Get blown away with The Tricycle Book; a must read

When one is buying Christmas presents, you want the recipient to be blown away. When we received the new book of Michael Edwards, we had that feeling! We enjoyed reading Michael's books before about the De Dion Bouton cars and this time he was able to write 'The Tricycle Book - 1895 - 1902'.

When you open it, you directly see old advertisements (mostly of ladies by the way) which made us happy, but it goes much deeper into the matery. He describes the first racing machines, the technical characteristics, the evolution, performance, engineers, distributors, brands and much more.

One of the strenghts of Michael's book is his enormous network that helps him with information and good quality photos. As Veteran Car and Tricycle owner himself, he spoke to many people with very interesting vehicles who were more than happy to help him with his research. This gives a very wide view on the development in the early car years. The book is featuring hundreds of contemporary black and white photographs, along with detailed coloured contemporary photographs of surviving machines as well as explanatory drawings, and extracts from dozens of contemporary catalogues that are almost impossible to find.

Tricycles are a critical element in the evolution of motorised transport: they were the very first motorised transport available for individuals at a reasonable price, and secondly they were the very first racing machines; thirdly, they were the first machines that required the creation of sophisticated machine tooling, and so tricycles instigated the move towards specialism in the production process.

The book sets out to provide:

- A narrative of the early years of motor racing when tricycles featured, including many black and white photographs that have not been published previously.

- A detailed explanation of the technical elements of the De Dion Bouton tricycles from the earliest times.

- A comprehensive review of the various contemporary manufacturers in France, including not just the well known names of Peugeot, Clement and Darracq, but also many names that have long since disappeared, including Corre, Comiot, Automoto, E.J. Brierre, as well as the racing engine manufacturers, such as Buchet, Gaillardet, Soncin and Renaux.

- Clarity on the largest players in the market. There were more than a hundred brands of tricycles for consumers to choose from, and yet the number of manufacturers that made the frames, differentials, and mechanical components was small, and became increasingly so as specialisation became a prominent feature of the production process.

- A perspective of the contribution of the distributors and assemblers, who gathered parts from many sources.

For everyone who only has the slightest interest in early motoring or racing, this is the thing you want under your Christmas tree. So if you ask us about it, we would tell people to buy it(but well, we might be a bit biased)!

You can order the book here (click).

Gepubliceerd:

donderdag december 13th, 2018

Bill Coates

13 December 2018, 10:41

Agreed! Michael's De Dion books are an excellent read - I keep going back to them. The Tricycle book has arrived, but Mrs C has banned me from even looking at it until Christmas!

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Get blown away with The Tricycle Book; a must read

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