Bikes Reviews

This is a well written, general book about everything related to bicycles.
You will find it interesting if you know absolutely nothing about bikes.
Lots of side issue discussions on diet, racing, clothing, nice places to tour and other non-bike topics of interest to a bicycle user.
No specifics about bikes, general discussions of brakes, transmissions, etc.
Very little on maintenance.
The bicycle manufacturers sites will provide more technical information about bikes in general and their products in particular in the form of .pdf user manuals you can download, biking tips, and model specific equipment, including some specific care and maintenance data.
This book will help you decide if you really want to get into biking, and does a good job of just that.

The Everything Bicycle Book is well written and contains lots of useful information on ALL aspects of cycling. Its a good starter book.

The avid cyclist or someone who has been riding and commuting for a while will probably already know most of the information in this book.

The person new to cycling or someone who wants to know more about the ins and outs and the proper ways to use a bicycle and get greater pleasure from it will find the book full of info.

Well written and good direction

I bought this book on the recommendation of Dirt Rider magazine who listed it as one of their 20 'must have' products of 1997. They're not wrong. This book is a concise and well written guide for the home mechanic. While it doesn't have the detailed frame by frame guidance of a manual specifically for your bike, it's got lots of good information on how your bike works and why. Topics covered vary from basic maintenance and bike setup through to maintaining forks and transmission disassembly. For tasks such as shock rebuilds that your average owner is not likely to perform in their garage, the approach is to make you an informed consumer of specialist services. Both two strokes and four strokes are covered. There is a chapter which I think many owners will find very useful on best value mods for your bike. The four Japanese manufacturers are covered, with most MX bikes from 92-96 listed. The KDX200 (83-96), RMX 250 (89-95) and some XR tuning tips are also included in this section. If you're into off-road motorcycling you're likely to find this book very handy to have.

The rides tht Porter describes are fine but directions to getting there are terrible.

I spent a long frustrating time in the car on the Presidents Day weekend trying to follow directions that were completely inaccurate. You CANNOT rely on his directions to get to the start of rides. Either he has never been there or he has scribbled down directions without thinking properly. He assumes you know the roads of Old Dominian like a Virginian

Outside Harrisonburg he talks about turning off the 33 onto the 613 (fine that worked), then turning left onto the 612. WRONG the road number is the 763 that eventually links to the 612. This little eeror cost me 2 hours

Outside Staunton he talks about turning off for one ride 14.5 west on the 250 - fine. He then dsecribes the turn off to another ride as being 25 miles west of Staunton. WRONG. The 2nd ride is 14.75 west on the 250 and the turn off can be seen from the first. With another mis-direction he cost me another 2 hours. Luckily an extremely helpful person in Deerfield set me straight

If you want to use this book get a detailed map of Virginia and a GPS system

Porter has done an incredible job of ferreting out a wide range of supreme mountain bike destinations in Virginia. His conversational style of writing and accuracy make this book an indispensable guide for fat tire riders from beginners to experts. He covers the state from the coast to the mountain peaks like no other author has in a guide that offers information including difficulty level, length, and anecdotal remarks regarding any given area's history and natural history. If you have any inclination to pedal off the beaten path, Mountain Bike! Virginia by Randy Porter should be your first stop. And you, too, will agree that Virginia is for mountain bike lovers!

Having lived in LA for 5 yrs I bought this book in hopes of seeing more than my own neighborhood. Unfortuately I was very worried about the routes chosen - suggesting riding down Sunset Blvd. borders on criminal negligence. The book also suggests riding down WIlshire Blvd. to the beach in Santa Monica despite that fact the Wilshire is a busy 4 lane commerical road with nothing but strip malls, while only 1 block south is a bike path through a tree lined neighborhood

Short Bike Rides in and around Los Angeles is an absorbing book to read whether or not you are not going to do the rides. I found that each page is full of interesting history, geography, and explanations about what to see in different areas of the city, from Griffith Park to Hollywood to Santa Monica to Santa Clarita. I discovered the origins and meanings of street and city names which I'd always wondered about. As a cyclist and a member of the San Fernando Valley Bicycle Club, I have done many of the rides described in the book. They are scenic, safe on weekends, and enjoyable for both beginning and intermediate cyclists. The maps and routes are easy to read and right on target. I recommend this book for any rider who wants to try a bit of bicycle touring while learning fascinating facts about Los Angeles and vicinity. If you are not ready to ride, read it just for fun.

I recently carried this book along for a driving trip (carrying bicycles) that my daughter and I took down the Southern Atlantic coast (NC, SC, GA), veering to north central Florida before turning around for home. The book was ok, but only for pointing us in a general direction and then mapping out our own rides from there. The maps are relatively easy to follow and they do a good job categorizing the type of rides from Rambles up to Challenges, but I found myself wanting more 'challenge' on the Cruises and Rambles and less 'challenge' for the Classics and Challenges. Perhaps it's just a matter of personal preference.

