It’s the day after Christmas. I’m still down here in Southern Cal. Lots of family. My two brothers and I haven’t all been together for several years so I’ll be hanging with them as much as possible before coming back to Portland on Thursday. I’ve got some great things to post about and I look forward to getting back in the groove. For now, I want to share my Christmas booty with you.
Being the bike freak of the family, I got a bunch of bike-inspired gifts. Here they are:
- A new bike bell. One of those dome ones that you just push to squeak. My mom got it from a .99 cent store.
- A patch kit in my stocking.
- New Belgium bike coasters.
- A bikey T-shirt from a charity ride with Gary Fisher for the Lansdale Playground in San Anselmo.
- A pad of paper with a euro citybike watermark.
- The book, “Need for the Bike” by Paul Fournel. Really looking forward to reading it.
- “The Rider“, by Tim Krabbe. Non-fiction cult classic novella published in 1978.
I know a lot of you are also the bike freaks of the family…so what type of bikey gifts did you get?
Thanks for reading.
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the rider is fanfreakintastic. have fun reading it. Need for the bike is also good.
My wife bought me a ton of bike and bike-related zines, including Chainbreaker, Go by Bike, and Resist. She also got me a book called Bicycle, which contains both a comprehensive history of the bike and a decent number of pictures to drool over.
We saw that Bicycle book in a bookstore yesterday, and I was wondering if it was any good. You like it so far?
My dad went whole hog and got me a beautiful nickel-platted chromoly pannier rack from Nitto. I’m hoping to do some off-road touring on my Atlantis this summer, and that should hold up under load nicely.
I read the Bicycle book last month (got it from the library). It is really good, and very well written. The surprise is, it’s not so much a history of the bicycle from then till now, as it is a history of the very beginnings of the bicycle, from 1860 or so to 1905. The author gives brief coverage of the 20th century, but the bulk of the book, and the most interesting material by far, is the history that takes us from the foot-powered velocipede to the modern safety bicycle.
I liked it a lot.
I got a Bicycle menora for Chanuka. I should have pictures of it on my website soon.
The Rider is the amazing. Enjoy!