By Dave (Mr. Bike) Glowacz
Wordspace Press, 2004, 250 pages, $14.95 US
The best that can be said about a book of tips ‘n' tricks is that the tips are great, and the tricks work. That's certainly true of much in Urban Biker's Tips & Tricks, but, I dare say, it also includes some good advice on how to do stupid things, and even some really stupid advice on how to do stupider things.
Within 24 hours of opening this book, I used the maintenance advice to get my own bike into the best shape it's ever been. There's stuff as specifically useful as a chart about all the places to oil your machine. I recovered a few long-defunct gears, simply by lubricating not only the derailleurs, gears and chains, but even the reluctant gearshift levers on my handlebars. Score one for the book and its visual, intuitive structure and design.
There's plenty of great stuff for a dedicated cyclist/dilettante mechanic: choosing and using a lock, changing a flat, popping curbs, adjusting your bike for best fit. There's a section on taking your bike on transit - with or without permission - that includes how not to annoy other passengers.
The traffic section is great food for thought. I've found myself re-checking the book after any weird traffic situation - i.e., playing leapfrog with a bus for a few blocks. Glowacz' simple logic helps you think through quick decisions in dangerous situations where hesitation might prove fatal.
It's here, though, that the book strays into grey areas, both morally and practically. For instance, would you consider it wise or foolish to give advice on how to run red lights in traffic?
The grey gets darker in the section on conflict. It's one thing to advise bikers what to do when attacked. It's an urban book, after all, and crime is, theoretically, rampant in the big city. But for instance, is charging straight at a pedestrian attacker, then swerving at the last minute really the best way to escape? Wouldn't the slightest tap or shove send the cyclist tumbling into a painful tangle, ripe for the picking?
From these dubious counsels, Glowacz goes off the deep end, offering hints for the revenge-mad cyclist: pounding fists on a car, splashing water in a driver's face, cracking their windshield with "the heel of your gloved hand." Is this the bike-advice book to give your kids? Glowacz' weasel-sidebars ("Warning! Hitting someone's car or provoking a driver can be very dangerous!") seem to be more for his legal benefit than for the reader's well-being, a sort of cycle-punk nudge-wink waffle.
Overall, I'd much rather have this book on my shelf than not. You'll be wiser and safer for having read it, as long as you take it with a grain of salt and use your own judgment. That's something of a damper on an advice book, but it's not a fatal flaw.
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