Books on the beauty of cycling?

[PJ520]

But fear words don't or can't ever do the experience justice,I mention 'enlightenment' toward the end of the post and feel sometimes it's the only word needed,though for some it has connotations,contentment could be another word.
Though trying to explain becomes evermore clumsy

The experience of riding bicycles is extremely personal and sometimes can't be even spoken about only alluded to as it dissipates in speech or the written word and only a few can translate it and even then it's a personal feeling for each,like musical taste.

When you ask a fellow cyclist or friend you know,the simple question "good ride?" you need to look and listen closely for intonation in their voice or certain facial subtleties to understand their joy* of riding,it can be very subtle and sometime detected not in what they say but more in how they say or even what they don't say.

It's hard to verbalize some aspects of the fun (err... joy?) we get from riding. Something my misses when new to cycling found hard to grasp is what I've seen described as 'companionable silence' . Just because because I didn't chat as we were riding along did not mean I was not enjoying her company or would rather be riding with someone else. Has anyone else experienced this or is it just me not wanting to reveal my shortness of breath?

[kylecycler]

... That last one: I've often wondered whether the Waggoners Rest (Proprietor: Joe Boniface - check out the sign) was a real place - I doubt Frank Patterson conjured it up out of his imagination. I've tried Googling it but to no avail (an hour of my life I'll never get back ), but CTC members are from all over the country and perhaps someone might come up with a likely location? ...

I may be wrong but I actually think we have more than a few CTC forum members from abroad as well.

Yes, of course, but if you read the context, I just meant CTC forum members who live in the English (or possibly Welsh) countryside (because that's presumably where the public house was, if it exists). He was a wonderful artist, and I'm sure he could have drawn it from imagination, but I think it would make more sense for it to have been a real place. Mind you, I'm probably being daft to think anyone might recognise it.

As Chris Jeggo explained, though, 'Joe Boniface' was a red herring...

[reohn2]

It's hard to verbalize some aspects of the fun (err... joy?) we get from riding.

Fun's great but joy goes much deeper IMHO.

[pga]

Try Ventoux by Bert Wagendoorp.

[hujev]

I like the topic of this thread and so like to see it getting periodic attention!

Anyway, I received my copy of Frank J Urry’s Salute to Cycling, also mentioned here previously, on Friday and found it of immense pleasure and 'beauty' (Reg Gammon illustrations throughout). A sort of overview of the author's life in cycling and why it is of such pleasure.

The definition of this thread.

Check addall, bookfinder, et al. as I think there are a copy or two <£10 in the UK (I was too cheap to pay the post to alaska - but would have had I known just how nice it were - but finally found on eon eb a bit cheaper).

[vollerama]

It's hard to verbalize some aspects of the fun (err... joy?) we get from riding. Something my misses when new to cycling found hard to grasp is what I've seen described as 'companionable silence' . Just because because I didn't chat as we were riding along did not mean I was not enjoying her company or would rather be riding with someone else. Has anyone else experienced this or is it just me not wanting to reveal my shortness of breath?

I have often experienced this in the company of females that I know. Ladies are great communicators and silence from their partner can sometimes be difficult to understand from their point of view. My wife, for example, likes a chat. I on the other hand am quite comfortable to be with her and not say an awful lot. I admit that I am not a great communicator (many men find it difficult to discuss their feelings even with their intimate or close companions) but she understands this. I used to joke with a male friend of mine that over a weekend we would exchange no more than a few sentences with each other. Not because we'd fallen-out but simply because we were enjoying the weekend, each-others' company, and the newspapers/breakfast/music.

On a bicycle I have a great deal of trouble hearing what the other person is saying simply because my hearing is poor and there's lots of wind noise in my ears. That and I'm normally holding-on with my teeth to keep from falling off