Roads to Ride

by Grant Petersen and Mary Anderson

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 093058807X
• ISBN13: 9780930588076
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Heyday Books
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Good book, needs updated

This is a good book for the cyclist seeking roads to ride in Contra Costa, Alameda, and Marin county and was at my bedside as I planned the next day's ride during the 1980's and early 1990's. The book shows you in percent how steep some road grades can be and what to expect. However the book needs to be updated badly, published in the early 1980's, and due to the population and housing explosion in the Bay area and the Delta, some roads have changed and even are not there anymore. I would like to see the author do a book on Calaveras county which has some incredible roads to ride placing it in serious competition with Marin county.

A true cyclist's perspective

This (and its companion book) are the best ride books I have ever read. In fact, they're the only ones I've ever even liked.Each route is laid out in elevation profile in an attractive, uncluttered profile. Scale is provided in miles and kilometers for the distance; feet and meters for the elevation; 0 at road start for both. The gradient for steep sections is cleanly labeled on the profile itself. Intersections with other major (from the cyclist's perspective) roads are indicated with a reference to the page number for that road. The short, spare route descriptions do it for me. They're not the usual boring blow-by-blow description of the road. "At this point, if it's spring, notice the colorful flowers on the left." Rather, he provides a spare description of the feel of the riding of the road, as a cyclist would feel them. At least, as I do.Note: the book also contains a number of black and white photos of the roads, back roads usually empty, with curves, and shot at low angle. The photographer often darkens the road, so there is little contrast between it and the surroundings. The road appears incorporated into the natural environment. Again, a cyclist's feel.

The Bible for cyclists

This book is the best resource for a rider that you can find. It's written to appeal to everyone from a budding racer to someone looking for family fun.

Roads to Ride -- EXCELLENT

This book is an incredible resource for cyclists. It is unfortunate that it hasn't been given more recent updates, or that the publisher doesn't adequately support it. The degree of topographical detail on the root profiles is unsurpassed on any books I've seen in the United Stages -- perhaps the Atlas les Cols des Alpes comes close. It fails to get a 10 because: 1. it is becoming obsolete 2. there may be some minor errors in the data