Customer Reviews

Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one the best book I have read about biking, and I actually still read it almost every day, checking out different aspects related to cycling - health issues, nutrition advises, and especially exercises and stretching before and after every ride. The book answers almost all of my questions, and considering the fact that I am a women and over 50, but still very ambitious to get better on the road, I find it so very useful - I could say necessary.

The only thing lacking in the book are photos or at least drawings in the chapters on exercises and yoga for cyclers. Maybe it is just me, but only reading the text-descriptions is not enough. Despite that, I would highly recommend the book to all cyclers, regardless of age. I learn enormously from it!

Bike for Life reads like a lifestyle magazine, categorized by topics designed to pique interest but follows up with depth reserved only for the New York Times or National Geographic. The authors know how to take a position without turning it into religion. Completing a Century ride on your 100th birthday appears within reach, but maybe not if your only activity is cycling.

It's likely that if you're a cyclist or triathlete you've already read both authors, Roy Wallack and Bill Katovsky. Both have been fixtures in the publishing world for years. In fact, Katovsky started Triathlete and Inside Triathlon, and Wallack was one of Triathlete's premier editors. You'll likely recognize each of their distinctive literary voices from chapter to chapter, and feel a pleasant familiarity not unlike the sense you get when James Earl Jones's voice shows up in a commercial. At once you feel at ease.

Simply, Bike for Life posits that cycling is an integral part of longevity but not a panacea. While aerobic fitness can be maximized riding, even into our golden years, other aspects of fitness and bicycling must be addressed. Strength training and flexibility fill in the gaps of cycling's physiological deficiencies. The right bike fit solves the hand, wrist,neck, back, foot and numb nethers issues plaguing many of us, which, if ignored either kill the enjoyment or take us off the bike altogether. And, cycling related benefits notwithstanding, this book is a user's manual for us all, cyclists or otherwise, because it details a cornucopia of secrets to long term health and fitness. It's like having all of those pertinent articles that we read and wanted to save (but never did) compiled and organized for our periodic reference.

Not only, entertaining interviews introduce us to legendary, mature riders who, whether setting records or just climbing into the saddle, embody an ideal, inspiring confidence in our own future, by their achievement, while their peers sidle up to canes and walkers. The authors' personal experiences aim their book squarely at you and me, recreational riders and age-group competitors who want to milk as much fulfillment and adventure as we can from our time turning the cranks. For what it's worth, I took the 34 mile, 10,000 ft. Haleakela volcano (on Maui, HI) climb challenge right off the pages of Bike for Life, essentially at Roy's behest. Now I have indelible imprints of a 4 hour ride from Mayberry to Mars that'll keep me company long as my memory remains - at least 'til my 100th birthday.

There's at least one typographical error. Spinal erectors - those muscles running the length of our vertebral column - are mis-described as spiny erectors. This bothered me - one who's found errors in the Webster's Third International Dictionary (really) - but probably not anyone else.

Bike for Life is a great read, a great reference tool and a great gift - I've given away a half dozen copies so far. As a triathlon coach, personal trainer and avid reader I recommend this book.



Christopher Drozd
Beverly Hills, CA

[Disclosure: I'm featured in this book, but receive no compensation from the authors or publisher. I bought all of the copies I gave away. Further, it took me over six months to get around to writing any sort of review.]

BUT there is a lot of good information. I think it was summed up by another reviewer who suggested there was too much fluff and too many longish interviews.
If there ever is a second edition to this book, and i think it'd be a great idea, might i suggest the following: more hard information about training (heart rate monitors and training levels receive very little if any mention), diagrams or pictures (imagine simply having yoga poses described to you with impercise language), and lastly, divide the interviews/inspiration stories of people who did inspirational rides into seperate sections.

to sum up, there is some good information and its presented in a congenial upbeat tone, but no illustrations and overlong interviews take away from its impact.

