Adventures with the world’s oldest off-road cycling club.
The Rough-Stuff Fellowship was established in a pub near the Welsh/English border in 1955, making it the oldest off-road cycling club in the world.
Recently, the club appointed an archivist, and the photos, hand-drawn maps and memories poured in – an unexpected treasure trove of incredible value and beauty.
The photos are full of the joy of riding your bike, and evocative of a bygone style – of a time when you might set off on a club ride wearing a shirt and tie, a deerstalker or a bobble hat, and no ride was complete without a stop to brew up some tea and smoke a pipe.
In their own quiet, very British way, these men and women were pioneers, pedalling and carrying their bikes and pitching their tents where angels feared to tread. Mountain bikes, gravel bikes, bikepacking – they all followed in the tyre tracks of the RSF.
This book celebrates their style and their spirit. It is a document not only of the history of cycling off the beaten track, but of British outdoor culture.
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Softcover / 270 x 210mm (portrait)
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208 pages – 192 in colour and a 16-page inset document section on coloured stock
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Vintage photos, hand-drawn maps and ephemera from the RSF archive from 1955 to the 1990s
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Introduction by Mark Hudson, RSF Archivist
