Re: [CR]Best British Bikes 35/54...a coffee table tome?

(Example: Production Builders)

From: "P.C. Kohler" <kohl57@starpower.net>
To: "Peter Jourdain" <pjourdain@yahoo.com>, "Toni Theilmeier" <toni.theilmeier@t-online.de>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <20050313150800.16152.qmail@web40906.mail.yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Best British Bikes 35/54...a coffee table tome?
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 10:28:44 -0500


Actually, I am surprised there isn't a book "Roll Britannia: The Golden Era of the British Lightweight Bicycle" or something along these lines. No country on earth produces more specialty interest books and on every arcane subject imaginable. So maybe this is telling us something...

The issue seems to be focus: cycling history tends to focused on races and riders rather than the machines themselves and I am not sure how many folks are interested in the technical aspects of this. Certainly, the illustrative content of any book on British cycles would be a "wow".. no other country produced such lovely and evocative illustrations, catalogues etc.

I'd prefer a marque-oriented book with a good overview of a specific firm and then capsuled histories of say four of their major lightweights over the period. Raleigh, for example, and then the RRA, Clubman and the Lentons in their various guises. Period illustrations mixed with photos of restored examples, etc.

But tis a lot of work, guys.... trust me, I've written four books and two have been practically self-published and you don't know what work is until you've done this.

Me, I'd be content for now with just more material and data in Dale's own CR site and the Retro Raleighs site (you may have seen my article on the Raleigh Clubmans in this... this is sort of model specific review with the right mix of illustrations that could indeed be the basis for a book) and I've always said that Hilary Stone could do a book just with the superb photos he uses in his eBay listings, or at least a website on components.

All fun to ponder whilst astride a 1948 RRA which I may do later today. It's well known than Sir Edward Elgar got many of his "tunes" in his head whilst cycling on his Sunbeam so that's at least a start.

Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA