One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers

One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers

Author: Tim Hilton

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2005-06-06

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0006532284

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An entertaining social and cultural history of cycling in post-war Europe seen through the eyes of a veteran racing cyclist. Written with great literary and historical relish, One More Kilometre examines the spread of cycling's popularity, how it developed into a sport and how the bicycle has changed people's lives - all viewed through the eyes of a seasoned 56-year-old racing cyclist/art critic who keeps eleven racing cycles in his garden shed and who never cycles less than 10,000 miles a year. The book starts with the 1950s, regarded as the golden age of cycling, and when the author, 'an unhappy communist child', first discovered cycling and its emancipating powers. Progressing through four decades of cycling social history, the author will examine cycling as a Continental phenomenon, the rise and fall of the Tour de France; the lives of the great 'trackmen'; cycling in its domestic form, cycling for fun, the ever-popular British cycling clubs - some of which are over one hundred years old and are home to many fellow eccentrics, fanatics and old-timers, like the author's friend, 'the Yorkshire junior road race champion of 1954, now living in a caravan, crippled and penniless with his much younger companion a taxidermist - beautiful and cruel'. One More Kilometre is a lovely blend of personal anecdote, serious history and informed obsession, combining gentle humour, personal reminiscence and good history into a beguiling whole.


Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair

Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair

Author: C. Calvin Jones

Publisher: Park Tool

Published: 2019-04-24

Total Pages: 654

ISBN-13:

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The BBB-4 Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair by Calvin Jones is packed with easy-to-follow, step-by-step procedures, color photos and repair tips for keeping almost any road or off-road bike running smoothly and trouble-free. Whether it's repairing a flat tire, adjusting brakes and shifting systems, truing wheels, or maintaining hub, headset and bottom bracket bearing systems, the BBB-4 has you covered. Thoroughly researched and revised, the 4th edition of the Big Blue Book contains updated photos, torque specifications and troubleshooting tables, along with new content on wheel building, electronic shifting, 12-speed and 1X drivetrains, tubeless tires, disc brakes, headset and bottom bracket standards, and more. Truly an indispensable tool and reference source for both the novice and advanced bicycle mechanic.


Re:Cyclists

Re:Cyclists

Author: Michael Hutchinson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-03-23

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1472925610

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'As if Bill Bryson had taken to two wheels' - FT Somewhere in a German forest 200 years ago, during the darkest, wettest summer for centuries, the story of cycling began. The calls to ban it were more or less immediate. Re:Cyclists is the tale of the following two centuries. It tells how cycling became a kinky vaudeville act for Parisians, how it was the basis of an American business empire to rival Henry Ford's, and how it found a unique home in the British Isles. The Victorian love of cycling started with penny-farthing riders, who explored lonely roads that had been left abandoned by the coming of the railways. Then high-society took to it - in the 1980s the glittering parties of the London Season featured bicycles dancing in the ballroom, and every member of the House of Lords rode a bike. Twentieth-century cycling was very different, and even more popular. It became the sport and the pastime of millions of ordinary people who wanted to escape the city smog, or to experience the excitement of a weekend's racing. Cycling offered adventure and independence in the good times, and consolation during the war years and the Great Depression. Re:Cyclists tells the story of cycling's glories and also of its despairs, of how it only just avoided extinction in the motoring boom of the 1960s. And finally, at the dawn of the 21st century, it celebrates how cycling rose again - a little different, a lot more fashionable, but still about the same simple pleasures that it always has been: the wind in your face and the thrill of two-wheeled freedom.


Mountain Topped

Mountain Topped

Author: Mia Monroe

Publisher: Independently Published

Published: 2022-01-06

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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Can a fantasy about being shared turn into something more? Bowen's about to find out when he gets Mountain topped. Is there a bigger gay cliché than falling in love with your straight best friend? Oh, I know; a random hookup with a dude from the gym. I didn't think I'd ever manage to fall for anyone other than the unattainable Hawthorne, but the more time I spend with Aldis the more I... like him. As for my straight best friend... do straight guys usually stare so much when you're wearing gray sweatpants? I never thought the drunken admission of my deepest fantasy would lead to the three of us hooking up and Hawthorne looking at me like that. Now my best friend and my hookup-turned-more are bonding over their shared love of mountain climbing, the three of us are, ahem, exploring, and I'm hoping this is more than just a messy fling.


Higher Calling

Higher Calling

Author: Max Leonard

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-01-02

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1681776901

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Written with verve and enthusiasm, A Higher Calling explores why mountains have such a magnetic appeal to cyclists the world over. Max Leonard, himself an accomplished amateur cyclist, does not forget the pain, the glory, the sweat, and the tears that go into these grueling climbs. Many books tell you where the mountains are, or how long and how high. None of them ask why.“This is real cycling, where the glory is and where dreams come true,” according to Bradley Wiggins. Mountains are where cycling's greatest heroes have made their names. Every amateur rider wishes they could climb better, too. Are all these people addicted to the pain? To the achievement? Or to the allure of the peaks? Some spend their weekends and holidays cycling up mountains from start to finish. But how does a rider push themselves beyond their limits to get up a 10% gradient on pedal power alone? What is happening when they do?Blending adventure and travel writing with the rich narrative of racing, Max Leonard takes the reader from the battles that created the Alpine roads to the shepherds tending their flocks on the peaks, and to a Grand Tour climax on the “highest road in Europe.” And he tells stories of courage and sacrifice, war and love, obsession and even elephants, along the way.


