Wild Ride

To cross Australia on a bicycle, piercing the very heart of the continent, facing dangers, some known and more unknown - it was the very thing."
Jerome Murif, Australian cyclist, 1897

This book tells the story of the cyclists who were overcome by the need to venture forth on two wheels; the courageous men and women who undertook some of the most epic bicycle journeys of all time. While many of Australias bicycle pioneers rode to beat records or be the first, others rode for no other reason than to immerse themselves in the wild. Fortunately for us these bicycle pioneers wanted to share their experience with stories filled with unbridled wonder, drama and derring-do. The journeys retold in this book are a thrilling reminder of a period of exploration largely forgotten in the age of the motorcar. Journeys such as Arthur Richardson, the first to cycle across the Nullarbor Plain in 1896 and then 13,100 kilometres around Australia in 1889-90, and a swag of riders from the 1890s to today; from the likes of the pioneering Sarah Maddock, Joe Murif, Joe Pearson and Eddie Ted Reichenbach, to Sir Hubert Opperman, Shirley Duncan, Wendy Law and Ernie Old, and then to more contemporary adventurers like Kate Leeming, Sam Johnson, Tom Richards and Tegan Streeter.