[CR]Classic bike books

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Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 10:39:04 -0500
From: Jerry & Liz Moos <moos@penn.com>
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Classic bike books

One new member asked me offline if there is a good book about classic bikes. I must confess, I don't know of one definitive work. There seem to be two categories of books around. First there are those about then-new bikes that are now classic. These would include "The Complete Book of Bicycling", "The Custom Bicycle" and "The High-Tech Bicycle". Then there are partial histories of classic bikes treating one aspect only - "The Data Book" with lots of pictures and almost no text, "The Dancing Chain", mostly about derailleurs, very little on frames or complete bikes, "Bikelore", more about men than machines.

Anyone know of a book that traces the history of bikes from the beginning of the 20th century to it's end, with descriptions of the major brands in each era in various countries, the models for racing, touring, etc. and the components used? "The Dancing Chain" sort of achieved this, but for derailleurs only. Anyone one know of a comprehensive history of bicycles, or even quality lightweight bicycles in the 20th century? BTW, does anyone know if the Japanese versions of "The Data Book" contained any significant text? The English edition has only a page or two of Japanese text, with a translation. Everything else is just captions for the illustrations, apparently from the magazines where the illsutrations first appeared, and mostly in French (occsaionally my high school/college French comes in handy).

Regards,

Jerry Moos