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A cycling buddy
Last Post 11/19/2015 10:30 AM by Spudly Crumpett III. 4 Replies.
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thinline
Posts:323
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| 11/18/2015 07:37 AM |
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I just found out that one of mt lunch time riding friends wrote a book folks here might be interested in. I knew he was a history professor but had no idea he was also a writer.
I tried posting a link but for some reason was unable. If you search for "Old Wheelways" by Robert L. McCullough you'll find it. It is a history of cycling in the northeast and explores many of the same battles that cyclists fight for today.
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Spud
Posts:525
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| 11/18/2015 09:10 AM |
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| https://www.bookdepository.com/Old-Wheelways-Robert-Mccullough/9780262029469 |
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79pmooney
Posts:3180
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| 11/18/2015 09:56 AM |
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also https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/old-wheelways
This is perhaps a couple of years before the apex of American racing when many cities had velodromes. When Worcester and Springfield, MA were hubs of racing.
A little later, but some of the same flavor - my dad and his 4 best friends rode all of New England on 3-speeds during the height if the Depression. Dad passed on to me the love of cycling and 3-speeds and riding because that was what you did. There were all sorts of crazy stories. His buddy, the devil-may-care for whom the intricacies of bike maintenance were too much (and perhaps pocketbook). Rode the New England hill without brakes, relying on a good touch with his foot which usually worked.
I will see if Powell's carries "old Wheelways". They ought to; Powell's being the bookstore with everything and Portland being such a bike town. (When my bother and family dropped in for a quick visit last summer and I had one day to show them around, the question was quite clear - which of the wonders of the world do I show them? Powell's Books or the Columbia River Gorge. I elected to do the Gorge - it would take less time! Good move. They sail and the wind at Hood River was howling. Only the best of the best kite sailors were out.)
Thinline - a little off topic but not entirely - spring a year ago I visited Bill Bridge and his wife, Kat Cone, my old riding partner. (It was going to ride with Bill for the first time, meeting at Kate's house when I crashed. It was going to be 37 years later that I finally rode with him.) Bill was famous for leading crazy rides on backroads few knew about west of Boston. Never put this together until just now, but he is cut from the same cloth as those early riders.
Ben |
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ChinookPass
Posts:809
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| 11/18/2015 05:25 PM |
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| good tip, thinline. |
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Spud
Posts:525
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| 11/19/2015 10:30 AM |
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| Ben I should be making a trip up to Portland in the next few months hopefully. My wife still comutes to Salem every so often, and has a two week visit to her client in Salem. So I'm thinking of a four day visit. My last trip to Portland was quite rainy (go figure), but I still want to go back with the cameras and shoot. The Gorge was amazing! |
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