On Bicycles – 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life, is a new book edited by Amy Walker. On Bicycles features the work 33 writers from across the spectrum who share a passion for cycling and a desire to share the gift of cycling with you. Here you’ll find posts related to the new bike culture and lifestyle – a culture defined by its emphasis on cycling for utility and transportation – plus writing, links and media to inspire, engage and delight you.
Utility biking is growing in cities like Portland, OR, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Montreal, and Vancouver, BC. Whether people are riding folding bikes to the commuter train, slipping through traffic on streamlined single speeds, or carrying children and groceries on their cargo bikes, bicycles are making urban life more dynamic and enjoyable — simply better.
Amy Walker
Amy Walker has been at the forefront of this trend as cofounder of Momentum magazine, which chronicles and inspires urban bike culture and transportation cycling. In On Bicycles, she gathers a wide-ranging group of cycling writers to explore the ways that biking can change, and is changing, people’s lives. From utility bikes that are becoming the primary mode of transportation for entire families to the artistic creations of freakbike riders, On Bicycles has something for everyone who has ever ridden a bike.
Hey there – I’m a bookseller at a small indie bookshop that carries On Bicycles. I think the book is super interesting, and as a regular biker, I have a stake in it. That’s why I wanted to let something that I noticed that really stuck out about the book.
I noticed only one picture of a recognizable person of color. Tons of different kinds of people ride bikes, and it hurts not to see us represented. All but one of the the photos and line drawings of people biking look like skinny white younger people, and as a person of color and an employee of a bookstore whose clientele is far more than 50% of color, this is a huge sales turnoff as well as feeling cruddy. I look forward to another edition that includes representations of all kinds of people!
Thanks for your comment Katie. Fair criticism and an important point that we need to more accurately reflect who is really out there cycling. I will mention that the book includes more women than your average cycling publication (as authors and subjects) and we have a great chapter on All Abilities Cycling by Ron Richings which points out the need for planners to accommodate trikes (used sometimes by older cyclists and people with disabilities) and trailers as well as conventionally sized bikes. I hope you wont feel cruddy! I hope you’ll continue to create your own images of cycling and share your vision of what biking looks like.
Hi Amy, I concur with Katie, and would also like to add a plug for older cyclists. I am 59 and love to ride my bike in Portland, which is truly an amazing place for cycling. On occasion, I see riders who are 50+ out on bikes, but would like to see that number increased. When I ride a lot, I feel a much stronger connection with the immediate environment. I also feel much stronger and more balanced than when I am not riding–no small deal for those of us who need to be aware of ways to stay strong and heathy. It would be great to see more photos and stories about riders who are 50+. Who knows, it might help encourage more older people to discover the joy of cycling again.
There is a fantastic book that I read about once a year called “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland.
anonymous @ 11:57:Publishing Sheldon’s website in hard copy would miss the point. Obviously Sheldon ienntded the website to be free, and he likely expected that it would live on long after his death. The site is hosted through Harris Cyclery, and since Sheldon is the only reason that any of us even know the name of this small shop in a Boston suburb in the first place, I sincerely doubt that they’ll take it down.So we’ll have sheldonbrown.com forever, but we’ll no longer know about inter-operability between future generations of Dura Ace, and we’ll no longer see any new crazy bikes like the one snob posted, nor what movie Sheldon watched last night and what he thought about our presidential candidates.
Best of luck with your book Amy. Katie is right…with Metro Vancouver so visibily Canada’s Pacific Rim city –meaning it has a highly noticeable Asian descent population who are Canadian residents/citizens. (Richmond, suburb, has 60% of Asian descent according to Statistics Canada). Your photographic opportunities..were in front of you, daily.
I know we are colour blind –but to a point that we are taking abit for granted now.
In every area of human endeavor, there is the first, the one, the only; thus was Sheldon Brown, Capt’n Bike. An American Original, a true inovnator, the embodiment of Yankee Ingenuity, a subtle genius.No one will fill his shoes. Let us all be grateful we lived in the same time as he did, and that we were inspired by him.And let his passing be a reminder to all of us of our own mortality, that our time on earth is limited; and let us ponder the question, what good have we brought to this world?Go out today and ride your bike for Sheldon, and stop to do someone a favor on your way, and when your come home, be kind to someone that you love.
Hi Amy,
I hear you are going to be in Bellingham at Village Books on Monday the 12th. I work at Kulshan Cycles in Bellingham and last year for Christmas the owner have each staff member a copy of On Bicycles. We love it. I just wanted to invite you to stop in the shop if you have time before going to the bookstore. I will be working all day myself. Also we have a regular Monday night ride that starts anywhere from 8:30-9 if you are up for a ride after. Or if you are in town on Sunday at all that is a great day for a ride.
Amy – I’m the tall guy who was the first to buy your book at NAHBS last week. Read your book – good read! I do have three corrections though for your second edition:
1. Page 7: Todd Litman’s comment that: “This motivated me to return to collage as a graduate student…” Yikes! Doesn’t Todd mean “college”? I guess he didn’t get a Master’s in English.
2. Page 66: “…I called up all I the courage I could gather.”
3. Page 324: “Broward County (which encompasses Orlando, Florida).” In the 21 years I spent growing up in Orlando, Florida, I always knew it to be in Orange County. Fort Lauderdale (just an hour north of Miami) is in Broward County. Not sure which one you meant.
Final thought: Katie is right. Here in Los Angeles, if you took a snapshot of Angelinos on bikes a majority would be Latino. Please reflect that greater diversity in your next edition.
Hey!
Listening to you on the CBC. Congrats on the book and good luck with the future.
Cheers / K
Hello Amy-
I got your book from you at this last NAHBS in Sacramento, and thoroughly enjoyed the compilation of stories and inspiring host of bicycle-related developments. In particular, I appreciate your chapter on Community Bike Projects, which brings me to my point:
Bike!Bike!, the annual North American conference on community bike projects, is coming to your town. You are probably already aware of the event, and I encourage you to check out the workshops and the scene- I work at the Bike Church here in Santa Cruz and wish I were going to Vancouver myself.
Next Weekend: June 21st – 24th
http://www.bikebike.org/
Thanks for the book and take care
josh muir
frances cycles
My American friend bought me your book for my birthday. I live in London and cycle my 13 mile round trip commute as often as my physical health will allow. I am half way through the book and already want to run away to Portland to learn custom bike building so I can build/adapt bikes for other women like me who love cycling but have health issues that get in the way.
I am bursting with thoughts and ideas about why cycling gets such a bad rep in the UK and why London’s cycling community is so dominated by Tour de F*** You lycra clad riders that jump red lights and give us all a bad name.
I hope that I can crystallise these thoughts into positive action.
Step one – I have been in touch with my borough council about them organising a Cyclovia (Sunday Streets) event for Peckham. I have no idea if it will happen but the idea is out there now!
Step two – learn how to fix my own bike!
Congratulation Amy for being able to present something which is really necessary in today’s aspect. We are in such age when carbon emission has become the main concern. And already we are experiencing it’s (Global warming) consequences like Drought, Hurricane etc. And the motor vehicle is playing a significant role in carbon emission. So, as a part of lessening the emission of carbon, using bike instead of motor vehicle is really effective. Though using bike for transportation isn’t popular everywhere but the culture has already begun and your book will inspire many for it for sure. Keep up the good work for a better future.