Frank Lenz "The lost Cyclist"

I love history and bicycles. So what is better then a book over cycling history?

I found this book about Frank lenz, the Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance by David V. Herlihy


In the spring of 1892, Frank G. Lenz, a gallant young accountant and expert amateur photographer from a modest German-American family, set forth from his unhappy home in Pittsburgh to circle the globe atop a new 'safety' bicycle with inflatable tyres (essentially the modern machine). He brought along a large wooden camera, which used newly introduced film, and arranged to send regular reports to his sponsor, Outing magazine, effectively making him a harbinger of the great bicycle boom that was about to explode with stunning social and industrial repercussions.


Two years, fourteen thousand miles and many adventures later, after crossing the United States, Japan, China, Burma, India and Persia, just as he was about to enter Europe for the home stretch, Lenz vanished. His presumed murder in Asiatic Turkey.

The Lost Cyclist is a great book over how the bicycle has long inspired big dreams in so many of its enthusiasts. It breathes life into an era when it took a true adventurer to explore the globe.