Robert Hurst takes off his gloves to lay out the case in favour of the bicycle as today's superior mode of transport - and to voice a resounding call to action for people to use it. In an engaging narrative that takes us from the past to the present and into the future, the author visits a surprising variety of places and historical moments. Hurst argues that the West's aversion to bicycling for transportation is a unique historical - cultural absurdity based largely on false assumptions and bad information. Humorous but more than a little exasperated, "The Cyclist's Manifesto" paints a tantalizing picture of just what the effects of substantially increased bicycle usage might be - the health care savings would be astronomical, for example, and the ways that individuals and governments can go about wresting back control over their energy destiny.