Its All About the Bike, Robert Penn
Its All About the Bike, Robert Penn
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It's All About the Bike
The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels

Author: Robert Penn

Narrator: Jonathan Cowley

Unabridged: 5 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/13/2012


Synopsis

Robert Penn has saddled up nearly every day of his adult life. In his
late twenties, he pedaled 25,000 miles around the world. Today he rides
to get to work, sometimes for work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to
travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, and to skip bath time with his
kids. He's no Sunday pedal pusher. So when the time came for a new bike,
he decided to pull out all the stops. He would build his dream bike,
the bike he would ride for the rest of his life; a customized machine
that reflects the joy of cycling.It's All About the Bike follows
Penn's journey, but this book is more than the story of his hunt for
two-wheel perfection. En route, Penn brilliantly explores the culture,
science, and history of the bicycle. From artisanal frame shops in the
United Kingdom to California, where he finds the perfect wheels, via
Portland, Milan, and points in between, his trek follows the serpentine
path of our love affair with cycling. It explains why we ride.It's All About the Bike
is, like Penn's dream bike, a tale greater than the sum of its parts.
An enthusiastic and charming tour guide, Penn uses each component of the
bike as a starting point for illuminating excursions into the rich
history of cycling. Just like a long ride on a lovely day, It's All About the Bike is pure joy—enriching, exhilarating, and unforgettable.

About Robert Penn

Robert Penn is a journalist who writes for the Financial Times the Observer, the Sunday Times, and Conde Nast Traveller, as well as numerous cycling publications. He also wrote and presented the BBC documentary Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle. Robert lives in the Black Mountains, South Wales, with his wife and three children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mike on March 03, 2015

Great for the Cyclist Enthusiast I was given this book as a Christmas present, so I had absolutely no preconceptions about it. I have not read many books about bicycling. It seems like an activity that is best experienced directly rather than vicariously, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The book......more

Goodreads review by Ragav on January 28, 2020

All about bike I am a cyclist, it has become sort of my identity lately, and despite being one I had never read a book on cycling. I was gifted this book and the subject of the book was very interesting to me, its about the author’s journey of building his dream bike , he travels to different part of......more

Goodreads review by Philippe on May 16, 2016

This is a delightfully entertaining riff on one of the greatest inventions of humankind: the bicycle. Cheap, elegant, efficient and clean, it had a tremendous influence on the social mores, urban development and technological progress of the last 150 years. The bicycle was a key driver behind the em......more

Goodreads review by Vishal on June 28, 2021

I've got no words for how beautiful this book is. The way Robert Penn talks about his dream bike and goes about assembling it while traversing the length and breadth of the country, all the time talking us through the history of cycling and the evolution of every bicycle component is exhilarating.......more

Goodreads review by Lily on March 10, 2021

Excellent - rich in history & (some downright crazy!) facts & humour & love for the bike. Laughed out loud a fair few times & had a smile on my face throughout. Appreciate my bikes in a whole new way & love them even more than I thought possible. & I am very excited at the prospect of building my ow......more