Just over six months ago, I started commuting to work by bike again after many years away from the saddle. For some reason, this time was different and I gradually became more and more hooked on riding, gradually metamorphosing from a sedentary public transport user into a lycra-clad road warrior.
Before long I was going on reasonably long rides and within six months had completed my first 100 mile sportive. Now, I ride at every opportunity, doing at least 40 miles at the weekend whenever I can get the time. What is it about cycling that’s so addictive? I set out to read as much as I could about this remarkable machine and its aficionados.
Robert Penn’s book is about building a bike out of the best possible components from around the world. This doesn’t mean that the result is something that you’d find being raced in the Tour de France; rather it’s something that is precisely tailored to the rider’s taste, shape and riding style.
Get a group of cyclists together and you can start a debate about just about any component of a bike, from gears to brakes, to saddles, to handlebars to the material used to make the frame. It’s a remarkable fact that although there are dozens of options for each of these components and more, the bike remains pretty similar to its earliest ancestor machines in many respects.
Penn devotes a chapter to each major decision that needs to be made when custom making a bike. For his frame, he chooses steel, which while simultaneously classic and trendy is not the lightest or most up to date material. It does look and feel great though.
One of the joys of the book is the time Penn gives to the master craftsmen who sweat the details of what makes a perfect seat post, bottom bracket, saddle or wheel. Their dedication to a niche of a niche is truly inspiring. Most bikes today are made out of cheap commodity parts, but if you’re prepared to pay, you can have beautifully made components made by people who know exactly what they’re doing. By and large his custom build is in impeccable taste, but the paint job of blue and orange sounds genuinely awful.
There’s more to this than simply a bike geek’s tour of the world though. Penn also shows how the bike has developed over the years in each of the major component groups, never assuming too much knowledge of the reader. And for those in the know, there’s greater depth and the odd amusing aside (like his remark that Johan Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong’s coach, ‘knows that success in road cycling is all about scientific precision’).
I doubt you’ll get much out of this book if you’re not already interested in cycling, and road cycling in particular, but if you are, I should warn you that should not be surprised to find yourself firing up every custom bike configurator you can find in your browser, which can become a very expensive habit if you click the ‘buy’ button too often…
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