the "pre-EPO" era.

Moore is a good writer, and this is a well thought out selection of stages. The use of EPO is not ignored but doesn't overwhelm the stories, either.

I didn't realize it before starting in, but the author did interviews with most of the key participants in the stages he described to prepare this book - this contributes considerably to the quality of the book.







View all my reviews of cycling books in Goodreads.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Bicycling Essential Road Bike Maintenance Handbook

Bicycling Essential Road Bike Maintenance HandbookBicycling Essential Road Bike Maintenance Handbook by Brian Fiske

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


So this is mostly a rant and not a review, I suppose - and not really justified (much) since I didn't waste my own money on buying it but looked over a copy from the public library (that however used my tax dollars to buy it . . . )

As noted in the Goodreads summary, this is an abbreviated version of a much longer reference book on road bike maintenance - this is supposed to be a version you can take with you.

Really?? (As they say ~) Is there someone who does that, carrying a how-to-repair-my-bike-book with them? I am doubtful. I think this is more an attempt to repurpose content already created for one container that Rodale sells into another one that costs little to create.

If you are going to spend money on a how-to-repair-a-bike book, you might as well get a good one - for me that would be the Park Tool Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair. It provides enough detail to avoid getting into too much trouble and one might even get some useful things done correctly.

Perhaps part of the problem is that I take a bike with a title like this to include "the essentials" but it is somewhat amazing how much obscure stuff is in this tiny book. 15 pages (of 166) on Shimano Di2 and Campagnolo EPS V2! When your book includes this much information on these, your audience is clearly people who don't know when to stop spending money.

And there are just random oddities - the photographs and line drawings are downsized versions, but for a how-to book, they then lose their usefulness in many cases. Dang.

Perhaps the most useful part of the book are the "seven rules of bike repair" on a page at the beginning of the book. The first rule is, "think safety first" that includes the advice to wear rubber gloves (to protect against solvents, as far as safety is concerned) but in all the (little) photographs, the hands are bare. "Do as I say, not as I do." Fantastic.


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Saturday, April 12, 2014

The Bike Deconstructed (Book Review)

The Bike Deconstructed: A Grand Tour of the Modern BicycleThe Bike Deconstructed: A Grand Tour of the Modern Bicycle by Richard Hallett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one of those rare books that I get from the public library that I will probably buy a copy of later. Overall it is well done and interesting for someone with a general interest in cycling and bicycle history but who is not an expert already.

As with many books, the "blurb" is disingenuous - it says, "Do you know the difference between a head tube and a headset?" [and several other such questions] If not, this is the perfect guide for you. This sort of over-inclusive enthusiasm from the publisher (one assumes) is amusing, but probably not accurate. At less than 200 pages and with half of most pages allocated to photographs and the occasional diagram, the author assumes a fair degree of interest and acquaintance with bicycles and is a few steps beyond an introduction that clarifies what's what.

The focus is on "road bikes" but as the author explains, more than just for road racing - "the road bike is a fast- and easy-running machine with ergonomics suitable for a wide range of riding conditions. More specifically, it is a lightweight bike equipped with dropped handlebars, narrow(ish) tires, and an efficient connection between feet and pedals."

There are seven chapters: Materials, Frameset, Wheels, Drivetrain, Brakes, Contact Points, and Accessories, along with a glossary, index and limited suggestions for other reading.

Because of the abbreviated length of the text, the author makes quite a few categorical statements about subjects where there are other opinions - that's just a consequence of this kind of approach. In 35 pages he says what he can about road bike drive trains but there is no comparison to the detail in something like The Dancing Chain at 400 pages.

This isn't a book that I have sat down and read from cover to cover - although I suppose you could. I page around, look at the photographs, read the captions, maybe read some of the text, learning a few things and being entertained. A caption for a photograph of a modern handlebar says, "The oversized bulge at the handlebar center point adds strength and stiffness where needed as well as increasing the surface area available for clamping." Oh - I wondered about that. An explanation of the benefits of the modern threadless headset over the more traditional threaded headset convinced me of the advantage of the modern approach (even as I continue to admire the elegance of the appearance of my 1982 road bike with a threaded headset).

