Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Giveaway: Bike to Work Guide

Today's giveaway is the Bike To Work Guide: Save Gas, Go Green, Get Fit by cyclists Roni Sarig and Paul Dorn. The copy I'm awarding is my slightly dog-eared and marked up review copy of the book.

Paul Dorn's  Bike to Work Guide


You might recognize Paul Dorn as the author of the popular Bike Commute Tips blog and his excellent Bike Commuting Tips web resource. Paul is a long time transportational cyclist and a League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor who was involved in the early days of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition as a board member. Later, he served as executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition. Today, Paul bikes to work in the Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community of Davis, California. Paul and I exchange emails frequently as we argue about the importance of vehicular cycling education, but I consider him a friend and a great ally in promoting cyclist rights on the road.

The Bike To Work Guide began as a revision of Roni Sarig's The Everything Bicycle Book. In this edition for the bike commuter, Paul contributes his expertise gained from his years of experience commuting by bike. The book is targeted for the beginner with little cycling experience as it steps him or her through the process of selecting a bike (avoid the local discount mart, he says), choosing the right gear, route finding, riding safely in traffic, parking your bike at the office, and cleaning up once you get there.

The prose is spare and to the point. Sure, you could read all of this stuff on the web, but this printed little handbook is convenient and easy to carry around. It's not quite pocket sized, but it fits well in a purse or manpurse. If you have a friend who would like to start commuting to work by bike, this guide makes a good gift.

Keenan in Crestview, Florida is the winner! 50 people entered the drawing via Twitter. I used the random number generator at random.org, which spit out the magic number "8."

To win: I'm doing this giveaway a little differently from my previous giveaways. I'll select a winner at random from everybody who enters between the time I post this and noon Pacific Time on Thursday, January 15.

To enter: Send a tweet by clicking this link with the text "Bike To Work Guide Giveaway http://www.cyclelicio.us/ #bikebook" to Twitter. I won't check super carefully, but if I notice more than one entry from a single person I'll disqualify that entry. The usual contest rules and limitations apply. Remember: this is a used copy of the book, so no complaints about the condition!

3 comments:

  1. So, you decided we do have to use Twitter for a chance to win now?

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  2. For now, yes. I've done several other giveaways in the past with no Twitter requirement, and I'm talking with somebody right now about another contest where Twitter is entirely optional. Stay tuned.

    I get the feeling that people who don't want to sign up for Twitter think you must use a mobile phone with it. That's not the case, and in fact it appears most people don't use a mobile device with their Twitter accounts.

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  3. My cell phone doesn't even work with Twitter and I just passed 1,000 followers this morning. I want to fix the cell phone issue but not sure I want to spend the money while unemployed.

    ReplyDelete