By 1901, when this book first free-wheeled spectacularly into sight, cycling was well established both as leisure pastime and method of getting about. Yet as a forum for the display of acrobatic prowess its potential had been left largely unmined – a lack that this book swiftly and with some style swooped in to supply. It shows straight-faced paragons of Edwardian society in a variety of impressive and unlikely vehicular arrangements. Fearlessly, they demonstrate the possibility of picking up a handkerchief without dismounting, of riding backwards while seated on the handlebar, and of 'standing on saddle, hands off! ' They even make perfectly clear that, for two able cyclists with the inclination and a length of wooden pole, it was quite possible to bear aloft a clown while mounted.