Cycling related book suggestions

[MerckxMad]

Originally Posted by Repack Rider

I wrote a first hand account of the birth of mountain biking and my involvement in it.

It's called "Fat Tire Flyer."

Here are a few reviews.

Pez Cycling

Winkbooks

Dirt Rag

US Cycling Report

I'm midway through this book, and am really enjoying it. Not being a MTB'er I am surprised by how engrossing I find the story. It's fascinating to follow the parallel births of a sport and its unique equipment. Really interesting and well told.

My one question for the author is, why the large format? Was it the collection of historical photos, posters, and other documents that drove the decision? The reason I ask is that it I do not consider it a coffee table book where the images predominate and lend themselves to a large format with the only text being captions or brief descriptions of the images. That type of book dictates merely flipping through the pages. Here, your telling of the story is clearly the reason to buy and read the book, but the size makes it a bit unwieldy to hold for any length of time. I guess I'm a victim of tablets.

[o2dazone]

Decent book I've been casually reading: http://www.amazon.com/Cyclopedia-Its.../dp/156976817X

Has some great info about riders no longer in the spotlight, and a little bit of history to boot. It's non linearity (in fact, topics organized alphabetically), I can just open and read.

[Jeff N.]

I liked, "Cold Beer And Crocodiles", about a cycling journey around Australia. -Jeff N.

[brando]

Dog in a hat by Joe Parkin

Pro cycling on $10 a day by Phil Gaimon

Also, I enjoyed Positively False by Floyd Landis. It's an amazing, tragic story.

[stronzo]

Need for the Bike - Paul Fournel

Extremely entertaining and well-written.

http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/pro...ke,671190.aspx

[velomonkey]

"Road to valor" is a must - there is no second. Were there to be a second it would be "the rider." Another one which wasn't half bad, is "ten points."

If you want a book that is more fictitious than "star wars", crazier than "the stranger" and has actually more drugs than "fear and loathing in las vegas" - then read "It's not about the bike."

If you want a book that is more mafia than "The Godfather" you might want to check out "We Might As Well Win" - when you read it do so in the voice of Jean-Claude Van Damme.

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by brando

Dog in a hat by Joe Parkin

Pro cycling on $10 a day by Phil Gaimon

Also, I enjoyed Positively False by Floyd Landis. It's an amazing, tragic story.

+1 on the first two. The third is on my short list.

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by brando

Positively False by Floyd Landis. It's an amazing, tragic story.

"….The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France"

Overpriced on Amazon at $0.01 used.

[Repack Rider]

Originally Posted by MerckxMad

My one question for the author is, why the large format? Was it the collection of historical photos, posters, and other documents that drove the decision? The reason I ask is that it I do not consider it a coffee table book where the images predominate and lend themselves to a large format with the only text being captions or brief descriptions of the images. That type of book dictates merely flipping through the pages. Here, your telling of the story is clearly the reason to buy and read the book, but the size makes it a bit unwieldy to hold for any length of time. I guess I'm a victim of tablets.

VeloPress made the decisions about the size, format, artwork, layout and printing. I was surprised by how substantial the book turned out to be, and that they sell it for the price of a far inferior production. VeloPress tells me they use a specific printer for this kind of work, the only one who can get this expensive paper from Finland.

I didn't write the words just to hold the pictures apart. I wrote it to be a good story, well illustrated. Most of the time when you place your passion in other peoples' hands, they screw it up. VeloPress improved on it.

I like the size and feel even though it's far bigger than I had anticipated. A book like this is the only form of art that can't be digitally reproduced, and therefore stolen. The size, heft, images and the new book smell of the expensive paper don't come across on your Kindle. When I got the first copy in my hands, I sat down and read it, even though I know how it ends, because it was so much fun to actually handle it and turn real, not virtual, pages.

(For those needing a reference to the subject of this post, it's Fat Tire Flyer.)

[bjf]

Ralph Hurne, The Yellow Jersey. It's a novel, but one of my favorite cycling stories.

[Rudy]

Jerome's Three Men on the Bummel is a somewhat picaresque novel of cycletouring in Europe at the very end of the 19th century.

[thunderworks]

Originally Posted by BMS

I'm looking for a good book, and I thought I might enjoy a book on some topic related to cycling. I'm thinking that'll probably be in the form of a biography, but it doesn't have to be. Are there any readers out there with suggestions?

Sorry for the shameless shill . . . but I sell a fabulous book about Colnago on ebay and Amazon. It's a beautiful, limited edition collectible book signed by Mr. Colnago

You can search ebay for it:

COLNAGO, The Bicycle - by Pier Augusto Stagi

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171470090191...84.m1555.l2649

Moderators: if this is inappropriate here, feel free to delete.

[Md3000]

Half man, half bike by William fotheringham is really great, also the coppi book, but why didn't anyone mention Matt rendells the death of Marco pantani ? Also, there's a great list of reviews here: http://inrng.com/books/

[MerckxMad]

Originally Posted by Repack Rider

VeloPress made the decisions about the size, format, artwork, layout and printing. I was surprised by how substantial the book turned out to be, and that they sell it for the price of a far inferior production. VeloPress tells me they use a specific printer for this kind of work, the only one who can get this expensive paper from Finland.

I didn't write the words just to hold the pictures apart. I wrote it to be a good story, well illustrated. Most of the time when you place your passion in other peoples' hands, they screw it up. VeloPress improved on it.

I like the size and feel even though it's far bigger than I had anticipated. A book like this is the only form of art that can't be digitally reproduced, and therefore stolen. The size, heft, images and the new book smell of the expensive paper don't come across on your Kindle. When I got the first copy in my hands, I sat down and read it, even though I know how it ends, because it was so much fun to actually handle it and turn real, not virtual, pages.

(For those needing a reference to the subject of this post, it's Fat Tire Flyer.)

Interesting. Thanks for the info. Great book. Congrats!

[mtb_frk]

Coffee table book, but is always a good read.