Road rash is your friend. Bask in it, appreciate it, love it. Above all, learn from it.The bicyclist is under attack from all directions -- the streets are ragged, the air is poison, and the drivers are angry. As if that weren’t enough, the urban cyclist must carry the weight of history along on every ride. After a brief heyday at the turn of the twentieth century, American cyclists fell out of the social consciousness, becoming an afterthought when our cities were planned and built. Cyclists today are left to navigate, like rats in a sewer, through a hard and unsympathetic world that was not made for them. Yet, with the proper attitude and a bit of knowledge, urban cyclists can thrive in this hostile environment.Author Robert Hurst dismantles the experience of urban cycling, slides it under the microscope, and examines it piece by piece. The primary concern of this book is safety, but Hurst goes well beyond the usual tips and how-to, revealing the bicycle’s historical truths and its pivotal role in the origin of the automobile, the psychology of blame and responsibility, the social advantage of communicating solidarity with drivers, and the economics of riding a bike. This book empowers readers with the big picture of bicycling -- and gives riders useful insights to ponder while pedaling their next commute or grocery run. Riding a bike will never be the same.

    This volume answers questions such as: Should I use low- or high-flanged hubs for touring * Should I spoke crossed-four or crossed-three? Are radially spoked wheels stiffer than crossed-four? * How can I build a 32-spoke crossed-two wheel? * Should I use butted or straight sookes? * Does tying and soldering give a rough ride?Based on years of experience, the author has divided the book into three parts. Part One, Theory, explains how wheels respond to loads. It discusses the merits of various designs and components, and explains what causes failures. Part Two, Practice, gives a step-by-step guide for building front and rear wheels and wheels with different patterns and numbers of spokes. Part Three, Data, contains test results and formulas for computing spoke lengths and other wheel dimensions.

    And then there are the riders: men of almost superhuman capabilities, men who have become his friends, men whose stories he has written day in day out for the past decade. But even the biggest fan can one day wake up to find that he has lost his faith. Bad Blood is the story of Jeremy Whittle's journey from unquestioning fan to Tour de France insider and confirmed sceptic. It's about broken friendships and a sport divided; about having to choose sides in the war against doping; about how galloping greed and corporate opportunism have led the Tour de France to the brink of destruction. Part personal memoir, part devastating exposé of a sport torn apart by drugs and scandal, Bad Blood is a love letter to one man's past, and a warning to cycling's future.

    Each year, the series editor and guest editor curate a truly exceptional collection. The only shared traits among all these diverse styles, voices, and stories are the extraordinarily high caliber of writing, and the pure passion they tap into that can only come from sports.

    The calls to ban it were more or less instant.Re:cyclists is the tale of what happened next, of how we have spent two centuries wheeling our way about town and country on bikes--or on two-wheeled things that vaguely resembled what we now call bikes. Michael Hutchinson picks his way through those 200 years, discovering how cycling became a kinky vaudeville act for Parisians, how it became an American business empire, and how it went on to find a unique home in the British Isles. He considers the penny-farthing riders exploring the abandoned and lonely coaching roads during the railway era, and the Victorian high-society cyclists of the 1890s bicycle craze--a time when no aristocratic house party was without bicycles and when the Prince of Wales used to give himself an illicit thrill on a weekday afternoon by watching the women's riding-school in the Royal Albert Hall.Re:cyclists looks at how cycling became the sport, the pastime and the social life of millions of ordinary people, how it grew and how it suffered through the 1960s and '70s, and how at the dawn of the twenty-first century it rose again, much changed but still ultimately just someone careering along on two wheels.

    Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Two decades ago, he discovered folding bikes and started taking them on tour. Byrne's choice was made out of convenience rather than political motivation, but the more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided. Convinced that urban biking opens one's eyes to the inner workings and rhythms of a city's geography and population, Byrne began keeping a journal of his observations and insights. An account of what he sees and whom he meets as he pedals through metropoles from Berlin to Buenos Aires, Istanbul to San Francisco, Manila to New York, Bicycle Diaries also records Byrne's thoughts on world music, urban planning, fashion, architecture, cultural dislocation, and much more, all conveyed with a highly personal mixture of humor, curiosity, and humility. Part travelogue, part journal, part photo album, Bicycle Diaries is an eye-opening celebration of seeing the world from the seat of a bike.

    The core of John Forester's concept of Effective Cycling is thatbicyclists fare best when they act, and are treated in return, as drivers ofvehicles, with the same rights and responsibilities that motorists have.In this newedition of his classic introductory work, Forester reasserts this idea in terms ofpractice and education as well as theory while also addressing--among much else--thetwo major forces that have shaped bicycling since the early 1980s: the proliferationof high-quality equipment and the seriously insufficient progress on the social, political, and psychological fronts.The book is filled with details, strategies, andtips that will be useful both to occasional cyclists and to those who enjoy cyclingas a way of life--all drawn from the author's many years of experience as a cyclist, a Cycling Transportation Engineer, and the founder of the Effective CyclingProgram.

    Focusing on their most important data, they’ll discover hidden power, refine their pacing, and find out how many matches they can burn on any given day. Once they understand the fundamentals, Friel will show how to apply his proven training approach to gain big performance in road races, time trials, triathlons, and century rides. With The Power Meter Handbook, riders will: Precisely match their training to their race season Push their limits step by step Track fitness changes—reliably and accurately Peak predictably for key events Vastly improve training efficiency Power meters aren’t just for the pros or racers anymore. Now The Power Meter Handbook makes it easy for any cyclist or triathlete to find new speed with cycling’s most advanced gear.

