nun

I posted this in "General Cycling Discussions", but on reflection maybe it's better posted in Touring as tourists might be more connected to the romance and history of cycling.

There are some great books and movies involving bicycles, so what are your favorites. They might range from movies like "The Bicycle Thief" to "Peewee's Big Adventure"......

A great cycling book is "The Wheels of Chance", by H.G. Wells because it shows just how much the bike changed society when it became result available to everyone.

What are your favorites and recommendations?

Caretaker

Josie Dew's two books on her touring in Japan are good 'The Sun in My Eyes' and 'A ride in the Sun'.
Dervla Murphy's classic 'Full Tilt. Ireland to India with a Bicycle'

The Triplets of Belleville is a great animated bicycle movie.

nun

Agreed about the Triplets of Bellville...........

Here's an early example of bikepacking where everything is carried on in a backpack and saddlebag

Cyclist0094

Wheels of Chance is very good. More recently The Lost Cyclist by David Herlihy has been out a few years and narrates the story of Frank Lenz who set out to ride around the world in the 1890's but was never heard from again. another adventurer (and cyclist) William Sachtleben set out to find him. Yellow Jersey by Ralph Hume, not a literary masterpiece. but when it came out in the 1970's it was a success because anything that had a positive mention of bicycle racing was like manna from the gods. Hume wrote a follow up book in 2007 "They'll Never Catch You Now", it sucks.

Movies, "Breaking Away" of course. American Flyers

DropBarFan

Six Day Bike Rider, 1934 film comedy, was corny fun--they used actual 6-Day race footage for the background, some sight-gags too. On YouTube.

Quicksilver, 1986 Kevin Bacon movie about couriers, trite plot but a couple of great scenes incl bike acrobatics & a POV of Nelson Vails (real-life track sprinter & former ourier) zooming thru NYC traffic

Eugen Sloane's The Complete Book of Bicycling was icon of the 70's bike boom, read by all bikers, helped popularize commuting/touring/racing. At Library of Congress (pre-Internet) one could read books that were then unavailable in the US: auto-bios of Merck, Beryl Burton etc.

shipwreck

I have always loved Monty Pythons bicycle tour. "bicycle pump went up my trouser leg".

As for books, Glenns bicycle manual has walked me through a few three speed hub rebuilds. But my favorite is the Cranes journey to the center of the earth. Hardcore ultralight.

I feel that a more contemporary film is this one. Warning, its pretty tasteless with bad blood effects and post apocalyptic imagery. I usually don't like splash films, but this one is so corny about it its almost bearable. Released in 2015, its set in the "future" of 1997. Even as a little kid I thought that post apocalypse movies were pretty stupid with cars, as gasoline just wont last that long. In this movie they ride bikes.

MixedRider

Rad!

antokelly

ride the divide is a good movie .

Papa Tom

A Social History of The Bicycle by Robert A. Smith traces the invention of the bicycle and how it changed our culture beginning in the late 1800's. You will be amazed at how much cyclists were hated by everyone else back then, too!

Unfortunately, this book is long out of print, but you can probably still find it online.

Caretaker

If we're talking 'out of print' then 'The Art & Pastime of cycling' by R J Mecredy a pioneer of cycling and motoring in Ireland in the late 19th C. I've got the 1891 3rd. revised and updated edition. Queen Victoria acquired a tricycle, wear wool never vegetable fibres such as linen to guard against noxious gasses , drinking water can be injurious and the social inhibitions of pointing out to strange women how they are doing cycling wrong. Many other valuable bits of information.

Here's a link to a photo album of some of my cycling ephemera. https://1drv.ms/f/s!Av-NlJsKWC3udVllzgxeNptKo_w

nun

For anyone wanting to do some ultralight touring on lightweight bikes in remote areas the Crane Brother's "Journey to the Centre of The Earth" is a must read. The equipment list with weights in the Appendix is great.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...id=134003&v=16

If you are in Britain these classic guides are also a must

https://www.amazon.com/Cycling-Touri.../dp/184994038X

shipwreck

Nicolas and Richard Crane were cousins. At any rate, it is a must read. Tossing tools and drilling holes in everything left.

scroungetech

While I haven't read enough touring travel writing to know if these are definitely favorites, these 2 books were both interesting:

The Road Headed West by Leon Mc Carron

and

Metal Cowboy by Joe Kurmaskie

The first is an Irishman crossing the US & is interesting for being the perspective of an outsider. He calls tank tops string vests, is nearly shot, hangs out with a variety of interesting fellow travellers, carries a small flask of Bushmills whisky & is occasionally cantankerous.

The 2nd is not really a contiguous story. Rather, each chapter was a stand-alone newspaper column amassed over years of touring.

~scroungetech

scroungetech

I forgot one:
Next Stop Adventure by Matt Gauck. Published by Pioneers Press. You'll likely have to order it direct from them, as they're an Indy/Underground operation.

The author rides junk bikes, eats out of dumpsters and rolls on a nearly zero budget. Including through Alaska. With a cracked rear hub flange. And then returns his bear canister to REI for a refund. This is not your usual travel writing. But he does persevere through some rough spots quite admirably. If you have any affinity with the punk rock scene & the diy ethic, this will be a good read. And this publisher has many other quality offerings.

arctos

Ian Hibell, Dervla Murphy, Bettina Selby, Lloyd Sumner, Barbara Savage have all written inspirational bike travel books. Great cross cultural perspectives with many stereotypes often shattered for the rider and the reader.

veganbikes

Stars and Watercarriers, A Sunday in Hell, La Course En Tete and probably Breaking Away would be my favorites as far as movies. Eddy Merckx is one of the greatest cyclists of all time and is just fun to watch.

Aidoneus

The Coyote's Bicycle by Kimball Taylor is on my reading list.

antokelly

This is a classic must watch put the rest of us to shame.

robow

the Classic !

veganbikes

Some kids at the shop didn't know the movie, I almost wanted to fire them on the spot or at least force them to watch it Clockwork Orange style

DropBarFan

I liked Breaking Away but have quibbles. Bad Guy Italian team wrecks Dave by sticking frame pump into spokes: racers didn't race w/pumps & Italians were already dominating the road race so no special reason to wreck him. & there never was a townie team in the Little 500, after the movie there have been "Cutter" teams but comprised of Uni Indiana students. & the Little 500 took many steps to bar "exceptional" riders from participating incl Cat 2 amateurs.

robow

You can't over analyze a classic, lest you see Dave drafting behind that truck in a lower gear than humanly possible at supposedly 50 mph.

DropBarFan

Good catch. In QuickSilver the hero knows how to hold onto backs of trucks to get free acceleration from red lights, folks actually did that but too risky for me.

OK, how about favorite tv ads featuring cycling? There was a beer ad from ~1980 where a businessman/former jock is challenged to enter a 3-day stage race in the mountains & w/o special training wins the GC! But the race scenes were fairly realistic-looking at least.

In '88 Seoul Olympics there was a nice ad where this 80-yr old Korean farmer bike-packs on his ancient commuter bike 100's of kms to watch the Olympic cycling races.

thumpism 

Movie: The Flying Scotsman


The Flying Scotsman (2006) - IMDb


I tripped across the beginning of this while channel surfing once and enjoyed it, the story of Graeme Obree of hour record fame. You'll recognize actor Jonny Lee Miller (of "Elementary" and he was the first Mr. Angelina Jolie) in the lead role. Pretty good overall for a movie you never heard of about a real person in the world of cycling.

fietsbob

Read: Dervla Murphy https://www.dervlamurphy.com/fulltilt.html