Bike Forums - Vintage bike book Showcase

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Vintage bike book Showcase

I have a family member who enjoys scouting second hand shops for birthday/christmas gifts and he has a discerning eye. Though he doesn't frequent this site, he has worked on bikes since he was 10 in the 60s. He knows of my obsession with vintage bikes, and has very nicely found a few books for me here and there.

I love the drawn examples, and intense attention to detail. The road racing book has some great tips to improve one's biking that I find beneficial, even though I will probably never race.

What vintage bicycle books do you have? Repair? Racing? Touring? Mountain Biking? Also, how many of you wore glasses like Rob Van der Plas in the 80s? :lol:

edit: sorry the pictures are so large, I scanned them and didn't resize them before uploading.

https://i.imgur.com/TUgnRSm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hl7s97q.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Mkt8aFf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ljouUFW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/F2TpxRg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G6VDlnx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gWL8ktF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3pyeo8E.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7.../100_06631.jpg

...from "The Dancing Chain" by Frank Berto.

Allow Me to Add a Couple

The cover of Bicycle Road Racing is EPIC. For a moment. And then :twitchy:

Black and white pics in this book but good info and good writing

This book is real good at covering history of bike companies. I've learned a lot from this. And a pic of one of my favorite bikes.

Something a little different. Giveaway comic book by Schwinn from 1959. It tells a brief history of the bicycle as well as some Schwinn specific history.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/dSLieL.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/NiHJR0.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/HfMjSc.jpg

These are great - I'll add one or two later, when I have a chance to scan covers!

a couple of classics....

the C.O.N.I. manual, with all sorts of wisdom, with lots of training advice...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4551/3...bce095_c_d.jpg

and a great book to learn about some of the great frame builders and the associated tech..

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4542/3...4e5707_c_d.jpg

Steve in Peoria

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.Oxley (Post 19974078)

The cover of Bicycle Road Racing is EPIC. For a moment. And then :twitchy:

I had to think about this far too long before I figured out you are probably referring to the zoom focal point. Yeah, I'm sure you are :D

I have this book. Thanks - now I can't un-see it!

DD

The C.O.N.I. Book is a classic. Bought mine for $8.50 in 1974.
The other book that really started me on the path was The Complete Book of Bicycling by Sloane.
First Edition, 1970 (not first printing unfortunately)

Quote:

Originally Posted by repechage (Post 19974879)

The other book that really started me on the path was The Complete Book of Bicycling by Sloane. First Edition, 1970 (not first printing unfortunately)

Me, too. Still have a couple editions of that book. Oldest is 1974. Great on general information - which is exactly what I happened to need at the time I discovered E. Sloane's book.

DD

Quote:

Originally Posted by repechage (Post 19974879)

Me three, after reading a club-mates copy in the 70s I went to the bookstore (remember those?) and they ordered me a copy. Read it until it was dogeared. Now a later edition that was found used is on my bookshelf.

@dweenk, should you ever part with that xyzyx maintenance book, please put me in the running for buying it. My father gave me a copy in 1971 and it got lost in moves over the years. That one is hard to dig up.

Bill

Nice list. I would also add Berto's "The Birth of Dirt," on the early evolution of the mountain bike.

Here's a couple.
Bought these at a used book in the 80s when i started my cycling journey. I think they're from 1969 or 70.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Piff (Post 19973626)

https://i.imgur.com/Mkt8aFf.jpg

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Anybody's Bike Book. Not only was it fun and informative; but Tom Cuthbertson was a great guy who wasn't afraid to ride his Hetchins in the dirt.

Here are my three contributions:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Roc...MG_8533-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Roc...MG_8534-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Roc...MG_8532-XL.jpg

Brent

Quote:

Originally Posted by obrentharris (Post 19976459)

dang, I thought I was the only person with a copy of that book!

It wasn't a bad book. Nice enough instructions for building wheels and truing them. It was certainly worth the $1.95 list price. :) (bear in mind that this was back when a candy bar cost about 20 cents instead of the current dollar or so.)

If anyone has an urgent need for a copy of the book, I've scanned mine and would be happy to share the files.

