Essential Bicycle Maintenance & Repair targets road bikes and, in essence, is a good reference for standard servicing and repairs. The author, Daimeon Shanks, has worked as a mechanic for Jonathan Vaughter’s Garmin-Transitions pro cycling team and has followed a logical and methodical approach in creating this book.

Beginning with a checklist of tools and bike cleaning, each part of the bicycle is addressed individually: Frame & Fork, Handlebars & Stem, Saddles & Seatpost Wheels, Tires, Brakes, Cranks & Chainrings, Shifters & Derailleurs, Chains & Cogsets and, Pedals & Cleats.

Within each section there is a broad introduction, and introductions to each sub topic, followed by step-by-step instructions accompanied by black and white photos. For the gears you will learn how to install shifters, cabling, then install and adjust rear and front derailleurs. There is a page and a half on trouble-shooting and then detailed instructions for installing and adjusting Time Trial shifters and Shimano Di2.

As this is a general maintenance book, it would be impossible to cover every single variation and problem-shoot every single problem. The instructions are general and, depending on your equipment, there will certainly be variations. This book, however, provides a good introduction; for people who haven’t any experience servicing a bike, the concepts and mechanics are explained and it provides the broadest possible coverage. In the case of bottom brackets, for example, we learn of the English and Italian BB standards, and there are specific instructions for BB30 and BB90 bottom brackets as well as Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo specific cranks.

The author assumes some knowledge, or lets say willingness to learn. In some of the steps it is important to understand the terminology and concepts in order to continue. For example, the function of a cone in a wheel hub is explained, however, if you jump ahead into a set of instructions, you may need to return to the start of the chapter to pick up the basics if you don’t already know them.

As an avid cyclist I actually found that I was able to sit down and enjoy reading through a few chapters the first time, rather than relegate this book to just as a reference for specific maintenance or repair tasks. Daimeon Shanks has taken the time to provide background information which simply makes for a better understanding, explaining the difference between brands or systems and also throwing in a few anecdotes.

There is a slight American flavour to the book when it comes to suggestions or recommendations for oils, cleaners and degreasers, for example; some of the suggested products are not freely available in Australia. I feel that the author has overlooked including a bike work-stand as recommend equipment for repairing and servicing a bike; this is a missing-link in many of the repairs and servicing duties.

As a bonus, there is a short section towards the end covering bike fitting. While this would never be a replacement for a professional fit, it does provide an introduction into the topic, even comparing some popular bike fitting theories. The lesson is that even with a high-tech bicycle in tip top form, if it doesn’t fit the rider then there is a lot of wasted potential.

Without any doubt, you will find similar bicycle maintenance and repair books with the same level of depth. This book has been well planned and is also up-to-date (published 2012). Even better is that it is a very affordable $23.95. While there is also an eBook version, that is probably less practical unless you are happy getting grease all over your laptop or iPad as you flip through while fixing your road bike.

Essential Bicycles Maintenance & Repair is available online from Human Kinetics for $23.95 or from all good book stores.

The author, David Rapley, is an Australian and this book concentrates on classic bicycles in the hands of Australian collectors. The bikes featured come  from Europe and the US, as well as a healthy offering of Australian bikes as well. This hard-cover coffee-table book is less an encyclopedia and more a collection of bikes and their stories; it’s more like a museum in print.

Racing Bicycles: 100 Years of Steel begins in 1902 and continues (over 236 pages) to 1996 where it concludes with a slight deviation from steel, acknowledging the popularity of aluminium and carbon fibre and presenting a few bikes that demonstrate the racing world’s move away from steel.

Each bike shown has a small fact sheet that details the bike’s origins, model, condition (original or restored), frame size and a listing of all of parts. The author then demonstrates his extensive historical knowledge with a small writeup that reveals details of the brand and the bike; it’s informative enough to drag you in, but concise enough to keep your interest.

As you would expect from a coffee-table book, there are plenty of photos. We see each bike in all its glory as well as close-ups of important details, such as the ‘cut out’ bottom bracket of a Raleigh track bike (which would save a few grams), the artwork on an Australian Team Hartley track bike, and the chain ring and cranks of a Super Elliot (as shown below).

