The holiday season is here, and for some, it’s time to start thinking about gifts for the cyclocross racer or cyclist in your life. In the next two weeks, we will be bringing you some gift ideas to help make sure it is a Merry Crossmas for one and all.
Books are a classic holiday gift idea, and they offer hours of enjoyment and a lifetime of knowledge. This year, several have come across our desks that are worth considering, as a gift for the cyclists in your life, or perhaps, yourself.
Our suggested holiday reading list includes:
Easy-Reading References:
- En Cyclo Pedia, by Johan Tell
- The Bike Deconstructed, by Richard Hallett
Pretty Pictures:
- The Art of the Jersey, by Andy Storey
- The Bicycle Coloring Book, by Shan Jiang
- 2017/2018 Cyclocross Album, by Balint Hamvas
’Cross & Gravel:
- The Cyclocross Bible, by Alexander Forrester
- Bell Lap Poems, by Laura Winberry
- Gravel Cycling, by Nick Legan
- Rainbows in the Mud, by Paul Maunder
Use the next button to scroll through and read about each of the gift ideas.
More more gift ideas, see our ever-growing list of 2018 gift ideas.
Easy-Reading References:
En Cyclo Pedia and The Bike Deconstructed offer detailed reference material that will inform and entertain experienced and new cyclists. Gift ideas for cyclists and cyclocrossers. © Cyclocross Magazine
En Cyclo Pedia, by Johan Tell
Johan Tell’s En Cyclo Pedia boldly claims it contains “Everything you need to know about cycling, from the essential to the obscure.”
It’s an informative, often witty read from the former editor of travel magazine Vagabond, and one that both casual and hardcore cyclists will likely enjoy, learn from, and find entertaining.
Tell brings a decidedly roadie bent into choosing his topics, spending four pages on “Brooks Saddles” and six pages on “Corsica,” while cyclocross gets one page with a Monty Python’s Silly Olympics comparison, and gravel gets a brief mention under “Hybrid Bikes.”
But bikes are bikes, and cycling is cycling, and Tell’s En Cyclo Pedia presents potentially mundane topics as “Gears” in a fun, storytelling, self-deprecating way. We learn about “suicide levers,” Campagnolo and gear ratios because they are sandwiched between two cogs of a story about the author having a “winning mindset” (despite not winning anything for decades) and choosing aspirational gears for a long climb, while getting dropped by his friend.
While En Cyclo Pedia’s illustrations would make amazing posters, its format makes it better suited for the bathroom than the coffee table. That may not sound like the most glamorous description, but it’s perhaps the highest compliment. The recipient will appreciate En Cyclo Pedia not as a book to show off, but as an entertaining, informative daily read that’s worth re-reading.
Pages: 224
Price: U.S.: $20, Canada: $22, UK: £15
More Info: octopusbooks.co.uk or Amazon
The Bike Deconstructed, by Richard Hallett
The Bike Deconstructed, by Richard Hallett, is an ideal gift for anyone fascinated by bicycle components. It’ll also be a comprehensive, informative read for anyone who finds the interworkings of a bicycle a mystery. Even our resident eight-year-old boy spends countless hours delving into the depths of the book, and its chronicles of component history.
Through excellent photography and diagrams, Hallett disassembles every type of bicycle and breaks down the intricacies and variations of each component. In doing so, he threads mechanical knowledge together with a bit of history and locks it into place with plain language that doesn’t leave non-mechanics’ heads spinning.
Pages: 192
Price: $30, paperback, Also available in hardcover
More Info: papress.com and Amazon
