The Beautiful Machine: A Life in Cycling, from Tour de France to Cinder Hill

by Graeme Fife

Graeme Fife has been riding a bike since he discovered at age five that escaping from home on two wheels was a lot faster and took him a lot farther than was possible on foot. He soon combined his love of what was, admittedly, quite a humble version of the beautiful machine, with a tenacious grip on independence. It was on a bike that Fife visited a girlfriend in France, who introduced him not only to raclette and the Tour de France but also to French cycling journalism. Since then, the passion has seeded books, articles, epic rides, and acquaintance with some of the most illustrious men in cycling as well as staunch friendships on and off the bike. This is bare-knuckle writing at its most punchy, rippling with wit and energy. It is a celebration of the bicycle and the joy, wonder, adventure, good times, and bad times associated with it, and of the people who ride and with whom Fife has ridden.

Genres: Cycling

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 3, 2007

Reviews

[JDK1962]

Picked this up, having heard Graeme Fife talking about the Tour de France on The Bike Show podcast. Thought it might be worth a look in.

Read the first five chapters (~75 pages), then gave up. Just felt like a stream of randomness, unknown characters referenced by first name but never introduced, meaningless and/or irrelevant asides...and the writing about bicycling no more interesting or engaging than if he said he drove from point A to point B in a Ford Cortina.

I'm not going to give it a star rating, since I abandoned it (maybe all the great stuff is further on). But it's back to the used book store for this.

[Falcon Blackwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some nice writing, but very self-conscious, as if written entirely for show. I did enjoy his description of his early life, but after that things became a little disjointed and random. Characters introduced, then never referred to again, and an endless list of accomplishments. A shame, he is a good writer and it could have been so much more interesting if he’ d focussed a bit.

[Perpetualstudent · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was more unorganized stream of random thoughts than anything else. The occaisional witty comments were the high point in a mostly dreary read. I think a good editor would have been helpful for this one

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy Fife's wordsmithing. The stories are mildly interesting and a bit repetitive. Don't bother unless you are a road cycling (racing) junkie.