The bikes included are owned by private collectors in Australia and I found that the book’s crystal clear photography offered a unique insight into each collector; the bikes are set in scene, on location at their owner’s house. Mario Romeo, for example, has all of his bikes pictured in front of a red brick wall, Alan Telfer’s bikes are all shot in front of his garage or a grey garden wall, whereas the book’s author, David Rapley, presents his bikes in front of a wooden gate.

Modern cycling owes a lot to its history and traditions, and I found Racing Bicycles: 100 Years of Steel to be a fascinating read, particularly because of the Australian context. For collectors and aspirational collectors it is a must-have, for cyclists who recognise beauty in craftsmanship, you will more than appreciate this book.

Racing Bicycles: 100 Years of Steel is published by The Images Publishing Group and is available across Australia in all good book stores for RRP $69.99.

After Hamilton was busted for blood doping and couldn’t clear his name, he kept a low profile until he was summoned by Jeff Novitzky and, under oath, revealed all. Though this case against Lance Armstrong was dropped the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA) has come now close formally convicting one of the most prominent cyclists of our times.

The release of The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton, “co-authored” by Daniel Coyle, is well timed and critics are quick to point out that Hamilton will profit handsomely from it; after all, it is focused primarily on Hamilton, Armstrong and doping. As it turns out, Hamilton was in the right place at the right time to give us an account of what went on.

The book is an eye-opener and Hamilton owns up to his failings; he isn’t a saint and shows his path to doping and cheating the system. Systematic doping and evading the authorities was planned in careful detail. When you are already riding at your limit, getting the extra advantage can be the difference to getting dropped or attacking and dropping others. It was not a level playing field, rather competition of who was doping the best.

This is a well written book that I found hard to put down until I had finished reading it. The level of detail makes it really hard to believe that this is just another fairy tale. The personality traits and power of Armstrong are uncovered. Where the seven time Tour de France winner is a confident and charismatic personality in the media, inside the cycling world he can dominate, intimidate, manipulate and control. It’s pretty damning, and while Hamilton is portrayed as a more passive character in the relationship, even after leaving (or being ejected) from team US Postal, his journey continued with doping.

One incident sheds light on the relationship between Hamilton and Lance: in 2004 Hamilton’s team was summoned to the UCI headquarters in Switzerland. What seemed to be an unusual but unspectacular event was put into perspective when Armstrong’s team-mate, Floyd Landis, hinted shortly after that Armstrong was behind it, telling the UCI that Hamilton and the team were using new doping techniques.

Though it was obvious that Hamilton found it unfair, the relationship between the two continued as unfriendly rivalry. At least until Hamilton was busted for doping. He documents his demise, and details his depression and rejection. As clear and believable as many of the episodes are, others are speculative or open to speculation. Documenting instances of injecting EPO with other riders in the same room has more credibility than the stories heard “on the grapevine”. The book however pulls these into the chronological context and, in the case of the Dr Ferrari and Lance Armstrong connection for example, it becomes less and less likely that this relationship never involved doping prescriptions.

The author Daniel Coyle adds useful factual footnotes throughout the book that add context and value to the memoirs. As a reader I was always engaged; it was never too vague nor overly complex.

While it offers a level of satisfaction, confirming what went on behind closed doors, the Lance Armstrong saga remains unsettled; there may never be an actual admission of guilt, even though the evidence is stacked against him. As a powerful influencer, anything inconvenient can be wrapped up in spin, critics can be attacked and their motives questioned, their characters destroyed.

Though doping doesn’t turn lazy cyclists into winners, as Hamilton points out, doping also doesn’t create a level playing field.

Whether you are for or against Lance, or remain undecided, this is a good read and provides a new perspective, one you wont get from Phil Liggett. It is worth noting that there are differences in the US and UK versions of this book, the UK libel laws are stricter. The differences are relatively minor though if you are curious, the Velo Veritas website documents these differences.

I paid AUD 30 and in book stores it will be between $29 and $35. For an online option, Aussie book stores are pretty thin so go to Amazon The Secret Race US$17.24  (or US$12.99 for Kindle).

The format of the book presents photos of the original jerseys that were worn by professional cyclists and it is split into sections including Track, The Classics, Grand Tours and World Championship jerseys. The US section takes a different approach to categorising jeseys to better suit the competitive road racing on that continent.

