This economic and technical history of the early American bicycle industry focuses on the crucial period from 1876 to the beginning of World War I. It looks particularly at the life and career of the industry's most significant personality during this era, Albert Augustus Pope. After becoming enamored with English high-wheeled bicycles during a visit to the Philadelphia World's Fair in 1876, Pope soon started paying Hartford, Connecticut's Weed Sewing Machine Company to make his own brand of high-wheeler, the "Columbia," the first to be manufactured in America in significant numbers. A decade later, Pope bought out that company, and ten years after that, Hartford's Park River was lined with five of Pope's factories. This book tells the story of the Pope Manufacturing Company's meteoric rise and fall and the growth of an industry around it.

What started out as one person's bike ride to lose some weight became the story of a slice of America from the Pacific Northwest to the Florida Keys. There were big cities, rural towns and great stretches of open land. Heroes and villains are out there too, but mostly it's fine people living day-to-day and unknowingly impressing strangers. The weather wasn't left out either. From the first winter storm in the mountains of Washington through the tailwinds in Idaho to the heat and storms of the South, weather kept things from getting boring. Seeing America at ten miles an hour without the protective shell of a car allows all of the senses to get to know the country. It was an interesting ride with insights into culture and sore muscles. And then there was the awesome chocolate sundae in a ranch town in Utah This personal narrative also has an appendix that acts as a guide for others that might want to try their own adventure. There are details on gear, route selection, and expenses and most of all encouragement. You don't know what you'll find out there on the road until you get there.

Bicyclist/journalist Alan Snel decided to pack a lifetime of bicycle misadventures, crazy times and tender moments into a collection of bicycle stories thatspan nearly 40 years. Bicyclingcan be about giving you a ride to work, a front-row seat to see nature, a meditation session, a workout or a ride across the country. Alan has bicycled it all and tried it all, even trying to increase the profile of bicycling in Tampa Bay -- talk about a long uphill ride. This is Alan's love sonnet to bicycling in all its forms. Never stop pedaling.

An Alternative History of Bicycles and Motorcycles: Two-Wheeled Transportation and Material Culture accounts for the nineteenth-century creation and development of two-wheeled vehicles, both human-powered and motorized. Specifically, the book focuses on the period from 1885 (which saw the appearance, simultaneously, of the Safety bicycle and the Einspur, the first motorcycle) to 1920, while exploring implications for later bicycling and motorcycling. We argue that invention of these vehicles, rather than the product of gifted individuals, should be seen as the consequence of a number of historical, economic, cultural and political forces that intersect so unpredictably that the notion of a genius inventor is reductive. The common evolutionary model of development from the bicycle to the motorcycle oversimplifies both the technology and its origins. Stripping the vehicles of all their material and cultural associations, such a model fails to advance our understanding of the devices, their creators, and their riders. Taking a contemporary vehicle and tracing its lineage creates a false sense of evolutionary necessity in its creation, and fails to account for the many possible developmental paths that were, for whatever reason, abandoned. By contrast, our book adopts a material culture approach, a form of inquiry that stresses the connections between artifacts and social relations. We consider not simply the bicycle and motorcycle as material objects but focus also on the complex socio-political and economic convergences that produced the materials, materials that in turn themselves shaped the vehicles’ appearance, function, and adoption by riders.

Climate researcher David Kroodsma dreamed of bicycling down his driveway in Palo Alto, California, and pedaling for months until he reached the tip of South America. When he finally planned his trip, he wanted more than just adventure; he also wanted to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on the countries he would explore. So he set out on a well-packed bicycle with a business card, a laptop, and an eagerness to share his knowledge. His project, Ride for Climate, caught on; he gave over 100 school and assembly presentations, garnered dozens of newspaper accounts of his journey, and appeared on international television. During nearly two years of travel, Kroodsma witnessed the world from a seat of a bicycle. He traversed unique ecosystems, coastline settlements, and glaciated mountains. "While biking," he writes, "no windshield protects you from the rain, heat, or wind, and no wall divides you from the people along the road." Countless people, from subsistence farmers to petroleum engineers, sheltered him and shared their stories. These experiences transformed and personalized his understanding of climate change, and in The Bicycle Diaries, Kroodsma shares these unexpected insights through a gripping travel narrative.

Examining cycling from a range of geographical perspectives, this book uses historical and contemporary case studies to look at the history, politics, economy and culture of cycling. Pursuing a post-structural position in viewing understandings of the bicycle as contingent upon time and place, author Glen Norcliffe argues for the need for widespread processes such as gendered use of the bicycle, the Cyclists’ Rights Movement, and the globalization of bicycle-making to be interpreted in different ways in different settings. With this in mind, the essays in the book are divided into two sections: relational aspects are examined as Spaces of Cycling which treats technological development, innovation, and the location of production and trade of cycles, while Places of Cycling interprets specific sites of consumption - the streets of the city, in the cycling clubs, among men and women, and at the trade show. Written from a geographer’s integrative perspective to offer a broad understanding of cycling, this book will also be of interest to other social scientists in urban studies, cultural studies, technology and society, sociology, history and environmental planning.

