Recommendo

By Dirt Rag Staff

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb
It was a very, very, very cold winter night and I was still getting over a wicked dose of the flu. Ordinarily I would have passed on riding my bike on such a night, but a rare treat awaited me. This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb was due to perform live at The Mr. Roboto Project—a punk rock co-op in Wilkinsburg (Pittsburgh's easterly neighbor).

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb is rather difficult to classify. Imagine a folk group with electric instruments, a harmonica and an undeniable punk rock influence. Add a touch of country flavor with a heaping helping of political protest lyrics, and you've got yourself a description that all but explains just how good this Pensacola, Florida band is. Especially live.

I bobbed my head, sang along and jumped up and down with a roomful of elated kids. I had initially hoped to interview the band, however my worn out state left me just enough time to ask bass player Terry Johnson one all important question, "Do you folks really like bicycles?"

The answer, I'm happy to report, was yes. I should have known by the drummer's T-shirt, which proclaimed: I love my bicycle.

TBIAPB has two full-length albums available from www.plan-it-x.com, with a third one in the works. I highly recommend you pick up Dance Party With... for the paltry sum of five dollars postage paid. -Jeff Guerrero


The Race
Novels about bike racing are rare—at least ones that capture the sport accurately. Trying to capture the essence of bike racing in a novel is difficult, yet author Dave Shields does just that in his new book, The Race (Three Story Press, 2004). Shields does so by putting the reader in the saddle—you feel the wind, taste the sweat and experience the full range of emotions that are such a part of bicycle racing.

Ben, the main character, finds himself (literally) in the Tour de France. Included in the storyline are the usual protagonist/antagonist struggles, but they are played out against the backdrop of the greatest bike race in the world.

If you have ever raced a bike, or even been to a race and knew what was going on, then you'll likely be drawn into this book just as I was. But, while the story revolves around cycling and the rich dynamics of the Tour, the underlying message is the same battle we all face when we look in the mirror. Staring down our own personal demons, and learning to push them aside—that is the pearl in this oyster.

Shields captures the courage and emotions that overwhelm the Tour. But moreover, he tells a story of what lies within us all. Put your passion where your mouth is—read this book! -Chris Cosby


Traffic Life: Passionate Tales and Exit Strategies
If you walk or ride your bike to work...if you cringe at the thought of spending your morning trapped within a moving metal box...if you're fed up with car culture…this anthology is for you. Rather than bombarding the reader with cold hard facts, Traffic Life, edited by Stephen Wehner, focuses on creativity and inspiration. Within the book's 254 pages are short stories, poetry, cartoons, illustrations, sculpture, photography and even a jazz score.

Traffic Life features a story from renowned fiction author, Ray Bradbury, as well as CARtoons by Andy Singer, but people I've never heard of wrote most of the gems within. Greg Taylor's "Touched by an Angel? Nope—Whacked by a Hatchback" drew me in immediately, Ken Avidor's "Roadkill Bill" cartoons were hilariously poignant, and the first of three stories by Peter Gelman had me sold on recommending the whole anthology.

While the book is great entertainment for the non-motorized set, it is also entertaining enough to captivate the average cyclist, and perhaps even spark the flame of automobile antipathy. Thoughtfully, the book even ends with a reprint of Carbusters' "Autoholics Anonymous Car-Free Pledge," which offers practical suggestions for people interested in going car-free.

What's great is that you don't have to take my advice about this book...you can read almost all of it online at www.trafficlife.com. You'll probably agree that the printed version is more convenient, and besides, your $16.90 will go towards supporting an independent publisher who is honestly trying to make the world a better place. -Jeff Guerrero


Triplets of Belleville
When was the last time that training on a bike in the rain made you cry with joy at the beauty of cycling? That's what this animated French movie will do for you. It will make you remember the joy of your first bike and your debt to whomever bought it for you. It will give you some idea about how hard those French mountain climbs are and what a stud you had to be to race a bike in the days before team cars and radio headsets.

Triplets of Belleville (also known as Belleville Rendezvous) is an Oscar nominated animated film from France. Although it's not a pure cycling movie as such, the main character, ‘Champion,' is a cyclist aspiring to race in the Tour de France in the middle of the last century. He is kidnapped by the French mafia and forced to ride against other racers to satisfy the betting lust of the beret-wearing Mafia bosses. Only Champion's little old grandma, his dog Bruno, and the Triplets de Belleville, three retired chanteuses, can save him from their clutches.

The animation is a combination of old school pencil, ink and tracing paper and new school computer graphics which blend seamlessly with the gentle, near-sepia tones of the art direction to give a wonderfully warm and rustic view of old France. There are very few words said in the movie, so you don't need to know French (as there aren't any subtitles) to really understand it. More importantly, it means that the animators have had to work that much harder to get across the nuances of the film's characters.

Belleville Rendezvous is a movie that all ages will love. Sentimental cyclists will get the most out of it though, so you owe it to yourself to check it out. -Chipps Chippendale


The Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels
"The next time Uncle Sam's Army goes to War, the bicycle will figure in the campaigning." -Army and Navy Register, June 1892

On June 14, 1897, the United States 25th Infantry set out on a 2,200-mile bicycle ride from Missoula, MT to St. Louis, MO to experiment with the feasibility of long distance travel by troops on bicycles. Twenty soldiers mounted state-of-the-art Spalding bicycles equipped with 55 pounds of supplies, including rifle, tent, blanket, undergarments, and repair equipment and set out across stony alpine roads, windswept valleys and clay and mud-bogged trails.

This documentary tells the story of the Buffalo soldiers (given that name by the Cheyenne Natives, who noticed the soldiers' tenacity in battle and dark, curly hair) whose journey was "merely a test of physical endurance, not a test of bicycles" due to unexpected weather and poor road and trail conditions.

Although this experiment in human combat mobility fell to the wayside once the combustion engine proved more capable, it's interesting that the 41 day trip moved twice as fast and cost two-thirds less than that of an infantry on horse.

Watching this documentary will make you grateful for clean water, a warm house, and riding bikes for fun. It will also make you reconsider how much suffering you've never actually been through. If you have any interest in early bicycles, war history, human motivation and perseverance, or racial injustice, go out and rent this PBS documentary from your local library. You'll think of it the next time you complain of "a hard ride." -Michael Browne