While some pages show only jersey photos and rider names and year, a number of jerseys are singled out with background information on the rider. If you follow pro-cycling, the stories of current and recent cycling pros will be familiar. Since the original collector was Dutch, a generous selection of jerseys are from Dutch riders and there are plenty of classic jerseys and stories from European cyclists of yesteryear.

This book is available in Australia for RRP $34.95 and $5 from each sale goes to the Tour de Cure to fund cancer research, support and prevention projects in Australia.

Your local bike store SHOULD have these books in stock, and they don’t, get them to contact the Tour de Cure: www.tourdecure.com.au  (bike shops can order via email). It’s for a good cause so each purchase helps to make a difference.

We were offered the olive oils and wines of the house and the accommodation was amazing. The atmosphere was warm, authentic and reeking of tradition. We used this base in Chianti to discover Italy and get to know its distinct feel – whether it is an extravagant masterpiece or a restaurant with crass white fluorescent lighting and football running on tv to accompany an fantastic meal worthy of the finest restaurant. Particularly on the weekends, the cyclists decorated the country-side, from young, edgy bunches to the lone and very senior cyclists on steel bikes of old.

This distinct feeling of Italy seems to wrap itself like an aura around an Italian bicycle. Whether it’s a steel bike from the 70s’ or a hi-tech carbon fibre masterpiece, if it’s Italian, then it inherits an allure. A century of craftmanship, sporting achievement and design excellence stands behind Italian bicycles and equiptment.

My same enthusiam for Italy is reflected by the author Guido P. Rubino in his introduction and approach in presenting each brand in Italian Racing Bicycles. The large format (275 x 245mm) book is complete with numerous photos that makes it enjoyable to browse. Anecdotes and key moments in history are presented for each brand in an easy to read style that provides an insight while avoiding tedious elaboration.

While I had the book for review, it had the ability to capture the immediate interest of any other cyclist who spotted it. The name alone, Italian Racing Bicycles, invites you to peak inside and then it engages you. While not a fault, this book does limit the presentation of each brand to between two and twelve pages, so for a truely indepth insight, you will have to look elsewhere. It does however pick out important milestones in the brand development to give you a hints as to why a frame builder like Dario Pegoretti prefers stainless steel over titanium for example and how Eddy Merckx is connected to Masi.

Many of the brands covered have legendary status and if you are new to the world of cycling, a bit of time with this book will give you an appreciation of Italian bikes and equipment. And if you already appreciate the Italian style, this is a timeless book for light reading. It gets my thumbs up.

The 40 brands covered in this book are:
3TTT, Alan, Ambrosio, Atala, Bianchi, Bottecchia, Campagnolo, Casati, Cinelli, Colnago, Columbus, Daccordi, Dedacciai – Deda Elementi, De Rosa, Ganna, Gios, Gipiemme, Guerciotti, Legnano, Masi, Miche, Milani, Modolo, Moser, Olmo, Olympia, Passoni, Pegoretti, Pinarello, Rossin, Scapin, Selle Italia, Selle Royal – Fi’zi:k, Selle San Marco, Somec, Tommasini, Torpado, Universal, Viner, Wilier Triestina.

In Australia you can get Italian Racing Bicycles online from Woodslane – Travel and Outdoor Book Centre for $41.53. They usually dispatch within 24 hours and have a good selection of cycling and sporting books.

The Crooked Path to Victory: Drugs and Cheating in Professional Bicycle Racing is from Les Woodland was initially disappointing in terms of providing technical insights, and it doesn’t touch on any of the current controversies, but it does provide rich returns in understanding the culture of doping in cycling and its long history, going back to the start of professional cycling in the late 1800s and its roots in the ultra-endurance athletics fad of the 1870s.

Starting in the early 1890s with the horrendous 6-day solo races, pharmacological assistance went hand-in-glove with these gruelling  events, packaged by promoters and served to a mass audience hungry to be entertained by the suffering of others.

These weren’t 6-day stage races through the countryside, where the riders got post-stage massages, a civilised meal and a good night’s sleep. No, these went for six days non-stop, around rickety indoor wooden board tracks and around the clock. Clarification – are these track events? — yes The more tired and hallucinatory the riders got, the more the crowd packing into the stadium loved it. Shady promoters pulling out bottles of exotic substances with a grandiose flourish to keep the riders going were part of the spectacle. Dosed with cocktails of heroin, cocaine and strychnine, numerous talented riders met early and sad ends, a theme that is revisited numerous times throughout the book.

