Rating: 
Summary: Short stories about cycling around the world
Review: A good, lighthearted first person account of the author's extended bicycle touring trips around the world. I read this book while planning a bicycle trip across America, and was hoping to gain nuggets of wisdom for my own trip. This book really didn't deliver in that regard, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. The author appears to be a magazine and newspaper columnist, and this shows in the book, which is a collection of short (mostly unrelated) stories. The stories are well written, succinct, humorous, and broken into easily digestible chunks. The unifying thread is really the quest to explore the world "out there", and the author succeeds in instilling a fire in your belly to go out and see what's out there. If you go, it will be cool.
Rating:
Summary: Short stories about cycling around the world
Review: A good, lighthearted first person account of the author's extended bicycle touring trips around the world. I read this book while planning a bicycle trip across America, and was hoping to gain nuggets of wisdom for my own trip. This book really didn't deliver in that regard, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. The author appears to be a magazine and newspaper columnist, and this shows in the book, which is a collection of short (mostly unrelated) stories. The stories are well written, succinct, humorous, and broken into easily digestible chunks. The unifying thread is really the quest to explore the world "out there", and the author succeeds in instilling a fire in your belly to go out and see what's out there. If you go, it will be cool.
Rating:
Summary: Bicycle morality tales.
Review: A series of mediocre tales about bicycle touring, many of them taking the form of trite morality tales. Most are probably either fabricated or embellished while some are based upon urban legends. (For example in one story a man locks himself to a bulldozer using a u-lock. Then the author allegedly fedges the key and unlocks him. This is impossible since a U-lock is carried on a bike locked and cannot be locked without the key.) Good as a light read ...if you can tolerate the naively optimistic tone.
Rating:
Summary: Bicycle morality tales.
Review: A series of mediocre tales about bicycle touring, many of them taking the form of trite morality tales. Most are probably either fabricated or embellished while some are based upon urban legends. (For example in one story a man locks himself to a bulldozer using a u-lock. Then the author allegedly fedges the key and unlocks him. This is impossible since a U-lock is carried on a bike locked and cannot be locked without the key.) Good as a light read ...if you can tolerate the naively optimistic tone.
Rating: 
Summary: Only topped by actually being out on your bike!
Review: Cycling is a constant chase. Whether in a race or out on the road or trail, you're never really "done." Sure you finish your ride or complete a race but it's only one stage of a longer ride. That's the thing about cycling, it's like life and for the real enthusiast, it becomes a part of your life. Riding becomes part of your make up, part of your character. "Metal Cowboy: Tales from the road less pedaled." is a collection of essays that span the better part of a decade, yet they are timeless. You see, Joe writes not about Le Tour, or traveling through exotic places you'll never see or how to be the best bike rider ever, Joe writes about life. It just so happens that these essays, life experiences really, have a one common point - Joe and his bike. The stories are each unique and bring to light the spectrum of life, often humor sometimes meloncholy but always entertaining. Joe's writing style is fluid and personable. Getting lost in the book for a couple of hours very easy to do. Individual readers will have their favorites. I would say "Oh to be Young and Go Very, Very Fast," "Doing the Hokey Pokey," and "Big Air" are mine. The truth is, every reader will find selections that strike a chord. To me, a "good book" is that which we can all agree is better than most published. A "great read" is a book that connects with individual readers on a personal level. "Metal Cowboy: tales from the road less pedaled" is that "great read." This isn't just a good book about cycling, it's good book about life! Enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Only topped by actually being out on your bike!
Review: Cycling is a constant chase. Whether in a race or out on the road or trail, you're never really "done." Sure you finish your ride or complete a race but it's only one stage of a longer ride. That's the thing about cycling, it's like life and for the real enthusiast, it becomes a part of your life. Riding becomes part of your make up, part of your character. "Metal Cowboy: Tales from the road less pedaled." is a collection of essays that span the better part of a decade, yet they are timeless. You see, Joe writes not about Le Tour, or traveling through exotic places you'll never see or how to be the best bike rider ever, Joe writes about life. It just so happens that these essays, life experiences really, have a one common point - Joe and his bike. The stories are each unique and bring to light the spectrum of life, often humor sometimes meloncholy but always entertaining. Joe's writing style is fluid and personable. Getting lost in the book for a couple of hours very easy to do. Individual readers will have their favorites. I would say "Oh to be Young and Go Very, Very Fast," "Doing the Hokey Pokey," and "Big Air" are mine. The truth is, every reader will find selections that strike a chord. To me, a "good book" is that which we can all agree is better than most published. A "great read" is a book that connects with individual readers on a personal level. "Metal Cowboy: tales from the road less pedaled" is that "great read." This isn't just a good book about cycling, it's good book about life! Enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Stars For The Book + 1 Star For The Ride
Review: For anyone who has hit the road, trail, path or sidewalk on a bike there is a certain appreciation for the freedom and solitude that these rides bring. Joe Kurmaksie in "Metal Cowboy" does an excellent bit of story-telling more in the Bryson vein than the 5-star classic travel book William Least Heat Moon's "Blue Highways". If you have ever experienced the ups and downs of long-distance riding, you will enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Collection of essays for anyone with an adventurous spirit.
