Author head over heals for biking stories

Erich Schweikher’s first real kiss was on a bike. He and his bike toppled over during the kiss, and drama and bruises unfolded from the episode.

Years later, his love affair with cycling has led him to create Cycling’s Greatest Misadventures, (Casagrande Press, $16.95), a book featuring 27 intriguing, terrifying, bizarre and comical stories from cycling fanatics worldwide.

Schweikher, who lives in Portland, and co-editor, Paul Diamond of San Diego, Calif., spent a year gathering these true stories from bicycle aficionados, journalists, magazine editors, professional racers, and everyday cyclists. These riders share the episodes when they’ve found themselves in over their heads, facing danger and the unexpected.

The writing is economical and fast paced in these collected stories which take the reader on a gripping ride through the uncharted terrain of freak accidents, animal attacks, sabotage, idiotic decisions, eerie events, and other law-dropping, adrenaline-pumping calamities. Each story brings to life the strange possibilities that await cyclists once they step on the pedals of a bike.

For example:

In Australia, a former pro cyclist decides to spread tacks on a women’s race course in an attempt to get a date.

In Pennsylvania, a man accidentally cycles deep into a prison yard and then has to make an escape.

In 1897, a group of African-Americans complete the first group cross-country ride across the United States on iron bikes with wood rims, and they all ride armed with rifles.

In Washington, D.C., a woman is attacked by a large rat that jumps on her bike and slaps her repeatedly with its tail.

In North Carolina, a man is “attacked” and knocked from his bike by a flying, dead dog.

Some of these stories might make your cringe or laugh; most will make you shake your head with disbelief.

Schweikher and Diamond’s selection often goes beyond thrills and spills, as it explores the culture and psychology of cyclists.

One powerful story, “Cycling in a New World,” follows Stan Green, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager, on a tour through the ravaged post-Katrina streets of New Orleans. A native of New Orleans, Green had watched his father succumb to cancer two days before Katrina made land. Green’s bike ride is an attempt to do something “normal” in the face of both the loss of a parent and his beloved city. The story is at the same time heartbreaking and hopeful.