Rating: 
Summary: Ride in traffic? Must read.
Review: John Forester's Effective Cycling is an excellent guide for any beginner (or advanced for that matter) cyclist who is interested in almost all aspects of riding and maintaining a bike. This book is a definite read for anyone who rides in traffic. Forester logically and clearly sets out not only the rules but the underlying foundation for effectively negotiating the often intimidating traffic.
Rating:
Summary: Ride in traffic? Must read.
Review: John Forester's Effective Cycling is an excellent guide for any beginner (or advanced for that matter) cyclist who is interested in almost all aspects of riding and maintaining a bike. This book is a definite read for anyone who rides in traffic. Forester logically and clearly sets out not only the rules but the underlying foundation for effectively negotiating the often intimidating traffic.
Rating: 
Summary: The how-to book for cycling
Review: Seven years ago, I decided to pull my bike out of the basement, tune it up and start riding to work. That has been one of the best decisions I have ever made for my health. I went looking for a good general book on cycling. Picking up Effective Cycling was one of the best reading decisions I have ever made. Forester is a strident advocate of equality for cyclists on the road. But he backs it up with statistics and logic. His arguments are centered around what makes cycling safest. In the last seven years, I have logged thousands of miles, most of it in rush hour traffic. In that time, in part thanks to this book, the closest I have come to an accident has been an encounter with an unseen pothole.
Rating:
Summary: For home bike mechanics and cycling activists alike
Review: This book has some of the best information out there about cycle commuting. If everyone used Forester's techniques and advice, I'm sure cycling accidents and fatalities would decrease. The fact that cyclists aren't respected is because we let ourselves be intimidated by not only other motorists, but our own misunderstanding of the law. There was a day when I once hoped for a utopia where cyclists were treated with respect-but this day may never come, and now we must assert our rights as best we can. Living in American can be trying for cyclists . . . Although Forester's advice on racing can generally be scanned through (if you are serious about it), his chapter on wheel building is amazingly thorough and has helped me build up dozens of wheels. It is the best out there for beginning to intermediate wheel builders-certainly better that Jobst Brandt's book. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: For home bike mechanics and cycling activists alike
Review: This book has some of the best information out there about cycle commuting. If everyone used Forester's techniques and advice, I'm sure cycling accidents and fatalities would decrease. The fact that cyclists aren't respected is because we let ourselves be intimidated by not only other motorists, but our own misunderstanding of the law. There was a day when I once hoped for a utopia where cyclists were treated with respect-but this day may never come, and now we must assert our rights as best we can. Living in American can be trying for cyclists . . . Although Forester's advice on racing can generally be scanned through (if you are serious about it), his chapter on wheel building is amazingly thorough and has helped me build up dozens of wheels. It is the best out there for beginning to intermediate wheel builders-certainly better that Jobst Brandt's book. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: It's About Safety and Politics...
Review: This book is unique in its focus on the technique of sharing the road with motor vehicles. His accounts of run-ins with various government bodies are also enlightening, even though I grew impatient around the third or fourth time he recounted his experiences modifying the Uniform Vehicle Code.His advice about equipment, diet, and the other mechanics of bicycling needs to be taken somewhat lightly. Even though this is a "second edition", much of the material in the book is considerably older. On the other hand, the fundamentals of safety (visibility, lighting, traction, lane placement, risk factors) are invariant over time. Mr. Forester has a definite axe to grind, and this book does it quite effectively. He adds a definite splash of common sense to the fine technique of road riding: don't let other vehicles take your lane away from you, don't surprise them, safety always first, slower traffic keeps right. The safest way to bicycle on the road is not necessarily the one that educators, legislators, or law enforcement officers think it is. This book is a must-read for any cyclist who ever shares the road with a motor vehicle.
Rating:
Summary: It's About Safety and Politics...
Review: This book is unique in its focus on the technique of sharing the road with motor vehicles. His accounts of run-ins with various government bodies are also enlightening, even though I grew impatient around the third or fourth time he recounted his experiences modifying the Uniform Vehicle Code. His advice about equipment, diet, and the other mechanics of bicycling needs to be taken somewhat lightly. Even though this is a "second edition", much of the material in the book is considerably older. On the other hand, the fundamentals of safety (visibility, lighting, traction, lane placement, risk factors) are invariant over time. Mr. Forester has a definite axe to grind, and this book does it quite effectively. He adds a definite splash of common sense to the fine technique of road riding: don't let other vehicles take your lane away from you, don't surprise them, safety always first, slower traffic keeps right. The safest way to bicycle on the road is not necessarily the one that educators, legislators, or law enforcement officers think it is. This book is a must-read for any cyclist who ever shares the road with a motor vehicle.
Rating:
Summary: This book probably saved my life
Review: This is it -- the bible you need if you're going to be a cycle commuter, or just someone who rides more than 10 miles on a weekend. JF takes you the next step from simply pedal pushing, puts you in the league of pedal "twirling", and shows you how to: 1. Be a vehicular cyclist (ride on the road with cars without getting killed, honked off the road or intimidated.)
2. Ride on "longer" trips -- more than the few miles you can do without any clue -- by eating right, drinking right, and pedalling right.
3. Cycle commute, and enjoy doing so -- what you need and what you don't.
4. Basic repair and maintenance. and, most importantly, how to "grow" as a cyclist. There are so many things that I know instinctively now (e.g., how to keep cadence high) that enable me to go further, easier, safer and faster that I wouldn't know where to begin. If you're the kind of cyclist who wants to use their cycle to live better, this is the book for you. Mine's grease stained and well thumbed. (Also an enjoyable read.)
Rating:
Summary: An unique, opinionated, wide-ranging treatise
Review: Where else can you find a book on cycling that deals tells you why a Presta valve is really superior to a Schrader value, the social relationships of cycling, riding in traffic, raingear, and hill climbing? It's sometimes repetitive and some of the information isn't quite current, and it doesn't have much for racers, but it's the best all-around cycling book in print.
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