Customer Reviews

The Bike Path

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Librarians will have a tough time trying to categorize The BikePath because it could easily fit on several different shelves, though not for long. Yeah, it's about self-discovery, but it's not a self-help book. It's about mountain biking, but not how-to. It's about spirituality, but not religious. It's funny, but not .... well, you get the picture. The BikePath deserves its own kiosk, because it is, simply, like nothing you've read before. The BikePath is about the metamorphosis of a man, a soul, a writer. The author begins as a two pack smoker, 6 pack drinker - out of shape, out of control. In fact, the author's writing style very closely parallels his mountain biking skills. Awkward and slow at first, but by mid-book, the biker is becoming a master of the trail, while the writer is becoming gifted artist. It's really fun to watch the evolution of both. Whether or not you are motivated to try mountain biking isn't the point. Doing SOMETHING is.

Is The Bike Path about mountain biking? Yeah, and Moby Dick is about sailing.
Imagine if you would: In a last ditch effort to save their sanity, Jack Kerouac and Deepak Chopra take up mountain biking, then inexplicably decide to collaborate on a book abou the experience. It may be redundant to call something absolutely unique, but The Bike Path by Wayne Eliot Lankford falls squarely in that category. We are along for the ride as Lankford jumps from the corporate treadmill onto a mountain bike and begins to see life not as a continuing series of problems, but as a continuing adventure. Soul searching on a 17-mile loop around Oak Mountain, Lankford explores where he is in his life and how he got there. This book combines the lyrical rhythm of a songwriter with insights and wisdom that come only after serious reflection. Highly recommended.

If you are looking for some didactic manual on how to ride a mountain bike, then, well, you've come to the wrong place. If you are, however, searching for a good book that both inspires and illuminates the mind while chronicling both enthralling and humorous mountain biking anecdotes, then, without doubt, you have come to the right place. Wayne Lankford, not unlike most of us, was a working stiff who spent most of his free time doing seemingly important stuff and on the couch watching TV. Then, much to his credit, the author began to think, in more ways than one, outside of the box.

Mountain biking, in all of its beautiful simplicity, takes one away from the box and the all-too-familiar surroundings of your plush sofa and gigantic TV and deluxe surround sound setup of one's TV room into a far more rewarding and fulfilling milieu called The Bike Path. One may find The Bike Path, as in all new endeavors, an unfamiliar and, due to lack of use, unworn path, yet one that ultimately, if given the opportunity, will lead to an extraordinary destination.

For someone like me who is not an avid mountain biker, I can attest to the fact that this is a journey that anyone can enjoy -- regardless of your love for mountain biking. Once you've begun the journey, you all but envelop yourself in the book and are transported to a place of introspection that you are sure to find both transcendentally cathartic as well as indelibly rewarding.

"We are, you and I, at some sort of intersection right now. This one's called the Bike Path. You are invited to follow. Who knows what you'll find just up the trail from here."
-Wayne Lankford

"The Bike Path" offers a unique perspective which can be well appreciated by all of those who ride a mountain bike, for any reason... overall an excellent book and highly recommended for the rider who is into more than just the "sport" of riding. The author's train of conciousness style is both fascinating and intriquing, and most readers will find several hours of enjoyment, and even perhaps gain a new perspective on aspects of their riding which they may have previously ignored. Thumbs up and a 5 star rating from webmountainbike.

This book is very thoughtful. Riding a bike can be such a spiritual experience.

I recently decided to de-clutter my life and brain by throwing away all my old books. I thought about each one before I pitched it in the trash. Out of all the great books by renown authors, there were only two I could not throw away, for one reason or another. This was one of those books. There is just something fundamentally wholesome and true about it. [R McCook]