Good job

Do not buy this book as an eBook!

The book has been written by hand and contains a lot of cartoon drawings. Unfortunately adobe reader uses horrible resolution for the graphics (and thus in this case for the texts also). It just looks like the whole book had been faxed to you.

I am not going to jump on a "This is the best mountain bike reference ever published for all skill levels" bandwagon, even though I am selling a copy. Hey, got to be honest... I picked up this book after my somewhat reckless $1,500 investment into a full-suspension Trek rig having virtually no mountain biking experience whatsoever. Being a sucker for details (comes naturally - I am a network engineer) I wanted to learn my new hobby in a methodical and structured way. My desire to learn on other peoples mistakes was further strengthened by my first visit to Rockville mountain bike park in North Bay. This ride has positively kicked my butt humbling and scaring me witless into buying some sort of "Mountain Biking for Morons" equivalent. This is how I came across William Nealy and his weird little manual. Alas, I end my digression and give you the skinny.

The manual is easy to read; its offbeat and slightly wacky just like the sport itself is. An occasional use of well-hidden expletives reinforces presented concepts and also prepares one for whats inevitable - pain. The comic book style is original and pictures are fun to look at even if you dont plan to join NORBA (e.g. my wife). Concepts are well organized and presented in an easy-to-digest fashion. Reading it for the first time, many notions completely escaped me thus I recommend to re-read the book a few times, while riding, riding, riding at the same time. I appreciated an abundance of mountain bike-specific jargon and some of my advanced amateur freerider friends were intrigued by Nealys explanation of various advanced moves, which come to them naturally but are so hard to explain.

In conclusion, I give this book 4 sprockets (out of 5). Hey, if this was a 5, I would already be sponsored by Fox Racing or Marzocchi. But seriously, I believe this was a worthwhile purchase. I dont know if this is the greatest mountain biking manual ever written, but it was certainly the most helpful one to me. Of course, all the advice of this manual would have been worthless if I have not been following the reading with an actual riding. I am nowhere near a professional, but I sure can pedal with the rest of them, and this book has helped a lot. Thanks, William!

The information presented is useful for a beginner rider looking to learn common sense techniques and rules of mountain biking. I would recommend it as a first read if you are patient enough to read a 176 page comic book.

The information is often repetitive and the text font (aka MS-Barely-Readable-Scribble 12 pt.) hurts my eyes after a while. I am an intermediate rider and I found much of the information to "common sense" to hold my interest.

Whether if you are a new mountain biker or an experienced downhill maniac, this book will teach you the basics and perfect your technique. It provides great details on everything a mountain biker should know about arm & leg technique, taking falls, pedaling tricks, trail use and care, emergency repairs, survival techniques, mountain biking "etiquette", no-nos and even whats fashionable and whats not on the sport.

I wouldve rated this book 5 stars, had Nealy provided more help on mud trail mastering techniques, making clipless pedals easy and maybe a couple of dog-dodging and cow/bull evading techniques. (Mud, rocks, dirt, grass, rivers, dogs and even bulls are common on a same trail, in a country like mine - Costa Rica) Perhaps well see it in a second edition?

The bottom line: This book in its easy-to-understand and funny cartoon format is a must for anybody and everybody who loves mountain biking! So what are you waiting for? Another spectacular crash? Hit that "Add to Shopping Cart" button now!