Pedaling Revolution How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities by Jeff Mapes
Publisher Comments In a world of growing traffic congestion, expensive oil, and threats of cataclysmic climate change, a grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on the streets of urban cityscapes. In Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes explores the growing urban bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities across the U.S. He rides with bike advocates who are taming the streets of New York City, joins the street circus that is Critical Mass in San Francisco, and gets inspired by the everyday folk pedaling in Amsterdam, the nirvana of American bike activists. Mapes, a seasoned political journalist and long-time bike commuter, explores the growth of bicycle advocacy while covering such issues as the environmental, safety, and health aspects of bicycling for short urban trips. His rich cast of characters includes Noah Budnick, a young bicycle advocate in New York who almost died in a crash near the Brooklyn Bridge, and Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN), who took to bicycling in his fifties and helped unleash a new flood of federal money for bikeways. Chapters set in Chicago and Portland show how bicycling has became a political act, with seemingly dozens of subcultures, and how cyclists, with the encouragement of local officials, are seizing streets back from motorists. Pedaling Revolution is essential reading for the approximately one million people who regularly ride their bike to work or on errands, for anyone engaged in transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and public health—and for drivers trying to understand why they're seeing so many cyclists. All will be interested in how urban bike activists are creating the future of how we travel and live in twenty-first-century cities. Your price $9.50 Used Trade Paperback
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Pedal Power The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public Life by J Harry Wray
Publisher Comments In an era of steep gas prices, snarled traffic, catastrophic climate change, and a yearning for a higher quality of life, interest in bike-friendly public policies is surging nationwide. A surprising array of political organizations, visionary politicians, and colorful individuals powers this movement and a growing number of bike enthusiasts are taking to the streets. From the night rides of Critical Mass to the dumpster-diving Rat Patrol, this book shows the eccentric side of the bicycling universe even as it illustrates the mainstream efforts of politicians like U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar and plain folks like “Biker Mama” Jane Healy. Dedicated to the idea that biking is an ongoing act of nondestructive living, Pedal Power shows why the dominance of the automobile is yesterday’s idea and edges us closer to a more democratic, multimodal transportation system so essential in the age of global warming. The bike, regarded as irrelevant to the 20th century, is making a comeback in the 21st. Pedal Power takes us there and suggests that the most compelling thing about riding is that it changes the way people experience the world and, therefore, the way they think.
- Covers the growing interest in biking nationwide.
- Includes interviews with key political figures including U.S Representative Oberstar who have promoted bike-friendly policies.
- Features some of the bike eccentrics who have sprung up nationwide such as Critical Mass and the Rat Patrol.
- Includes more than 20 photos showing pedal power in action locally, nationally, and globally.
Your price $8.50 Used Trade Paperback
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Rider by Tim Krabbe
Publisher Comments A literary sports classic, finally available in the U.S. Originally published in Holland in 1978, The Rider became an instant cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies. Brilliantly conceived and written at a break-neck pace, it is a loving, imaginative, and, above all, passionate tribute to the art of bicycle road racing. Not a dry history of the sport, The Rider is beloved as a bicycle odyssey, a literary masterpiece that describes in painstaking detail one 150-kilometer race in a mere 150 pages. The Rider is the ultimate book for bike lovers as well as the arm-chair sports enthusiast. Trade Paperback
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Need For The Bike by Paul Fournel
Publisher Comments A book like no other, Paul Fournels Need for the Bike conducts readers into a very personal world of communication and connection whose center is the bicycle, and where all people and things pass by way of the bike. In compact and suggestive prose, Fournel conveys the experience of cycling—from the initial charm of early outings to the dramas of the devoted cyclist. An extended meditation on cycling as a practice of life, the book recalls a country doctor who will not anesthetize the young Fournel after he impales himself on a downtube shifter, speculates about the difference between animals that would like to ride bikes (dogs, for instance) and those that would prefer to watch (cows, marmots), and reflects on the fundamental absurdity of turning over the pedals mile after excruciating mile. At the same time, Fournel captures the sound, smell, feel, and language of the reality and history of cycling, in the mountains, in the city, escaping the city, in groups, alone, suffering, exhausted, exhilarated. In his attention to the pleasures of cycling, to the specific “grain” of different cycling experiences, and to the inscription of these experiences in the bodys cycling memory, Fournel portrays cycling as a descriptive universe, colorful, lyrical, inclusive, exclusive, complete. Your price $16.95 New Trade Paperback
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Art of Cycling A Guide to Bicycling in 21st Century America by Robert Hurst
Publisher Comments Covering much more than just riding a bike in traffic, author Robert Hurst paints, in uncanny detail, the challenges, strategies, and art of riding a bike on America's modern streets and roadways. The Art of Cycling dismantles the bicycling experience and slides it under the microscope, piece by piece. Its primary concern is safety, but this book goes well beyond the usual tips and how-to, diving in to the realms of history, psychology, sociology, and economics. It empowers readers with the Big Picture of riding a bicycle in America and gives cyclists useful insights to consider while pedaling the next commute, grocery run, or training ride. Your price $6.95 Used Trade Paperback
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Heft On Wheels A Field Guide To Doing A 180 by Mike Magnuson
Publisher Comments A few years ago, the closest Mike Magnuson thought he would get to participating in a sporting event was sitting in the local bar, slamming pitchers of beer and watching the NFL playoffs on TV. He was thirty-eight years old, smoked a pack a day, drank a case or two of beer a week, and carried 250 pounds of weight on his five-foot-ten-inch frame. Getting on a bicycle for a peddle around the block could have been dangerous in his condition, let alone trying to keep up with a group of racer-fit riders for forty-five miles at a clip, but that is just what Mike decided to do. He was sick of it all the booze, the cigarettes, and the heft. He could have been seriously hurt. But he wasn't. In Mike's words, he was merely "handed his proverbial fat ass on a platter" three times a week and kept coming back for more.
