Tagged bike books

An interview with Women on Wheels author April Streeter

August 19, 2021 — by Elly Blue

This week on the podcast, we invite a guest into our studio for the first time in almost two years! April Streeter, author of the new feminist bicycle history Women on Wheels, joined us to talk about the untold histories of women cyclists since the 1880s, share fascinating tidbits of archival research and costumery, and revisit a bit of shop talk about what it was like to publish with us (and how we handled all those amazing illustrations).

You can find this and over 100 other episodes of the People’s Guide to Publishing podcast wherever podcasts are served.

Say hello to our rides

May 16, 2018 — by Cynthia Marts

We love Bike Month — another month-long chance to give books away and show off some of our favorite stuff. From Adonia Lugo’s amazing new book, Bicycle/Race: Transportation, Culture, & Resistance, to the many bikes of Portland, to our beloved classics, Bikenomics, Everyday Bicycling, and SO MANY MORE.
And today, we want to share something a little different, so let us introduce… our bikes.

Trista: Purple Raine purple bike

This is #2 in my Purple Raine series, and we are still in the puppy love stage of our relationship; we haven’t had any crashes yet. Raine #1 and I had quite intimate knowledge of the bushes on the side roads of Memphis, TN…

Cyn: Red Dwarf

This star and sticker-covered bike was gifted to the office by a friend, and I fell in love right away. It was a good 20 pounds lighter than my bulky steel thriftshop bike (simply called Red, who sleeps in our yard while waiting for a fix-up), had only a third of the problems (frame not bent! wheels that didn’t need truing! brakes that didn’t stick!), and it even featured my favorite shape (stars!).

Elly: My bike is a Kona Lava Dome mountain bike that I converted into a longtail Xtracycle almost a decade ago. It’s my pickup truck. I’ve carried friends, pets, boxes of books, groceries, plants, furniture, lumber, you name it. We have a six-foot bamboo trailer that I can hook up to it for even more capacity, like for hauling all the stuff we’re going to sell at an event.
My bike is my muse, it’s constantly reminding me of the real potential to do whatever I can dream.

Lydia: My bike was a gift from my grandmother. I’d originally bought it to train to commute to work on it, but by the time the weather was decent enough to ride (I was in Bellingham, WA at the time), I was about to move to Portland and far enough away from work it wouldn’t be feasible. After moving in with my mechanically-inclined girlfriend, she gave it a tune-up and I’ll definitely be riding it more once summer officially arrives. (I’m definitely a fair weather biker and I’m okay with that.)

Joe: Dainty

I used to work at the Bike Project in Bloomington, IN. A guy I know came in one day to build a touring bike. We found a brown frame with no parts on it that was completely rusted over. I put about ten hours into finding components that would fit and building it up. About the time that I finished building it, he stopped showing up. I was the same height as him. So I waited two more weeks and adopted it as my own. I had set it up just how I wanted with two road tires, a coaster brake, and a single speed. But into my mid 30s, my health was such that it was too hard to swing my leg over the saddle. I put upright bars on it and a basket for my service dog. I loved it. But it was cobbled out of literal garbage. One day Elly called me to say that my dream bike with a step-through frame and bright orange paint job was on clearance down the street. $300 later, I can tell you that riding a bike with matching parts is much smoother and functional – and I don’t mind having seven speeds either.

And don’t forget!

We’ve giving away bike books this month! Ten copies of Bikequity and a grand prize of Adonia Lugo’s upcoming book Bicycle/Race!

Check out the giveaway below, and enter soon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Woah. It’s National Bike Month.

May 08, 2018 — by Cyn

So, here we are in the first weeks of May, surrounded by books about feminist cannabis, Portland eccentricities, and, of course, bikes: bicycle infrastructure, social justice in bicycling, bikes you can color, and more. And that’s cool– we kinda love bikes.

But this post is not actually about us, it’s about you; winning books. Because it’s Bike Month. And what’s my favorite way to celebrate a month dedicated to sharing and learning about bikes and bicycling culture? Come on, you know the answer…

A giveaway!

This month we’re giving away 10 copies of Bikequity: Money, Class, and Bicycling, edited by Elly Blue and featuring work by Tamika Butler, Adonia Lugo, Do Jun Lee, Gretchin Lair, V.K. Henry, Lauren Hage, Tammy Melody Gomez, Phill Melton, Cat Caperello, Joe Biel, Julie Brooks, Kassandra Karaitis, Katura Reynolds, Rebecca Fish Ewan, Rhienna Renée Guedry, and Adrian Lipscombe.

And this time, there’s also a GRAND PRIZE:

ONE WINNER will also get a copy of the brand new book by Adonia Lugo, Bicycle/Race: Transportation, Culture, and Resistance, which won’t be available in bookstores until October.

Interested yet? Here’s more about the books…

In Bikequity, Elly Blue curates a writing collection that explores the intersections between social justice and the bicycling world. The contributors to this volume of Taking the Lane zine tackle of the potentials and realities and unintended consequences of trying to create a better world using human-powered transportation.

In Bicycle/Race, Adonia Lugo, PhD, paints an unforgettable picture of Los Angeles—and the United States—from the perspective of two wheels. This is a book of borderlands and intersections, a cautionary tale about the dangers of putting infrastructure before culture, and a coming-of-age story about power and identity.

The giveaway runs till May 28th, so enter, below, soon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So, as usual, you have several different ways to enter: following us on social media, tweeting about the giveaway, giving your opinion, or signing up for our newsletter. Choose one, a few, or all of em, and may the odds be in your favor!