I'm about halfway through "volume 1" (there's actually 2 books, both can be had for free download) and it's great. I mean the dude rode a penny farthing AROUND THE WORLD in the 1880's...how could it not be good. The first part of the first book (through the US) is especially fascinating, particularly since he rode right through my neck of the woods, right at the start of his journey.
You have no excuse for driving to work
(unless you don't have studded tires)
(no excuse for that either)
I am just a few pages away from the end of The Enlightened Cyclist. BikeSnobNYC's blog gets a lot of time on my phone while I am on the crapper as well. hilarious!
Grant Petersen's new book Just Ride is also excellent.
... gets a lot of time on my phone while I am on the crapper...
Grant Petersen's new book Just Ride is also excellent.
Short attention span theater
I really got turned off on Grant P after I heard an interview with him when his book was released. The irony of him saying you could get a decent bike for a few hundred bucks when Rivendells are a pretty pretentious brand was too much. Then again, I love my Bridgestone.
Grant Peterson. Such an odd thing about him.
I agree with 60% of what he proclaims, but after 99% of it I find myself murmuring "F*k you, Grant" under my breath. How can he leave me with such uncivil thoughts for saying what I`d say myself? If I were ever to read a whole book that he wrote, it would lead to a civil war insinde my mind. Better for me to just keep away.
>The irony of him saying you could get a decent bike for a few hundred bucks when Rivendells are a pretty pretentious brand was too much.<
I didn`t hear that interview, but if he said that, I have to reluctantly give him a few points for it. In other words, "Buy my beautiful bikes if you can afford them. If you can`t, don`t despair- you can still have a fine time with Sora on a production line gas pipe frame."
^^It's worse than I remember....Ride to work in your regular clothes. Maybe if you live where the temp is 70 and you have a flat 3 mile commute...You can get a bike for around 100. Actually, a decent set of tires & tubes is going to set you back $50.
^^It's worse than I remember....Ride to work in your regular clothes. Maybe if you live where the temp is 70 and you have a flat 3 mile commute...You can get a bike for around 100. Actually, a decent set of tires & tubes is going to set you back $50.
I hope your head doesn't explode Rodar.
Judging from the bikes I've seen on Craigslist, I'd say that if you weren't thinking of a new bike, you probably could get a mediocre secondhand bike for $100. I bought my girlfriend a bike for her to commute to and from work on (thus saving us a massive amount of gas), which was a short 3 mile round trip. Her bike was brand new, but cost $183. Her bike is a Diamondback Vital 3, so a hybrid; it's heavy, slow, but has a super climber gear and gets the job done well for her. I've seen them secondhand for $100 and considered purchasing them for the sole purpose of stripping it down for parts, because as you say a decent set of tires and tubes (or even a mediocre set) will set you back $50.
We have a good saying at work when someone asks what bike they should get. "What is your budget? For some, $1000 is a princely sum more than they'd ever spend on a bike. For others, $1000 won't even get you one good wheel."
EDIT: I also think that Grant has lost touch with reality a little. $100 would get you a good bike back in the day, as in over 10 years ago. Nowadays you'd be hard pressed to find a good bike for $100 in America. It's not impossible, it's just hard, and it leaves no budget for helmets or lights.
I enjoyed Around the World on Two Wheels in audiobook...kinda long description form my library...
Until 1894 there were no female sport stars, no product endorsement deals, and no young mothers with the chutzpah to circle the globe on a bicycle. Annie Kopchovsky changed all of that.
Annie was a Jewish immigrant and working mother of three living in a Boston tenement with her husband, a peddler. This was as close to the American dream as she was likely to get---until she became part of what one newspaper called "one of the most novel wagers ever made": a high-stakes bet between two wealthy merchants that a woman could not ride around the world on a bicycle, as Thomas Stevens had a few years before. Annie rose to the challenge, pledging to finish her fifteen-month trip with a staggering $5,000 earned by selling advertising space on her bike and her clothing, making personal appearances in stores and at bicycle races, and lecturing about her adventures along the way. When the Londonderry Lithia Springs Water Company of New Hampshire offered to become the first of her many sponsors, Annie Kopchovsky became Annie Londonderry, and a legend was born. So began one of the greatest escapades---and publicity stunts---of the Victorian Age.
In this marvelously written book, author Peter Zheutlin vividly recounts the story of the audacious woman who turned every Victorian notion of female propriety on its ear. When Annie left Boston in June 1894, she was a brash young lady with a 42-pound bicycle, a revolver, a change of underwear, and a dream of freedom. The epic journey that followed---from a frigid ride through France to an encounter with outlaw John Wesley Hardin in El Paso---took the connection between athletics and commercialism to dizzying new heights and turned Annie into a symbol of sexual equality.
A beguiling true story of a bold spirit who reinvented herself against all odds, Around the World on Two Wheels blends social history and high adventure into an unforgettable portrait of courage, imagination, and tenacity.
^^Cool. The pedaler`s husband was a peddler. Sounds like a good story, too.
Originally Posted by bedwards1000
I hope your head doesn't explode Rodar.
Thanks.
No explosions yet, but now I do remember that interview. Seems to me we had a good time with it here over the same points that are comming up again. I even had fun bashing him for the parts that follow my own personal religion Yeah, the mention of G.P. does have a way of derailing things
^^I`ve been a Warm Showers member for almost 4 years. Pretty cool, but we`ve only had one "customer" in that time. And I`ve never stayed with a WS host, but my truck spent the night with one while I was camped some 30 miles away. Also good for getting route advice from a local rider even if you don`t stay with that person.
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Originally Posted by mack_turtle
Yeah, the mention of G.P. does have a way of derailing things 
