Customer Reviews

Richard's New Bicycle Book

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This book should have never been let go out of print. R's 'Ultimate' book does not replace it. This book has much writing of great character and insight. It covers the whole rainbow of cycling with proper respect and depth, with particular nods to velomobiles, trikes, recumbents and folders. This edition also has the finest assortment of B&W bike sketch art ever published, with superb highlights by the incomparable PAT.

I've been a cyclist for about twenty five years and in that time I've managed to accumulate a library of books on cycling. Books on everything from custom frames to offroad riding technique. But by far the most enjoyable to read has been this and several others by Mr.Ballantine. Many of the newer cycling books have a compulsive, competitive tone to them, as if the authors assumed the reader was bent on entering the Tour de France. In contrast, Dick Ballantine infuses the reader with his sense of joy and enthusiasm about the pure act of riding and the pure form of the diamond frame bicycle, a design that has accomodated over a hundred years worth of cyclists. But he also manages to cover practical matters--everything from hub overhauls to recumbents. The first chapter is entitled
Get A Bike! Since I first started reading Mr.Ballantine, I've "gotten" five and partly due to him, I've loved them all.