On Monday, September 27th, we have the rare privilege of an evening with David V. Herlihy, bicycling historian and writer best-known for his award-winning “Bicycle: The History.”

David will be the 5BBC’s special guest for a reading and book signing at Bicycle Habitat of his newest work, “Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance.” This is the thoroughly-researched story of Frank Lenz, a young wheelman who departed New York City in 1892 to travel around the globe. He never made it. Instead, Lenz was lost cycling to where he was told not to go: eastern Turkey, in the midst of a Turkish and Kurdish campaign that would kill some 10,000 Armenian civilians. The New York Times calls Herlihy’s book “grippingly detailed” and “a view from the helmet cam in the days before helmet cams.”

We’ll be serving snacks and light fare. As an extra bonus, our good friend, Habitat owner Charlie McCorkell, is providing one of the store’s legendary discounts on inventory in stock, both for 5BBC members and their friends. Bicycle Habitat’s staff will also happily show us their newly expanded space. 

In addition to “The Lost Cyclist” and “Bicycle: The History,” David V. Herlihy 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.