[David9694]

Now the nights are drawing in, there are old copies of this on Ebay for £3 or £4.  If you’re under 40 and missed this, it’s still worth a look.  It rapidly takes you through what cycling is and can be, getting and keeping a bike. 

Not sure what happened to mine, but this is the book that got me hooked and to some extent you might say radicalised me. All the stuff about drivers and cars 2ww talk about is charted in there – and they hadn’t even got phones back then.

Steel was real and “10 speed” meant “10 in total” (minus the 2 illegal gears, of course.)

Topic

[wtjs]

He had quite the acting

He had quite the acting career, really.  Wasn’t he in The Naked Gun/Police Squad as well?

His greatest acting role was in a California court

[hawkinspeter]

brooksby wrote:

He had quite the acting career, really.  Wasn’t he in The Naked Gun/Police Squad as well?

Don’t forget The Towering Inferno too

[brooksby]

He had quite the acting

He had quite the acting career, really.  Wasn’t he in The Naked Gun/Police Squad as well?

[brooksby]

And then he redid the whole

And then he redid the whole thing from the ground up with City Cycling in 2007

[Simon_MacMichael]

There was another edition

There was another edition published in 2000 … helpfully called Richard’s 21st Century Bicycle Book …

[hawkinspeter]

brooksby wrote:

I apprecate it’s a bit later, but don’t forget Outland.

I remember watching it back in the day – like a remake of High Noon, but in space.

What I liked in the 70s scifi is the focus on the concepts (e.g. Soylent Green, Westworld, Rollerball, Logan’s Run etc) whereas modern scifi films quite often just end up being a big chase with the good guys running away from the bad guys. I think modern scifi is better served by TV series rather than films (I’m a big fan of Arrival though – a heroic attempt to put Ted Chiang’s writing on screen).

I think the 70s was when scifi moved on from being a sub-genre of horror as a lot of the earlier films were just themed monster movies.

[brooksby]

I apprecate it’s a bit later,

I apprecate it’s a bit later, but don’t forget Outland.

[brooksby]

Presumably after Gen Z we

Presumably after Gen Z we will just have The Final Generation?

Anyhoo – I’m smack bang in the middle of Gen X and I had a goatee and long sideburns in my early twenties and have had a full beard since I was 25 or so*.

 

*Never did drink capuccino.

[hawkinspeter]

David9694 wrote:

No, no, no, if you’re going to quote Roger Moore Bond to me, you had better be ready for the obscure references. 

One of the nicest things my mum did [sniff] was take me to the cinema to see such delights as Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, Star Wars, Superman, and Capricorn One. 

Isn’t Capricorn One the one with O J Simpson?

I love the old 70s scifi films – it was almost a golden age of interesting ideas, though cheaply made.

[David9694]

Is this where the (amusing

Is this where the (amusing and fun) thread drift started?  Thing is, every guy under 30 now sports some kind of beard – it’s not exceptional .

Many Boomers had them and still do now in white, Gen X it was largely a no (traps the foam in your cappuccino), whereas millennials, they’re back – them with their quiet quitting and all.  

[David9694]

No, no, no, if you’re going

No, no, no, if you’re going to quote Roger Moore Bond to me, you had better be ready for the obscure references. 

One of the nicest things my mum did [sniff] was take me to the cinema to see such delights as Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, Star Wars, Superman, and Capricorn One. 

[chrisonabike]

I think it was the Joy of

I think it was the Joy of Bikes… but it was a long time ago.

[Greenhorn]

Brutal dog defense but gave
Brutal dog defense but gave me confidence as a novice.

[The Larger Cyclist]

chrisonatrike wrote:

From when men were real men.  Much facial hair, like The Joy of Sex.  Touring bike – but look at the size of that big ring up front!

My parents had this.  I’ll have to see if I’ve inherited it now!

Just to clarify – Which book did your parents have – Joy of Sex or the Bicycle Book?

[brooksby]

David9694 wrote:

Chris Foss, who was responsible for the book’s black-and-white illustrations, took the photos.

Weird to think of Chris Foss doing those pictures.  When I think of him, I always think of those big fat spaceships he painted in the seventies.

[Author]

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