Our first stop was Jekyll Island, GA. We were not too pleased to learn that the Jekyll Island Ramble, noted as "an excellent bike ride for the entire family", was in reality a highly dangerous path (~3 ft. wide) shared with other cyclists and pedestrians coming and going from both directions. Was appalled to read the island maps and literature strongly suggesting that cyclists stay off the real roads and on these hazardous paths. My daughter and I ignored that suggestion for the most part, but still had to navigate around a few cyclists riding on the left side of the road so to stay with their riding partners who had opted to stay on the path. I understand why some people might prefer or be attracted to bicycle paths. However, I think that ALL bicycle riders would do well to understand that the basic rules of cycling are pretty much the same as the rules of the road for drivers. IMO, if people would ride with this awareness, there would be very little need to sequester cyclists (or cyclists to sequester themselves) onto choked and dangerous little paths with pedestrians as is the case on Jekyll Island. The marsh and harbor side of the island was very quiet and sparsely traveled as compared to the ocean/beach side. We did follow the bike path for a bit because it veered away from the road and was very scenic.

Our next stop was St. Augustine, FL. Car traffic along A1A was far too heavy and the streets way too narrow to even attempt the St. Augustine Ramble - my 12 year old is a good road rider, but easily overwhelmed. To sandwich her between all those cars would have been cruel and unthinkable. We did walk down St. Georges Street, but I can't imagine attempting to cycle through all that pedestrian traffic as the book suggests. I was tempted to snatch a few of the children on scooters and scold them for weaving in and out so closely among the walkers - what the heck were their parents thinking, or were they thinking??

On to North Central Florida, location of the Suwannee River Classic ride. No way was my short-legged 12 year old going to ride 98 miles, but to our good fortune, most of the country roads in that area were lightly trafficked by motor vehicles so that we were able to tailor our riding distances accordingly. Falling Creek Falls was a very lovely and scenic stop and not one that would normally be found by most tourists. I wished that the book had highlighted more of the gorgeous fresh water springs in that area and/or mapped some rides to them. The one listed, Ichetucknee Springs, was a pretty place, but not particularly bicycle friendly. People might do well to pick up the Bicycle Facilities Map for North Central Florida at any of the tourism offices - I thought it listed a better and more extensive range of rides and intend to return one day to explore them more thoroghly.

We wound up back on the NC coast to finish off our vacation. By then it was the weekend. I would NOT suggest doing the Cape Fear Challenge ride on a weekend day, even to my worst enemy. I'm not sure when would be the best time to do a ride like this. 421S on the front end of this trip is always car-packed. One must also watch out for hwy 133N on the backside. On Saturdays and Sundays, this is a 2 lane road with NO shoulders heavily trafficked by pickup trucks and SUVs towing big boats on trailers. An early morning weekday jaunt down 133N to Orton Plantation and the Brunswick Historic Site might be quite pleasant, however. Do remember your bug spray as the book suggests! The biting flies and 'no-see-umms' are already thick as of this posting - late April. We stayed in Southport and this area is close to 'home' territory to me. We didn't attempt the Cape Fear Challenge, tho I ran into two cylists who had tried unsuccessfully to cyle out 133N and back. I rode Bald Head Island (all golf-carts, no cars) with my daughter on Saturday and then took a lone early Sunday morning jaunt from Southport to Oak Island - very pleasant!

To sum it up, this is not the worst book of rides, but not the best either. I do appreciate that the book was helpful in providing a little direction for us to head towards, even though we tailored and altered most of the listed rides to suit our own riding style and abilities.

This book has some good information and tips for the cyclist looking to get into touring. Ms. Vance offers some suggestions and ideas that even a seasoned tourist may find helpful. However...this is another example of either poor editing or proofreading, or both. There are just too many typographical errors, grammatical errors, etc. I hate to get hung up on that kind of thing, but it drives me to distraction. It gets to a point where you stop focusing on what the author is saying and start looking for the next missed period, sentence that doesn't start with a capital letter, or improper word usage. It seems that too many books that I've read recently are guilty of the same problem.

Tyler and Freckle always rode their bike through town, by the bike shop. They would do this a lot, but one day when they rode by the building it began to rise and disappear before their eyes. When the building reappeared they took their chances and entered Quigley's Bike Shop. It seems that Quentin Quigley does more than bike repair. The boys discovered a secret room filled with unusual artwork and inventions. They wondered about Mr. Quigley's true identity. Before they could find out, Tyler and Freckle got trapped in one of Mr. Quigley's inventions. They traveled back through time wondering if they would be stranded in the past forever.

This book isn't bad - but if fails to include probably half of the singletrack in the county, and puts in a lot of crappy dirt road rides. It's a bit dated, and the maps aren't very clear at all, but if you're new to Los Alamos or just visiting and need a guidebook, this is pretty much your only option.

The descriptions of the trails included in the book are fantastic. It even comes complete with suggested rides, special comments, and other relevant information about the trails. It does, however, have very few trails near Portland. There are multiple trails in the Portland/Salem area that are not covered.

I was hoping this would be a more thorough listing of mountain biking areas in the Great Lake States, but it's not. It sticks to only what it considers to be the classic trails.