Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike
Description
“No matter what or how you ride, read this book and remind yourself just how enjoyable cycling can and should be.”—Eben Weiss, author of The Enlightened Cyclist Just Ride is a revelation. Forget the ultralight, uncomfortable bikes, flashy jerseys, clunky shoes that clip onto tiny pedals, the grinding out of endless miles. Instead, ride like you did when you were a kid—just get on your bike and discover the pure joy of riding it. A reformed racer who’s commuted by bike every day since 1980, whose writings and opinions appear in major bicycling and outdoor magazines, and whose company, Rivendell Bicycle Works, makes bikes for riders ready to opt out of a culture overrun by racing, Grant Petersen shares a lifetime of unexpected facts, controversial opinions, expert techniques, and his own maverick philosophy. In 87 short, two-to-three page chapters, it covers:
- Riding: Count Days, Not Miles; Corner Like Jackie Robinson; Steer with Your Hips, Shift with Your Legs
- Suiting Up: The Shoes Ruse; Ponchos—the Ultimate Unracer’s Garment
- Safety: #1 Rule—Be Seen; Helmets Aren’t All They’re Cracked Up to Be
- Health and Fitness: Why Riding Is Lousy All-Around Exercise; Saddles Don’t Cause Impotence; Drink When You’re Thirsty—Not Before
Also includes chapters on Accessories, Upkeep, and Technicalities, and a final chapter titled “Velosophy” that includes the essential, memorable thought: Your Bike Is a Toy—Have Fun with It.Winner Silver Medal 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards
More Details
Also in this Series
Published Reviews
Library Journal Reviews
This piece of awesomeness should become a populist manifesto for bicyclists everywhere. In it, Petersen (founder, Rivendell Bicycle Works, Walnut Creek, CA) makes a pungent (yes, pungent) case for enjoying bicycling, for returning it to its recreational and utile state. Though the book is masked as a list of 89 basic ideas (e.g., use your kickstand, get your quick release right, etc.), it's really a clarion call for riders to "unrace" aka "jettison the influences of racing that make your bike riding worse than fantastic." Spend some time on a bike and you'll see the dudes I see: blowing by-and scaring-little kids, pushing themselves to injury, dropping thousands of ka-ching, and scoffing at those not crushing two hard-core century rides every weekend. Petersen gives us permission to enjoy bike riding again, to ride your bike to pick up the groceries, to fart around. I have four bikes (yes, that's three too many), and I enjoy the hell out of them. But the one bike I really crave isn't the fully pimped $15,000 Pinarello Dogma 2; it's the black fat-tire, three-speed with metal fenders, a basket on the front, and a rack on the back. I sit upright on it, not hunched over in aero position. I pedal it to get to work, to the store, to the beach; it replaces my car, and it is extremely awesome. Smell what Petersen is cooking*. *Except for this funny idea he has that the poncho is the ultimate cycling garment. - Douglas Lord, "Books for Dudes," LJ Reviews 5/3/12 (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.