The book is not limited to drug-related cheating. In the early days of pneumatic tyres, it was common for riders and spectators to scatter nails across the road to slow riders they didn’t like. As the motor car became more accessible, drivers would from time to time attempt to take out riders from opposing teams. Sometimes groups of parochial spectators would lie in wait for competitors who were a threat to their local favourites. Sometimes they succeeded; sometimes competitors fought back or developed ruses of their own to beat the cheats.

The book is not all doom and gloom however, and the author, a cycling enthusiast, lightens the tone with amusing anecdotes of riders pulling the wool over the eyes of officials and other riders. Episodes are shared in which riders have played practical jokes on the peloton, some of which backfired spectacularly. The 1969 Tour de France stage between Clermont-Ferrand and Montagis is one example.

Rini “Tufty” Wagtmans attacked early in the neutral zone before the official start and then, out of sight around a corner, hid in an alleyway. The peloton, enraged, took off after him. What Tufty hadn’t banked on was how spectacularly successful his ruse would be, and instead of joining his pals at the back at a sedate pace for a laugh, he was reduced to chasing the bunch for miles, his face grimacing and his teeth clenched.

Through most of professional cycling’s history, making a satisfactory living has been extremely difficult. Except for the select few stars and team leaders who made good wages, the rest, the domestiques (whose job is to protect and assist the rider with the best chance of winning) would often only be given a couple of jerseys, some bike shorts and a bike, and make do with prize money that the team accumulated during a race. Endorsements from outside the bike industry were rare.

It come as no surprise then that “understandings” and “arrangements” were often made between riders to share out the limited money on offer, and race results were often the result of these arrangements rather than who was best on the day.

This background provides a rich vein of stories of riders bucking the arrangement and upsetting the established order, with personal feuds and careers made and destroyed. This is presented by the author in an entertaining style, as an example, riders who had won the World Champs or another major race and resulting in their cycling career finishing instead of being kick-starting.

Frequently race organisers would expect the “stars” and their teams to make their way from one multi-day stage race in Italy or Spain after having won or done well, and then a day later turn up in northern Holland or Belgium to start another gruelling race and somehow be in top form. It was difficult to resist the pressure to take “a little something to help” and ignore the long term consequences to one’s health for the sake of the team and the next pay-cheque. The “dirty little secret” of professional cycling was an accepted part of the peloton  followed into the sixties.

The development of the anti drugs in sport laws by the left wingers in French politics began in the mid-1960s, up until which time the “dirty little secret” of professional cycling was simply part of the peloton. As this is explored it marks the start of the battle between riders and testers which unfolds as a cat-and-mouse game. In rapid succession the author shares tales of hidden tubes being used to supply samples before  taking a journey closer to the pharmacological bleeding edge.

The tragedy and irony of the high-profile death on Mont Ventoux of British star Tom Simpson is explored and the seriousness with which detection was applied by sporting authorities through the seventies and eighties increase. Fascinating detail is given to explosive Festina affair of 1998 which even included a few political conspiracy speculations. The Festina Affair was a seminal event in sports doping and sent shockwaves through professional sport worldwide.

Interesting Whatever happened to…? vignettes look into the repurcussions for those who were caught and punished fleshing out how they dealt with (and sometimes didn’t deal with) the impact on their careers of being caught cheating.

A useful set of references concludes the book for avid readers wishing to explore cycling history and sports doping generally in more detail

While the book didn’t deal with the subject quite the way I expected, and doesn’t take a view on whether the current state of professional cycling is now “clean”, it was nevertheless a riveting read.  Instead of quickly-dated technical information, the book deals more with the structural issues in professional cycling as a form of entertainment, particularly how the tensions between the interests of promoters and cyclists themselves have often led to riders burning their candles at both ends. That it does this while remaining thoroughly entertaining is a credit to the writer and his tabloid journalism background.

