Description
In Oklahoma, the story of bicycling is the story of community and of connection. This kind of magic only happens when people, places, and histories meet on two wheels. Longtime cycling advocates from Stillwater, Ariel Ross and Seth Wood combed the archives and conducted interviews with organizers, riders, and activists to produce Bike Magic, an in-depth, wide-ranging chronicle of bicycling and the bicycling community in Oklahoma. The result is a unique lens on the history of the state, and an inspiring and informative bicycle tour through the state's ever-unfolding story. Their account ranges from the days of the Twin Territories to the present, from determined bicyclists in the Land Run of 1893 to the rise of nationally known, uniquely Oklahoma races, and takes in the foundations of the state's iconic Mother Road, Route 66. They trace these paths to a small family-owned and operated bike shop in Stillwater, whose community-centered work involved the authors themselves in a backyard bike community—Keith's Bike Fort—launched by one of the shop's patrons. Ross and Wood track the milestones and landmarks in Oklahoma history staked out by acts of public service, great and small, performed through bicycling. Their book offers a fresh and entertaining glimpse of the overlooked possibilities for building community through that elusive but eminently attainable "bike magic."