It's All About the Bike
  • Published: 27 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141930893
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208
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It's All About the Bike

The Pursuit of Happiness On Two Wheels

Formats & editions
EBook
27 Sep 2010
Paperback
28 Jun 2011
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A new 'golden age' of the bicycle has begun. Here, Rob Penn celebrates one of humanity's greatest achievements

As seen on TV

The bicycle is one of mankind's greatest inventions - and the most popular form of transport in history. Robert Penn has ridden one most days of his adult life. In his late 20s, he pedalled 40,000 kilometres around the world. Yet, like cyclists everywhere, the utilitarian bikes he currently owns don't even hint at this devotion. Robert needs a new bike, a bespoke machine that reflects how he feels when he's riding it - like an ordinary man touching the gods.

It's All About the Bike is the story of a journey to design and build a dream bike. En route, Robert explores the culture, science and history of the bicycle. From Stoke-on-Trent, where an artisan hand builds his frame, to California, home of the mountain bike, where Robert tracks down the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan and Coventry, birthplace of the modern bicycle, this is the narrative of our love affair with cycling. It's a tale of perfect components - parts that set the standard in reliability, craftsmanship and beauty. It tells how the bicycle has changed the course of human history, from the invention of the 'people's nag' to its role in the emancipation of women, and from the engineering marvel of the tangent-spoked wheel to the enduring allure of the Tour de France. It's the story of why we ride, and why this simple machine remains central to life today.
  • Published: 27 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141930893
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208
Categories:
Share…

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Praise for It's All About the Bike

A book as brilliant as the invention it celebrates. A wonderful read

Nick Crane, author of 'Clear Waters Rising' and 'Bicycles Up Kilimanjaro'

What I'm left with after consuming the book is a sense of poetry. A distinct and lingering feeling of elegance, design history and aesthetics. It made me look at the hundreds of thousands of bicycles I pass every day in Copenhagen in a completely new light. It made me wonder what my perfect bicycle would look like

Mikael Colville-Andersen, Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog

No matter how shiny and costly the item of bike bling, there is a back story, usually a good one. Artfully, Penn turns his quest for hardware ... into a worldwide spin around cycling and its culture

William Fotheringham, Guardian

[Penn] writes with authority, humour and refreshing candour ... A celebration of craftsmanship over technology and of a bygone era when things were built to last ... If Penn is to be believed, we are entering a golden age of cycling, when it really will be all about the bike once more

Sunday Telegraph