Charlie Kelly - Mountain Bike Book

[Prometheus]

Found this in a charity shop. Charles Kelly and Nick Crane. First Edition published in 1988 just down the road from me in Sparkford. Had a quick look through it and it looks pretty interesting lots of history of the repack and the klunkers as well as bits of bike gear from the era. Interesting bit of the future 2003 and beyond with some invented predictions

Here's a few snippets of the content. Hopefully it's not infringing any copyrights here not that anyone would worry about at any rate.

.

 

[SF Klein]

Nice tidbits to read. Thanks.

 

[Repack Rider]

Not my best effort, if you ask me. Richard Ballantine wanted it pretty quick, and I might have cut a few corners. Also, it was his book, not really mine and I didn't get to choose as much of the direction as I would have liked. Nick Crane's contribution was a political consideration to add one more well known name to the cover and fatten the embarrassingly thin volume, but his part and my part don't have anything to do with each other. I had never met Nick, although MountainBikes had once supplied him with a bike, and I didn't have anything to say about him sharing the cover.

The hard cover version that you found was only published in the UK, with all the quaint spellynges. The photos are beautifully printed, but in the US version, sold only in soft cover, all the color photos are printed in B&W, poorly registered and blurry. One is flipped over backwards.

 

[SF Klein]

Ironically, I just watched Klunkerz for the first time today. A great documentary. I tried to go from memory to identify the faces in the pic that CK posted in the Trips For Kids thread without looking at the caption. I gotta watch the movie a couple more times before returning it to Netflix.

 

[Prometheus]

Not my best effort, if you ask me. Richard Ballantine wanted it pretty quick, and I might have cut a few corners. Also, it was his book, not really mine and I didn't get to choose as much of the direction as I would have liked. Nick Crane's contribution was a political consideration to add one more well known name to the cover and fatten the embarrassingly thin volume, but his part and my part don't have anything to do with each other. I had never met Nick, although MountainBikes had once supplied him with a bike, and I didn't have anything to say about him sharing the cover.

The hard cover version that you found was only published in the UK, with all the quaint spellynges. The photos are beautifully printed, but in the US version, sold only in soft cover, all the color photos are printed in B&W, poorly registered and blurry. One is flipped over backwards.

Hi Charlie

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate that in it's time perhaps it wasn't that great but I think it's superb to have all the history and other info in a single volume. I've never seen another book with this info in it. Most mountain bike books are lame info on how to set up your bike etc. Your right about the quality the pictures and general feel of the whole book is pretty nice quality.

I've actually just seen the book shown on your site. Any chance that I could take you up on your offer to sign my copy for me if I post it to you and pay for the return post ?

i'll send a PM.
Dave.

 

[Repack Rider]

It has become embarrassing to read glorified or even fictional accounts of events I participated in, written by people reading Wikipedia to get their information. Lately I have got the bug to tell the story again, but in my own fashion, not Richard's, and with the advantage of a different perspective.

Anyone here know a publisher?

 

[klunkerbill]

CK...I know publishers I like the first-person account, BTW.

 

[klunkerbill]

CK...I know publishers I like the first-person account, BTW.

 

[bojangle]

Sparkford!!! I've recently moved from Yeovil!!! Where abouts are you?