Review: Hi, Joe Kurmaskie AKA Metal Cowboy here. Before you crack the pages of my book you might be mulling over a frequently asked question, a perennial favorite which I've grown accustomed to hearing, namely... Is he a real cowboy? Laconic and polite as he pedals down the blacktop? Or maybe the sort of guy who plays bass is a speed metal band and never phones his mother. There's always the possibility I'm just this aging road warrior with too many crashes and falls to my name-more steel joints and titanium plates than flesh and blood. Not capable of stringing together a few coherent sentences, let's hope not. Of course the truth is no less colorful... It was 5:30 a.m. in Pocatello, Idaho, a thin sheet of icy rain masked sunrise, and I wasn't quite sure I was up for my latest bicycling adventure. As I waited, an old rancher ambled up to the intersection. The fur collar on his long coat was tattered, crusted with tobacco stains, and faded. As his cane tapped its way over my bike, I noticed for the first time that he was blind. One eye drooped shut like that of a tomcat which had seen too many late-night brawls, while the other, still open, was cloudy and distant. That eye reminded me of an African tribesman seen in the pages of National Geographic who suffered from river blindness. The old rancher continued to work his cane over me, tapping as he went. And though the light changed from red to green several times, I remained frozen, allowing this slow survey of my person. The moment felt intimate and awkward, but I did not break it. When he was done, the old rancher stood back, grinned through a ruin of teeth, and said, "Ah, metal cowboy." Though I looked more like a surfer, or a guy on a fool's journey, to him I felt like a metal cowboy, the bike my horse, and the asphalt my trail. "Keep the wind at your back, and find where the innocent sleep," he added. Then, without fanfare, my rancher crossed the street and dissolved into the early morning mist. A chill passed through me. That little push has kept me rolling right up to the edge of the millennium. Little did I know then that as an adult, my story would include numerous bicycle adventures around North America, South America Mexico, an odyssey across Australia and New Zealand, and even a few seasons spent managing a bicycle-and-canoe touring company in the backwoods of Florida. Each evening, after a day of adventures and hard riding, I was an innocent again, and I always, always managed to find a place to sleep. Metal Cowboy. My name came looking for me that morning in Idaho ... and I found the rest of the story. -Excerpt from Metal Cowboy What I hear from many folks after they finish this collection of stories is, "I really got pulled into it, and to tell you the truth, I haven't been on a bike in years." Bingo. Here's what I hope becomes a poorly kept secret. You don't have to be a diehard cyclist to enjoy this book. Will my pedaling brethren find rollicking adventures and plenty of cycling lore to keep them turning pages? Absolutely, but Metal Cowboy centers around celebrating the human condition in everyone I met, dined, laughed, cried, and in some cases, fled from. This is what makes it an accessible read. Edgy and hopeful is how one critic described it. Yep, Such is life... mine anyway. As one of the characters in this collection points out, "It's always a good day to ride." So, if you're ready for a memorable adventure or two, let's roll.
Rating: 
Summary: Like correspondence from a good friend
Review: I can't say I've ever met the metal cowboy but I feel like I know him. These stories, which cracked me up most of the time, opened up a window into the workings of a talented writer and even more, a very decent human being. You get to know all sorts of off beat, lost and found type folks who people these essays, but it's the metal cowboy who is just as interesting. That's saying something because the heros and villains met along the way are not window dressing. Colorful halfwits and misunderstood genius throughout who shine on their own, but even more so because the metal cowboy is sincerely interested in them, where they're going and how they touched him and vice versa. A laugh on the surface with more than meets the eye. highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Metal Cowboy: Tales from the Road Less Pedaled
Review: I love this book! From it's eye-catching cover to it's unique format. It's autobiographical yet reads like a series of fictional short stories. Sometimes touching, other times amusing, and always interesting. It's a great read!
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