You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
It turns out that mountain bikers of style and taste like Singletrack, like printed mags… and also like books. I have posted out a sack of books this morning. So, can I ask the STW literati…
What great mountain biking books should be stocked in the Singletrack Merch shop?
Guides, routes, how to's, Biographies, zen.... let me have it.
Are there any apart from the excellent Fat Tyre Flyer?
Route guides don't count, and I'm not sure people still buy them anyway.
Not quite zen, but Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance?
“The Mountainbike Way of Knowledge” by William Nealy.
You should pull your route/ultimate guides into batches and sell them complete with a pull out map and a GpX file
There are much richer pickings in the road cycling world really.
Personally I still like looking at route guides, especially when in the planning stage. What about being a UK outlet for the excellent VTOPO guides for France, well at least the popular ones?
How about just great bike-related books?
MTB related, how about 'Paul Brodie - The Man Behind Brodie Bikes' a great read about the birth of Canadian production MTBs and early brands there.
Mountain biking mostly has a video culture rather than a literary one, I reckon, partly because it's a relatively young sport, partly because of the nature of the sport.
I can't think of anything with the sheer quality of a lot of mountaineering literature - mostly that's about epics, disasters, death, near death and more death - or even mountain running, which spawns the odd gem, like One Foot In The Clouds.
I'm not sure there are any 'great mountain biking books' but I'm happy to be corrected on that.
Rob Penn - It's all about the bike
Anything by Misspent Summers
Another vote for Fat Tyre Flyer.
Or Rough Stuff Fellowship’s archive album.
Other than that, and some route maps are there any fancy MTB books?
I really like the idea of making a compendium of all the ST route guides and publishing that. This please, above all the others in this post. I know that’s more work, sorry not sorry 🙂
Dividing the Great by John Metcalfe. A proper adventure and he's doing it on a mountain bike....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dividing-Great-John-Metcalfe/dp/1478249331
@duncancallum - thats a great idea - seconded!
I've bought similar for the PdS (of course), and also for Davos area - extremely useful, especially when you can download a GPX file to go with what your are reading.
There are loads of interesting books about people taking on random adventures and challenges.
where Tim Moore rides the length of the Iron Curtain on a communist-era shopping bike is an interesting read.
The Cyclist Who Went Out in the Cold: Adventures Along the Iron Curtain Trail
Danny MacAskill's book.
Mastering Mountain Bike Skills.
the VTOPO guides as mentioned above, not sure if anyone really sells them over here.
I've often wondered why mountain biking doesn't have any decent literature. Mountaineering - too many to count, as mentioned up there. Road cycling, same. Ditto running, road and fell (the Once a Runner trilogy, Running with the Buffaloes, Duel in the Sun, Bowerman - all fantastic). I've read good autobiographies from the surfing and free diving world. But mountain biking, nada. To be fair I think the same is true of BMX and skateboarding, but I'd love to be proved wrong.
I’ve often wondered why mountain biking doesn’t have any decent literature.
Cos it's just pissing about in the woods, isn't it?
Mountain biking doesn't have the length and scale of commitment as a climbing expedition, doesn't have the potential for emotional challenge and personal growth. success and failure aren't as far apart as they tend to be n in mountaineering. Longer, life/perspective altering journeys tend to be more "cycling" than "mountain biking" even if there's a fair bit of off road in there as well.
To make it a "mountain biking" journey rather than off road cycling, you need to strip the gear off and have someone else carry it.* It ends up being little more contrived, something like a supported himalayan itinerary, then the scale of the operation and assistance tends to detract from the feelings of being "out there", the jeopardy and the emotional highs and lows. They make a nice short film with pretty pictures, though - like the recent Rob Warner series.
*or do a journey with unladen day trips from camp - then it's an off road journey with pissing-about-in-the-woods sections!
The other option is getting the highs and lows out of the sport itself, which is either a history of the sport, a sports bio thing or a group history, lifestyle/ messing about in the woods over a number of years type of book. It's not screaming "gripping literature" either way.
I reckon there'd be potential in a book on the history of pro DH racing.
Steve Jones would probably have written it if he hadn't got distracted by ebikes.
Steve Jones has written it already, along with the other Dirt contributors...
https://dirtmountainbike.com/news/downhill-25-years-world-cup-racing-sale-tomorrow.html
Worth a read. Agree about the Misspent Summers books / coffee table magazines as well.
