Anyone read books on cycling?
 

So far I've read, It's Not About the Bike My Journey Back to Life, The Immortal Class, Metal Cowboy by Joe Kurmaskie, Roll Around Heavan All Day by Stan Purdum, and I'm currently reading Miles From Nowhere by Barbara Savage.

The last 2 and the current one are about touring. Reading these to get a better idea on what to expect when I set out to ride my tour across the country. I think we all know about Lance's book. And The Immortal Class is about bicycle messangers.

All are or have been real good non-fiction sotries to read. I recomend them to everyone here if you have not read them already.

Has anyone read any of these books? Can you recommend others to me?

I´m just now reading The Essential Touring Cyclist by Richard A. Lovett. Pretty good book that I can recommend. I bought it from Amazon.com for $10,50. Though the freight to Sweden costed as much as the book itself:mad: But it´s a good one so I don´t repent buying it.:)

Anders K

Tom Vernon's three 'Fatman ...' books, particularly 'Fatman on a Bicycle' are recommended.

Eric Newby - 'Travels round Ireland in Low Gear' is good

Good choices, those are the only 2 that I have read and I loved them both.

Just finished "The Rider" by a Dutch writer Thomas Krabbe, about a fictional road race--v good, and now on "French Revolutions" by T Moore, about a touring round the route of the TdF

Also have read all of Josie Dew's books about touring. Very enjoyable.

There are some good coffee table books about the TDF with super photos in them. Lance Armstrong's book "It's not about the bike." is very good.

"The American Bicycle" a 200 page picture/text history. Amazing pics of all sorts of interesting early (and lat) designs, etc. Great fun book.

"The Idiots Guide . . . " Much better than I expected, good for filling in holes in knowledge, inculding history and racers, and a really good ilustrated section on some fairly complex repairs.

When I was looking to buy an expensive bike I found Touring Bikes by Tony Oliver to be very useful. Richard Ballentine's books are also really useful for all kinds of cycling lore.

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brian, perhaps the least known great book in the English (or is that Irish) language.

check it out at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...121003-8987628

Paul Kimmage, a domestique in the 1980s (and now a respected journalist) during the glory days of Irish cycling when Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche were winning everything in sight wrote a book called Rough Ride. Its viewed by many as a classic but he was ostracised by most of cycling world for his tales of doping. Of course 10 years after the books publication we find out half the pro cycling world was doping.

Anyway the link is here - its been reissued

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...942913-8341267

Bicycling books I own.. Think best all around entry book to cycling is Greg LeMond's "Complete Book of Cycling." Others on my shelf are Armstrong's , It's Not about the Bike, " Complete Book of Long Distance Cycling," by Burke and Pavelka, Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycling Maintenance," and several books on Bicycle touring of France and Europe..
I also keep the book "Asphalt Nation" on the shelf with my bicycling books...

For technogeeks with an interest in history, nothing beats Berto et al., "The Dancing Chain." To learn how to stay alive in traffic, read Franklin, "CycleCraft."

One of my favourites too! It really shows that, unless you are one of the handful of top guys, a pro's life can be really difficult.

Tim Moore's 'French Revolutions' is very funny and he's been likened to Bill Bryson for his travel writing, although I'm not sure that this is a good thing.

A couple are on my 'to buy' list: The Guardian's cycling correspondent, William Fotheringham, has recently written a book about Tom 'put me back on my bike' Moore (who died from heart failure on a Mont Ventoux stage) which is supposed to be superb. And Matt Seaton has written one about amateur racing in Britain which is to cycling what Fever Pitch was to football.