Review of Bay Area Bike Rides

Bay Area Bike Rides
Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 7
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Happy riding

On: 2007-09-12

Great book! Very helpful when it came to clear, concise descriptions of what I would encounter on my ride. Have lent this book to about 5 friends and theyve all said it was helpful. My book is pretty beat up now but still going strong!

Pretty good, but lacks a few important things

On: 2007-02-21

Its a comprehensive guide, with 51 routes of varying skill levels, but lacks a few things:
- Enough information on public transit connections.
- The pages could have been better laid out so the mile charts and maps could be a spread that could easily be photocopied and carried in a pocket, but they are often spread in a way that does not make this possible.
- Im not sure if this would be possible, but rating climbs as cat4 to cat1 would be tremendously helpful.
That said, Im happy I bought this book. Its a pretty good intro to biking in the Bay Area.

Author's Review of 3rd Edition

On: 2002-04-23

April 23, 2002 - The third edition is out now and SHOULD be available at Amazon.com.
This edition offers 13 new rides and addresses observed shortcomings posted by another reviewer. The maps have been improved so that now its easy to distinguish between dirt and paved roads. Theres a section called "How to get there" that describes the best way to get to the start point. Still, I always recommend bringing a road map, if youre unfamiliar with an area.

The book quality is also substantially improved, with better quality paper and rounded corners.

I think youll enjoy the new rides, most of which are shorter than in past editions. The mountain bike rides are particularly noteworthy.

...Lets ride! Ray Hosler

good one, but......

by: Anonymous On: 2000-05-06

Doesnt tell you how to get to the starting point. Maybe should also give directions from major highways. 2) In the mtn bike section, could not figure out where I can start on a path. I chose mtn bike riding because I dont like being on the roads. It was hard to tell the difference on the key between dirt road and paved path. The key icons look very similiar.

Excellent guide to Bay Area cycling

by: Anonymous On: 1999-08-15

I bought this book about a year ago when I first moved to the Bay Area, and did all of the East Bay road rides, and a few others. With the exception of one error that I found the hard way (in the Calaveras Road ride, Evans Road doesnt really turn into North Park Victoria Drive -- you have to make a right turn!), this book is accurate, interesting, and the routes are well-chosen and as nice as any Ive found in the Bay Area. Most of the rides are fairly challenging for a casual rider, but certainly not impossible. Ive used it as a basis for my own explorations, stitching various routes together.

I cant speak for the mountain bike rides, as I havent tried any of them.

All in all, this is a great sampling of rides and a interesting read with your Sunday afternoon beer, after an invigorating ride through the beautiful Bay Area hills and canyons.

A well researched, well written book ideal for any cyclist

by: brianvdb On: 1999-05-06

"Bay Area Bike Rides" by Ray Hosler is a collection of dozens of Bay Area bike rides. The rides range from 4 miles to 104 miles and include rides in the North, South, and East Bay, as well as the Peninsula.

Hoslers book is broken into three sections: Mountain Rides, Road Rides, and Casual Rides. Each of the rides includes a text narrative taking you through the highlights of the trip (including historical commentary), detailed directions with mile-indexed checkpoints, a map of the course, and a topographical graph of the ride (showing areas you will go uphill and downhill, as well as the difficulty of the climb or decent). This book is very easy to read and seems to have been very well researched. I recommend it 100% for anyone living and cycling in the Bay Area.

Best of the ride books for the bay area

by: Anonymous On: 1998-12-04

This is a very practical book written by a pretty serious cyclist, it has the information you really want to have and pays attention to details often lacking in similar books by other authors. While there are some pretty good rides left out of the book, he covers a very good sampling of the best near the bay area including rides from all around the area. Suggestions on where to park, where services are available (and warnings about where they are not available), rough topological profiles, very complete route sheet distances and even a very decent amount of history relating to the areas of the routes is included. In cases where different books are suggesting routes involving the same road areas I have found Rays rides usually to be the better suggestion. It is true that there are some long rides included in the book, but just a few, and they are great rides that are worth the effort.