The Urban Biking Handbook: Build, Rebuild, Tinker, Retool, Recycle, and Repair Your Bicycle for City Living: The DIY Guide to Building, Rebuilding, ... and Repairing Your Bicycle for City Living

"Cyclists are everywhere, the cautionary bumper stickers tell you. More than ever before, bicycle culture is everywhere, too: from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, city planners are making big changes to city infrastructure for the increasing numbers of people who are leaving their cars at home (or deep-sixing them altogether) and upgrading to two wheels. Biking in the city is no longer just for bike messengers with a death wish. Biking's benefits are myriad: better fitness, smaller environmental footprint, quiet and low profile, cheaper, greater accessibility. For each new, non-competitive cyclist in the consumer marketplace, there is at least one bicycle that needs to be fixed, maintained, and customized. Cyclists are looking for communities of like-minded people to learn the basics of repair and maintenance, the tricks of the trade, and get some super inspiring ideas for making their bike reflect their lifestyle choices. Quarry's The Urban Biking Handbook: The DIY Guide to Building, Rebuilding, Tinkering, and Repairing Your Bicycle for City Living is a hardworking, illustrated guide to the cycling lifestyle. Not only does it teach tons of repair and maintenance techniques, it shows such popular skills as converting a multiple-gear bike into a fixed-gear bike (or fixie), building your own wheels, and how to build a Frankenbike from parts scavenged from several bikes. All the techniques and projects are framed by spotlights on urban bike culture worldwide: profiles of bike mechanics, bike builders, bike artists, and more"-- Provided by publisher Cover Title Page Dedication Contents Introduction: Why Ride Bikes? Part I: The Ride Chapter 1: Choosing Your Ride How-to: New Bike vs. Used Bike Building a Bike from a Bare Frame Chapter 2: City Riding Security Parking The Things They Carry: Choosing a Bag Choosing Your Footwear Fenders Riding in Traffic How-to: Hop a Curb Riding with a Group Getting Doored Scrapes and Crashes Chapter 3: Urban Outfitting Bike Clothing Tools Safety Chapter 4: Customization Getting in the Saddle How-to: Set Your Seat Height and Angle Handlebars How-to: Hack Your Bars How-to: Change Your Drop Bars for Flat Bars How-to: Citify a Mountain Bike Painting Your Bike Painted and Customized: An Idea Gallery Chapter 5: The Car-Free Lifestyle Starting Small: A Car-Free Week How-to: Go on a Bicycle Date Taking a Cycling Vacation Part II: The Bicycle Chapter 6: Bicycle Anatomy Frame Thread and Thread Direction Cable Actuation Bearings The Locknut Drive Train Braking How-to: Adjust Your Brakes How-to: Get Rid of Brake Squeak Steering Sizing Chapter 7: Frames Frame Materials Frame Construction Geometry Suspension Framework: An Idea Gallery Chapter 8: Tires, Tubes, and Wheels Tire Components Evaluating Tires Clinchers vs. Tubulars vs. Tubeless Inner Tubes Tire Pressure How-to: Fix a Flat Wheel Components How-to: True a Wheel Chapter 9: Bearings and drive train Hubs Gear Clusters: Freehub vs. Freewheel How-to: Repack Loose Ball Bearings How-to: Adjust the Cones Headsets and Bottom Brackets Drive Train Chain How-to: Lube Your Chain How-to: Break Your Chain Shifters How-to: Adjust Your Shifters on the Go How-to: Set Up Your Shifters for the First Time Chapter 10: Fixed-Gear Fixation Building a Fixie: An Overview The Track Hub How-to: Convert a Geared Bike to a Fixie Fixie Dust Part III: The Community Chapter 11: Bicycle Education Space Do-It-Together How-to: Start a Shop Finding a Space Finances Recruiting, Training, and Keeping Volunteers Building a Community How-to: Organize a Group Ride Chapter 12: Bike Hack Profiles and Gallery Scraper Bikes Glowing Bike Choppers Lowriders and Tall Bikes Bike Hack Profiles Glossary Recommended Reading Index About the Author and Cophotographer Copyright Page "Cyclists are everywhere, the cautionary bumper stickers tell you. More than ever before, bicycle culture is everywhere, too: from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, city planners are making big changes to city infrastructure for the increasing numbers of people who are leaving their cars at home (or deep-sixing them altogether) and upgrading to two wheels. Biking in the city is no longer just for bike messengers with a death wish. Biking's benefits are myriad: better fitness, smaller environmental footprint, quiet and low profile, cheaper, greater accessibility. For each new, non-competitive cyclist in the consumer marketplace, there is at least one bicycle that needs to be fixed, maintained, and customized. Cyclists are looking for communities of like-minded people to learn the basics of repair and maintenance, the tricks of the trade, and get some super inspiring ideas for making their bike reflect their lifestyle choices. Quarry's The Urban Biking Handbook: The DIY Guide to Building, Rebuilding, Tinkering, and Repairing Your Bicycle for City Living is a hardworking, illustrated guide to the cycling lifestyle. Not only does it teach tons of repair and maintenance techniques, it shows such popular skills as converting a multiple-gear bike into a fixed-gear bike (or fixie), building your own wheels, and how to build a Frankenbike from parts scavenged from several bikes. All the techniques and projects are framed by spotlights on urban bike culture worldwide: profiles of bike mechanics, bike builders, bike artists, and more"--Note de l'éditeur Ever wanted to take a bicycle vacation? Go on a bike date? Convert your beater into a fixie? Or are you just curious about the anthropology of urban cycling culture? The Urban Biking Handbook teaches you the anatomy of your bike, how to dismantle it, how to reassemble it, how to make it pretty, how to make it ugly...and most importantly, how to make it yours. Bike your way through car-jammed cities, under overpasses, and over the hills and far away to a cyclist's paradise.- Learn to repair a flat, modify your handlebars, true your wheel, and fix your bike on the fly.- Not just for gearheads: Learn about what to wear, what to eat, how to pack, and how not to get doored.- Want to build your own bike? Get started with fully photographed tutorials and inspiration from the bike lovers profiled inside.Get your bike on with The Urban Biking Handbook!