Product Description

This is the story of Charlie Woods' lifelong fascination with racing bikes. Woods traces his love of cycling from childhood to adulthood, recalling the challenges and new horizons which served as a rite of passage into manhood. He explores a sport which has been a source of pleasure and comfort to him throughout his life. However, this is much more than one man's homage to cycling. The book also analyses cycling as a national sport and a pastime intrinsic to British culture and heritage. Britain has a lively tradition of cycling. Today races such as the Tour de France draw huge British audiences, with coverage assured on prime-time TV. Through anecdote and analysis the bike is revealed in "Bikie" as a constant factor in a rather haphazard life - a source of solace and support with which to ride out every age and season, as well as a national tradition surrounded by history and folklore.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #241269 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Charlie Woods was the cotranslator of Fausto Coppi: The True Story and has written for several cycling publications including Cycling Weekly, Cycle News and Cyclist Monthly. He currently works as a librarian and lives in Shepherds Bush.

Customer Reviews

A sports book beyond sport.
Don't be fooled by the subject,this is a cracking read. It's one of those rare sports books,which is totally readable to someone who is not a dyed in the wool enthusiast, just as Lance Armstrongs' 'Not about the bike' is far beyond bike racing. 'Bikie' is about life, passion and the obsessions that drive us.
One thing it is clearly not is a bike racers monologue of 'then I rode my next race....' Don't expect a rehash of old racers and cycling days gone by tinted with cosy nostalgia. Charlie Woods always shows us the reality,the cold, the tiredness, the human frailty. He takes us on the ride of his life from cycle-besotted youth gaping at an exotic foreign racing bike to a weary middle aged man with a body that cannot keep up with his spirit.
Just as Joe Simpson allowed the reader into the closed, secret world of climbing, Charlie Woods opens the door on the ritualised, punishing existence of the cycle racer and the complicated motivations behind it.
Cycling changes and shifts to mirror the real world , a move from innocence and insularity as a boy in Fifties Britain , a nation of amateurish individuals to todays Corporate dominated fast society of uncertain national identity.
His commentary on this change allows him some direct hits on illusions old and modern and it's all carried off with likeable wit. Woods is passionate about his subject, he is immersed in it, he understands every nuance, each characterstic, and its failings are a personal hurt to him. He also loves words and ideas and this makes for an easy rewarding style as he explores cyclings relationships to heroes and villains, mythology, spiritualism, art, foreign films , erotica and literature.
The revelation as Britain moves from old fashioned black and white to the technicolour feast of the continent is genuinely moving. His enthusiasm and love of cycling is in every line and he pulls the reader into this tough obsessive sport and touches the heartbeat of its' power and appeal. By the end of the book , the reader knows him well not by direct explanation but through his interpretation and description of his lifes journey. The last chapter has a splendid, sharp short story, which reveals as much about Woods as the rest of the book.
Cycling and Folklore? Bike Racing as an art form? It sounds unlikely but in Woods caring hands you will be turning every page to read more. Sport is not about Sport , it is about life, and 'Bikie' is a celebration of those triumphs and defeats.

An entertaining read
My brother lent me this book, and frankly it is a damned good read. One or two (only) of the chapters can be quite dry (hence 4 stars rather than 5), but even if you are not an cyclist you will enjoy it. At times it is a memoir of a golden era, at other times it is an insight into the mind of an enthusiast and their informed observations, which can't help but excite you with the same passion. I know I'm not doing it justice here, but I would not only definitely recommend it but personally I would re-read it, how many books can you say that about?

Not enough passion
I wanted to like the book. I myself am having a love affair with bikes, but I just couldnt read the passion in this book that I expected.

For me the book meanders too much. The writers life story takes him far from the bike at times and you just dont see the desire to get back to it.

For me there is better books that show properly how a cyclist feels about the passion of his sport, namely The rider by Tim Krabbe or any book by Lance Armstrong.