Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike
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.
Product Features
- Workman Publishing
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If you are thinking about getting a bicycle for fun or fitness If you are thinking about getting a bicycle for fun or fitness, I highly recommend this book. The author takes a different stance on many topics that is very useful to what he calls “Unracers”, that is, normal folks who ride bikes. There is a good amount of very good, general info in the book but it is this anti-mainstream mindset that makes this a stand-out. If you are a new rider, I would recommend getting another book to fill in many details about choosing a bike, maintenance, etc…
Absolutely first class advice for people who want to RIDE a bike, not race one Having taken this book out of our wonderful public library, I found–I HAD to buy the book. It was exactly how I view the bike, as opposed to spandex zoomers.I’d been off the bike for, ah…years. Look living in Mexico City, you’d had to have a death wish to want to ride in that traffic. Anywhere, anytime. Driving was dicey at time, lots of times. And before that, there were other overseas locations. When your friend’s 12 year old is coshed on the head and pushed off his bike, in broad…