The Bicycle Reader | Number 2: Spring 2013

The Bicycle Reader | Number 2: Spring 2013

This is the second issue of the Bicycle Reader. If youâ€™re new to the Reader, it is an occasional collection (around twice a year) of brilliant article and essay-length writing about cycling.

In this issue are eleven articles written between 1894 and 2013. Some are quick reads, others demand a little more time and concentration. From the 1890s, the decade of the second great bicycle boom, John Foster Fraserâ€™s account of an epic crossing of the Caucasus on his round-the-world journey is a masterpiece of deadpan understatement. More than a century later, Britain is again falling in love with the bicycle, and Patrick Field offers his prescription for harmonious two-wheeled living in the twenty-first century, arguing that cycling not only makes us happier and healthier people, it makes us better citizens.

With the notable exception of the cyclo-phobic William L. Alden, whose comic diatribe against the bicycle boom in mid-1890s London is yet to be matched (though many have tried), all the contributors share an appreciation of the potential of the humble bicycle to improve everyday lives. This is most evident in Christine Petersenâ€™s personal account of her long, determined quest to acquire a new bicycle. It is the liberating potential of the bicycle that shines through most strongly in the nostalgic recollections of a handful of listeners to The Bike Show who wrote in during a three-part mini-season on the Raleigh Bicycle Company to share their earliest experiences of an iconic British bicycle brand. Raleigh began making bicycles in 1887 and Peter Cox charts the parallel (and related) history of British cycle sport, examining the subject through the lens of social class and charting a journey from from aspirational, bourgeois pastime to twentieth century working class sport - and back again. Meanwhile, Paul Lamarra takes to the roads and wonders whether the bicycle will ever be embraced by the citizens of his home town of Glasgow. In 1932, with America in the throes of the Great Depression, newly-elected President Franklin Roosevelt counselled his fellow Americans that â€˜the only thing we have to fear is fear itselfâ€™ and sociologist Dave Horton offers a thoughtful analysis of how the very same emotion - fear - has become a major barrier to Britain becoming a cycling nation in the twenty-first century.

Just like Spring itself, this issue offers both sunshine and showers. Yet throughout runs a thread of optimism, echoing the sentiments expressed a century ago by â€˜Kuklosâ€™, perhaps the first British journalist to write at length about â€˜bicycle cultureâ€™,

â€œon every real bicycle there is the unseen pennant of progress, the standard of democracy, (and) the banner of freedom.â€
Country USA
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2013-03-17
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2013-03-17
Format	Kindle eBook

The Bicycle Reader | Number 2: Spring 2013

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