[CR] A question on the book, The Golden Age of handbuilt Bicycles

(Example: Framebuilders:Richard Moon)

Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 13:07:04 -0800
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: [CR] A question on the book, The Golden Age of handbuilt Bicycles


>Charlie: In the publication of any book the author painfully has to
>decide what will be left out of the book in addition to what will be
>included in the book.

In fact, the author first decides what book to write, and then which title it should get. The title needs to reflect its contents, but also entice people to read the book.

So we decided to make a book about the French constructeurs, because nothing had been published on the subject in the English language. If we called it "The best of French bicycle builders," most people would think of Gitane and Peugeot, and they would either not be interested, or, if they are Gitane lovers, they'd be disappointed. "The French Constructeurs of Bicycles in Post-War Paris" doesn't really roll off the tongue, either.

The selection of bicycles for books is hard, too, because I want every bike to be "right" and original. There is nothing wrong with restorations and bikes built from pieced-together components, but they cannot serve as references for "how they were back then." For our book "The Competition Bicycle," we rejected many bikes after traveling long distances to see them, because they either were fakes (one Gitane of Jacques Anquetil stands out in that respect) or not original.

It's easy to make a wish list of bikes, but it's much harder to find those bikes, get them together in a few locations, and have them ready for photography. Consider that one day of photography costs at least $2000 without travel expenses, so you can't travel very far to photograph only one bicycle. Our last book was such a monumental undertaking in logistics and financial outlay (the photography alone cost $50,000, printing adds roughly that much again) that I doubt there will be another one like it any time soon.

It's much easier to pull together a few archive photos, write some text ... which is why there have been few books like ours. One exception is "Smart Move," which was inspired by our books, and which is an impressive achievement. All the bikes are from the same collection, which simplified logistics - no travel required - but this also means that the bikes represent what was on hand, rather than the best bike of each kind.

As a business proposition, cycling books with original studio photography make little sense, the few people who bother to publish them only make them because we love bicycles and beautiful books. Even in the car world, there are few books with studio photos, and many more with shots taken in parking lots and at car meets. Even for popular classic makes, such as MG or Jaguar, I am not aware of anything that comes close to "The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles," especially at a price that is affordable. (There is a wonderful book about Audi in Germany, which costs about $ 300.)

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
2116 Western Ave.
Seattle WA 98121
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com