Clive quit his job as an accountant to fulfil a dream of cycling through Mexico and Central America. Pedalling through impressive scenery he ran out of water, suffered eye injury and had to get the bike fixed after a breakdown. In the heat of Mexico he frequently needed to stop for refreshment. This created ideal opportunities to chat to local people. He found the charm of Mexicans arresting, and their tales add spice to a colourful portrait of life in Mexico today. He chronicles the build up to a festival in San Cristóbal, where he spent nearly three weeks. At times Clive had doubts about his ability to carry on. A strand of optimism runs through the narrative, which helps him see problems not as obstacles but as something waiting for a solution. From Mexico he continued cycling through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Civil wars made Central America a no-go area for tourists for twenty years. There is eye-arresting poverty seldom seen in Europe. Now it is changing. Clive’s story tells of warm and hospitable people who are happy to talk about their experiences and views of the world. Even the police buck the popular image, as he finally arrived on the banks of the Panama Canal with a police escort, concluding in style a 7,000 kilometre journey through a little known but fascinating part of the world.” See clive's website www.cliveparker.co.uk "It is a wonderful read, giving a vivid picture of life in Central American countries. The writing style is crisp and punchy.......the effect is one of great immediacy. Recommended reading for anyone visiting Central America." Anne Mustoe, best selling author of A Bike Ride and other books.

How to Bicycle Across America is a solo tour of the southern United States, over 2,800 miles from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, taking 32 riding days to complete. The journey was broken into five stages over five years. Flying in and out of each start and finish point, then cycling five to seven days to complete a section ranging from 450 to 700 miles. The book is a “how-to-guide” that covers all the details - equipment used, training, maps and elevation charts. If you’ve had the urge to do a long distance bicycle tour or learn more about the southern United States, then come and take your time traveling the back roads through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Discover the uniqueness of each state, “tasting” the various local flavors while gaining a true appreciation for the country and people. Read how the ride became a focus on people, pain, and persistence. Experience the various challenges and the rewards along the way. Enjoy the funny stories and lighthearted entertainment from an Aussie’s perspective. Be inspired to maybe start your own adventure. Reviews: •What a terrific story! Your ride just has to make all of us couch potatoes, green with envy. – Dan (Cleveland, OH) •The excellent descriptions are making my mouth water for a ride of my own. – Ron (Scottsdale, AZ) •Entertaining, to the point, and I can picture being there as you’re describing things. – Linda (Pittsburgh, PA) •Great reading!! Would love to do the same . . . Very motivating. – Robert (Austin, TX) •Succinct and witty observational humor. – Joe (London, UK) Shane was born in Australia and moved to the United States in 1997.He met his wife in Canada snow skiing and they have two grown children. Shane has worked in the technology industry for a number of years and owns a software company based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As Evan Friss shows in his mordant history of urban bicycling in the late nineteenth century, the bicycle has long told us much about cities and their residents. In a time when American cities were chaotic, polluted, and socially and culturally impenetrable, the bicycle inspired a vision of an improved city in which pollution was negligible, transport was noiseless and rapid, leisure spaces were democratic, and the divisions between city and country blurred. Friss focuses not on the technology of the bicycle but on the urbanisms that bicycling engendered. Bicycles altered the look and feel of cities and their streets, enhanced mobility, fueled leisure and recreation, promoted good health, and shrank urban spaces as part of a larger transformation that altered the city and the lives of its inhabitants, even as the bicycle's own popularity fell, not to rise again for a century. --Publisher's description.

The United States differs from other developed nations in the extent to which its national bicycle transportation policy relies on the use of unmodified roadways, with cyclists obeying the same traffic regulations as motor vehicles. This policy--known as "vehicular cycling"--evolved between 1969, when the "10-speed boom" saw a sharp increase in adult bicycling, and 1991, when the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials adopted an official policy that on-road bikeways were not desirable. This policy resulted from a growing realization by highway engineers and experienced club cyclists that they had parallel interests: the cyclists preferred to ride on highways, because most bikeways were not designed for high speeds and pack riding; and the highway engineers did not want to divert funding from roadways to construct bikeways. Using contemporary magazine articles, government reports, and archival material from industry lobbying groups and national cycling organizations, this book tells the story of how America became a nation of bicyclists without bikeways.