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Title: Urban Bikers' Tricks & Tips: Low-Tech & No-Tech Ways to Find, Ride, & Keep a Bicycle by Dave Glowacz, Gladys Rosa-Mendoza, Bacon Friar, Phil Gullett, Tara Hoffmann, Eric Masi, Kristin Mount, Josh Neufeld ISBN: 0-9651728-1-3 Publisher: Wordspace Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.31 (16 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Great for thugs
Comment: If you are a thug or in a cycling gang, this book is for you!!!
The author provides great tips that you may not have thought of on
how to get back at "evil" drivers. I don't know which I will use
first - bending an antenna, squirting a water bottle into the driver's face,
or (...)calling in a gun complaint on the driver.
Nicely illustrated with a diagram of the best spot to
hit to crack a windshield.
If you are a (...), you wont appreciate this book.
Rating: 1
Summary: Outrageous suicidal advice
Comment: I just got this book a week ago, and will probably send it back. That will be a first, for I have never returned a book before. But this one is that bad.
I agree with the other 1-star reviewers who noted the dangerous advice given in this book. I've been riding bikes with traffic for over 30 years, and I admit I've done most if not all of the dangerous "sly cyclist" "tips & tricks" recommended by this book - but I did them when I didn't know better. You'd think a book on biking would help one know better...
Riding safely and effectively with traffic means riding visibly and predictably according to standard vehicular laws and principles. Much of the advice in this book is contrary to this important notion, which has already been detailed in other reviews. I will add that the author does not appear to base his recommendations on any principles whatsoever. He just recommends doing certain things, many of which are contrary to riding visibly and predictably, that have apparently worked for him, so far. Just because he hasn't been killed by his own advice yet does not mean it's good advice, or that all of his readers will have the same dumb luck.
Almost all accidents require more than just one thing to go wrong, usually about three. By following the advice in this book, and not riding visibly and predictably ("vehicularly"), only two more things have to go wrong for an accident to occur. I stongly recommend NOT stacking the deck against your life and well-being like this.
Ignore this book. Instead, buy and read "Effective Cycling" by John Forester.
Rating: 1
Summary: Dangerous advice that will get you killed
Comment: I have been a cycle commuter for three years. Granted, that's not the decades logged by some people, but then I'm in my early twenties and also the target market for this book -- which, with its splashy graphics and "hip" typography, wants to appeal to the "bad boy" market.
This book is incredible. It stocks some good advice at the beginning of the book -- pretty basic material that you will find in any reasonable intro to utility cycling book (or website.) But it rapidly degenerates into a mishmash of advice, some of which is incredibly dangerous -- including how to catch on to the back of a moving vehicle and how to "attack" a car that's annoyed you.
It also includes advice about riding up onto the sidewalk -- a seemingly innocous technique that actually leads to a significant percentage of cycling injuries and deaths.
When done right, cycling is nearly as safe as walking. When done wrong, cycling is a very dangerous activity. A cycling book is your guide to survival. It should be something that you can trust, it should always err on the safe side -- knowing that you'll break a rule or two in your time -- to give you a margin of error. This books violates that trust.
Glowacz wants his book to be a source of advice for the "practical" cyclist. Instead, he has produced another book that, in its advice, relegates bikes to the status of dangerous toys. The "street smarts" are anything but smart. The number of college kids -- and road racers, never a cautious bunch -- killed on bikes is a depressing statistic, and an entirely reducible one. This book will do little to help.
I recommend that readers interested in urban cycling situations get John Forrester's Effective Cycling instead. It contains everything a grown-up needs to know about cycling.
UPDATE: more potentially fatal errors in this book: "New Jersey jughandle" advice includes advice to run a red light in an unpredictable fashion. "Bike lane" advice advises cyclists to ride in the bike lane even if the lane is within the "door zone", and to swerve in and out of traffic to avoid bike lane obstacles. This is exactly the behaviour that killed a young graduate student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was run over by a bus after swerving to avoid an open door in the bike lane.
UPDATE (again): more fatal advice, this time on how to "draft" a moving van, car or truck. Drafting is a way to increase your efficiency by riding in someone else's wake. People do it all the time when racing, you'll see Lance do it in the Tour. When done with other cyclists -- who know to be extra careful, and who know the risks, and who know you're there -- it is tricky, but fun. When doing it to an auto on the street, it can kill you. Two cyclists set out to bicycle the length of South America. One of them didn't make it: he drafted a bus, and was seriously injured; you can read about it on the website detailing their travels.
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Title: Effective Cycling: 6th Edition by John Forester ISBN: 0262560704 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 29 December, 1992 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Richard's 21St-Century Bicycle Book by Richard Ballantine ISBN: 1585671126 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power by Travis Hugh Culley ISBN: 0375760245 Publisher: Random House Trade Pub. Date: 13 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Bicycling Science by David Gordon Wilson, Jim Papadopoulos ISBN: 0262731541 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 30 August, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Messengers Style by Philippe Bialobos, Philippe Bialobos, Valerie Steele ISBN: 2843232104 Publisher: Assouline Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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