Joe Kurmaskie

Far and away the best touring book I've read! Love that Kurmaskie tells about the ride itself, the people he meets, his own life philosophies/"A-HA" moments, and his kids reactions. A bit preachy sometimes but always with a large helping of humor. It could have been longer, I think I would have enjoyed more if it was. I believe there's another book by the same author - that'll have to be my next "To-Read."

A fun quick read. Each chapter stands alone - a tale of some adventure on a bicycle, with some personal reminiscences thrown in. The style is a bit fraternity raucous, but not to the point of being painful. It does limit the book, but not every book has to be a profound masterpiece anyway. We meet a nice bunch of characters, which I must agree is the funnest part of bike touring. The book doesn't try to be more than it is, just a bunch of fun stories.

If you've never read a bike touring book before, this is a fine place to start. Kurmaskie tells the story of bicycling across Canada. His wife is on his touring bike, his eldest son is the stoker on the tandem, his middle son is on the trail-a-bike attached to the tandem, his 1 year old son is in the trailer attached to the trail-a-bike. There are footnotes by his wife in the text which often bring Kurmaskie back down to earth.

I didn't like it as much as [b:Momentum Is Your Friend: The Metal show more Cowboy and His Pint-Sized Posse Take on America|614906|Momentum Is Your Friend The Metal Cowboy and His Pint-Sized Posse Take on America|Joe Kurmaskie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1354902272s/614906.jpg|601347]. The footnotes interrupt the narrative although the writing style is a lot of fun to read. It also seemed like the narrative spent an awful lot of time describing the beginning of the journey, and nearly nothing about the end of the journey. There's whole chapters devoted to how he and his wife met, and while it's funny to read about, I don't think it germane to the main focus of this particular book. Kurmaskie does a great job describing characters and situations they encounter, along with "lightbulb" moments for himself and his family. A little too much preaching about the evils of modern life though. show less

A great fun book. It reads like a collection of magazine columns, which it might be. Each little story is self-contained and bite-sized. They are pretty much all human-oriented. We do hear a bit about mileage or derailleurs or similar technical details, but they are never more that sauce on the side. It's all about the people he meets along the way.

I am preparing for a big ride in a few months... this was good inspiration!