'The Srampagmano Tales' - New Cycling Book By Forumenger

I suppose that is an epic poem about commuting by train written in sestina.

road.cc appreciation

http://road.cc/content/review/74231-srampagmano-tales-scarlett-parker

They've listed the weight of the book at the start of the review. I wonder if it's accurate.

Dammit to the thread pleez

A nice review.

How's the sales numbers going Scarlett?

I just saw that too, independent of this thread. Nice to see another review with a unique take on things. I understand there might be a few things going in the cycling print press, but living as I do as a concrete recluse in a virtual world means I'll probably remain oblivious.

Don't know sales exactly. My pre-Amazon paperback batch of 150 are all but gone. From what I know about ebook sales and can guess about paperback sales, it's probably not in danger of getting into quadruple figures for a while yet, not unless somebody 'infuential' in the more populist sense starts waving it around. I'm happy to leave it as a slow-burner, and hope anyone else who stumbles across it finds some pleasure within.

For now, I'm doing research for a novel which is more than a little brain-melting - sort of conceptual/thematic rather than factual/historic (the research, I mean). It's not going to be a cycling book I'm afraid, but there will be a bicycle in it; if I ever write the fucking thing. I'm going to try anyway...

Loving it on the Kindle, top work.

This exists on paper! Order placed.

Yes! Hope you enjoy it. Amazon discounted it recently to £6.29, so there's never been a better time to buy, etc.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1291127828[
](http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1291127828)

Need to curb the forum-flurry displacement activities and crack on with the novel-that-has-a-bike-in-it. Next month…

Get to it!

I went on a ride just like like this book on Sunday. We didn't meet at Look Mum, but it was to Brighton. There were ten riders, three of these were fixed, one was a roadie douchebag and one was a bearded former audaxer. There was a singlespeed, a TTer, a stylish vintage Frenchman and a long distance lady.

It felt as if all cycling's tribes were present and correct. And we had fish 'n' chips.

I think calling Rod Munch out as a roadie douchebag is a little unfair.

I meant youramericanluvver - I hear he does sportives and everything now*!

*obviously I actually meant you :P

We're all roadie douchebags, to the casual observer.

I was given a copy of the book by my roadie fanatic son for my birthday, and was pretty blown away.

I had no idea what to expect, but whatever it was I wasn't expecting, I really wasn't expecting a cycling book in couplets. Very cool.

I did a brief write up in the book thread on Retrobike, so that will have undoubtedly swelled sales by at least oh... a copy, maybe even two!

Thanks for the write-up, and for making such high quality offspring.

This exists on paper! Order placed.

What a nice little book.

It was post-ride reading over a couple of days. It'll come to the pub and get handed over for further enjoyment by others I'm sure.

Highlights for me include... "His carbon frame is monocoque not bonded
He's unaware of anything Lemond did". Ha! Love it.

The Grimpeur's Tale is wonderful from start to finish.

I'd always intended the final tale to be a fairly unabashed metaphor for the journey from birth to death. It had to be the grimpeur really - always seemed the most metaphysical aspect of cycling.

It was when writing the intro to the grimpeur in the prologue that I decided the project 'had good sensations in the legs'. Perhaps my favourite couplet…

"A dancer when he stands upon the pedals,
The mountain looms, the grimpeur duly treadles,"

…was a signal to me that enough linguistic duality was going to present itself over the course of the project. The double meaning of loom was exciting (you know, to me the writer - sad, but true) and I hadn't known beforehand that the word 'pedal' was a direct descendent of 'treadle', even though it's fucking obvious when you stop and think about it. It popped into my head on Sunday morning when I was 'weaving' up a gradient at that slower out-of-the-saddle cadence.

All seems such a long time ago now.

Back to work on the new book!

there's a sequel ?

The Srampagmano Tales 2 ? Treadles Revenge ?

No, not a sequel. Some minor bicycle-based content planned though.

The novel happened (a draft at least), but the bicycle-based content didn’t. Cycling does get a single mention, however, listed with stuff like salsa classes.

About to get the next project underway now, while I still have nails to bite. Temporary creative hiatus might be a good idea, erm, off paper, but it winds me up no end. I don’t intend for there to be any bicycles or cycling in this one, so that’s me done here.

Ooohhh!