The Rough-Stuff Fellowship Archive: Adventures with the world's oldest off-road cycling club

You've probably already seen many samples of pictures from the Rough Stuff Fellowship Archive, though you might not have known it. For instance, the following image has probably been seen in many places without proper credit being given to the Rough Stuff Fellowship.I've actually been a member of the Rough Stuff Fellowship for a year, long enough to purchase their guide to the alps, which is one of the best gravel riding books, except of course, it was written well before the current fashion for gravel riding exists. (One note about the guide: it's rated in typical "British understatement" fashion --- their "easy" rides are challenging, their "moderate" rides involves the certainty that you'll have to get off your bike and carry it, and their "strenuous" rides can involve multiple places where you'll have to carry the luggage and the bike separately! The intended audience is composed of tourists on multi-day trips quite possibly with camping gear)The pictures in the book are outstanding. The trip to Finland, for instance, apparently started with the tandems being hoisted aboard ship via crane:I enjoyed the pictures of the alps as they were in the 1950s and 60s, back when Grosse Scheidegg was unpaved. There are numerous pictures of fence climbing, though the famous picture of a cyclist climbing a ladder with bicycle strapped to his back is notably missing.The winter pictures are great, though I wished that all the pictures came with the accompanying RSF guidebook description and map coordinates, but of course, back in those days of Kodachrome, photographers didn't have GPS devices.If I have any complaints about this book, it's that the quality of paper and cover (I bought the hardcover version of this book) is lacking. It was quite clearly intended for distribution to club members, but obviously reached a much bigger audience. I wished that they had charged a fee to view the photos digitally, for instance, as the samples on a high quality monitor are a much better way to view them than on the paper in the printed book.Nevertheless, as a reminder of the days when cyclists didn't need purpose built bikes to go anywhere they wished, the book is great and well worth the purchase. It's not going to be much of a coffee table book, but every enthusiastic gravel rider should have a copy. Recommended!

Very cool. Excellent photo quality. Love the type writer and map bits.

I first heard about this book in an article in "Outside Magazine." It took a little work to track down—there don't seem to be any copies available in the United States, so I had to order it directly from the publisher in the UK.I'm a mountain biker. I also participate in a tradition called "Extreme Picnicking." This book seems to blend these two activities.If you haven't heard yet, the Rough-Stuff Fellowship was the first off-road biking group, founded in the 1950s in the UK. Mountain biking as we know it today still wouldn't be invented for a couple decades on the West Coast of the United States, but that didn't stop these people from getting out on some remarkable adventures.This is a book of photos. There's a written introduction, but pretty much everything else is photos.The photography is beautiful. If you love film landscape photography of the Lakes Region under snow-cover, glaciers in the Alps, rivers in Norways and geothermal vents in Iceland, you will adore this book.It is also a playful and humorous book. You'll find photos of a mouse sandwich, of naps in the sun. Many of the photos are of people walking (or hoisting) their bikes, rather than riding them.Overall, it is a rejuvenating, nostalgic, and beautiful book.

Wonderful nostalgia. Terrific photographs of a bygone but very recent era. These were tough cyclists. No Lycra here. Greenspot Jackets, Hebden cord and moleskin shorts. Primuses clipped to the frame. Always ready for a brew and a doss in a bothy. As a Rough Stuff cyclist used to tell me, they wore barbed wire braces and Harris Tweed underwear.Buy it.

Absolutely awesome love it to bits

Molto ben fatto

The book is awesome. Great pictures and write ups, exactly what I was looking for.

Perfect coffee table book pour cyclistes enthousiastes. Inspirational. Détente en laissant son esprit vagabonder et relativiser le besoin de nouveaux équipements cyclistes.