CAN'T PUT IT DOWN

I bought this book because I personally connect with its theme of "Ride a century when you turn a century." I am 42 and plan on another 50 or 60 years of hammering, so the longevity info interested me. That info is thorough, well-researched and, in some cases, groundbreaking. But more than that, it is AN INCREDIBLY FUN, READABLE BOOK THAT I CAN'T PUT DOWN. Just leafing randomly through the book, your eye catches on something and you end up reading for an hour without even knowing it. Why? A unique format. Bike for Life is actually TWO BOOKS IN ONE:

1) One of the best bike-training/longevity research books I've seen. Includes good descriptions of expected topics: climbing tips , anti-impotence tips, a strong case for cross-training. Particularly illuminating is some surprising, cutting-edge I hadn't heard of: the link between cycling and osteoporosis; using rapid-contraction weight-lifting to spur Human Growth Hormone production; the 5-to-1 "relationship ratio". Had I known some of the latter five years ago, it might have saved my marriage. Seriously.

2) Next, every chapter in Bike for Life is separated by a huge INTERVIEW WITH A CYCLING CELEBRITY; all are fascinating reads. The one with John Howard, the great US cyclist of the 70s, is riviting, as are those of Johhny G, the founder of Spinning, Mike Sinyard, the president of Specialized, John Sinabaldi, a 90-year-old former olympic rider of the 1930's who rides 30 miles per day, and one unknown, but strangely magnetic, fellow named Rich "The Reverend" White. (At first, I didn't like the idea of one of the authors, Roy Wallack, lumping an obvious friend of his with the stars, but it turned out to be a fascinating read. I want to meet the guy) Big names like Missy Giove, Ned Overend, Jim Ochowitz, Eddy B -- all great interviews that taught me a lot about fitness and riding. They alone are worth the [very reasonable] price of the book.

Each interview takes about 45 minutes to read, On top of those, Bike for Life is filled with other human stories, too; many personality profiles of average, extraordinary people infunny, dramatic, instructive stories of success and failure. That includes the two authors themselves, whose in-the-trenches stories of extreme rides they've done over the years actually made me laugh out loud a few times. Both are excellent writers. It was interesting to compare the sensitive, cerebral, vulnerable, weaker-riding Bill Katovsky with the aggressive, in-your-face, go-for-broke anecdotes of lead author Wallack, who supplies some surprisingly sensitive touches himself.

I've never written a book review before, but I could go on and on about Bike for Life. In summation: THIS IS A GREAT BOOK.

This book is very inspiring. It has some excellent interviews and gret tips for serious riders.
The things I like about the book -
1. How important is the fitting of the bike.
2. How important it is to warm up before getting on to the bike, and equally how important it is to strech after a long ride.
3. What it takes to bike for long distance. The authors have given inspiring facts and tips to take long distance bike rides for leisure and races.
4. How to be a good climber. This is one aspect in which I needed help.
5. How to prevent injuries

However, there are certain things the book was missing -
1. This is not a book for some one who rides a bike just for leisure. Only if you are serious biker you should read this.
I wish the book covered all the aspects for people who have just got into biking.
2. There are no diagramatic explanation for any of the exercises which are mentioned in this book. Some of the exercises look are hard to understand without this.

Over all I was very satisfied with the book. I completed the book within 3 weeks and still read it for getting solid inspiration and correct technique. Good Job!!!!

I just logged in to Amazon to look for some Lance Armstrong books, and I bumped into this title. A fellow-cyclist got me this book from Amazon, shortly after it was published. WOW! What a read. I couldn't put it down. I don't know what's been better for my cycling these days taking my thor-plex or this book. Ok, taking my thor-plex has, but the book is right up there with it. Guys and gals get this one. It is loaded with important information and excellent tips. The health information will be of tremendous use to you - all the talk on the human growth hormone (HGH) convinced me to get YF-8 in my diet and to drink plenty of water.

Read the book and let us all know how you enjoyed it, as other have done here much more eloquent than I.