Heft on Wheels charts in hilarious detail every curve in Mike Magnuson's 180-degree journey from the big guy at the back of the pack to the lean, mean racing machine setting the pace for the group. Along the way we meet his friends, colleagues, and family and learn how even a healthy obsession can have its uphill climbs. For a start there's the starvation diet and the nicotine patches, not to mention the skin-tight XXL cycling outfit and the insanely unrealistic goal of completing the Bridge to Bridge Incredible Cycling Challenge proudly billed as "100 Miles of Pure Hill" within the year. Yet, through it all, Mike never loses his sense of humor (though after having a quick conversation with God on one particularly grueling hill, he does believe he has come within spitting distance of losing his mind).
Filled with triumph, heartbreak, and hilarity, Heft on Wheels is an unforgettable book about getting from one place to another, in more ways than one. Your price $10.95 Used Hardcover
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Immortal Class by Travis Culley
Review "Culley goes for the sweeping Whitman-esque gesture over the self-conscious postmodern curlicue every time. He's blissfully free of self-pity. His body is a source of power and adventure, not a mystifying font of confusion and humiliation; he has pushed himself physically, sweated and bled and collapsed at night in exhaustion. He has a healthy ego but he's not a narcissist he's primarily interested in the world beyond his own small experience. And if the economic downturn continues, the next wave of young workers to arrive in cities could do worse than follow Culley's example of how to live on very little money and keep your spirits up and your integrity intact." Maria Russo, Salon.com ( read the entire Salon review) Trade Paperback
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Critical Mass Bicyclings Defiant Celebration by Chris Carlsson
Publisher Comments Monthly in cities around the world, bicyclists take over the streets in an "organized coincidence" called Critical Mass. Riding along several hundred strong, hooting and hollering, whistling, laughing and singing; it is a coup on wheels, a clever tactical strike against our oil-dependent culture. Containing writings from participants worldwide, this colorful book bundles together 10 years of legendary debates, photographs, artwork, and life-transforming experiences evolving from the celebratory, visionary revolt on bicycles called Critical Mass. Chris Carlsson is a founder and editor of the notorious underground magazine, Processed World, and the director of the historical multimedia project, Shaping San Francisco. He was recently awarded the Golden Wheel Award by the San Francisco Bike Coalition for founding Critical Mass in 1992.
Your price $3.50 Used Trade Paperback
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Effective Cycling 6th Edition by John Forester
Publisher Comments The core of John Forester's concept of Effective Cycling is that bicyclists fare best when they act, and are treated in return, as drivers of vehicles, with the same rights and responsibilities that motorists have.In this new edition of his classic introductory work, Forester reasserts this idea in terms of practice and education as well as theory while also addressing--among much else--the two major forces that have shaped bicycling since the early 1980s: the proliferation of high-quality equipment and the seriously insufficient progress on the social, political, and psychological fronts.The book is filled with details, strategies, and tips that will be useful both to occasional cyclists and to those who enjoy cycling as a way of life--all drawn from the author's many years of experience as a cyclist, a Cycling Transportation Engineer, and the founder of the Effective Cycling Program. Your price $10.95 Used Trade Paperback
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Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycl by Edmund R. Burke and Ed Pavelka
Publisher Comments Ride Strong, Ride Long ... Whether Your Goal Is 30 Miles or 3,000 From two of the country's top cycling experts the most comprehensive guide ever to achieving the strength, skills, and strategies you need for long-distance riding. Whether you're training for day rides, centuries, or cross-country trips, The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling helps you choose the right equipment, train step-by-step, and map out your riding strategy so that you can go the distance. Discover how to: * Make the most of every hour on your bike * Build your mileage base efficiently * Customize your training to suit your personality and physical capabilities * Build extra training time into your hectic schedule * Avoid injuries and the dangers of overtraining * Achieve the mental edge you need to ride farther and faster * Train for both road and off-road touring * Choose cycling gear that goes and goes * Eat for the long haul-- nutrtion before, during, and after your rides To help you achieve your riding goals, The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling gives you complete, step-by-step training programs for riding a half-century, century, double century, and beyond. You'll also find strategies and techniques for special situations, such as riding in bed weather and riding at night. Published by the world's leading authority on bicycling, this informative guide is a must-have for all cycling enthusiasts. Your price $8.95 Used Trade Paperback
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