The Noblest Invention

Rating:
Summary: Cycling into the past with a flat tire?
Review: A lovely idea, an illustrated history of the bicycle, but the execution disappoints ultimately. Many of the pictures are nice, if seldom very dramatic, but the book lets us down with its annoying design. As the reader proceeds through each chapter, there are interrupting pages on semi-related subjects that disturb the flow and which are poorly differentiated from the main text. And why do publishers love shiny black dustjackets that instantly attract fingerprints?

The book, with a pleasantly-written introduction by Lance Armstrong, is divided into six chapters which cover, in this odd order, the love of children for cycling, bicycling culture, the history of the bicycle, arts and the bicycle, the mountain bike and the Tour de France. The book seems to be directed towards very recent converts to cycling. There is a disproportionate number of photos of Lance Armstrong, admittedly a great cyclist, and the fact that the racing sections really focus on the Tour de France, with only a nod to the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta and nothing on the great Classics races, makes the slant towards readers in the United States very clear. The photos of racing are not well-captioned, nor would they be considered great examples of the kind in any case. There are some errors that fact-checking should have quickly found, such as confusing a safety bicycle with a velocipede in one caption. There is also the claim that derailleurs were not allowed in the Tour de France until 1929 when the correct year is 1937--which says something about those iron-legged racers who ground their way up mountains to the cheers of their fans, who had already ridden up on the peaks thanks to their variable gearing!

Other aspects of cycling, such as the exciting Six Day Races still run in front of big crowds in Europe, are given short shrift, but the non-competitive aspects of cycling suffer the most--a few pictures of Chinese peasants carting produce,nothing about bike commuting and, most disappointing of all, a single solitary picture of cycletourists on Page 96. Travel by bicycle opens up beautiful areas of the world to the cyclist, such as the Alpine Panorama Route in Switzerland, or the Pacific Coast Highway in California. And while RAGBRAI is shown, why nothing about the masochistic Paris-Brest-Paris ride?

Not a coffee-table book, nor a real history of the bicycle (to its credit it mentions that the famous crude drawing of the bicycle found in Da Vinci's notebook could be a fake), I would characterize this book as Nice to Have but certainly not Truly Great. The best book in this genre remains Pryor Dodge's totally enchanting and quite eccentric "The Bicycle." Even if it has a shiny black dustjacket too.

Rating:
Summary: Cycling into the past with a flat tire?
Review: A lovely idea, an illustrated history of the bicycle, but the execution disappoints ultimately. Many of the pictures are nice, if seldom very dramatic, but the book lets us down with its annoying design. As the reader proceeds through each chapter, there are interrupting pages on semi-related subjects that disturb the flow and which are poorly differentiated from the main text. And why do publishers love shiny black dustjackets that instantly attract fingerprints?

The book, with a pleasantly-written introduction by Lance Armstrong, is divided into six chapters which cover, in this odd order, the love of children for cycling, bicycling culture, the history of the bicycle, arts and the bicycle, the mountain bike and the Tour de France. The book seems to be directed towards very recent converts to cycling. There is a disproportionate number of photos of Lance Armstrong, admittedly a great cyclist, and the fact that the racing sections really focus on the Tour de France, with only a nod to the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta and nothing on the great Classics races, makes the slant towards readers in the United States very clear. The photos of racing are not well-captioned, nor would they be considered great examples of the kind in any case. There are some errors that fact-checking should have quickly found, such as confusing a safety bicycle with a velocipede in one caption. There is also the claim that derailleurs were not allowed in the Tour de France until 1929 when the correct year is 1937--which says something about those iron-legged racers who ground their way up mountains to the cheers of their fans, who had already ridden up on the peaks thanks to their variable gearing!

Other aspects of cycling, such as the exciting Six Day Races still run in front of big crowds in Europe, are given short shrift, but the non-competitive aspects of cycling suffer the most--a few pictures of Chinese peasants carting produce,nothing about bike commuting and, most disappointing of all, a single solitary picture of cycletourists on Page 96. Travel by bicycle opens up beautiful areas of the world to the cyclist, such as the Alpine Panorama Route in Switzerland, or the Pacific Coast Highway in California. And while RAGBRAI is shown, why nothing about the masochistic Paris-Brest-Paris ride?

Not a coffee-table book, nor a real history of the bicycle (to its credit it mentions that the famous crude drawing of the bicycle found in Da Vinci's notebook could be a fake), I would characterize this book as Nice to Have but certainly not Truly Great. The best book in this genre remains Pryor Dodge's totally enchanting and quite eccentric "The Bicycle." Even if it has a shiny black dustjacket too.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Has Soul
Review: If you are looking for an encyclopedic history of cycling, this may not be your book. However, this book is lavish with wonderful photos and illustrations depicting everything from folks riding ancient high-wheelers to kids bombing around on Schwinn Sting Rays to whacked-out dudes on high tech dirt bikes. Great for flipping through on a lazy afternoon.

The text is weighted somewhat toward the racing crowd, and I do agree with the reviewer who said there's not enough about touring (or, in my opinion, commuting, which is the major use of the bicycle worldwide). However, I can't help but smile when I see images of Albert Einstein on a bike or look at the "streamlined" Aerocycle built for the 1933-34 World's Fair. It looked like a motorcycle--and probably weighed as much as one too.

"A bicycle is the long-sought-after means of transportation for all of us who have runaway hearts," writes Lance Armstrong in the first line of the book's Forward. If that line strikes a chord with you, if you're idea of a perfect afternoon is gliding silently across a green, glowing landscape on two wheels, if you've ever viewed a bicycle as a friend (or therapist), then have a look at the Noblest Invention.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Has Soul
Review: If you are looking for an encyclopedic history of cycling, this may not be your book. However, this book is lavish with wonderful photos and illustrations depicting everything from folks riding ancient high-wheelers to kids bombing around on Schwinn Sting Rays to whacked-out dudes on high tech dirt bikes. Great for flipping through on a lazy afternoon.

The text is weighted somewhat toward the racing crowd, and I do agree with the reviewer who said there's not enough about touring (or, in my opinion, commuting, which is the major use of the bicycle worldwide). However, I can't help but smile when I see images of Albert Einstein on a bike or look at the "streamlined" Aerocycle built for the 1933-34 World's Fair. It looked like a motorcycle--and probably weighed as much as one too.

"A bicycle is the long-sought-after means of transportation for all of us who have runaway hearts," writes Lance Armstrong in the first line of the book's Forward. If that line strikes a chord with you, if you're idea of a perfect afternoon is gliding silently across a green, glowing landscape on two wheels, if you've ever viewed a bicycle as a friend (or therapist), then have a look at the Noblest Invention.

Rating:
Summary: Pictures, History, Information...
Review: Well, a dining-alcove book anyhow. History, racing. I liked the technical tidbits on how the bicycle became perfected. Why those tippy early models with the huge front wheel you perched atop? Because no chain drive yet, no ball bearings (the atoms of the machine age, replacing fraying bushings), and before the pneumatic tire the larger the wheel the softer the ride. Oh, and angled spokes helped too. The pedal replaced the back-and-forth treadle, which increased speed many-fold. Who knew? And suspension springs aren't just for comfort, they enormously aid off-roading. Now I know. The other reviews here tell more. Praise the bicycle, which in my opinion ranks with microwave ovens, duct tape, and word-processors as the noblest inventions...