Urban Bikers' Tricks & Tips: Low-Tech & No-Tech Ways to Find, Ride, & Keep a Bicycle [Paperback]

Dave Glowacz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Filled with practical tips that any adult bike owner can use instantly, this book includes advice on everything from how to handle a sore butt and choose accessories to how to avoid helmet hair and mount a bike while wearing a miniskirt. This updated edition contains new and revised information about current bike types, locks, and recent products such as the strap-on magnet that lets bikers change traffic lights to green. An updated supplier directory and list of bicycling resources, such as web sites and advocacy groups, are also included. Illustrated with step-by-step instructions on every page, this book is especially helpful for riders living in the urban jungle.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Finally, there is help for bike riders who live in cities. Clowacz covers all the basics for keeping an urban biking life safely on two wheels, from choosing a bike to keeping it from getting stolen. He provides valuable advice on making a bike fit one's individual needs--for example, seat height adjustments to avoid backaches as well as perhaps the most basic concern, locking the bike, for which he offers several options. His safety tips on such things as what to do if someone attempts to steal the bike right out from under you and how to negotiate urban auto traffic (hint: there are many choices other than anger and violence) are wonderfully down-to-earth. Illustrated in step-by-step fashion on every page, this is a book to be read, studied, and put to practical use by all bike riders, but especially those living in the urban jungle. Raul Nino --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"For both the experienced and the novice, this is the best biker’s manual."  —New York Public Library

"If these tips work in New York City—and they do—they'll work almost anywhere."  —Ann Sullivan, director, League of American Bicyclists

"A really useful compendium of information that no one ever told you." —Bicycling Magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Wordspace Press; New revised edition edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965172813
• ISBN-13: 978-0965172813
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #641,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Of limited value to the conscientous cyclist, January 31, 2000

By 

Stewart C. Russell (Glasgow, Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Urban Bikers' Tricks and Tips: Low-Tech and No-Tech Ways to Find, Ride, and Keep a Bicycle (Paperback)

I can't really recommend this book. While it's filled with very good equipment and car-free lifestyle choices, the riding techniques advocated are highly dubious. In some cases, they're illegal and stupid -- like showing you how to run red traffic lights, or riding on the sidewalk -- and will do nothing for the image of cyclists. The book even shows (by a backhanded warning) the best place to crack a car windshield.

It is a shame that such moments of crassness spoil a book that is aimed at beginners. These would be bad habits to get into, and terrible things to learn from the outset.

Better books on assertive cycling are John Franklin's "Cyclecraft", and John Forester's "Effective Cycling". They show you how to gain your place in the traffic, and how to keep it without resorting to crazy stunts.

53 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Outrageous suicidal advice, January 26, 2004

By 

Serge Issakov (La Jolla, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Urban Bikers' Tricks and Tips: Low-Tech and No-Tech Ways to Find, Ride, and Keep a Bicycle (Paperback)

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.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide to urban biking, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Urban Bikers' Tricks and Tips: Low-Tech and No-Tech Ways to Find, Ride, and Keep a Bicycle (Paperback)

It is about time that there is a book available to city bikers. The book really looks at those "interesting" traffic situations that one encounters in the city. All the tricks and tips that Dave shows us are invaluable. From fitting your helmet and dressing for a ride to lubing your gears and chain. One thing, I really liked was the non-violent ways he shows us when dealing with the no so nice people out there. He always encourages us to get back on and ride.It is truly a useful and informative guide to biking in an urban setting.