Two Wheels Good – The History and Mystery of the Bicycle
From Road.cc
Nothing that you read about Two Wheels Good in advance will fully prepare you for the eclectic mix of contents within: whether it be a different take on history, or Jody Rosen’s personal experiences, there’s plenty of surprising material to reward you.
When I was trying to figure out what was coming my way in this book, claims that it was ‘a panoramic revisionist portrait’ of the bicycle didn’t really help me. However, the idea of it ‘combining history, reportage, travelogue, and memoir’ did make more sense, and gives notice to expect wide-ranging content during an exploration of ‘the history and mystery of the bicycle’.
Many histories of the magnificent machine have already been written; recent examples are publications from Michael Hutchinson(link is external) and William Manners, which followed different styles – despite largely covering the same story. Rather than go into competition with those (and others) when describing the history of the bicycle, Rosen decided that ‘major themes have been left to other chroniclers’, leaving him to ‘highlight some different stories’.
This is evident immediately, where Rosen’s account of the origins of the bicycle are centred on ‘The Bicycle Window(link is external)‘, a 16th century stained-glass window in St Giles church, Stoke Poges. Some claim that it depicts a precursor to the bicycle. Rosen agrees that it is a great tale, and so uses it as the focus of this part of history, but concludes that ‘it has nothing to do with bicycles’.
In most cases, when it comes to historical accuracy Rosen sensibly uses Bicycle Designby Tony Hadland and Hans-Erhard Lessing as his guide, a book that, if I were to have reviewed it here, would be an easy 10/10. (It’s available in paperback(link is external) if you are interested.)
Beyond that, it is hard to describe what is on offer from Two Wheels Good, mainly because it is full of unexpected information – and it is that unpredictability which holds your interest.
