It's All About the Bike, Robert Penn

27th December 2020

'The bicycle saves my life every day,' states Robert Penn in the Prologue to It's All About the Bike. He goes on to evoke moments of awe or freedom on a bike, and 'the resurgence of hope pedalling to the top of a hill with the dew of effort on your forehead.'

The author's enthusiasm for bikes is already clear, but what is the book about?

You could say it's the story of him buying a bike, while going off on lots of tangents; it's also a history of the bicycle - but neither of these descriptions really does it justice.

What is clear is the structure of the book: each chapter is based on a part of the bicycle, starting with the frame in Chapter 1.

For the chapter on hand-built frames, Penn visits as many of the British frame-builders as he can. 'Everywhere I saw pride in workmanship, and a connection to the tradition of British craftsmanship...'

The following chapters are about the steering system, the drivetrain, the wheels and the saddle.

Really, though, the chapter themes simply provide a framework within which to arrange well-told history and entertaining anecdotes. One of many digressions from the core theme of a chapter comes when the author visits Portland, Oregon: he describes the city's success in providing for utility cycling.

Here's another 'factoid', about the biological efficiency of pedalling, that gives a flavour of the writing style throughout the book.

"Cycling with regular pedals and cranks, our legs only push on the pedal for a small part of each pedal rotation: about 60 degrees. For the other 300 degrees of the revolution, the main muscles in that leg - hamstrings and quadriceps - are at rest, and able to absorb blood, carrying replacement energy."

This is an original type of book. I defy anyone to read it without learning something about the history and the mechanics of the bicycle; and it's never dull.

Book Details

• First published by Particular Books in 2010
• Published by Penguin Books in 2011