This book explains why it is necessary for older riders to stretch before riding and to avoid simple sugars. I am not sure knowing those things will make me do them, but reading the book does move me in the direction of better habits.

I really liked the interviews. I learned something useful in each one of them. They are also the sort of thing that inspires you to ride. Reading descriptions of how to do various exercises was not easy. Perhaps drawings or photos would have helped. Still, I would rather be riding than doing exercises, no matter how advisable it is to do the exercises.

This book will have an effect on my training and riding style. One of the most helpful sections was about using one's glutes more for added power in pedaling. I may not revise everything I do immediately, but I will read my underlinings again and again. In time I will be doing more of what this book suggests.

Several times I thought I would not be at all interested in a new chapter's topic. But, when I got into the chapter it was even more interesting than the previous chapter. Some of the topics were also vital, like watching out for osteoporosis.

The immediately most helpful thing I learned by reading this book was how to utilize and strengthen my 'glutes' for more power and more endurance. I can ride longer and faster with less soreness afterward now. That information alone was worth the cost of the book.

There is some good information on preserving and building relationships, but most of the people cited for their life stories were better examples of broken relationships. Cycling can be addictive and a non-cycling spounse is not always content to sit at home and wait for the cyclist to return home.

It is generally very enjoyable to read.

I'm so impressed with Bike for Life that I bought another one. First, I bought one for my dad's birthday - he's 51, rides like he's 21, and always says he plans on living to 101. The longevity information is right up his alley, but this book is so packed with other great info and is so fun to read that I bent-up too many of the pages reading it and had to order a fresh one for him. Then I forced my bike-crazy husband to read the " Rolling Relationships" chapter #12, which was so illuminating and entertaining that it seems like it could be a book all it's own. Thanks to that, we're going to get a tandem.

There's more surprises throughout the book. I didn't know about that osteoprorisis problem, but now I'm going to the weight room-my husband, too.. Then the in-depth interviews--I never heard of Missy Giove before this, but now she's my hero. It's like the Bicycling magazine editor said: You simply don't expect to get something interesting in a mere bike book. But it is.

Yes, this book is a superb, entertaining read and filled with a mind-boggling array of relevent information, as the previous reviewers have alluded to. And the interviews of the cycling celebrities and the numerous other profiles scattered throughout paint Bike for Life in such vivid colors that all other other cycling-health-fitness-training books seem grey by comparison.

But beyond that, the best part is really its hardcore, old-fashioned journalistic research. These guys, Wallack and Katovsky, are like the Woodward and Bernstein of cycling and longevity. They dig deep, uncovering a treasure-trove of "I didn't know that" information that can help anyone - cyclists and non-cyclists - live longer and stronger.

The best part of it is that everything they say is so logical and appears to have no ulterior motive. What I mean by that is that they are not coaches out to sell a program , like Joe Friel or Chris Carmichael; that leaves them free to quote the two aforementioned and dozens of other cycling experts. Instead of buying Carmichael's book, all you need to do is read a 3-page feature in Chapter 1 on a 45-year-old salesman who is going through the Carmichael program. Want to know about what it's like to get a bike fit from one of the nation's top bike fitters, Paul Levine? Read a 2-page feature about a top TV exec who was fit by him and seems to have gotten 20 years younger. The authors, two average but highly adventurous cyclists who have traveled the world by bike and collected a boatload of bylines and editorships in bicycling, triathlon, and fitness publications over the years, seem to have interviewed an endless parade of well-known experts in various fields: Bob Anderson in stretching, Steve Ilg in Yoga, to name a few - then threaded them all together with the latest bone and muscle studies into an all-encompassing super-program of ultra-life-long health. It is an impressive achievement.

And did I say that it is an exceedingly fun read?

I found this book full of practical advice and vital information for cyclists of all ages. I loved reading the life stories of various well known and famous cyclists. I was so impressed with this book that I have bought an extra two copies to give to friends.