Subtitled: "an inspirational guide to bikes and bike culture", it is a short book comprising short articles about different people, their bikes and associated culture, glossy pages with lots of colour photos. It's a very diverse collection of individuals and groups from around the world - private and businesses. They remind me of me - highly individualistic (or weird, depending on your POV; some minds are about as open as a closed bank vault - especially where I live...:-(), I would say a lot more so. They know what they like, why they like it and they stick to it regardless of trends or fashions. Their fascination and obsession doesn't seem to wane after many years. It may have started in childhood. Evident is their sentimental attachment to inanimate objects. Some of them will wear period clothing when riding, eg The Guvnors' Assembly, a collective of Pashley Guv'nor owners who ride in something a gamekeeper wears.
One example is DJ Norman Jay MBE who, fascinated when first seeing a Chopper bike in the early 1970s, bought one secondhand in the late 80s and now has 18 of them which are kept with family and friends all over London. I fully understand and agree - more than he needs but probably not as many as he wants...
Needless to say, this diverse range of people have a diverse range of bikes - there doesn't seem to be any particular pattern except, save for a few, they are either very old or styled old. The only one featured you'd find in a typical UK bike shop is a Brompton, one on my wishlist.
Personally, very little featured in this book appealed to me, which isn't the point. What the book shows is a collection of individuals doing their own thing outside the mainstream and indicates levels of creativity possible when customising the bicycle. Quite interesting to read and an idea generator to get me thinking. Might get you thinking too. Inspirational. So the subtitle is accurate.
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