The photograph credits are from dozens of sources, mostly manufacturers, which is surprising since they were processed to achieve a standard and pleasing appearance in the book.

A fun and entertaining book to have around.



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Sunday, March 16, 2014

The Elite Bicycle: A Portrait of the World's Greatest Bicycles (Book Review)

The Elite Bicycle: A Portrait of the World's Greatest BicyclesThe Elite Bicycle: A Portrait of the World's Greatest Bicycles by Gerard Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a coffee table book with lots of color photographs of bicycles and a fair amount of accompanying text to provide context, but I overall I was disappointed. (However since I checked this out of my public library, not terribly. I certainly wouldn't want to have spent money on this one.)

Published in the U.S. by VeloPress, this was originally published in the U.K. by another publisher. While there is some discussion of U.S. bike companies, the original audience was more European than American (or so it seems to me). And the change in the sub-title for the American edition somewhat confuses what the book is about, I think - originally it was "The Elite Bicycle: Portraits of great marques, makers and designers" and in the U.S. it is "The Elite Bicycle: A Portrait of the World's Greatest Bicycles." (Isn't the American version a tautology?)

I'm not sure the original British title is entirely consistent with the content of the book, but it is certainly more suggestive of the information in it the American one. As another person wrote, this isn't a book about bicycles so much as about bicycle parts, and there is something to that - but of course, a modern "elite bicycle" is in fact a collection of parts since there is no one company that creates both the frame+fork and then the group of parts that are bolted to that frame+fork. Also not clear from the (American) title and somewhat unexpected is the heavy emphasis on the manufacturing process rather than finished products.

I found it a little puzzling that the book doesn't present a particular kind of bicycle as this desirable "elite bicycle" clearly. This was not, as I was expecting from a book from VeloPress (not realizing that this was not their creation), oriented towards pure road racing bicycles but rather high end road bicycles for individuals who like really nice bikes but aren't going to be using them as professional cyclists. Most of the companies (those covered I have listed below) are frame builders that specialize in bespoke bicycles (i.e., built to the customer's specific requirements) but not all. And some high end bicycle parts-making companies are covered, such as Chris King and Sapim. A French family business that produces what are the world's best tubular racing tires is covered presumably because they are "the greatest" but very few of the bikes otherwise discussed would use such tires - and then, out of some sense of fairness perhaps, there is a description of Continental's tubular tire manufacturing process, too (which is in Europe, unlike most European company bicycle tires that are now made in Thailand or Taiwan, such as Michelin).

Probably the greatest shortcoming of the American title is that it suggests that the authors consider these particular bikes (and parts) to be the world's greatest. The British title is more clear that this is just about some examples of elite bicycles and not "the list." The book is very clearly (upon reading) intended as a sampling of the various ways such elite bikes are produced and not a collection of the very best.

The foreward by Sir Paul Smith sets a new standard in brevity. But they did get to put his name on cover. So there.

The Library of Congress catalog record for this book includes a list of the companies covered: Brooks -- Selle Italia -- Reynolds -- Columbus -- Cinelli -- Guru -- Chas Roberts -- Rourke -- Cyfac -- Alex Singer -- Fagg in -- Pegoretti -- Independent fabrication -- Richard Sachs -- Ben Serotta -- Condor/Paris -- Seven -- Dinucci -- Ira Ryan -- Tony Pereira -- Winter -- Spécialités TA -- Sapim -- Chris King -- Royce -- Mavic -- FMB -- Continental -- Time -- Contacts.



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Saturday, March 8, 2014

Cycle Chic by Mikael Colville-Andersen (Book Review)

Cycle ChicCycle Chic by Mikael Colville-Andersen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


First - my five stars is because as I understand Goodreads, the idea for assigning stars is did I like the book and not is it a good book generally.

This a book of photographs with very little text, loosely organized thematically, from Mikael Colville-Andersen, the Copenhagen-based creator of the blog Copenhagen Cycle Chic.

