{"id":5696,"date":"2013-06-08T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-08T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2013\/06\/08\/richard-ballantine-author-who-did-more-than-anyone-to-bring-back-the-bicycle-dies-2\/"},"modified":"2023-10-18T20:07:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T03:07:19","slug":"richard-ballantine-author-who-did-more-than-anyone-to-bring-back-the-bicycle-dies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2013\/06\/08\/richard-ballantine-author-who-did-more-than-anyone-to-bring-back-the-bicycle-dies-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Ballantine, Author who did More than Anyone to bring Back the Bicycle Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold;\">While I was in the States with limited computer access, Richard Ballantine, the \u00a0man whose book, &#8220;Richard&#8217;s Bike Book&#8221; along with a lot of his other writing brought bicycling into the mainstream died May 29. He also famously maintained that if he were to own just one bike, it would be a trike&#8230;&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"description articleBody\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" itemprop=\"contentUrl representativeOfPage\" alt=\"richard ballantine\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.guim.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2013\/6\/7\/1370604951655\/richard-ballantine-008.jpg?resize=460%2C276\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" \/><br \/>\nAn avid bicycle collector, Richard Ballantine was passionate about pedal power in all its forms, especially recumbent bicycles that had been banned from road-racing competitionsHere is the obitury that appeared in the Guardian:<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h1 itemprop=\"name headline  \">Richard Ballantine obituary<\/h1>\n<div itemprop=\"description\" data-component=\"Article:standfirst_cta\">Cyclists&#8217; champion who made the case for assertive urban cycling before it became fashionable<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dialog\/feed?app_id=180444840287&amp;link=http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/lifeandstyle\/2013\/jun\/07\/richard-grant&amp;display=popup&amp;redirect_uri=http:\/\/static-serve.appspot.com\/static\/facebook-share\/callback.html&amp;show_error=false&amp;ref=desktop\" data-href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/lifeandstyle\/2013\/jun\/07\/richard-grant\" data-link-name=\"Facebook Share\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul data-component=\"Article:byline\">\n<li>\n<div><a itemprop=\"url\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/profile\/richard-grant-2\" rel=\"author\">Richard Grant<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><a itemprop=\"publisher\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/\">guardian.co.uk<\/a>,\u00a0<time itemprop=\"datePublished\" datetime=\"2013-06-07T12:41BST\">Friday 7 June 2013 12.41 BST<\/time><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/lifeandstyle\/2013\/jun\/07\/richard-grant#start-of-comments\" data-link-name=\"comment-count\">Jump to comments\u00a0(2)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div data-component=\"Article:in body link\">\n<div itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><a title=\"More about Richard Ballantine and his work\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bikereader.com\/contributors\/Ballantine\/ballantine.html\">Richard Ballantine<\/a>, who has died aged 72, was one of cycling&#8217;s most influential and eloquent advocates, inspiring generations of cyclists. He was instrumental in promoting cyclists&#8217; rights and popularising mountain bikes and recumbent bicycles. Richard&#8217;s Bicycle Book, first published in 1972, quickly became the cyclists&#8217; bible, selling more than 1m copies through numerous editions. Its encyclopedic format combined astute practical advice on buying and maintaining bikes with an original, passionate, eco-conscious manifesto for cycling \u2013 presciently, in light of the Opec oil embargo of 1973-74.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>For Richard, riding a bicycle was a defence against the alienation of modern life and the dehumanising effects of cars. &#8220;Now look at what happens to you on a bicycle,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;It&#8217;s immediate and direct. You pedal. You make decisions. You experience the tang of the air and the surge of power as you bite into the road. You&#8217;re vitalised. As you hum along, you fully and gloriously experience the day, the sunshine, the clouds, the breezes. You&#8217;re alive!&#8221;<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Sex,&#8221; as one interviewer asserted, &#8220;had Dr Alex Comfort. Cycling had Richard Ballantine.