Encyclopedia: The International Buyers' Guide to Alternatives in Cycling (Encycleopedia: The International Buyer's Guide to Alternatives in Cycling)

Rating:
Summary: Newbies and old hands will love this book!
Review: As a "newbie" (someone new to alternative biking) I found this book fascinating, easy to understand, most informative, and full of fresh and new ideas. For example, I'd been stationed in Saigon once upon a time and wondered if I could ever buy a "dong wagon" (pedicab, a peddle-powered rickshaw). According to this book, not only could I do that, but it tells me how much, where, and how to get more information. (Okay, so you've never lusted after a dong wagon . . . there's more!) Various human-powered vehicles (hpv) are listed by groups, then individual products with photographs and text that are relevant, helpful, and beautifully illustrated and typeset. Catalog publishers would do well to study this book; the typesetter, desk top publisher, and graphic artist in me thrilled to the care and expertise shown throughout. Short biographical sketches of riders and makers spice the text, such as the story of Peter Carruthers, a spinal injury victim, who won a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics and founded Bromakin Wheelchairs, makers of competition wheelchairs and hand-drive tricycles. Lest you think of tricycles as only the little bit you rode as a toddler, enCycleopedia (the proper spelling, not to suggest a typo in the Amazon copy of course) describes the Burrows Windcheetah (and its interesting makers, the Seat of the Pants Company), raced, and ridden to "set the British 'End-to-End' record from Lands End to John O'Groats at 41 hours and 4 minutes. The same rider, Andy Wilkinson, had set the previous record a few years earlier on a conventional bike-four hours slower" (p. 87). enCycleopedia is chock full of such vignettes that humanize cycling. The publishers also publish Bike Culture Quarterly (BCQ), and enCycleopedia devotes some pages to the BCQ sort of "forum for new ideas in cycling", including not only technical matters but examinations of the cycle cultures of various countries. A few pages show accessories, including the most beautiful photographs ! of a pedal system I have ever seen.Please email me if you have questions about this wonderful book. I can't recommend it too highly to bike enthusiasts, those who love mechanical things and the illustrations thereof, devotees of the graphic display of visual information, and anyone who wants to see how National Geographic would produce a Sharper Image catalog. If the scoring system went to 12 I'd give this book a 15.

Rating:
Summary: Newbies and old hands will love this book!
Review: As a "newbie" (someone new to alternative biking) I found this book fascinating, easy to understand, most informative, and full of fresh and new ideas. For example, I'd been stationed in Saigon once upon a time and wondered if I could ever buy a "dong wagon" (pedicab, a peddle-powered rickshaw). According to this book, not only could I do that, but it tells me how much, where, and how to get more information. (Okay, so you've never lusted after a dong wagon . . . there's more!) Various human-powered vehicles (hpv) are listed by groups, then individual products with photographs and text that are relevant, helpful, and beautifully illustrated and typeset. Catalog publishers would do well to study this book; the typesetter, desk top publisher, and graphic artist in me thrilled to the care and expertise shown throughout. Short biographical sketches of riders and makers spice the text, such as the story of Peter Carruthers, a spinal injury victim, who won a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics and founded Bromakin Wheelchairs, makers of competition wheelchairs and hand-drive tricycles. Lest you think of tricycles as only the little bit you rode as a toddler, enCycleopedia (the proper spelling, not to suggest a typo in the Amazon copy of course) describes the Burrows Windcheetah (and its interesting makers, the Seat of the Pants Company), raced, and ridden to "set the British 'End-to-End' record from Lands End to John O'Groats at 41 hours and 4 minutes. The same rider, Andy Wilkinson, had set the previous record a few years earlier on a conventional bike-four hours slower" (p. 87). enCycleopedia is chock full of such vignettes that humanize cycling. The publishers also publish Bike Culture Quarterly (BCQ), and enCycleopedia devotes some pages to the BCQ sort of "forum for new ideas in cycling", including not only technical matters but examinations of the cycle cultures of various countries. A few pages show accessories, including the most beautiful photographs ! of a pedal system I have ever seen.Please email me if you have questions about this wonderful book. I can't recommend it too highly to bike enthusiasts, those who love mechanical things and the illustrations thereof, devotees of the graphic display of visual information, and anyone who wants to see how National Geographic would produce a Sharper Image catalog. If the scoring system went to 12 I'd give this book a 15.