Custom Bicycles: A Passionate Pursuit, a new book by Christine Elliott and David Jablonka (and published by Images Publishing) is a must-have for any bike enthusiast. Inside are 240 pages of sheer custom bike goodness with full-color photos of some of the world’s most legendary and amazing bicycle artists, engineers, welders, metal fabricators, and of course, riders. Plus, there’s a foreward by cycling commentator Phil Liggett that takes a look at why the world of custom cycling has not been industrialized despite the availability of advanced manufacturing processes.

Google Book Search has a short preview of the book (with pictures) if you’d like to get a sense of how incredible this book really is. I’m hoping to get my hands on a copy as soon as I can so I can do a full review, but in the meantime, why don’t you pick up the book yourself? It’s on sale at Amazon.com for a considerably good price.

The image below shows a list of custom bike makers and companies that are included in this book. Definitely a great list to start from if you’re looking to get your own custom bike built.

More pictures in the gallery after the jump.