Beryl Burton biography - good read

Alan · #1 07-17-2020, 10:43 AM

Just finished William Fotheringham's book - The Greatest - The Live and Times of Beryl Burton. It was very good and the writing is excellent. A good read. My kids got me several of his books for Fathers Day. Good pandemic reading.

Link to his site for ordering is below:

http://www.williamfotheringham.com/

He has several other good books that are next on my reading list.

Enjoy!!

Alan

Toeclips · #2 07-17-2020, 12:04 PM

She was great!!!!!

chirpy999 · #3 07-17-2020, 12:46 PM

Too right , theres a good video on youtube about her. What a talent!

fiamme red · #4 07-17-2020, 12:55 PM

Have you ever seen her autobiography, Personal Best? I think it's still available.

I have somewhere a photocopied sheet of her ABC's of cycling, which you can read here: https://rusa.org/newsletter/10-01-12.html.

What makes her accomplishments even more amazing is that she was never a professional cyclist. She had a full-time job working on a rhubarb farm. And yet she was at the top of her sport for 25 years or so.

Toeclips · #5 07-17-2020, 01:13 PM

ABC'S
Still applies today
at the bottom of the article it says adapted by Ron Kitching

I remember seeing a few of his bikes

Love the history

Doug Fattic · #6 07-17-2020, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toeclips

ABC'S
Still applies today
at the bottom of the article it says adapted by Ron Kitching

I remember seeing a few of his bikes

Love the history

I learned how to build bicycle frames at Ellis-Briggs Cycles in West Yorkshire in 1975. Beryl Burton lived not that far away and Jack Briggs built her frames. He mentioned it several times to me. Ron Kitching was a wholesale dealer of bicycle parts and accessories located in Harrogate about 15 miles north and sponsored Burton. That meant that Ron Kitching decals were applied to her frames but not that he built them. He wasn't a frame builder.

Jack Briggs son Paul was a racer when I was there. He told me that on a time trail Beryl would pass him and she seemed to have a very smooth style. Her daughter was also a racer and was good but not at the level of her mom.

Toeclips · #7 07-17-2020, 07:43 PM

Hey thanks for the background, I only had a few photos of Ron Kitching bikes, that clarifies a lot

Have some studying to do this weekend

Rudy · #8 07-17-2020, 11:21 PM

Her male counterpart and contemporary, Alf Engers, shared a belief in enormous single chainrings.

fiamme red · #9 07-18-2020, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rudy

Her male counterpart and contemporary, Alf Engers, shared a belief in enormous single chainrings.

Not quite a counterpart. Alf Engers was a short-distance (mainly 25-mile) time trialist. He never won Best British All Rounder (BBAR), which for men included time trials of 50 miles, 100 miles, and 12 hours. Beryl Burton was the women's winner of BBAR every year from 1959 to 1983.

Rudy · #10 07-19-2020, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiamme red

Not quite a counterpart. Alf Engers was a short-distance (mainly 25-mile) time trialist. He never won Best British All Rounder (BBAR), which for men included time trials of 50 miles, 100 miles, and 12 hours. Beryl Burton was the women's winner of BBAR every year from 1959 to 1983.

Agreed. Poor word choice. And trying to take nothing from BB whose achievements I learned of in International Cycle Sport magazine which in the early 70s arrived months late in central Iowa.

Toeclips · #11 07-19-2020, 12:26 PM

My only source for remembering BB was through International Cyclesport

The two books I have had no mention of her

A century of cycling - didn't even mention women's cycling
But I still got lost in the photos

Bicycle - only mentions women's cycling as of 1985

That's disappointing