The photographs are about the people in them and the bicycles they are with together, in support of the "Cycle Chic Manifesto". This manifesto declares things like, "I choose to cycle chic and, at every opportunity, I will choose Style over Speed" or "I will endeavour to ensure that the total value of my clothes always exceeds that of my bicycle" and "I will refrain from wearing and owning any form of 'cycle wear'."

The book includes hundreds of color photographs (and a very small number of B&W) taken all over the world, but predominately in Europe, in particular in Copenhagen. Most but not all were taken by Colville-Andersen and most appear unposed.

The role that such a (physical) book plays in our world today is an interesting (perhaps) question - one can see many of the kinds of photographs included in the book in the Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog (or many of the similar blogs that Cycle Chic provides links to). One can also see
Colville-Andersen's photos
in his Flickr account (although there are plenty of non-bicycle photos there, too). I don't have an answer to this question - in this particular case, the book seems pleasing because it emphasizes the photographs one-by-one in a way that neither Flickr nor the blog presentations do, and allows for flipping around that the Internet still doesn't support.

Fun. Good.



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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Two Wheels North: Bicycling the West Coast in 1909 - Book Review

Two Wheels North: Bicycling the West Coast in 1909Two Wheels North: Bicycling the West Coast in 1909 by Evelyn McDaniel Gibb

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I have a blog about cycling history and although my main interest is the 1890s, this book about two young men traveling up the west coast from Santa Rosa California to Seattle to visit the Alaska-Yukon Exposition in 1909 was both enjoyable to read and informative in its providing some sense of the obstacles to this kind of long distance cycling at that time.

The text is a first-person narrative written by the daughter of one of the two men, based on her father's description of the trip as well as post cards sent both home and to a newspaper that published updates about their travels. This historian's blog post gives a good summary of the book's contents.

As someone interested in cycling history, I was pleased to read a book that included enough description of the bicycle-related aspects of their trip. For example, they paid to have someone weld racks much like those used to hold panniers on cycles today to their bike frames in order to carry some of their baggage - although generally they traveled very light. One understands quickly why their trip was considered so unusual - the road conditions were varied but often very poor, and they ended up walking about 200 of the 1,000 miles they traveled (measured by an odometer fixed to one of the bikes). While there were macadam roads in some towns, most roads were dirt or gravel (which might be rolled gravel which was better but often not) and "corduroy" log roads and even a road made from corn stalks. Long distance travel in this part of the world was supported at this time by the railroads, not the road system.

At first it seemed surprising that they felt pressed for time when they had six weeks to go only 1,000 miles, but this was not a bike trip where there were any 100 mile days, given the road conditions in particular. In addition, they stopped from time to time to take on day jobs to earn more money to continue their trip, since they left with only about five dollars cash - apparently at this time it was generally not a problem to find such work.

One might wonder about the attraction of the Alaska-Yukon Exposition for two fellows in California - apparently the publicity across the U.S. was very well organized, and it was expected to include what would then have been exotic exhibits from Hawaii, Japan, and Alaska (among others). The site of the exhibit and some of the buildings then became the main campus of the University of Washington (where I went to school). A number of photograph books of the exhibit were published and are available today online, such as Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition or this Souvenir Guide for visitors.



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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Bikenomics - Book Review

Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the EconomyBikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy by Elly Blue

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Elly Blue is a columnist for BikePortland.org and well qualified to write a book about cycling's impact on society. I suppose the rationale for the title's focus on the economic benefits of more cycling is because that is what we are all supposed to care about these days, but the twelve chapters provide something more like a reader or introduction to the main social issues of increasing use of bicycles in America, from "asphalt bubble" to "whose streets?"

As with most advocacy texts of this sort, the author's intense expressed enthusiasm for her position suggests to me that few cycling opponents would have any interest in reading this, so there may be a "preaching to the choir" problem. My public library purchased several copies (and presumably others did too); perhaps some folks who are in the middle or open to learning about the topic will consult it.

