Synopses & Reviews
Robert Penn has saddled up nearly every day of his adult life. In his late twenties, he pedaled 25,000 miles around the world. Today he rides to get to work, sometimes for work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, and to skip bath time with his kids. He's no Sunday pedal pusher. So when the time came for a new bike, he decided to pull out all the stops. He would build his dream bike, the bike he would ride for the rest of his life; a customized machine that reflects the joy of cycling.
It's All About the Bike follows Penn's journey, but this book is more than the story of his hunt for two-wheel perfection. En route, Penn brilliantly explores the culture, science, and history of the bicycle. From artisanal frame shops in the United Kingdom to California, where he finds the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan, and points in between, his trek follows the serpentine path of our love affair with cycling. It explains why we ride.
It's All About the Bike is, like Penn's dream bike, a tale greater than the sum of its parts. An enthusiastic and charming tour guide, Penn uses each component of the bike as a starting point for illuminating excursions into the rich history of cycling. Just like a long ride on a lovely day, It's All About the Bike is pure joy—enriching, exhilarating, and unforgettable.
Review
"If you don't long for your own bike at the end of this book, you will at least never look at one the same way again." ---Kirkus
Synopsis
From author Robert Penn,
It's All About the Bike is an exhilarating and unforgettable memoir of one man's quest to build the perfect bicycle.
About the Author
Robert Penn is a journalist who writes for the Financial Times the Observer, the Sunday Times, and Conde Nast Traveller, as well as numerous cycling publications. He also wrote and presented the BBC documentary Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle. Robert lives in the Black Mountains, South Wales, with his wife and three children. Jonathan Cowley is a British actor hailing from Eastbourne, East Sussex, but he currently calls Los Angeles home. He received AudioFile Earphones Awards for his narration of The Science of Evil by Simon Baron-Cohen and The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart. He has narrated many audiobooks and can also be heard on both sides of the Atlantic narrating film trailers and documentaries.