Steve in Peoria
(I also have a copy of Jobst's book. It's generally a better book, but perhaps without some of the charms of Robert Wright's book)

Lots of bling in here. This book used to be in huge demand on Ebay about 10 years or so ago:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4494/3...783928bf_b.jpg

Picked this one up just for fun:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4548/3...23c359be_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4516/3...4f8b0aa7_b.jpg

DD

Some great posts here. I still refer to Glenn's Bicycle Manual occasionally. My two additions:

About the 1978 Tour de France
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ZYXGEVdl.jpg[/IMG]

The rider strike
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/bNEtQlrl.jpg[/IMG]

And a local book with New England bike routes I picked up at Ex Libris used books in Bangor, ME a few years ago.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/w0BUq1Pl.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/r1eW16Il.jpg[/IMG]

About a decade ago I had started amassing a pretty decent vintage cycling library, with the emphasis on English cycling manuals and touring accounts circa 1930-1970. I wound up selling off a lot of them later on to put more money into other priorities, but here are some photos from when I liquidated that part of the collection. I apologize for the small pic size in advance!

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4495/...64498eb6f6.jpg 100_1855 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4450/...1a4235344d.jpg 100_1857 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

Published c.1940 as Britain settled in to a real war, this book is nice and obscure and not for everyone. It's not a manual, not a conventional travelogue, but rather an account of many regional and local rides. The core of the book is thus -

Seek to amass, not miles, but experiences. Happy is the cyclist who rides throughout the year, taking what comes his way in weather, choosing only his itinerary. At the end of the year he will scoff at the poor soul who puts his mount in cotton wool for the winter, for he will recall the pageantry of an autumn forest, the sparkling winter morning, the ecstasy of spring, and the lazy afternoon of summer. He will rejoice in the tussle with the March wind, and the comradeship of his fellows round the winter fireside before the battle to reach home.

I love it so much I just bought myself a replacement copy moments ago.

Moving on, we have the ONLY American adult cycling manual I could find from the interwar years, Roland C. Geist's Bicycling As A Hobby -

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4491/...cc75db6c28.jpg 100_1866 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

- also from 1940. There are few photos, but one clearly depicts a fixed-gear ridden with front brake only. No cover photo because my copy was an ex-library one that had been rebound.

Geist would later write this book during the boom years -

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4555/...16edb69b54.jpg 100_1895 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

- which is okay, but not my favorite bike boom era general manual. Sloan's Complete Book of Bicycling, coupled with Tom Cuthbertson's Anybody's Bike Book and Bike Tripping, along with Richard Ballantine's Richard's Bicycle Book all jostled for that place. Had I but known about it, there was also this one -

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4500/...4edf39b838.jpg 100_1890 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4452/...a8fed7c8f9.jpg 100_1891 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

- by Nancy Neiman Baranet, National Women's Champion and first American woman to compete in a European stage race. She's on the right in this photo from the book, next to Gene Portuesi for Cyclopedia. Portuesi was her coach, and illustrations and photos from his catalogs are sprinkled throughout the book.

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4545/...47744543b5.jpg 100_1893 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

Another one to look for is this one -

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4497/...53cb9c46c1.jpg 100_1899 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

- The Guinness Guide to Bicycling has some really nice writing. It's been a while, but my memory is that Jock Whatley's writings in here, particularly, are first rate. I don't remember if his account of riding PBP in in this one as well as in his book Old Road And New.

Finally, there's this one, which is beautifully researched and nuanced -

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4498/...0688153f43.jpg 100_1873 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

You owe it to yourself to read this one. Fotheringham redeems Simpson from being a casually tossed-off name illustrating the dangers of doping in the peloton and fleshes out the man and his times beautifully.

More books and pix when I have the chance go through what I kept ...

Bicycling! magazine published a paperback anthology. In 1969 my local Library's copy was already yellowed with age. It had some really great stories in it. I remember one about a couple of soldiers grabbing bicycles and riding out of the Ardens Forest as the Germans advanced during the Battle of the Bulge. I would like to have a copy of that.

I have first editions of the Eugene Sloane and the Jobst Brandt books shown above.

3 More Books - 2 are Infamous

Number 1 (Cuthbertson) followed by 2 & 3 (Armstrong).