Novelty Gifts For Cyclists

I love this bicycle timepiece! My sister bought it for me about seven years ago while on vacation in California. She related that she was walking with a friend in L.A. along where the names of actors and the shape of a star are embedded in the pavement (or sidewalk - in the Caribbean we refer to the pedestrian walkway as the 'pavement'). They ventured into one of the stores and on seeing this miniature bicycle, she bought it for me. I'm beginning to wonder if my love for biking is obvious....heh heh.

I think it's gorgeous. It's solid and sturdy. A kick-stand keeps it upright on the shelf, and both of the wheels turn, as does the front fork. The pedals and brakes are fixed.

I got to thinking about what interesting gift ideas for cyclists there are out there. Digging around on Google didn't turn up the results I anticipated, however, I did come across some nice stuff.

In 1888, two notable cycle engineers named C. M. Linley and J. Briggs, together with several others (who went on to become noteworthy designers), produced one of the world's most practical bicycle frames that actually seems to be the world's first full-suspension bike. The spring-frame design of the bike prevented any road shocks from impacting the rider. The bike is called the Whippet.

An artist who made two Tour de France trophies also crafted a sterling silver miniature Whippet plated in 18-carat gold. It was auctioned on Ebay in 2008 with a starting figure of US$8,500.00. I couldn't find out how much it eventually sold for. Here's a video of it:

Other very nice miniatures are found on this website. Click on 'Bicycles Continued' to see the wide variety of miniatures they produce. This other site sells replicas as well.

I found just one other bicycle timepiece, which serves as a pendant at the end of a necklace, with the clock placed in the front wheel. I wonder if I have a one-of-a-kind, then! Or perhaps only three of these were created by some famous artist before his death in the year 18-something and my sister bought one of the three in a small shop in L.A. whose owner hadn't a clue of its true worth! Heh...I'm dreaming of course, but even if it's so, I'll never, ever part with this lovely gift.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

My bookshelf is filling up slowly, but surely! The latest acquisition is the Tour de France for Dummies, which I bought at Amazon.com. This book covers every aspect of the Tour thoroughly and while doing that, provides an insight into the techniques and methods of how teams compete. Some sections detail the Rules, Race Strategies, Where to Watch the Tour and the Bikes. And that's just a fraction of the table of contents.

Compared to the couple other Dummies books I own, there are two notable differences with this one. The dimensions are far better than the larger traditional size, which makes it very handy for carrying around, and the attempts at humour (which I find they are so good at) is much more scaled back. This makes for very comfortable reading! I love humour when I'm reading and though they're witty with it, it had become cumbersome due to the amount that they'd put into the text. These new changes are just great!

From Lance to Landis is another excellent book. David Walsh is an excellent journalist and presents facts learned from interviews. He never mud-slings his subjects and pays compliments where they're due, giving the reader confidence that the book is not a vendetta, but simply a presentation of corroborated incidents.

The Official Tour de France Centennial is very interesting. I'd say it's more of a reference work than anything else. It's a re-print of the newspaper reports that appeared in L'Equipe and covers every single Tour ever staged (no pun intended, heh...) And it's packed with photos which alone are a treasure in themselves.

And Bicycle, The History is a fine, fine read! Fully illustrated, it gives the history of the bicycle and the countries that it grew up in. (I'd raved about this book before.)

So there it is, a whole four books in my collection! That's a good start. I can't wait to add to the bottom shelf of the [photoshopped] bookcase. Got any recommendations?