Book review: Effective cycling
Disclaimer: I hate writing book reviews just a tad more than I hate reading them, but I figured it would be helpful if nothing else to at least mention a few a the typically 2-3 books I plow through during a week if I deem they could be helpful. I only expect to mention the top 5% of what I read. Update: You can follow my reading by friending me on goodreads.com.
After Steve mentioned the book, Effective Cycling by John Forester, I decided to check it on from the (inter)library. I would say this is easily the most all encompassing book about anything bike related I have ever read.
I did know about riding in traffic in terms of proper road positioning — I see many people on bikes who do not — but there were also parts about how to avoid accidents where Forester suggested maneuvers which I would not intuitively have chosen. The most interesting part to me was the detailed description of the various energy systems, oxygen transport, etc, and how to improve. Turns out that the most efficient cadence is 90-110, whereas I have been cycling at 77 rpm. My cyclocomputer (that’s what speedometers are called these days) measures this, so I know the number exactly.
Beyond this, what is most relevant to this blog, are descriptions on how to commute and deal with the clothing issues, rain, snow, night, etc. even advocating if you want to go this way.
The writing style is complete in the sense that it gives you the understanding of the principles rather than just a list of tips. In short, I’m biased to like it.
Copyright © 2007-2021 earlyretirementextreme.com
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If you see this notice anywhere else than in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. Some sites use random word substitution algorithms to obfuscate the origin. Find the original uncorrupted version of this post on earlyretirementextreme.com. (Digital Fingerprint: 47d7050e5790442c7fa8cab55461e9ce)
Originally posted 2009-01-19 17:58:28.