In the late 1880s\, Frank Lenz of Pittsburgh\, a renowned high-wheel
racer and long-distance tourist\, dreamed of cycling around the world. He
finally got his chance by recasting himself as a champion of the
downsized "\;safety-bicycle"\; with inflatable tires\, the forerunner of the
modern road bike that was about to become wildly popular. In the spring
of 1892 he quit his accounting job and gamely set out west to cover
twenty thousand miles over three continents as a correspondent for Outing magazine. Two years later\, after having survived countless near
disasters and unimaginable hardships\, he approached Europe for the final
leg.
He never made it. His mysterious disappearance in eastern
Turkey sparked an international outcry and compelled Outing to
send William Sachtleben\, another larger-than-life cyclist\, on Lenz's
trail. Bringing to light a wealth of information\, Herlihy's gripping
narrative captures the soaring joys and constant dangers accompanying
the bicycle adventurer in the days before paved roads and automobiles.
This untold story culminates with Sachtleben's heroic effort to bring
Lenz's accused murderers to justice\, even as troubled Turkey teetered on the edge of collapse.
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DAVID V. HERLIHY is the author of Bicycle\:
The History and his work has been featured on National Public
Radio and Voice of America and in the New York Times\, the Boston
Globe\, Boston\, and Historic Preservation. In
1999 Herlihy received the McNair History Award from the Wheelmen\, the
preeminent American association of antique bicycle collectors.