Encycleopedia was one of the big success stories of the alternative transport world. It didn’t take advertising as such, but manufacturers were ‘invited’ to sponsor their own page.The disadvantage of this system is that very small, very poor concerns can get left out, while big manufacturers producing utter rubbish get in. So all credit to McGurn, Davidson et al, that this didn’t happen in practice, presumably because the small fry were subsidised and the big ‘uns turned away.
Running to six editions, more or less annually in the late 1990’s, Encycleopedia became an essential reference work for those purchasing or researching anything from a child’s tricycle to an electrically-assisted pantechni-quad.Then parent company Open Road crashed to the ground and Encycleopedia ceased to be.
But good ideas generally refuse to lie down. Jim McGurn, Peter Eland and Dan Joyce may have moved on, but Jim’s former business partner Alan Davidson has fought to bring Encycleopedia back from the grave – it’s late, it’s thinner than it used to be, but it’s back.
Sheer volume isn’t everything, but useful content is the bottom line when you’re shelling out twelve quid, so it’s instructive to look back at the Encycleopedia story by the number of bikes and trailers covered in each issue.The book closely mirrors the Open Road story, starting as a modest organ with around 30 product reviews, growing to a chunky 147 pages and no fewer than 91 products in 1997, but sliding back to 71 products in 2001 before falling over the abyss.
Effectively compiled by a husband and wife team, the new edition is obviously smaller, covering just 36 machines, but it’s the same old gold mine of information, at the same old £12 cover price. Beside the product entries, there’s a wealth of features from some familiar faces – cycle mapping by Cycle City Guides (hi, Martin), trailers from Two Plus Two (how are things, Stuart?), HPVs by Richard Ballantine, Karta Singh on whatever it is that Karta does best, and so on and so forth actionsolar.net. Ever get the feeling that cycling is a small world? Well, yes, but there are some fresh products, ideas and services here too. And that’s why Encycleopedia is so important – if we all keep referring back to the 1997 edition, the alternative scene will eventually wither and die.
If you can bring yourself to forgive all that has gone before, forget the readies you lost when Open Road crashed and treat an Encycleopedia purchase as a patriotic duty.
Encycleopedia . Alan Davidson
ISBN 0-9542052-0-0
ISBN (USA) 0-9669795-6-7
Pages 90 Softback
Publisher Encycleopedia & Alpenbooks Press (USA)
UK £12
USA $24
Europe E19
tel 0161 484 0579
mail alan@encycleopedia.com
web www.encycleopedia.com