At least for me, it hasn't been easy to find books on "cycling policy" that make for engrossing reading. I certainly didn't sit down and read this from cover to cover - eventually I read about half of it, jumping around. I knew some of what was described, but I learned a few things, too.



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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

My Cool Bike - Book Review

My Cool Bike: An Inspirational Guide to Bikes and Bike CultureMy Cool Bike: An Inspirational Guide to Bikes and Bike Culture by Chris Haddon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


150-plus pages of photographs of a very wide variety of interesting ("cool") bikes with enough text describing their owners and/or history - what's not to like?

I suppose there is a certain prevailing hipster sensibility to the choices, but in a very broad sense. The only type of bicycle clearly excluded by design is that of modern racing bicycles - well, really modern mass produce bikes "for the masses" of all kinds, I suppose. Mass production bicycles from the past are included where they have been adapted for modern use in some way but otherwise the emphasis is more on bikes made in limited number for different enthusiast audiences.

The photographs are by Lyndon McNeil who apparently mostly does motor sports and vehicles - the photographs are a good mix of "action" shots and closeups of bicycles sufficient to make out interesting details.

The book was published in England so while there are some bikes from the U.S., the U.K. and Europe are much more heavily represented.

Some sections are almost more about the activities done with the bicycles than about the bicycles - from playing polo to riding around the world. The sub-title references "bike culture" - it appears that there is much variety in what that phrase may mean as there are different types of bicycles, if not more.

A lovely book to page through for the cycling enthusiast.



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Monday, January 6, 2014

Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling Team - Book Review

Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling TeamLand of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling Team by Tim Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book covers in a fair amount of detail the development of a road cycling team in Rwanda that began with the cycling equipment entrepreneur (and mountain biker) Tom Ritchey's visit to Rwanda in 2005 until the beginning of 2013. But it is more than that, with a description of the history of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and a brief summary of the relevant history of Rwanda and the region.

Team Rwanda is more of a program to develop young Rwandans as possible professional cyclists on other teams rather than a true racing team. The team (or program) was led by an American former Tour de France racer, Jock Boyer, who was persuaded by Tom Ritchey to start the it after Tom had started a cargo bicycle program to support Rwandan coffee growers - Ritchey observed that the conditions in Rwanda were excellent to produce professional cyclists, if only they had leadership, equipment, and . . . well, a lot more. Which is what this book is mostly about.

The author's decision to spend the first ~50 pages of the book on background, including introduction of rather many people, means that this may be a difficult book for some to get into if they thought they were going to be reading mostly about a bicycle team's activities. Jock Boyer, the leader of the team, isn't even introduced until after 90 pages, as another 35 pages or so are spent on the coffee cargo bike program.

This book is as much about the challenges for Americans (or others from the west) in trying to provide on-the-ground assistance and motivation in sub-Saharan Africa as it is about a bicycle team.

With a subject like this, where the author has to choose a moment to stop his coverage of the story, the events don't necessarily cooperate to create a neat end - this seems the case here. It isn't obvious where things are going to go with Team Rwanda in the future.

Westerners seeking to provide help and the Rwandans themselves will have different views on what works and what doesn't and why or why not - the author makes this clear with an update he provides on the coffee cargo bike program that Tom Ritchey started (before Team Rwanda even came into being). Lewis follows up with the Americans who are still nominally responsible for the program and they make various excuses but mostly state that the Rwandans didn't want the cargo bicycles for cost or other reasons. Those Rwandans who received the bikes and used them (but then had maintenance problems with them, since they used them very intensely) disagree. The Rwandans claim that no parts were available but then Lewis quickly finds a warehouse of spare parts. It is not clear what the real problem or problems preventing the further success of this clever program to provide cargo bikes to Rwandan coffee growers is, just that it isn't working and that (apparently) no one understands why not. This would seem to map to discussion of the more robust and complex Rwandan cycling team.

Philip Gourevitch had a long article in the New Yorker about Team Rwanda in July 2011 (unfortunately only a short version available to non-subscribers online); this book is to some degree a much expanded version of that (albeit by a different author). There is also a documentary movie out covering the development of Team Rwanda - Rising from the Ashes.



