Cycling is cool again. Olympic stars such as Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins have inspired huge numbers of mere mortals to dig out their rusty frames and take to the roads. The fact that this new generation of recession-hit urban hipsters is also finding that cycling is cheap, clean and eco-friendly is only adding to the cachet of cycling. And if proof were needed, you'll find their like beautifully photographed in Cycle Style by Horst A Friedrichs – a handsome portfolio of men and women standing proudly by their steel-framed retro racers in tweeds, flat caps and, of course, handlebar moustaches. There is not a shred of anatomical Lycra to be spotted.

But as these fresh-faced commuters fill the bike lanes of our cities, many are finding that life is not as simple as they thought. Nervous mothers and anxious partners look on with dread as their loved ones head out on to our traffic-choked city streets. What these newbies need is a trusted guide to lead them through the pitfalls they're going to encounter, from psychotic taxi drivers to zombie pedestrians. Step forward Eben Weiss, aka Bike Snob NYC. The New York blogger is the man behind the hugely popular Bike Snob blog and the bestselling book of the same name. Now he's followed it up with another tome packed with two-wheeled wisdom called The Enlightened Cylist. Witty, droll and hugely readable, the book takes a wry look at the triumphs and trials of urban cycling. Weiss's observations on everything from red-light racers to cycling tribes are as sharp as a spoke, and he joyfully pokes fun at both Lycra loonies and the common enemy – drivers. In many ways, the book is a primer on the laws of bike-lane survival, but Weiss has a more serious message. If we become better commuters, more fair-minded road users, then we'll have taken the first steps on the journey to two-wheeled transcendence. A peaceful place where, as he says, "There is no Satan, no matter how menacingly omnipresent Oprah may seem."