Mountain biking doesn’t have the length and scale of commitment as a climbing expedition, doesn’t have the potential for emotional challenge and personal growth. success and failure aren’t as far apart as they tend to be n in mountaineering. Longer, life/perspective altering journeys tend to be more “cycling” than “mountain biking” even if there’s a fair bit of off road in there as well.
Well, yeah, but there's plenty of decent road cycling books that are about careers, not harrowing mountain expeditions. David Millar immediately springs to mind, but Tyler Hamilton, Charlie Wegelius, Paul Kimmage (I wasn't a fan of that book, but it's reasonably well regarded) And then loads of excellent books about the grand tours - Lantern Rouge - and of course doping.
I'd happily read an autobiography by Tim Gould, Steve Peat, Rob Warner, Missy Giove, Julien Absalon etc. if it was decently written.
Trail magic and the art of soft pedalling is good.
Basically the book of someone riding the continental divide in the us
I'd buy the Missy Giove book. As long as someone else wrote it.
The documentary on her was pretty good.
some stuff to look at ^^ thanks .... yep MTB is pics/vids....always liked a good touring book and despite (a swell as) blogs have read some good adventure racing stylee stuff recently
Sean Conway's Across Europe ... self published ? (so a good reason to stock) not deep but a cracking read passed my copy on and google fails me ...earlier book here
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44900923-big-mile-cycling
Rupert Guiness Overlander very honest account of the 1st (only?) Aus IPWR
https://www.bookdepository.com/Overlander-Rupert-Guinness/9781925640090
"santa" left https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26530349-this-road-i-ride
in mrs antigee's stocking she loaned it out so I'm still waiting to read but good reviews and poor tactics by me
and an old one but would rate Mark Beaumont's 80days just for the logical nightmare closer to "Everest the hard way" than "The Shining Mountain" but shows what it takes
Come and gone by Joe parkin
Was entertaining iirc, follow up to dog in a hat.
"Full Tilt", Dervla Murphy.
... is the book (and hero) you have been looking for. Can't believe it hasn't had a mention here already, come to think of it.
Nothing is perfect but there is alot in this book for the money
bikemaps.co.uk/uk-mtb/good-mountain-biking-guide-england-wales.htm
Has 'Stay Away from the Buttercups' hasn't been mentioned (apologies if it has and I missed it)? I'm sure I picked up a copy based on a recommendation from another member on here a few years ago. An enjoyable read, especially as I was preparing for the SDW BHF ride at the time.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stay-Away-Buttercups-Journey-Paperback/dp/1849144028
Two wheels on my wagon by Paul Howard
“Full Tilt”, Dervla Murphy.
… is the book (and hero) you have been looking for. Can’t believe it hasn’t had a mention here already, come to think of it.
Anything by Dervla Murphy now you mention her. But not really mountain biking. If you're allowing that, there's a whole other range of "adventure cycling" books you could include.
But not really mountain biking
She wasn't riding a clown's bike over wooden ladders or round and round a 'trail centre', no. That sort of thing doesn't seem to lend itself to great literature, and I think I can see why.
Bikepacking, Laurence McJannet. A lovely route book that's fine to just read, as well as to actually plan with.
Seconding Dervla Murphy's Full Tilt. Didn't mention it in earlier post as it's touring but anyone with a sense of adventure should read it.
John Metcalf, Paul Howard and Scott Thigpen's Great/Tour Divide books are pretty good. On same route subject I also liked Jill Homer's Be Brave Be Strong, though others in a past book thread didn't.
One other touring book that's worth looking up is Travels With Rosinante by Bernard Mangaloux (sp?). World tour, in the early 80s I think.
Steve Jones has written it already, along with the other Dirt contributors…
There you go, I knew it was a good idea.
There are some good stories from contributors like Lael Wilcox in this and first-person accounts of going to Whistler etc.
I bought travels with rosinante for a friend, and he loved it!
I found trail magic and the art of soft pedalling irritating, Dividing the great is a better book about the divide.
I've been meaning to get this curated anthology, which looks good but might only be available as an ebook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bicycle-Reader-Number-Summer-2012-ebook/dp/B008LX6SYU
Personally I still like looking at route guides, especially when in the planning stage. What about being a UK outlet for the excellent VTOPO guides for France, well at least the popular ones?
This is a really good idea. Even the English language ones are a total pain to get hold of in the UK and I'm sure there would be a ready market. You only need to look at the number of requests for advice on here about the PDS area to suspect there would be plenty of interest in the English PDS version.