How To Rock and Roll : A City Rider's Repair Manual [Paperback]

Sam Tracy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

"Sam Tracy is the world's Most Dangerous Bike Mechanic! He wants you to ENJOY fixing your bike! He not only wants you to adjust your own bike, he wants you to adjust your attitude! His no-nonsense midwestern radicalism blasts the lycra-chrome designer consumerism that plagues bicycling in its place he asserts the autonomy and human freedom he fervently believes a daily bicyclist can enjoy. This visionary prole hurls invective and epithets, lampoons pretensions and sparks our imaginations. Fix your bike? Sure! Fix the world, too? Why not?!?" Chris Carlsson , Critical Mass pioneer

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Sam Tracy is the world's Most Dangerous Bike Mechanic! He wants you to ENJOY fixing your bike! He not only wants you to adjust your own bike, he wants you to adjust your attitude! His no-nonsense midwestern radicalism blasts the lycra-chrome designer consumerism that plagues bicycling—in its place he asserts the autonomy and human freedom he fervently believes a daily bicyclist can enjoy. This visionary prole hurls invective and epithets, lampoons pretensions and sparks our imaginations. Fix your bike? Sure! Fix the world, too? Why not?!?

-Chris Carlsson

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: AK Press (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967602602
• ISBN-13: 978-0967602608
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,473,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sam Tracy writes about bikes, and whatever else comes to mind. He began producing the zine Biker Pride in the early 1990s, a project which later became the urban cycling-focused Multiplier. More recently he is the author of How to Rock and Roll (Black Kettle Graphics), Bicycle! A Repair and Maintenance Manifesto (Speck) and Roadside Bicycle Repair: A Pocket Manifesto (Speck). After dipping in and out of the cycling world as mechanic, messenger and manager for more than a decade, Tracy went on to work for a Boston nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness, before serving with the Peace Corps in Mauritania, and later with AmeriCorps in Minneapolis. He looks forward to riding yet further afield with his wife Kerri, a Foreign Service Officer with the US State Department. Their adventures are chronicled at their blog Kersamania, http://kersamania.wordpress.com/. Speck Press will publish a new edition of the Bicycle Manifesto winter 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars informative and fun, June 18, 2008

By 

Sesshomaru (Va. USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How To Rock and Roll : A City Rider's Repair Manual (Paperback)

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, incredibly entertaining as far as repair manuals go. The descriptive, opinionated writing style had me reading about repairs I had no need to do currently.
High entertainment value-needs more pictures (maybe with an updated version?)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bike Repair Manual, October 25, 2005

By 

Tom Plum "TC" (Roswell, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Rock and Roll : A City Rider's Repair Manual (Paperback)

I would find it hard as to what style this book is in; I see a "punk" listmania come up when I try to find this book but though I be of humble knowledge, it seems it could also come close to "grunge" or even Robert Crumb "hippie" type of writing. It's unique style really places it one star of where it would be, if it were just a straightforward bicycle repair manual. Yet at a low cost and geared towards commuters, it is probably worth the price. Photos of bike repair with a beer or smoke are included. Also, some colorful language is to be found within its pages. The book is not comprehensive, that is its major setback. There are areas though, in which the author does demonstrate his knowledge and that is very helpful. I might not have been able to fix a bottom bracket with as much ease as I did in one case and he does convey his knowledge with the proverbial "laymen's terms." The writing style has some entertainment value and what's more, could probably be polished up for even a better book.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mechanic tested, messenger approved, February 3, 2001

By 

John Kenda (Norman Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Rock and Roll : A City Rider's Repair Manual (Paperback)

I am a bike messenger and I wish I'd had this book when I started the job. From fixing a flat to the most difficult repairs this book has it all.