Effective Cycling
John Forester
The MIT Press
<P> <I>Effective Cycling</I> is an essential handbook for                 cyclists from beginner to expert, whether daily commuters or weekend pleasure                 trippers. This thoroughly updated seventh edition offers cyclists the information                 they need for riding a bicycle under all conditions: on congested city streets or                 winding mountain roads, day or night, rain or shine. It describes the sheer physical                 joy of cycling and provides the nuts-and-bolts details of how to choose a bicycle,                 maintain it, and use it in the most efficient manner. <I>Effective                 Cycling</I> covers the bicycle itself, repairs and maintenance, basic and                 advanced cycling skills, and how traffic is organized. It describes cycling with                 friends, bicycle tours, increasing physical endurance, racing, and even finding a                 cyclist as marriage partner. Throughout, author John Forester emphasizes that                 cyclists should consider themselves drivers of vehicles in traffic. That means                 obeying the rules of the road, because when all drivers obey the same rules, they                 don't have collisions. Forester explains why cyclists should not be afraid to cycle                 in traffic, and he urges them to resist being shunted off into government-sponsored                 bike paths as if they were incompetent children. Cyclists fare best, he says, when                 they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles. <I>Effective                 Cycling</I> will help owners of bicycles dusty from disuse become active                 cyclists and veteran cyclists improve their techniques and achieve their cycling                 goals. Each section moves from basic to advanced topics; readers are encouraged get                 on a bicycle and practice each activity after reading about it.</P>