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Sunday, December 29, 2013

Bicycle: Around the World: Around the WorldBicycle: Around the World: Around the World by Linda Svendsen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Other than the single page introduction, there is no text aside from captions that identify the location that each photograph was taken. The pages are unnumbered but the volume is easily an inch thick, so there are several hundred pages of color photographs, some running across both pages.

The goal is to show how bicycles fit into everyday life around the world. The focus isn't on the qualities of the bicycles themselves in the usual way for books that are heavy on photographs of bicycles. Some of the photographs are crammed with bicycles in some setting while others have just one that may be off in the corner of the photograph.

This selection of three photographs from the book gives some sense of what the book is like. There is no apparent attempt to include photographs taken in every country of the world - of the ~190 countries in the world, there are probably photographs of bicycles in around 40 (I'm guessing) but there are certainly photographs from each continent (not including Antarctica). They were organized in some order that presumably made sense to the photographer but I didn't discern any pattern - photographs from a particular country may run for several pages, then from some other country, and later one finds another photograph from the first country later in the book. It seems whimsical.

Many of the bicycles shown in the developing world have obviously been subjected to heavy use and are not emblematic of bicycles as works of art or engineering. In fact the only "iconic" bicycle, presumably included without a sense of its iconic nature, is a Jack Taylor tandem shown in California. Perhaps this is repeating myself, but this is not a book of photographs of bikes to be admired in the typical way that I might.

Most of the photographs do not include the riders with the bicycles; rather the bicycles are shown parked (sometimes laying on their sides, looking more discarded than parked), waiting patiently for their riders to return.

This is not a new book or likely to be found in a bookstore selling new books. I was able to find a used copy at Powells book store for $6.50 which seemed an excellent deal.

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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Classic American Bicycles - Book Review

Classic American BicyclesClassic American Bicycles by Jay Pridmore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book, which is now 15 years old, is a good blend of readable text and color photographs of mostly iconic bicycles from the earliest bicycles in America through the 1990s. The book is published as part of as series titled, "Enthusiast Color Series" so the presumed audience would most be people like me who are already interested and know something about bicycle history.

The photographs are generally of bicycles on exhibit at the Bicycle Museum of America - most were taken outdoors in posed settings. There are a small number of reproduction period photographs, too. Perhaps the main drawback of this kind of book is that the photographs are all full shots of the bicycles at medium distance so that you usually can't make out particular details - it really takes a coffee table size volume to have lots of close-up shots, too, I guess.

Given that more than half the space in the 96 pages is taken up with the photographs, the text does a good job of being both engaging and informative, even though it can't serve as an in-depth description of the subject. Mr. Pridmore, whose other books include ones about Schwinn's history, seems well qualified to write this book.

A book like this, focusing on "classics," tends to emphasize the unusual - for the enthusiast these are often the most interesting. And for a so-called enthusiast, that's fine - such a person will get that. As a photographic history of American bicycles more generally, however, this wouldn't work very well.

I gave this book five stars because it fulfilled my expectations for such books very well - I bought it used from Powells Book Store - I like to have books like this to pick up and page through from time to time.

View my reviews of cycling books on Goodreads.

Additional comment: Having read this book, which credits the Bicycle Museum of America as a "collaborator" on the title page, I looked at their website. I assume there are any number of reasons why small museums like this provide somewhat inferior presentations of their collections online - for one, if one could see the bicycles well on the site, why travel to New Bremen, Ohio? And also such web presentations cost money. The "online museum" includes a timeline of bicycle history (that reflects many of the highlights in the book) and an alphabetical directory of bicycles, presumably ones they have on exhibit. Oddly the entry for Pierce Arrow misspells the company's name as "Piece Arrow" in not one but two places. The selected images in this directory of bicycles are small and not likely to take away anyone's desire to visit the actual museum.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist (Book Review)

In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam CyclistIn the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist by Pete Jordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I liked this book very much, both because the subject and the way it was handled was appealing (to me) and also because I think it is well written. I was confused however by title - I only understood what it meant properly after I had read 50 pages or so. In particular, "the story of the Amsterdam cyclist" can be understood as "a social history of cycling in Amsterdam" - "the Amsterdam cyclist" is meant to indicate Amsterdam cyclists in general from the 1890s to today. (Probably this confusion is just my problem.)

