Bike to Work Week
Want to save the environment and get some exercise while doing it, all on your way to work? Hop on a bike!
May 14-18 is Bike to Work Week, and if you sign up with Ozarks Greenways to leave your car behind for at least one day (walking, bussing, and carpooling count, too), you can enjoy free breakfast, free bus fare, and other perks throughout the week.
Check out the Library's collection of bike-related books, as well as some helpful web resources, for tips and inspiration on how to ditch the car for the week—or longer.
Getting Around By Bike
Big book of bicycling: everything you need to know, from buying your first bike to riding your best by Emily Furia and the editors of Bicycling
Bicycling editor Furia and her colleagues have gathered the most useful information on getting started, buying gear, maintaining your bike, training for speed, racing techniques, understanding the rules of the road and much more.
Bike to work guide: save gas, go green, get fit by Roni Sarig
Expert bikers Roni Sarig and Paul Dorn teach potential bikers the tips and tricks to traveling to and from work. From buying the right bike, to fueling the body, to road safety, this all-inclusive primer will get bikers on the road in no time.
Biking to work by Rory McMullan
A complete guide to make cycling to work a safe reality for the beginning cyclist. For those who live within cycling distance to commute to work, this book offers simple safety, bike buying, and gear buying tips, as well as ways to best plan your route to and from the office.
City cycling by Richard Ballantine
Cycling is fast, cheap, green, and healthy. Ballantine wrote the world-famous "Richard's bicycle book" and founded "Bicycle magazine." This book draws from his years of experience, offering tips and inspiration for cycling as an urban lifestyle.
The enlightened cyclist: commuter angst, dangerous drivers, and other obstacles on the path to two-wheeled transcendence by BikeSnobNYC
Urban cyclists encounter their share of frustrations: careless drivers, wide-flung car doors, zoned-out pedestrians, and aggressive fellow cyclists, to name a few. In this follow-up to the best-selling Bike Snob, BikeSnobNYC takes on the trials and triumphs of bike commuting, asking the question: If we become better commuters, will that make us better people?
Bicycling magazine’s new cyclist handbook: ride with confidence and avoid common pitfalls edited by Ed Pavelka.
Experienced road cyclists and mountain bikers share the knowledge and tips they wish they had when they started out. They'll help you avoid the common mistakes that can cause frustration and setbacks, and they'll teach you what every new rider should know with skills you can put to use.
Ride your way lean: the ultimate plan for burning fat and getting fit on a bike by Selene Yeager
Yeager provides readers with a comprehensive cycling plan that allows them to shed fat, streamline their bodies, and hone their skills on a bike. Cycling is gentle on the joints, easy to do with friends and family, and burns literally thousands of calories without being a bore or cause for suffering.
Urban cyclist's survival guide by James Rubin
Written for cycling enthusiasts who expect to run into vehicular traffic or urban traffic patterns anywhere in the world, this book is not limited to only cyclists in major cities. Observations from years of cycling the city streets of Chicago and Los Angeles inspired these solutions, and every tip, hint, trick, and tactic can be applied to cycling anywhere.
Bicycle Maintenance and Repair
Bicycling, a reintroduction: a visual guide to choosing, repairing, maintaining, and operating a bicycle by Karen Ruth
Interest in bicycling is growing rapidly, with worldwide industry sales up 10 to 25% per year over the past decade. This book is designed as an introduction to bicycling, and features current information along with professional quality step-by-step and identification photos.
Bicycle repair manual by Chris Sidwells
This book is a comprehensive, practical guide to the essentials of bike maintenance, designed to teach the beginning cyclist how to perform basic tasks and the experienced cyclist how to carry out advanced repair techniques.
Bicycle technology: understanding the modern bicycle and its components by Rob Van der Plas
This book helps the interested cyclist select the best components and gives technical insights into the way they work. Essential background information for anyone interested in the technical aspects of the modern bike and its development throughout history. Illustrated with over 900 line drawings and photographs with clear explanatory captions.
Bike repair and maintenance for dummies by Dennis Bailey
By coupling step-by-step instructions and detailed photos and illustrations, this book gives readers the information they need to keep their bikes in working order, often without taking it to the shop.
The Biking Life: Memoirs and Musings
Around the world on two wheels: Annie Londonderry's extraordinary ride by Peter Zheutlin
Annie was a Jewish immigrant and working mother of three living in a Boston tenement with her husband, a peddler. This was as close to the American dream as she was likely to get -- until she became part of what one newspaper called "one of the most novel wagers ever made": a high-stakes bet between two wealthy merchants that a woman could not ride around the world on a bicycle.
Bicycle diaries by David Byrne
A renowned musician and visual artist presents an idiosyncratic behind-the-handlebars view of the world's cities. Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Byrne's choice was made out of convenience rather than political motivation, but the more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided.
Bicycling beyond the divide: two journeys into the West by Daryl Farmer
On a journey begun twenty years earlier, Daryl Farmer, a twenty-year-old two-time college dropout, did what lost men have so often done in this country: he headed west. Twenty years later and seventy pounds heavier, with the yellowing journals from that transformative five-thousand-mile bicycle trek in his pack, Farmer set out to retrace his path.
Cycling: philosophy for everyone: a philosophical tour de force edited by Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza and Michael W. Austin
This collection of essays explores the rich philosophical, cultural, and existential experiences that arise when two wheels are propelled by human energy. It incorporates the views of notable past-professional cyclists such as Lennard Zinn, Scott Tinley, and Lance Armstrong, and features contributions from the areas of cultural studies, kinesiology, literature, political science, and philosophy.
Pedaling revolution: how bikers are changing American cities by Jeff Mapes
A grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on city streets. Mapes, a long-time political reporter and bike commuter, explores the growth of bicycle advocacy and issues such as the environmental, safety, and health aspects of biking for short trips.
Local Resources
SpringBike - SpringBike is a Springfield-based group that hosts regular weeknight and longer group rides and strives to promote safe, enjoyable cycling for its members and community.
Bike Smart Springfield - This pamphlet, produced by the Sustainable Transportation Advocacy Resource Team of Ozark Greenways, includes information on how to get around Springfield by bike.
Ozarks Greenways - The Ozarks Greenways trails are an ever-growing network of walking and biking paths connecting urban and rural areas in Springfield and surrounding towns.
Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation - This site includes a helpful list of trails throughout the state.
City Utilities' Transit System - Springfield’s bus system is affordable and goes all over town from early in the morning to late at night. Use the easy trip planner to figure out which bus you need to take, where you need to wait for it, and what time you need to leave.
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