The Urban Biking Handbook: The DIY Guide to Building, Rebuilding, Tinkering with, and Repairing Your Bicycle for City Living

by Charles Haine

Ever wanted to take a bicycle vacation? Go on a bike date? Convert your beater into a fixie? Or are you just curious about the anthropology of urban cycling culture? "The Urban Biking Handbook" teaches you the anatomy of your bike, how to dismantle it, how to reassemble it, how to make it pretty, how to make it ugly...and most importantly, how to make it yours. Bike your way through car-jammed cities, under overpasses, and over the hills and far away to a cyclist's paradise.

- Learn to repair a flat, modify your handlebars, true your wheel, and fix your bike on the fly.

- Not just for Learn about what to wear, what to eat, how to pack, and how not to get doored.

- Want to build your own bike? Get started with fully photographed tutorials and inspiration from the bike lovers profiled inside.

Get your bike on with "The Urban Biking Handbook"

Genres: Nonfiction, Cycling, Reference, Bicycles

212 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tries to do too much, but unfortunately, doesn't do much of it well. I am a bike mechanic that teaches a basic maintenance class and am looking for a good book to recommend to people who want more info on fixing up their bikes. I liked some of Part I on what to think about when starting to get into cycling, but I found the "how-tos" in Part II to be overly simplistic and was annoyed that several photos of bike parts are mislabeled. Part III kind of threw me for a loop... I doubt that the readers who pick this up will progress from buying their bike to starting a nonprofit bike shop in less than 200 pages. Bottom line, I can recommend better books for bike maintenance. The breadth of ideas in this book may be better presented in a blog.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Urban biker" can be considered to be something like "cycling hipster," thus the intended audience for this book are younger urban types who would be interested in getting in this growing kind of cycling. (Perhaps it isn't growing - that's just my assumption.)

The lengthy sub-title of this book is "the DIY guide to building, rebuilding, tinkering with, and repairing your bicycle for city living." As is often the case with comprehensive guides that are only several hundred pages (and which have lots of photos) this is more like "here are some issues to know about and some reading to start with" to give a flavor of all the issues, then you can go to the Internet and search for more detailed information as may be needed. A book that spends one quarter of its length simply introducing the basic parts of a bicycle obviously isn't going to have much detail on "building, rebuilding and tinkering with" a bike - only a few issues are presented fairly clearly and fully. Many bicycle owners would end up in a "but my bike isn't like that" situation. There is quite a bit of detail on fixie conversion, including a table for teeth in the cog and the ring to achieve a particular gear ratio, but this is the sort of thing where I'm doubtful anyone would be relying on this book alone - but it can't hurt.

Unlike Urban Bikers' Tricks & Tips that I read recently, this presents a much more sensible approach towards motorist-cyclist relations and doesn't advocate idiotic behavior - this book recommends, "know the law, and follow it" and says, "your first job as a cyclist is to keep yourself alive and do no harm to the image of cyclists." Good! (Bizarrely my local public library in Arlington Va has eight copies of the hideous "Urban Bikers' Tricks & Tips" and only three copies of this title. But at Amazon.com, you can get the first title for five bucks new and the good one costs three times as much, all of $15. You get what you pay for?)

The book has a lot of color photography - some is to provide flavor (of urban cycling) but most of the photographs are to illustrate something in the text. Some of the examples aren't ones I would choose and somehow the photo of a caliper brake is labeled as center pull brake and on previous page one finds a photo of a center pull brake that is labeled caliper brake - but both photos are too close in to properly show the differences well in any event. So while the photography is pretty, it isn't always as helpful as one might hope.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice look to the book, but it's really only a sampler. Defines words by using words that need further defining. Instructions aren't detailed enough (see previous sentence). Enough to get you interested, but hardly a manual.

[Daniel Aquél · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bueno, aunque "vuela por encima de los detalles técnicos". Lo mejor son las ideas para personalizar tu bici y donde habla de la cultura de los ciclistas urbanos.

[Lady K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and informational for someone new in the biking world.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great guide for a beginner.

[Tapani Aulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mielenkiintoisia juttuja jutunpätkiä. Itseä ei pyörien rassaaminen kiinnosta, mutta ihan hauska siitä on lukea kuitenkin.

[Deidra Chamberlain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn’t find that the choppercabras exist anymore. Put some sugru on my Amazon list for future reference.

[cellomerl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some really great tips for city riding, even a chapter on how to ride in a skirt! Which I do, sometimes.
Other fun stuff: snotting (exactly what it sounds like), urban cycling courtesy, assembling a bike from scratch with used parts, insider geekdom, and really great photos. The author obviously has a sense of humour and a very deep love and expertise on bicycles.
However, it's not perfect. The heading on page 1, effectively the first line of text in the book, presented me with a typo. Photos in the ebook edition are not properly grouped with the text. The sidebar info boxes are poorly cropped.
The book would have benefited from a labelled diagram showing complete bicycle anatomy before launching into jargon. The instructions should have had labeled illustrations or photos. I had to Google all the time while reading.
There are no references to studies mentioned or government statements, which makes the book seem a little less authoritative.

[Joe Saperstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun to read! I learned a lot and mainly just enjoyed the pictures and ideas about riding and repairing your bike for urban commuting and enjoyment. Celebratory, edgy, and practical.

[Meg]

Ya bikes! This has been one of the most helpful intro books I've read regard bikes as an urban commuter. I know a little bit about stuff, but I'm not a mechanic, I don't (didn't!) know all the parts of the bicycle or what the functional differences were between types and things. (you can see my vocab is much improved) For the beginner-intermediate urban cyclist who would like to be a little more confident when fiddling with their bike.

[Christine S.r. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the sections on bike anatomy and maintenance helpful, but the book jumped around between topics that seemed targeted for completely different audiences. (e.g. There were the beginners sections that interested me, but that was pretty short compared to a section on how to set up a bike co-op in your community.) Would have liked more photos in the repair section (e.g. showing instructions visually) and fewer 'look at this cool bike' type photos.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aesthetically pleasing book. Parts of it were written in extremely technical language, others in vernacular, and the organization of the content was non-linear to put it in a nonjudgmental way. Not sure what to make of the author's statement that "kickstands are mostly for cops." Maybe it's an LA thing. I use a kickstand because I don't want a dinged up, ratty frame. But I digress.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, short guide that doesn't skimp on content. Includes lots of handy information on building/maintaining one's ride, along with dedicated sections to gear, city cycling, touring and even fixed gears. Definitely one for the reference bookshelf.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't generally read bike books, but this one is a great, fun resource. It's basic, but very informative.

[Bailey Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice overview of how-tos, tips, and tricks for urbal cycling. I recommend for anyone interested in learning more about cycling lifestyle.

[Winnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent guide, amazing up-to-date information, and it's all presented in an entertaining way. I would have loved to see some more pictures, but it's ok.