    To put that in perspective, Bradley Wiggins has fewer than forty. Merckx was a machine. It wasn't just the number of victories; it was his remorseless domination that created the legend. In 1969 while already comfortably leading the Tour de France, Merckx hammered a further eight-and-a-half minutes out of his nearest rivals during an 85-mile solo break in the Pyrenees. He didn't just beat his opponents, he crushed them.But his triumphs only tell half a story that includes horrific injury, a doping controversy and tragedy.He was nicknamed 'The Cannibal' for his insatiable appetite for victory, but the moniker did scant justice to a man who was handsome, sensitive and surprisingly anxious.For Britain's leading cycling writer, William Fotheringham, the burning question remains, why? What made Eddy Merckx so invincible? In Half Man, Half Bike, Fotheringham goes back to speak to those who were there at the time and those who knew Merckx best. The result is this extraordinary and definitive story of a man whose fear of failure would drive him to reach the highest pinnacles before ultimately destroying him.

    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 gearheads: 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!

    I chose to race, so I chose to win.' For 14 years between 1965 and 1978, cyclist Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx simply devoured his rivals, their hopes and their careers. His legacy resides as much in the careers he ruined as the 445 victories - including five Tour de France wins and all the monument races - he amassed in his own right. So dominant had Merckx become by 1973 that he was ordered to stay away from the Tour for the good of the event.Stage 17 of the 1969 Tour de France perfectly illustrates his untouchable brilliance. Already wearing the yellow jersey on the col du Tourmalet, the Tour's most famous peak, Merckx powered clear and rode the last 140 kilometres to the finish-line in jaw-dropping solitude, eight minutes ahead of his nearest competitor.Merckx's era has been called cycling's Golden Age. It was full of memorable characters who, at any other time, would all have gone on to become legends. Yet Merckx's phenomenal career overshadowed them all. How did he achieve such incredible success? And how did his rivals really feel about him? Merckx failed drug tests three times in his career - were they really stitch ups as he claimed? And what of the crash at a track meet in Blois, France that killed Merckx's pacer Fernand Wambst, which Merckx claimed deeply affected him psychologically and physically? Or the attack by a spectator in 1975?Despite his unique achievements, we know little about the Cannibal beyond his victories. This is the first comprehensive biography of Merckx in English, and finally exposes the truth behind this legendary man.

    How does he do it? And why? What drives him to put his body through the physical and mental hurdles to become the best in the world? This is also the story of an extraordinary year in the life of an extraordinary sportsman, one which started with his best-ever world championships in Mallorca—where, for the first time in his career, he became a double world champion—continued with his attempt on the world kilometer record in La Paz, Bolivia, went on to Japan where he spent three months riding the crazy keirin circuit, before returning to training at the world-class Manchester velodrome in the buildup to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.By shadowing Hoy through a season with the British track cycling team, author Richard Moore has gained an unembellished insight into the mind of a world champion. He has also attained unprecedented levels of access to the key members of the all-conquering British team (which smashed all records and dominated the 2007 world championships) and support staff, including top coaches, world-renowned psychiatrists, doctors (where the subject of drug abuse is an ever-present shadow), and the pivotal characters behind the scenes. Combining his forensic knowledge of the cycling world with his acclaimed skills as a tenacious investigative journalist, Moore captures the mood of the British team and explores an area of professional sport that has rarely been seen before.

    Culling over 300 pages of some of today's most thrilling writers, The Best of 2.13.61 Publications hallmarks our company's ten year existence. Excerpts include new material from Henry Rollins and Hubert Selby, Jr, as well as excerpts from Henry Miller's love letters, Nick Zedd's hilarious nihilistic New York urban spelunkings, Ian Shoales' undeniably witty social commentaries and so much more.

    Except with real athletic ability. And he’s a woman. And she’s taken on a challenge that makes Paper Lion look like a brisk game of Go Fish. Meet Kathryn Bertine, elite triathlete, former professional figure skater, and starving artist. Just as her personal and professional dreams begin to crumble in the summer of 2006, ESPN stakes her to a dream:  Take two years to make the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. As Good As Gold is the heroic, hilarious account of Bertine’s serial exertions in the realms of triathlon, modern pentathlon, team handball, track cycling, road cycling, rowing, open water swimming, racewalking, and—fasten your seatbelts—luge. On her journey, the obstacles range from jet lag to jellyfish, flat tires to floundering relationships, repeated rejection to road rash. But, as time is running out, Bertine doesn’t sweat the small stuff, only the large—like scouring the globe for a tiny nation to adopt her, and pushing her body and mind as far as it will go. Maybe all the way to China.  Between harrowing, often laugh-out-loud episodes of triumph and humiliation, Bertine takes short “Water Breaks” to contemplate the ins-and-outs of fan mail, failure, rehydration, nasal reconstruction, and how best to punish steroid users.   Kathryn Bertine swims, runs, and rides—and writes—like a champion. In As Good as Gold, Bertine proves she has something more valuable than an Olympic medal. She’s got Olympic mettle. When it comes to the human heart, she takes the gold.

    Over the course of a season on the World Tour, Millar puts us in touch with the sights, smells and sounds of the sport. This is a book about youth and age, fresh-faced excitement and hard-earned experience. It is a love letter to cycling.'Cycling has always been about a great deal more than its winners, and The Racer is quite a ride' Spectator