At a glance Useful 100-page book covering the major points of defensive cycling on the road. There's no real humour in the dry writing style, but the info is clearly presented and could save your life, so it's a very sensible use of a tenner
Tested by
Jon Adams, tester for The Bike List
Content
How to be a better cyclist (Advanced Cycling - the essential guide) comes from the Institute of Advanced Motorists. In essence it's a short, colourful book with quickfire chapters on most aspects of cycling on the road and illustrative photos or diagrams on every page. The Advanced Cycling subtitle of the book doesn't involve advanced cycling techniques or high-end tips and skills for people with nice bikes - it's more about sensible road positioning, anticipating hazards and negotiating with other traffic in the safest way. In other words, this is a book on defensive cycling, which I guess is 'advanced' if you don't know about it!
Really important stuff
like how and when to ride in the the Primary and Secondary road
positions are covered clearly and well (if you don't know what
these are, go get the book!) as your safety on the road starts with
where you place yourself. If you 'own the lane' and prevent cars
from overtaking you when it's not safe for them to do so (blind
country bends, roads with traffic islands, an approaching vehicle
that they can't see, etc) you protect yourself by denying them the
opportunity to squeeze past you. If you allow yourself to be
'squeezed' by riding right in the gutter, guess who is going to
come off worse when the car that's overtaking takes evasive action?
Take control as you would with a car, and you stop the driver
behind from making a poor decision - and protect yourself in the
process.
There's lots of great advice throughout the book, but you need
to read it very thoroughly, because some of the pure gold lurks
within tip boxes or picture captions. Going up the inside of a
lorry that's turning left is well known as a potential killer - the
driver doesn't know you're there and if there's a barrier or
railings, then you have no escape when he starts turning - but this
is covered by a small photo caption in the single page on
Undertaking within the Cycling in Town 
chapter.
In many ways, How to be a better cyclist is a 'sensible shoes' book, and though you won't find any sense of fun in the rather corporate, health-and-safety-style writing, there is some very good information here that all cyclists should know. How to protect yourself from getting 'squeezed' is one of the most important pieces of advice you'll ever come across, and the book is worth its modest £10 cover price for the four pages on Positioning alone. It'd be nice to see a more comprehensive 'advanced cycling' outlook, and some advanced tips on gear and technique, but on the whole, this easy-to-absorb 100-page book offers good value, as the nuggets you'll take on board could well be the things that save your life. Recommended.
Find out more and buy from: www.iam.org.uk
IAM says:
Whether you are relatively new to cycling, someone returning to the activity or you have many years experience, you will find enormous value in this book. It will help to take your cycling to a whole new level.
"How to be a better cyclist" is a comprehensive guide to becoming a better cyclist. It can be used for personal study or in conjunction with training to the National Cycle Training standard. It delivers all the information you need to become an advanced cyclist, in a logical and accessible way and also includes information on riding with children.
- Paperback
- Publisher: Institute of Advanced Motorists (1 April 2010)
- ISBN-10: 0956223923
- ISBN-13: 978-0956223920
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.8 x 1.2 cm