We the Animals

We the Animals

Author: Justin Torres

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2011-08-30

Total Pages: 117

ISBN-13: 0547577001

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The critically acclaimed debut from the National Book Award–winning author of Blackouts. In this award-winning, groundbreaking novel, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become. “A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it.” —The Washington Post Three brothers tear their way through childhood—smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful. “We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful. It resembles no other book I’ve read.” —Michael Cunningham “A fiery ode to boyhood. . . A welterweight champ of a book.” —NPR, Weekend Edition NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE


Revolutions

Revolutions

Author: Hannah Ross

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-06-09

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 059308361X

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A history and celebration of women's cycling—beginning with its origins as a political statement, beloved pastime, and early feminist act—that shares the stories of notable cyclists and groups around the world More than a century after they first entered the mainstream, bicycles and the culture around them are as accessible as ever—but for women, that progress has always been a struggle to achieve, and even now the culture remains overwhelmingly male. In Revolutions, author Hannah Ross highlights the stories of extraordinary women cyclists and all-female cycling groups over time and around the world, and demonstrates both the feminist power of cycling and its present-day issues. A cyclist herself, Ross puts a spotlight on the many incredible women and girls on bicycles from then to now—many of whom had to endure great opposition to do so, beginning in the 1880s, when the first women began setting distance records, racing competitively, and using bicycles to spread the word about women’s suffrage. Revolutions also celebrates women setting records and demanding equality in competitive cycling, as well as cyclists in countries including Afghanistan, India, and Saudi Arabia who are inspiring women to take up space on the road, trails, and elsewhere. Both a history of women's cycling and an impassioned manifesto, Revolutions challenges a male-dominated narrative that has long prevailed in cycling and celebrates the excellence of women in the culture.


Beyond the Trees

Beyond the Trees

Author: Adam Shoalts

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0735236844

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National bestseller A thrilling odyssey through an unforgiving landscape, from "Canada's greatest living explorer." In the spring of 2017, Adam Shoalts, bestselling author and adventurer, set off on an unprecedented solo journey across North America's greatest wilderness. A place where, in our increasingly interconnected, digital world, it's still possible to wander for months without crossing a single road, or even see another human being. Between his starting point in Eagle Plains, Yukon Territory, to his destination in Baker Lake, Nunavut, lies a maze of obstacles: shifting ice floes, swollen rivers, fog-bound lakes, and gale-force storms. And Shoalts must time his departure by the breakup of the spring ice, then sprint across nearly 4,000 kilometers of rugged, wild terrain to arrive before winter closes in. He travels alone up raging rivers that only the most expert white-water canoeists dare travel even downstream. He must portage across fields of jagged rocks that stretch to the horizon, and navigate labyrinths of swamps, tormented by clouds of mosquitoes every step of the way. And the race against the calendar means that he cannot afford the luxuries of rest, or of making mistakes. Shoalts must trek tirelessly, well into the endless Arctic summer nights, at times not even pausing to eat. But his reward is the adventure of a lifetime. Heart-stopping, wonder-filled, and attentive to the majesty of the natural world, Beyond the Trees captures the ache for adventure that afflicts us all.


It's a Hill, Get Over It

It's a Hill, Get Over It

Author: Steve Chilton

Publisher: Sandstone Press Ltd

Published: 2013-09-19

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1908737581

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This book offers a detailed history of the sport of fell running. It also tells the stories of some of the great exponents of the sport through the ages. Many of them achieved greatness whilst still working full time in traditional jobs, a million miles away from the professionalism of other branches of athletics nowadays. The book covers the early days of the sport, right through to it going global with World Championships. Along the way it profiles influential athletes such as Fred Reeves, Bill Teasdale, Kenny Stuart, Joss Naylor, and Billy and Gavin Bland. It gives background to the athletes including their upbringing, introduction to the sport, training, working life, records and achievements. It also includes in-depth conversations with some of the greats, such as Jeff Norman and Rob Jebb. The author is a committed runner and qualified athletics coach. He has considerable experience of fell running, competing in the World Vets Champs when it was held in Keswick in 2005. He is a long-time member of the Fell Runners Association (FRA). Using a mixture of personal experience, material from extensive interviews, and that provided by an extensive range of published and unpublished sources, a comprehensive history of the sport and its characters and values is revealed.


Going Commando

Going Commando

Author: K. M. Neuhold

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-05-14

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9781546701088

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"I never thought I could want anyone as much as I wanted Nash, then I met you"~Royal When I was sixteen I was afflicted with a terrible curse...I fell in love with my straight best friend. I never thought I'd move past my feelings for Nash and find someone who could love me in return, until the day a gorgeous marine plopped himself down in my chair and asked me to ink him. I'm falling fast for Zade, but my feelings for Nash are still very real. When life starts getting complicated and Nash speaks the words I never thought I'd hear, the only thing I want is for us to find a way to make this work...together. "What if I told you, you'd never have to choose?"~Zade I thought I'd stay in the marines for life, that was the plan. But after a traumatic event I couldn't make myself re-enlist when my contract was up. Confused and unsure what to do next I called up my best friend for a place to stay. What I didn't count on was my best friend's boyfriend practically throwing a sexy tattoo artist at me to keep me busy. Royal is everything I've ever wanted and his roommate, Nash, is starting to grow on me, too. "A few weeks ago I thought I was straight. Now I'm sandwiched between two sweaty men. Can't say I do anything half-assed." ~Nash Of course I've noticed that my best friend, Royal is crazy good looking. I have eyes, that doesn't mean I'm into guys. Although, when I start to notice that his new boyfriend, Zade, is pretty hot too, that makes me start to question things a little. Not to mention the dreams I keep having of the three of us together. I'm willing to try if they are. **This is NOT a love triangle, just good old fashioned man-on-man-on-man love **Every book in the Heathens Ink series can be read as a stand-alone, but it's way more fun to read them in order.