Sam reviewed Just ride by Grant Petersen
Not bad, but the tone rubbed me the wrong way
3 stars
I ended up giving this book three stars because I agree with the general idea: we need more people who want to just get on a bike in simple every day ways without feeling pressured away from bicycles by people insisting that they need to be buying the latest-and-greatest gear or wearing lycra and cleats.
That being said, the author couches the entire book in terms of the "Unracer", which, while amusing, also feels a bit like the same gatekeepy behavior he's railing against. At the same time, he starts out talking about how many people he's going to offend in a very dismissive way that rubbed me wrong. If you have to start out giving a disclaimer, it seems worth just changing your tone. It's a bit arrogant to throw in the disclaimer in a "their feelings don't matter to me, so this is fine" sort of way. This …
I ended up giving this book three stars because I agree with the general idea: we need more people who want to just get on a bike in simple every day ways without feeling pressured away from bicycles by people insisting that they need to be buying the latest-and-greatest gear or wearing lycra and cleats.
That being said, the author couches the entire book in terms of the "Unracer", which, while amusing, also feels a bit like the same gatekeepy behavior he's railing against. At the same time, he starts out talking about how many people he's going to offend in a very dismissive way that rubbed me wrong. If you have to start out giving a disclaimer, it seems worth just changing your tone. It's a bit arrogant to throw in the disclaimer in a "their feelings don't matter to me, so this is fine" sort of way. This tone of superiority pervades the entire book, so while I agree with his premises generally I didn't enjoy reading it all that much.
Finally, in at least a few parts (the fitness chapter in particular), he goes off the rails a bit and insists that people should, eg. buy a blood glucose meter. That doesn't seem like something to recommend to the people we're trying to convince to just hop on a bike and ride without all the fluff. That being said, arguably that's just in the fitness chapter for the fitness buff who wants to use a bike for actual fitness, so maybe it's fine. It just felt out of place with the rest of the book.
Overall I lean towards two stars except that the general idea is great. Get on a bike and ride (just maybe grab a different book inspire you).
