Bikie

This is the story of Charlie Woods' lifelong fascination with racing bikes. He explores a sport which has been a source of pleasure and comfort to him throughout his life. He also analyses cycling as a national sport and a pastime intrinsic to British culture and heritage.

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Bikie lays bare the true heart of cycling. Every grass-roots enthusiast, keen racing man and elite professional has one thing in common: he loves his bike and riding it. The author pinpoints the source of his love, tracing its development in the individual, how it draws people into a community and then a tradition - creating a whole worldwide culture to celebrate that deep affection for what is a technological marvel and transcendent experience. Great champions, too, are inseparable from their bikes. They merge into them, becoming a composite image, figures of myth. As well as exerting an emotional hold, cycling, in its famous races, also mounts a living proof of exemplary virtues: courage, perseverance and self-sacrifice - gives us, in fact, a glimpse of the higher reaches of the human spirit. There is a sense of this mythical realm in every pedal turn, for once astride a handbuilt lightweight we are put in touch with the greatest riders of all time. Bikie is the story of one man's passionate involvement, but in its forthright sincerity it goes to the roots of what we all share.