Valet Reader

My father is a regular cyclist. My brother is a regular cyclist. My friend Jonathan and many other friends are regular cyclist. A huge number of San Franciscans are cyclists. And, I am an occasional cyclist. Did this have anything to do with my reading this book? Not really.

I can’t quite pin what it was that encouraged me to read this book, but I’d have to guess that it was my discovery that Mr. Herlihy was going to be at Book Passage back in July. Looking back at my description of the book I provided I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to read this book. Ok, that may be pushing it.

So before actually reading this book I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it was about. I had thought that someone, maybe Mr. Herlihy himself, would be retracing the adventure and route in which a Mr. Frank Lenz embarked on in 1892 and find out what happened to him. Mr. Lenz’s adventure and mishap? Yeah, he was to ride his bicycle around the world solo, only to be never heard from again after entering Turkey . Honestly, it doesn’t sound like much a feat these days. Of course it is, but I imagine that these days quite a few accomplish this journey yearly.

The book, as you would have it, was not about a current day trip to discover what happened to Mr. Lenz. Instead it was about the history of the bicycle, a round the world trip on bicycle by William Satchleben and Thomas Allen, Frank Lenz’s rise in the cycling world and his attempt on cycle around the world, Satchleben’s subsequent search for Lenz and lastly the political situation in Turkey during the time surrounding Lenz’s disappearance.

While I did enjoy this book there were certainly elements of it that I felt dragged on a bit. For instance, the trip made by Satchleben and Allen, although interesting, seemed to take up more of the book than I thought necessary and towards the end, again, the focus on Satchleben was a bit daunting at times. Ultimately, I kind of wish that my perception about this book had been true. That this book had been about a current day search for Mr. Lenz rather than a 19th century search. Of course, seeing as Satchleben had already completed this mission there would be no point in doing a similar search now.

The most fascinating aspect of the book for me was the history of the bicycle and it’s rise to common use as well as that of the story of Lenz’s rise in the world of cycling. These two story lines run parallel to one another as Lenz’s outlook on the future changes throughout his various rides, races and challenges. Lenz begins his cycling foray with a “ordinary” cycle (big front wheel) and continues to progress to the “safety” cycle (what we more or less know of today) and with that, eventually, the pneumatic bicycle tire.

Whether your a cycling fanatic or not, except for cyclist haters, this book shares some interesting information that really can be enjoyed by all. Herlihy is certainly a good writer and for the most part draws you into the book. To say that this is a book that is hard to put down would be a put of a push, none the less, it provided me with an insight of the cycling world in the 19th century as well as some of the politics of the time. Although Lenz’s solo attempt at cycling around the world may seem a bit trite these days, at the time it was surely a monumental expedition.