Cycling’s Greatest Misadventures
Edited by Erich Schweikher
Casagrande Press, Solana Beach, California
252 pages, $US 16.95
This book is an anthology of 27 true stories drawn from a full spectrum of cycling experiences. As the title suggests, most of these tales are stories of accidents, foolishness, or calamities ranging from silly to tragic. At least one story describes behaviour so infantile I was surprised the author would admit to it, much less publish it.
Bob Mina’s Spin Cycle tells how he managed to crash a stationary bike in a gym class by pretending he was in a road race and braking much too hard.
Amy Tavala’s story Riding Tandem with Rodent describes her experience of having a large live rat trapped in her front spokes, wrapped around the hub. The rat’s tail whipped her bare leg with each rotation of the wheel.
There are stories of mountain bikers who were attacked by a bull; of an aspiring hotshot road racer who was defeated by husky young farm workers riding singlespeed clunkers; and of a guy who thought he could sew up a rip in a tire with dental floss. There is also an engaging historical story about the US Army’s 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, which was formed in 1896. That year and the next, the Corps made three long-distance rides (often where there weren’t any roads), before being disbanded at the beginning of the Spanish-American war. Photos of these rides are included.
Several stories relate the type of endurance cyclists must find within themselves to keep going against adversity. Michael McCann’s Divided on the Basin tells of crossing the Great Basin, a high plains desert in southern Wyoming: “a 134 mile stretch of desolation, without trees, drinkable water, or resources of any kind.” (The guidebook neglected to mention the wind.) Heather Andersen’s The Shock and Numbness Are Starting to Set In is a sensitive account of two people struck and killed by cars while on cross-country tours that she was leading.
The book concludes with Shashi Kadapa’s wonderful The Gowda And His Bike, about the first bicycle to appear in his remote Indian village in 1923, mail-ordered by the chief to impress the residents. He never did learn to ride it; instead he commanded two henchmen to run along beside him and hold it upright, a practice which continues in that village to this day.
As in any such anthology, the quality of writing varies, but all is acceptable, most is quite good and some is outstanding. Overall, the stories are well-chosen and well-edited. Recommended.
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