“Richard’s Ultimate Bicycle Book.”
review by JP
The bold bicycle author Richard Ballantine brings out the kaleidescopic spirit of cycling with all sorts of obscure and brilliant entries, tidbits and sidebars in his latest “Richard’s Ultimate Bicycle Book,” a coffee table book of snapshots all across cycling.
Of course, since it’s a DK Book, by ‘snapshot’ I mean the best photography of bikes available. Richard rightly figures that there are enough dull bike books out there to fill you in on the mundane details, so he goes for the big picture, including all things fascinating in the world of bikes…catching plenty of details along the way. This is the only bike book in print that gives you a feel for old bikes, custom bikes, work bikes, commuting bikes, rasta bikes…and recumbents.
“RUBB” is part of the amazing new line of DK Books, all of which are noteworthy and forward-thinking.
You should know more about “RUBB” history before you go further, however. “Richard’s New Bicycle Book” was dropped from print in favor of this photographic delight. While I agree that the new tops the old in many ways, it didn’t make it obsolete. The old paperback was full of the finest bicycle sketchings ever assembled in one book. I’ll be reprinting some of those sketches throughout this issue of OYB. I used to almost be a snob about modern bikes. I’d flip past the History chapter in bike books. (In fairness, all but a couple such chapters are dreadfully written and worth skipping.) But no more! I was fortunate to discover the earlier Richard’s New Book and felt the spark rise in me toward pennyfarthings and all things bike-due mainly to the fine artwork. The quality of writing throughout this book, which has more of it than “RUBB,” is anecdotal and superior to all similar titles. Lastly, “RNBB” has the best chapter on HPV’s and recumbents of any book. (You’ll want to avoid Richard’s Bike Book in its first edition–it’s a dull pocketsize book. The ‘New’ didn’t get added to the title until the 2nd ed., which is a larger paperback…and now quite hard to find.)
In that spirit, OYB proudly brings out a sample spread from “Richard’s Ultimate Bicycle Book.” Feast on it and learn, newbies and pros, one and all!
[No art available at this time… The spread is all about Informal Field Repairs. It shows a beat up cool old rasta-modified City Bike—-I’ve never seen such a bike in a bike book before! Bravo!—-with at least a dozen fixits accomplished with stuff found alongside the road. The next couple pages explain the fixits, but most are wonderfully original and entirely selfexplanatory. Only a biker with a need to invent such things! —And I’m VERY pleased Richard chose to pass them along! –See my story here on Exotic Repairs if you want more along these lines.]
