Robert Penn – It’s All about the Bike

Over the 2024/2025 Christmas/New Year Holiday, I finished reading “It’s All about the Bike” by Robert Penn.  On the cover page he has emphasized the word “all” in bold type. Fast forward to the last page of the book and the reader learns that Penn is embracing an opportunity to contradict the title of Lance Armstrong’s global best-selling book “It’s Not About the Bike...” Penn’s book is an international journey to bicycle/component manufacturing facilities and frame building shops in the UK, USA, and Italy as Penn pieces together his dream bicycle (featured on the cover), while exploring the history of bicycles, the sport, the inventors, and the inventions behind them. I’ve been tearing apart bicycles to the ball bearings for most of my life and was given this book by a colleague during a team gift exchange last year, recognizing my enthusiasm. It takes me a while to get through a book these days with so much going on and my ADHD brain. I’ve even taken a hiatus from my own writing having rediscovered my passion for building and repairing bicycles, but over the holiday I committed myself to finishing the book. Needless to say, I loved the book and Penn’s approach to it. He introduces the reader to various shop owners and plant managers with discussions on the various components he is selecting for his dream road bike. He slips seamlessly into fascinating personal stories, expert advice, geography, and relevant history in each chapter showcasing important inventions that have spawned innovation across many industries over the past several hundred years impacting us all still to this day.​