Book Review: Hello Bicycle by Anna Brones

Title: Hello Bicycle
Author: Anna Brones
Source: Blogging for Books, in exchange for an honest review

Goodreads Summary:

Riding a bike is one of life’s simple joys—it’s fun, freeing, and good for the planet and our health. Hello, Bicycle is a practical guide to the bike life with real-world advice, covering everything you need to know to up your bicycling game and ride with confidence and style:
→ Buying new, used, and custom bikes
→ Making the switch to bike commuting
→ Riding, locking, and storing your bike
→ Maintaining your bike at home (and what your mechanic should handle)
→ Picnicking, traveling, camping, and touring by bicycle
This inspiring, informative handbook offers something for cyclists of all types, whether you’re new to biking, looking to get back into it, or a seasoned rider who wants to take it to the next level.

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this guide to bike riding! Bicycling is such a huge movement right now. Bike lanes are popping up more and more in cities, people are choosing to bike more to work, and events like the slow roll in Detroit, or Critical Mass, are gaining more bicyclists every month. It is also an up and coming industry, with specialty bike shops opening up all over the map. Detroit, the Motor City itself, has quite a few, such as Shinola Bikes and Wheelhouse Detroit.

This book was a great read for the beginning bicyclist, whether you are interested in biking as a exercise, as someone who wants to just bop around town, or the more serious enthusiast who want to do a bike tour. It covers just about anything you want to know, from which bike to choose to simple bike maintenance to how to bike commute to what you need to do to go on a biking trip. There were some other fun little sections too, such as different yoga poses for bicyclists, recipes for what to eat for fuel or what to take on a picnic, and even how to DIY to recycle and reuse old bike parts! That is another bonus: bikes are not only good for you, but for the environment!

My husband is a serious bike enthusiast, and while I do not share his passion, I do enjoy bicycling, although I do find it a wee bit scary! He also got me addicted to the Tour de France. He is also the perfect example of the best of all worlds of biking. He has a fancy Specialized bike, that he uses when he is in serious bike mode, with his bike kit and pannier, and then he has his bike that is from 1980 something, forgotten in a shed, beat to crap that he fixed up and then slapped a Brooks "saddle" (fancy bike term for bike seat) on, that he rides the most often. I have a bike that is similar, minus the Brooks saddle, although I have to admit, I kind of want one! Bikes can be expensive, customized, specialized, or they can be that bike you pick up at a garage sale - that is the best part of this hobby. You can tool around town, going to the library and the store, putting wine and bread in your basket, like me, and just have fun with the sun on your face and the wind on your back. Or you can take it as far as you want. That is the perfection of biking.

Whatever your pleasure or goal, this book can help you to get your feet off the ground and onto the pedals, with its easy, readable "how to" for every situation and type of biking.