Goggles & Dust: Images from Cycling's Glory Days

This book is a great reminder that all Glory is fleeting. When you look at the photos - not only of the riders, but also of the spectators - it really was a Golden Age. They rode over the same mountain passes as today's doped up whizz-bang super lightweight, overpaid weasels, but they did it on fixed gear bikes and dirt roads... usually nothing more than a goat path. I love the detail of the photos and the equipment... like many of the bikes had this small front fender... or that they rode with two frame pumps in many of the photos. Twin-cogs on one side of the rear hub; freewheel on the other side (presumably for downhill sections). One guy had two hats with two brims and two sets of goggles. Wheels held on with giant wingnuts. Riders had to make their own repairs. You couldn't draft off other riders. Their Tour's and Giro's were the same length as today, but were completed in two weeks instead of three. These guys rode professional, and if they were lucky, they might go on to open a successful bicycle shop in their home town. In many cases they rode bicycles because it paid a little better than working in a factory. They accomplished so much, with so little... that's what heroes do.

A great homage to the cyclists of a bygone era of hardmen. Imagine cycling up the cols on a fixed gear with a couple of bidons of water, maybe a few crusts of baguette and a cigarette to make it through all the torture. Oh, and the dust from the roads kicked up by the motorized transports following you.Sunscreen? Never existed, look at the tanned faces and legs of these men as they spent long days traversing France in the summer's sun. Godspeed all. Live it all again in its infinite glory with this wonderful book of images.

This is a rather small format photo book with no text (aside from a very short intro) -- just images and captions on 8" x 7" pages. I would love to see this in the format of other Velo Press books like "Cycling's Golden Age." The binding also sounds a little crackly, so I will take care when flipping through; other reviews mention the binding falling apart.All-in-all a great little book if you're a fan of vintage cycling.

Some of these photo books, regardless of subject, have far too much text and too few photos. This book has tons of cool B&W photos with a date, name of race, and a brief description. I walked through it in a half hour but will pick it up now and then to look at the faces, crowds, locations, and of course the bikes- wow no carbon here. Bravo and pass the bread and wine up ahead!

Just got a copy of this new book by Velo Press. What fun! It's basically a small picture book of photo's from bicycle racing's golden age. The pictures are crisp and beautiful. They transported me to an age in which riders carried spare tires around their shoulders, repaired their own breakdowns, and powered their accelerations with mixtures of cognac and coffee. I'd recommend this book to fans of road cycling history.

Goggles and Dust is a visual feast of epically heroic early cycling competition. Brett Horton could have easily produced an expensive, glossy coffee table book that only diehard print enthusiasts would have purchased. Instead, the small format, $16.95 product brings the "Images from Cycling's Glory Days" to life for the masses and educates the viewer as to the extreme challenges of yesteryear. The reader learns that this selection of images was the result of a collection numbering more than 350,000; I can't wait for Mr. Horton's next photo-publication!

great pictures and a great representation of how it was in the "old" days. a very enjoyable book.

It's great to see a collection of old cycling photos of some of the great road warriors in some of the greatest races. I enjoyed seeing the photos and reading the story behind them. It's a book you can read and enjoy over and over again.

The photo's are excellent and they show the determination and hardships endured by cyclists of that era. However I was expecting some caption to describe what was occurring at that given time of the photo. Alas we merely have the picture story which is interesting in itself but I expected something more ! Clearly I misread the book reviews and indeed the general book description. The sample photo's you see with the book are indeed all you get as far commentary. Basically a high class picture book only and I am sure that the publisher during its described lengthy trawling of photo libraries could have collated at least some interesting information appertaining to their published photographs.

Outstanding over rough roads - some views are evocative and the guys mending there own bikes - stopping a water taps -The photos and brief descriptions are excellentHow tough were these guys in the first third of the 20th century cycling nearly twice the distance as the present Tour over tracks and unmade roads eating normal meals with plenty of rough red wine!!

A wonderful selection of black and white photographs from the great days of cycling. Make you realise how far bike technology has advanced. Can't wait for next book.

These pictures make you realise how cossetted we are these days on our posh bikes. Awesome.

Mythical, legendary. It is as if a photographer had been around to capture knights on route to the crusades.