The blurb on the back cover states, "Part personal memoir, part history of cycling, part fascinating street-level tour of Amsterdam, In the City of Bikes is the story of a man who loves bikes-in a city that loves bikes." But really 90 percent of this book (which is almost 400 pages of text plus 40 pages of notes) is a history of urban cycling as transportation in Amsterdam, and to some extent in the Netherlands more generally. There is some comparison to cycling (and use of cars) in the United States, but not so much as to seem polemical. The "tour of Amsterdam" referred to in the blurb is, I think, incidental to the history of cycling for the most part (and that's fine).

The personal memoir aspect is ten percent or less of the book and mostly at the beginning and end of the book and the beginning and end of chapters. The transitions from the memoir portions to the more purely historical narrative are smooth and the style is consistent and at least for me; I was just as interested in both parts. Everyone has read a nominally "travel" book where it feels like the author is padding his or her experiences with "historical context" and the shifts from the personal travel anecdotes to the "history" portions are clunky - there is none of that here.

In fact, even though this could have been reworked as academic work on cycling history, it is far more pleasant (and just as instructive) to read the way it is, with the unobtrusive memoir sections providing helpful context by providing an understanding of "where the author is coming from."

When I got this book in my hands, I was a little doubtful - looking at a 400+ page book entirely on cycling in Amsterdam I wondered if it could really be something I would be drawn into and enjoy. Well, that turned out to be no problem - I liked it a lot.

My only slightly negative comments are minor. The chapters about cycling in Amsterdam in World War II are interesting but of the entire book it was the one part that seemed a little long. It was somewhat surprising that the "modern era" (the 1980s on) is dealt with in about twenty pages at the end (although there are mentions of modern Dutch cycling throughout, when I think about it). Having read this, I somewhat oddly feel I can tell you more about policies for Dutch cycling in WWII than today. Hmm.

It was also odd that the author's one previous book credit is writing a "memoir" of his experiences washing dishes (professionally!) in all fifty states. I regard such "listicle" type books as an artifact of our time (although I'm probably wrong about that) and not a good one. That doesn't mean I don't read such books from time to time, but many of them seem like clever ideas and don't read well - anyway, it wasn't exactly a hint in my mind of what is in this book.

For an American reader interested in cycling for transportation as an alternative, this book is a gentle (and I guess extensive) historical introduction or overview. While it is obvious that the author has a point of view and what that point of view is, the book is not written to hit the reader over the head with that.

The Publishers Weekly blurb states, "the readers will understand that the bike is to Amsterdam what the car is to America" - yes, and will understand in a helpful way why.





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Saturday, June 8, 2013

Bike Snob Abroad: Strange Customs, Incredible Fiets, and the Quest for Cycling Paradise (Book Review)

Bike Snob Abroad: Strange Customs, Incredible Fiets, and the Quest for Cycling ParadiseBike Snob Abroad: Strange Customs, Incredible Fiets, and the Quest for Cycling Paradise by BikeSnobNYC

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


In his third book, Mr. Snob produces a book that looks like it will make observations about cycling outside the United States, but it is really more about cycling with his family - to the extent that it is about anything in particular.

Having produced a first book that was fairly focused and seemed a reasonable variation on his blogging style, he then quickly produced a second book that was much the same but . . . boring. This third book lacks any structure and is 191 pages of stream of conscious.

Mr. Snob's wants to answer the question, "why can't we (motorists, pedestrians, cyclists) all get along?" based on his analysis of evidence gathered from his foreign travels. Foreign readers of his blog have paid for him to visit Gothenburg (Sweden) and San Vito dei Normanni (Italy) for a few days and he also spent a few weeks in London and Amsterdam and on the basis of three weeks in four countries, he decides that it is some kind of national American character fault - we don't like "weak stuff." (Really, that's what he concludes.)