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Richard made the case for assertive urban cycling long before it became fashionable. He provided bold, colourful advice on how to handle motorists (compete for road space as an equal \u2013 don&#8217;t cower in the gutter), lorries (beware when riding on the inside, make yourself obvious) and \u2013 despite being an animal lover himself \u2013 aggressive dogs (reciprocate hostility as needed). He proposed a utopian future of separate bike lanes and free bikes in city centres. &#8220;A better deal for cyclists,&#8221; he wrote, &#8220;is a better deal for society.&#8221; An advocate of campaigning through direct action, he had a radical&#8217;s fearless instinct for a cause and a pen to match.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Born in Kingston, New York state, Richard was the only child of Ian and Betty Ballantine, who pioneered paperback publishing in America, first with Bantam and later with Ballantine Books. Richard grew up between Woodstock and New York, where he attended the Browning school and, briefly, Columbia University. As a student, he was an activist in the New Left movement.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His real education came from growing up in the family&#8217;s publishing business, which mass-marketed JRR Tolkien,\u00a0<a title=\"Arthur C Clarke obituary\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/books\/2008\/mar\/19\/arthurcclarke1\">Arthur C Clarke<\/a>\u00a0and Isaac Asimov, and introduced authors such as\u00a0<a title=\"Ray Bradbury obituary\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/books\/2012\/jun\/06\/ray-bradbury\">Ray Bradbury<\/a>, Philip K Dick and Tom Robbins to a wider readership.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After working variously as a chef, shooting gallery attendant, book editor and housing community organiser in New York, Richard moved to the UK in the early 1970s. Following the success of Richard&#8217;s Bicycle Book, he launched Bicycle, the UK&#8217;s first glossy cycle magazine for everyday cyclists. His passion for innovations that improved urban cycling led him to import the first high-security, anti-theft D-locks from the US.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After testing an imported US prototype mountain bike in 1982, Richard realised that they could transform cycling, but needed to be promoted. When two young Australian law students, Tim Gartside and Peter Murphy, approached Bicycle with a plan to ride across the Sahara on roadsters, Richard decided they should ride mountain bikes and that he and I should import them together. The success of the landmark, 3,410-mile, north-south crossing of the Sahara inspired us to import a further 20 mountain bikes to kickstart interest in them. Subsequently Richard co-launched the Fat Tyre Five series of mountain bike races, staged over five weekends in 1984.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>An avid bicycle collector, he was passionate about pedal power in all its forms, especially aerodynamic, recumbent bicycles that had been banned from road-racing competitions. He co-founded the British Human Power Club in 1983 and was its chairman, and also chairman of the\u00a0<a title=\"World Human Powered Vehicle Association\" href=\"http:\/\/www.whpva.org\/\">World Human Powered Vehicle Association<\/a>, until his death.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>He wrote several more books on cycling, including (with myself) Richards&#8217; Ultimate Bicycle Book (1992), as well as campaigning columns for publications such as the Guardian and New Cyclist. In his last book, City Cycling (2007), he returned to providing inspirational and amusing instructions on how to survive as a cyclist in an urban environment.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>A warm-hearted and fun-loving colleague, he had an editor&#8217;s eclectic range, editing books that included an 18-part series on the Vietnam war; the astronaut Michael Collins&#8217;s memoirs of the Apollo 11 moon landing; and The Sawtooth Wolves, documenting a six-year study of a wolf pack.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Richard was an accomplished blues guitarist and five-string banjo player, having been taught the banjo in Woodstock by the American folk musician Billy Faier.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He is survived by his wife, Sherry, whom he married in 1974; his children, Danielle, Katharyn and Shawn; his grandchildren, Alexander and Norah; and his mother.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2022 Richard Ballantine, author and publisher, born 25 July 1940; died 29 May 2013<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While I was in the States with limited computer access, Richard Ballantine, the \u00a0man whose book, &#8220;Richard&#8217;s Bike Book&#8221; along&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2013\/06\/08\/richard-ballantine-author-who-did-more-than-anyone-to-bring-back-the-bicycle-dies-2\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,78,6,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-nbggrabbag","category-recumbent","category-uncategorized-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VuuR-1tS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5686,"url":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2013\/06\/30\/best-history-of-the-recumbent-why-its-faster-how-it-came-to-be-banned\/","url_meta":{"origin":5696,"position":0},"title":"Best