Pelotome –
the world of cycling books.
Pelotome celebrates the world of cycling literature and travel writing – complete with GPS routes – allowing you to follow in the treads of history.
My Life and Times
by Jerome K. Jerome
From £4,75
CYCLING TRAVEL BOOKS
Around the World on a Bicycle.
Travel writing by cyclists, listed by countries explored:
North America:
CYCLING TRAVEL BOOKS
Around the British Isles by Bicycle.
Travel writing by cyclists, listed by countries explored:
CYCLING TRAVEL BOOKS
Continental Western Europe by Bicycle.
CYCLING TRAVEL BOOKS
The Middle East by Bicycle.
THE EARLY PIONEERS
Travelling by Vélocipède, Penny Farthings and Tricycles.
Despite their primitive machines, the earliest cyclists were not deterred from covering long distances on their “boneshakers” and many of these intrepid pioneers put their exploits into writing. The first ever travel cycling books published covered routes such as:
- “London to Brighton by ‘Velocipede’” ~ 1869.
- “Course de Fond de Paris a Rouen” ~ 1869.
- “Bonn to Metz per Bicycle in Six Days” ~ 1872.
- “London to John o’ Groats” ~ 1873.
- “Paris to Vienna by Bicycle” ~ 1874.
- “Eydtkuhnen to Langenweddingen by Bicycle” – 1878.
- “A Bicycle Tour in England and Wales” – 1878.
- and many more…
THE 1880s
The Boom in Popularity.
The 1880s saw an explosion in cycling clubs and road books, with routes for their members to follow. The more adventurous tricycle, “Ordinary” (“High Wheel” or “Penny Farthing”) riders taking on long distance exploits, such as:
- “The Adventures of a Sailor During a Tricycle Cruise of 1427 miles” ~ 1880.
- “Over the Pyrenees on a Bicycle” ~ 1881.
- “A Tricycle Tour of Scotland” ~ 1882.
- “A Bicycle Trip Through Norway and Sweden” ~ 1882.
- “Around the World on a Bicycle” ~ 1884.
- “On Wheel Down Europe From the German Ocean to the Aegean Sea” ~ 1885.
- “Land’s End to John O’Groats on a Tricycle” ~ 1885
- and many more…
THE 1890s
The Golden Age of Cycling.
“The Gay ’90s” marked the height of cycling popularity with the introduction of the “Safety Bicycle” – the bike as we know it today – and accounts of long distance rides including:
- “A Cycling Tour Through Europe” ~ 1890.
- “Our Cycling Tour in England” ~ 1891.
- and many more…
GENERAL BICYCLE BOOKS
The History of the Bicycle.
A guide to general bicycle and tricycle books, providing a history of the machine and its use:
FEMALE CYCLING BOOKS
The First Cycling Ladies.
A guide to the pioneering women bicycle and tricycle riders:
- Wheels and Whims, 1884
CYCLING JOURNALISM
The First Cycling Gazettes, Journals, Magazines and Newspapers.
With the boom of the bicycle came the popularity in cycling journalism and the early wheel men kept abreast of the latest models, routes and stories of excursions in their paper of choice:
- The Velocipedist, New York ~ 1869.
- Le Vélocipède illustré, Paris ~ 1869.
- Le Vélocipède, Paris ~ 1874.
- The Bicyclist, London ~ 1875.
- The Bicycle Journal, London ~ 1875.
- Bicycling News, London ~ 1876.
- The American Bicycling Journal, Boston ~ 1877.
- Australian Cycling News, Melbourne – 1883.
- Canadian Wheelman. London, Ontario – 1883.
- Irish Cyclist and Athlete, Dublin – 1885.
- and many more…
LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE CYCLISTE
The veloceman who would like to possess all the works published on the subject should, as we see, reserve more than one shelf of his library for this collection.
Is not the finest proof of the ineradicable love that the bicycle puts in your heart as soon as you get to know it, the collection of all these authors who are always sincere, always even a little moved by the benefits they have received from velocipedy?
~ Le Cyclisme Théorique et Pratique – Louis Baudry de Saunier (1893).