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Mountain Bike!: A Manual of Beginning to Advanced Technique

Mountain Bike!: A Manual of Beginning to Advanced Technique

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $14.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not your grandmother's coffee table book!!!
Review: This is NOT a coffee table book, as someone unscrupulous suggested below. This is bone-crunching heart-stopping mind-blowing Mountain Biking we are discussing and besides an increased heart rate, this has nothing to do with coffee.

I am not going to jump on a "This is the best mountain bike reference ever published for all skill levels" bandwagon, even though I am selling a copy. Hey, got to be honest... I picked up this book after my somewhat reckless $1,500 investment into a full-suspension Trek rig having virtually no mountain biking experience whatsoever. Being a sucker for details (comes naturally - I am a network engineer) I wanted to learn my new hobby in a methodical and structured way. My desire to learn on other people's mistakes was further strengthened by my first visit to Rockville mountain bike park in North Bay. This ride has positively kicked my butt humbling and scaring me witless into buying some sort of "Mountain Biking for Morons" equivalent. This is how I came across William Nealy and his weird little manual. Alas, I end my digression and give you the skinny.

The manual is easy to read; it's offbeat and slightly wacky just like the sport itself is. An occasional use of well-hidden expletives reinforces presented concepts and also prepares one for what's inevitable - pain. The comic book style is original and pictures are fun to look at even if you don't plan to join NORBA (e.g. my wife). Concepts are well organized and presented in an easy-to-digest fashion. Reading it for the first time, many notions completely escaped me thus I recommend to re-read the book a few times, while riding, riding, riding at the same time. I appreciated an abundance of mountain bike-specific jargon and some of my advanced amateur freerider friends were intrigued by Nealy's explanation of various advanced moves, which come to them naturally but are so hard to explain.

In conclusion, I give this book 4 sprockets (out of 5). Hey, if this was a 5, I would already be sponsored by Fox Racing or Marzocchi. But seriously, I believe this was a worthwhile purchase. I don't know if this is the greatest mountain biking manual ever written, but it was certainly the most helpful one to me. Of course, all the advice of this manual would have been worthless if I have not been following the reading with an actual riding. I am nowhere near a professional, but I sure can pedal with the rest of them, and this book has helped a lot. Thanks, William!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Decent book for a beginner...
Review: WARNING: This book is written like a comic book. It contains illustrations on almost every page and all of the text appears as hand written.

The information presented is useful for a beginner rider looking to learn common sense techniques and rules of mountain biking. I would recommend it as a first read if you are patient enough to read a 176 page comic book.

The information is often repetitive and the text font (aka MS-Barely-Readable-Scribble 12 pt.) hurts my eyes after a while. I am an intermediate rider and I found much of the information to "common sense" to hold my interest.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The one book on Mountain Biking you really need.
Review: Whether you are an experienced mountain biker, a beginner, or just someone interested in the sport, if you only buy one book - this is it. It's very informative and funny. The information helped me quite a bit years ago when I was a beginner...now I just reread it every year or so for the entertainment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The most interesting technical book I've ever read!!!
Review: Wish every sport had a Neally writing manuals! This is a very enjoyable reading, that takes you through very serious matters like a comic book. It is saving me months of trying to squeeze these riding "secrets" from my expert friends.


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