Books on Bicycles and Cycling

 

The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles

The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles: Craftsmanship, Elegance, and Function

The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles is a celebration of the design history and craftsmanship behind this simple but efficient two-wheeled vehicle. Featuring fifty classic models built by hand, this book unveils the bicycle’s technical evolution within a historical context. Beautifully detailed are early-twentieth-century models with multi-gear systems, mid-century machines where war and postwar economy challenged craft and utility, as well as modern and contemporary bicycles. Featured artisans and brands include La Gauloise, Reyhand, Schulz, Barra, Alex Singer, and René Herse. With brilliant full-color images of each model and chronological text detailing the craftsmanship that went into producing these elegant machines, this book will appeal to bicycle enthusiasts and to anyone interested in design.
 
How to Restore Your Collector Bicycle

How to Restore Your Collector Bicycle

All aspects of bicycle restoration are covered including finding, evaluating and choosing a bicycle. Planning the restoration project, along with disassembly, mechanical restoration, cosmetic restoration (with and without painting), and assembly are all discussed in detail. There are sections about parts, accessories and sources as well. Additionally, you will find over 250 photos of bicycles and their parts, showing off the splendor of these vintage treasures.
William Love was attracted to wheels at a young age. Before age five, he began to fashion vehicles out of raw materials like fruit crates and logs. Around age ten, he had advanced to building really dangerous "karts" out of salvaged soap box derby wheels, plywood and two by fours.
 
Bicycle Design

Bicycle Design: An Illustrated History

The bicycle ranks as one of the most enduring, most widely used vehicles in the world, with more than a billion produced during almost two hundred years of cycling history. This book offers an authoritative and comprehensive account of the bicycle's technical and historical evolution, from the earliest velocipedes (invented to fill the need for horseless transport during a shortage of oats) to modern racing bikes, mountain bikes, and recumbents. It traces the bicycle's development in terms of materials, ergonomics, and vehicle physics, as carried out by inventors, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers. Written by two leading bicycle historians and generously illustrated with historic drawings, designs, and photographs, Bicycle Design describes the key stages in the evolution of the bicycle, beginning with the counterintuitive idea of balancing on two wheels in line, through the development of tension-spoked wheels, indirect drives (employing levers, pulleys, chains, and chainwheels), and pneumatic tires. The authors examine the further development of the bicycle for such specific purposes as racing, portability, and all-terrain use; and they describe the evolution of bicycle components including seats, transmission, brakes, lights (at first candle-based), and carriers (racks, panniers, saddlebags, child seats, and sidecars).
 
History of Cycling

The History of Cycling in Fifty Bikes: From the Velocipede to the Pinarello: The Bicycles that Have Shaped the World

The invention of the bicycle changed history by democratizing travel for the first time. The common man?and importantly the common woman-could now afford to travel at reasonable speed without the need of a horse. Instead of walking just 10 miles a day on foot, a healthy individual could now ride up to 80 miles on a cycle at a relatively modest cost.
Today, despite the prevalence of the car, the bicycle is as important as ever. More cycles appear on city streets each year, offering healthy, pollution-free transport. Commuters cycle to work through congested traffic, urban hire-bike schemes are increasingly common, and the sports of road and track racing continue to gain in popularity.
 
Cyclepedia

Cyclepedia: A Century of Iconic Bicycle Design

For every way to ride, there's a bicycle to fit the need. An homage to the beauty of the bike, Cyclepedia showcases the innovations and legacies of bicycle design over the past century. Join longtime bike enthusiast and avid collector Michael Embacher for a tour of 100 bicycles, from the finest racing bikes and high-tech hybrids to the bizarrely specific (such as a bike designed to cycle on ice). Captivating photographs, detailed component lists, and anecdotal information illuminate the details that make each bicycle unique. Also including a foreword by cyclist and designer Paul Smith, Cyclepedia is the ultimate coffee-table book for devotees of the two-wheeled life.
 

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