It all started with a folding bicycle.

Former Talking heads frontman/musical savant David Byrne has been a long-time environmentalist, utilizing a trusty folding bike as his main means of getting around New York City. But when Byrne started taking that bike with him around the world, it became his way of truly exploring the countless cities he would visit.

He meticulously documented his travels, and those first-hand accounts of touring around everywhere from the post-urban desolation of Detroit to the streets of Istanbul are the basis of Byrne’s forthcoming new book, “Bicycle Diaries.”

Advance previews find it to be a wide ranging tome that covers such heady topics as gauging local economics from street-level to how to best navigate treacherous city streets without getting hurt.

“To some extent,” Byrne explained of the book to the UK Guardian, “it’s about the surface that presents itself to us in cities, and I dig a little bit deeper than the surface.”

Par for the course for Byrne, who’s dug underneath the surface of everything from suburban American culture (“True Stories”) to the inner-workings of African poly-rhythms with Brian Eno on “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.”

The actual folding bike went on to assume somewhat mythological status when Byrne auctioned it off on Ebay for charity (the proceeds benefited the London Cycling Campaign).  When the dust cleared, the bike generated an impressive 1, 370 pounds UK.

David Byrne’s “Bicycle Diaries” is released on September 17, 2009 on Viking. Buy it here.