The publisher blurb refers to "his trademark biting wit and wisdom" - I'm doubtful Mr. Snob would claim his wit and wisdom are his strong points in his blog writing. What he does well in his blog it to make some observations, generally of the "isn't that amazingly dumb?" variety, on a number of disparate cycling topics, and then tie them together at the end of the blog post, occasionally quite cleverly. He also is often somewhat potty mouthed, which isn't really necessary but is integral to his writing style (such as it is). This book has little of any of that, it hardly seems like the same author.

I checked this one out of the library, so at least it didn't cost me anything.



View my reviews of cycling books on Goodreads

Monday, February 18, 2013

Argyle Armada: Behind the Scenes of the Pro Cycling Life (Book Review)

Argyle Armada: Behind the Scenes of the Pro Cycling LifeArgyle Armada: Behind the Scenes of the Pro Cycling Life by Mark Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Mark Johnson is a journalist and photographer for VeloNews, part of the same company that published this book. He is certainly well qualified to write something like this. The short description is that Johnson was "embedded" with the Garmin-Cervelo team for the 2011 pro cycling race season, taking photographs and interviewing riders, coaches, and others as the season progressed, then publishing the results as this coffee table book. Johnson says nothing controversial (at least from the team's point of view) and in the preface Johnson notes, "Neither Slipstream [the team's parent company] nor Garmin commissioned this book, but it is nevertheless an outgrowth of my long relationship with the team as a freelance writer and photographer." So this is not anything like Wide Eyed and Legless (from 1988) where an "embedded" journalist had much to say about a British team's Tour de France campaign that the team was probably unhappy about.

Most of the book's chapters are a chronological presentation of the season, starting with training and ending with the Vuelta and races in Quebec and Montreal. A final chapter, in some ways more interesting than the rest of it, is called "the business of pro cycling" that lays out in more detail than one might expect the economics of Garmin-Cervelo operations. The book runs about 200 pages with somewhat over half the space devoted to photographs rather than text. There is a good index, which is helpful in something like this.

This team is known for its unusual approach to fighting doping and that it started its anti-doping more aggressively and openly earlier than most teams. The team director, Jonathan Vaughters, talks about this generally and the topic comes up in different parts of the book. Even though things have changed with fallout from Lance Armstrong's confession, those parts of the book seem relevant.

While I was happy to get this book from the library and to page through it looking at the photos, it took me a long time to get through all of the text (which I eventually decided I should read from start to finish). Johnson's writing seems a bit stiff in this extended book-length presentation compared to his usual much shorter news items in VeloNews. Also Johnson of course had no control over the flow of the season and much of team's greatest successes came early - the narrative doesn't build to some particular success (or for that matter, failure). I also have some quibbles with the photographs - many are action shots using very wide angle lenses which I (personally) don't like all that much and because there are so many photos in what is a small-ish coffee table format book many group shots are reduced to small sizes that make me wonder if it wouldn't have been better to have fewer larger photos.

The last chapter and comments throughout the book make clear the importance of the business aspects of this team (and one assumes, to a greater or lesser degree, other teams). The mention in various places of efforts to provide special services and activities for sponsor representatives, for example. And the analysis by Vaughters of how valuable the team is for its sponsors relative to the absolute dollar cost of the team compared to other teams - Garmin was a low cost team compared to the highest spending teams but was in fourth place (out of 18) for "sporting value." Somewhat complex financial issues are laid out - for example, rider salaries are a huge part of the operational cost of cycling teams and Garmin relies on a balanced approach and avoids paying "star" salaries - this also means that if they lose a star rider who has "points" that count towards the team's WorldTour points total (that is vital to it keeping its team license) the team will not be endangered in staying part of the circuit, which is good for all the riders (and something they understand).

Johnson has a video about this on the VeloNews site.

View my reviews of cycling books.