History of the Recumbent &#8211; Why it&#8217;s Faster &amp; How it Came to be Banned","author":"awakeagainmartin@gmail.com","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Francis Faure in 1933The history of the recumbent bicycle is filled with intrigue. Only a few people today realize that the current surge in interest and ownership of recumbents is a renaissance of what occurred at the end of the previous century and in the early years of this one.The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Recumbent&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Recumbent","link":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/category\/recumbent\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-2ek3baymHs0\/UdBmD9QyhDI\/AAAAAAAABEo\/E-3YqKkG3GM\/s320\/Faure_1934_zps4a2ae7b8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10083,"url":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2015\/09\/10\/history-of-the-modern-day-recumbent-talk-coming\/","url_meta":{"origin":5696,"position":1},"title":"History of the Modern Day Recumbent Talk Coming","author":"awakeagainmartin@gmail.com","date":"September 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"At the\u00a0Recumbent Tri-Cycle-Con Trade Show & Convention, held Sept 25-27 at the Sharonville Convention Center, in Cincinnati, OH, \u00a0Author and\u00a0National Bicycle Greenway Director, Martin Krieg will be giving a presentation that fleshes out the story behind the pictures below as well many more. Called the\u00a0\"History of the Modern Day Recumbent\",\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Recumbent&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Recumbent","link":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/category\/recumbent\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Screen-shot-2015-09-07-at-9.38.50-PM.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Screen-shot-2015-09-07-at-9.38.50-PM.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Screen-shot-2015-09-07-at-9.38.50-PM.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10107,"url":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2015\/09\/11\/midwest-bent-shop-sponsoring-my-rc-con-speech\/","url_meta":{"origin":5696,"position":2},"title":"Midwest Bent Shop Sponsoring Krieg RC Tri-Con Speech","author":"awakeagainmartin@gmail.com","date":"September 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Denny LaDue, just came on as a sponsor of my Bent History talk in Cincinnati at the\u00a0Recumbent Tri-Cycle-Con Trade Show & Convention\u00a0on Saturday 9\/26 at 11AM. Besides vicariously being at the show, which he cannot make this year, by supporting my presentation, he will appear with it year round when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Recumbent&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Recumbent","link":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/category\/recumbent\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1461531_888527607836176_5104614270146781479_n","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/1461531_888527607836176_5104614270146781479_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/1461531_888527607836176_5104614270146781479_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/1461531_888527607836176_5104614270146781479_n.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/1461531_888527607836176_5104614270146781479_n.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9024,"url":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2015\/02\/09\/trade-your-brompton-for-my-recumbent\/","url_meta":{"origin":5696,"position":3},"title":"Trade your Brompton for my Recumbent?","author":"awakeagainmartin@gmail.com","date":"February 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Since promoting my new book, \u201cHow the Bicycle Awakened Me and How it \u00a0can Heal \u00a0our Communities. Nation and the World\u201d will find me traveling quite a bit more, I am looking to get ito a Brompton folding bike. Toward that end, is there anyone out there, preferably in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;NBG Newsletter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"NBG Newsletter","link":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/category\/nbg-newsletter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"unnamed-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8390,"url":"https:\/\/www.bikeroute.com\/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews\/2014\/07\/22\/dennis-johnson-podcast\/","url_meta":{"origin":5696,"position":4},"title":"Up Close and Personal with 2014 American RAAM Winner, Dennis Johnson (on a Bent!)","author":"awakeagainmartin@gmail.com","date":"July 22, 2014","format":"audio","excerpt":"\u00a0 From a 60-pound overweight, non-cyclist smoker, Dennis Johnson purchased a Bacchetta Recumbent Bicycle in 2005 and nine years later, used his fierce competetive nature to become the fastest American to finish\u00a0the world's toughest bike race, the 2014 Race Across America. 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