Likes

• Easy to read, entertaining style
• Doesn’t gloss over the seriousness of the human issues
• Thought provoking without being “heavy”

Dislikes

• Typesetting could be better

My Rating:  4 out of 5

This book and more are available from the Woodslane Online Bookstore:
The Crooked Path to Victory: Drugs and Cheating in Professional Bicycle Racing is from Les Woodland

Having read it, and liked it, I suppose I had better give you a review of it. A Dog In A Hat is about an American cyclist named Joe Parkin who, like a lot of non-European cyclists, realises that to be a pro-cyclist he’s going to have to go to Europe and race. So he goes to Belgium, where cycling is looked upon in the same way that rugby league and cricket are in Australia. There he is forged into a Tour de France winning champion, defeating Eddy Merckx and Lance Armstrong while getting the girl and slaying the evil dragon. Actually no, it isn’t about that at all, and that’s where this book differs from dozens of other books on cycling; it’s not about the top end of the sport or the rise and/or fall of a hero.

Joe’s adventures in Belgium in the late 80s, moving from the amateur to the professional ranks, are about racers you have likely never heard of racing in places that are equally obscure. It’s about a culture that sounds like science fiction to cycle tragics like myself living and riding in suburban Australia. The book paints a vivid picture of the training, the racing, the politics, the drug taking and the job of cycling in the lower professional ranks. This is the level that your local club hot-shot may ascend to (I’ve met a few who have) and the level from which the heroes of the pro circuit are chosen. It’s the testing ground that we very rarely hear about but which, logically, must exist if we’re to have a steady flow of riders in the top ranks. While big name cyclists and big races are mentioned in the book (Joe rode on the same team as Greg LeMond, for example), they’re supporting actors alongside the main stars: the racing and the racers.

“In those days, if a rider planned on being “good” for the race, then exactly fifteen minutes before the start a syringe would come out. Some clear liquid would be sucked up into it from any number of different ampoules and injected, either subcutaneously or intravenously. If injected subcutaneously, the substance was usually a low-grade amphetamine. Injecting it this way would create little time-release lumps under the skin that the riders called “bolleketten,” which basically means “little rocket balls.” Depending on the length of the race and/or its importance, a rider might have as many as four of these little balls hidden under the sleeves of his jersey or legs of his shorts. The shoulder area was the typical spot, since that was an area that might still have some fat on it. If the amphetamines were surgical-quality, the rider would probably shoot them directly into the “canal.” There are plenty of medical preparations that have genuine, legal uses for a cyclist, but as a general rule, anything being shot fifteen minutes before the start of a lesser race can be considered suspect.”

No topic is off limits in this book. The author openly discusses drug use (though I suspect his own use was not as “accidental” as he makes out), contracts, race fixing, dirty tricks and the conditions under which these young men live and race. Rather than a disjointed series of anecdotes, this book tells a story and flows from scene to scene. It’s well written and engrossing – you’ll likely finish it in just a sitting or two because you’ll want to turn the pages and see what happens next.

You don’t need to take my word for it, you can have a read of the foreword (written by Bob Roll) and first chapter by going to the A Dog In a Hat site and downloading it. When you’re done reading, get onto the Woodslane site and order a copy of A Dog in a Hat for yourself. Actually, while you’re there, also order the sequel “Come and Gone” which picks up where Joe left off, returning to America and resuming his racing career there. I mention this because Father’s Day is coming up and I know my wife will be reading this review when it’s put up (I want this book. Tell the kids). Trust me, you’ll want to read it when you’re done with A Dog In A Hat.

“In Belgium, a good local amateur is like an all-state high school quarterback in Texas. A decent local pro has about the same value as the amateur but lacks the promise of greatness in the future. I was a good amateur who held the American card. I was like the actor who goes after a rock-star fantasy-everyone wants to be
there when you rise to the top, but they are just as happy to see you fail miserably.”

While you’re buying books, have a look around at the cycling and other outdoor titles that Woodslane have. These niche bookstores are often a hit or miss affair, but Woodslane seems to be one of the hits. My package of books arrived in perfect condition; they were very well packed and delivered by courier. According to their website, they dispatch order within 24 hours. Their selection of books (6000+ titles) covers most areas of cycling as well as many other outdoor activities (and they have maps, I love maps).

If you want a good read about cycling from a different perspective than most cycling books, then this is a book for you. If you prefer massive tomes about the history of cycling and the greats of the sport, buy this book anyway because you’ll still really like it (and then buy those other books from Woodslane as well).

RRP: $39.95
Sale Price: $23.39 (incl GST) at the time of writing
Available Online from Woodslane: A Dog in a Hat