Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike [Paperback]

Grant Petersen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2012

In the same way that Michael Pollan’s slim bestseller Food Rules brought a gust of common sense to the everyday activity of eating, 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 as well as a final chapter titled “Velosophy” that includes the essential, memorable thought: Your Bike Is a Toy—Have Fun with It.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Grant Petersen is the founder and owner of Rivendell Bicycle Works and writes the Rivendell Reader. His writing and opinions have been featured in major bike and outdoor magazines, including Bicycling, Outside, and Men s Journal. He s commuted exclusively by bike since 1980, and lives with his family in Walnut Creek, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; 1 edition (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761155589
• ISBN-13: 978-0761155584
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.7 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Cycling

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 90 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Ride Baby! May 4, 2012

By VTZack

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I can confidently say that Grant Peterson saved my life.

Don't believe me?

Let me tell you how. I started riding a tiny hand-me-down Trek about 8 years ago. I weighed about 260 lbs and was really out of shape. I rode the tiny Trek everywhere, and found that I really loved riding. I also had an incredible amount of neck and back and shoulder pain during and after my rides. So I went into my LBS (local bike shop) and said I wanted to get a new bike. I was all prepped up to get a new carbon fiber state-of-the-art material superlight racer. LBS guy was like "um dude, you should get a steel bike, that's what we ride here." So I did. I started researching this whole steel bike thing, and came across the Riv site.

I kept riding. On my new, but still too small, 57 cm bike. I am 6'3".

I also started reading. This book is an amalgamation of all the stuff that Grant has written in the past, with some new stuff added. I found out that my bike was probably still too small. That I was still trying to become a racer. These readings helped me understand how bikes work, how I can ride safely, and how I can be a normal temperamental dude when discussing hot button issues like helmets, carbon forks, and riding in traffic. They have been invaluable.

Since I started riding (and, more importantly, KEPT RIDING) I have lost 40 pounds and kept it off, I feel healthy, I have cleared up a liver issue that was potentially fatal, and am just a generally happy and healthy guy. This liver thing was the kicker. I needed to lose the weight to make it work.

I lost the weight by cutting carbs. I learned to cut carbs to lose weight by reading Gary Taubes' excellent book 'Why We Get Fat' which was given to my wife while we were at Rivendell Headquarters riding bikes (I ended up buying the first bike that has ever fit me, what a wonderful feeling it is to have my legs tire before my back, neck , and shoulders). Were it not for that trip, or for the friendly Riv staffer giving my wife the book, which led to me reading it and dropping the weight, who knows what would have happened.

I can say that the approach to riding that Grant lays out in this book has made riding fun, interesting, compelling, and wonderful. It has allowed me to stick with it, riding my bike year round in Vermont because I WANT to, not because I feel like I need to train for centuries or learn tricks on a fixie. I ride a bike that is incredibly comfortable, allows me to see traffic clearly, and is just a total blast. All of this is because of Grant.

If you are getting into riding for the fun of it, you NEED to buy this book. Before you buy a bike. Before you go into your LBS. Before you start reading internet postings. Just buy this, read it, and just ride.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best How to Book I've Read on Biking May 3, 2012

By Robert Vorce

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book has more information between its covers than any 200 page how to book I have read. I have been biking for 60+ years and have suspected that the bike retailers and manufactures were hoodwinking me into thinking that I ultimately needed a 15 pound bike if I wanted to be a "serious" cyclist. I thought that one would be better off buying the 25 pound steel bike and spending the $2000 dollars saved on a bit of liposuction. Grant Petersen put all of this into perspective in this magnificent book. He remarks that a bike is the only transportation system that is weighed without it's motor. When you add a 185 pound rider to a 15 pound bike versus a 25 pound bike the resulting saving in total weight is around 5%. You buy the racing bike and give up frame strength and longevity as well as usefulness and adaptability. I probably don't really need thirty three gears either.

Grant has given us a wonderful book with amazing insights that demystify the myths and silly thinking that have been foisted on us by an industry hell bent to send me out on Lance Armstrong's bike to buy groceries. Grant's main goal is to point out what he sees as racings bad influence on bicycles, equipment and attitudes. If you are a non racer you must read this book before visiting another bike shop.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Read May 1, 2012

By A. B. Church

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A few years ago I traveled from my home in Connecticut to Leeds in Yorkshire, meeting up with a group of friends from all over the world to set out on a bicycling tour in which we would make our way up and around the east coast of the UK, pedaling from Newcastle Upon Tyne to Inverness.

Prior to the trip, in emails and discussions, my English friends touted their new touring bikes. I expected to behold a couple high tech Tour de France-looking carbon frame wonders of the modern age, but in fact I was bowled over to discover that my pals had been referring to traditional steel frame touring bikes, much like the classic English racers of my youth, a design I thought to be long gone, relegated to history.

I was so inspired to find out that this timeless approach to bike building still exists that as soon as I arrived back in the US I immediately began searching for information about how I might bring such a bicycle back into my daily life, to enjoy it again as I had during childhood, and as I'd just experienced it in the UK, riding with comfort and command over streets, paths, cobblestones, rail trails, fields and pastures.

My first Google search led me to Grant Petersen, and right away I could see that what Grant knows and thinks about bicycles is exactly what I was after. His thoughts seemed to mirror my vague notions, but with a depth of detail and expertise that reflected a lifetime of professional experience, amounting to practical textbook instructions for how to consider, choose, design and build your own ideal bicycle (or fleet, for which the ideal number is always n+1, in which n=number of bikes on hand, and +1= how many more bikes are needed to complete the fleet!).

Grant's knowledge, as a designer, a builder, and a rider, is truly master level. Now, at last, his many articles and columns have been distilled, collated and published in book form. It's a cool paperback, as thoughtfully designed and executed as his beautiful near-perfect Rivendell Bicycles. (The size and proportion reminds me of a wine buyers handbook, but with stout paper stock that's fit for a mechanic's hands.)

I think "Just Ride" is as important to cycling as Chris MacDougall's book "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen (Vintage)" is to running, so I'm buying a dozen copies to send to my friends.