Advice Wanted- Beginner Biker, Which Repair Manual to Buy

On 21 Apr 2004 09:37:34 -0700, (Bob
Sims Lie Detector) may have said:

Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike, so I don't have to keep going to the bike shop
when the thing breaks down. I've read reviews on Amazon of authors
like Leonard Zinn, etc, but there seems to be a lot of choice.. anyone
got any recommendations to make?

The Zinn book is a very good place to start, but might I suggest
checking to see if it's in your public library? Checking it out and
reading it may help you decide whether it's worth buying a copy.
They'll probably have some of the others available as well.

Don't expect any book to be right up to the minute on bleeding-edge
high-performance gear, but don't bother with a book that's so obsolete
that it doesn't recognize the existence of stuff that's common today
like brifters, 8- and 9-speed cassettes, etc.

Oh, and if you have a mountain bike with a suspension fork, bear in
mind that the fork's servicing procedures are unlikely to be in any
book. There are enough different fork designs to fill a good-sized
book without ever mentioning the rest of the bike.

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In article ,
Werehatrack wrote:

On 21 Apr 2004 09:37:34 -0700, (Bob
Sims Lie Detector) may have said:

Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike,

The Zinn book is a very good place to start, but might I suggest
checking to see if it's in your public library? Checking it out and
reading it may help you decide whether it's worth buying a copy.
They'll probably have some of the others available as well.

I'm happy with the Zinn: I got the mountain bike book for my father,
then it came to live at my house (some gift! Well, I did give him a
bike). There's a lot of overlap between the road and mountain bike
books. So much so that I'd recommend getting the one appropriate to your
main bike and adapting as necessary. Bike maintenance isn't rocket
science.

That said, the Barnett's (available online) is the bible of bike
maintenance, but it covers stuff that just isn't ever going to happen to
most home mechanics (are you planning to re-face your bottom bracket?),
and it's expensive. But that one can be scrounged up from online sources.

Then you get people like me: I now own my own dropout alignment tool. No
reason, it's the sort of thing that just happens sometimes.

Oh, and if you have a mountain bike with a suspension fork, bear in
mind that the fork's servicing procedures are unlikely to be in any
book. There are enough different fork designs to fill a good-sized
book without ever mentioning the rest of the bike.

On that note, I cannot speak for other fork-makers, but Marzocchi has
what appears to be the service manuals for every darned fork they ever
made available online. It came in very handy when I re-did my 1997 Z.2.
--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

In article ,
Werehatrack wrote:

On 21 Apr 2004 09:37:34 -0700, (Bob
Sims Lie Detector) may have said:

Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike,

The Zinn book is a very good place to start, but might I suggest
checking to see if it's in your public library? Checking it out and
reading it may help you decide whether it's worth buying a copy.
They'll probably have some of the others available as well.

I'm happy with the Zinn: I got the mountain bike book for my father,
then it came to live at my house (some gift! Well, I did give him a
bike). There's a lot of overlap between the road and mountain bike
books. So much so that I'd recommend getting the one appropriate to your
main bike and adapting as necessary. Bike maintenance isn't rocket
science.

That said, the Barnett's (available online) is the bible of bike
maintenance, but it covers stuff that just isn't ever going to happen to
most home mechanics (are you planning to re-face your bottom bracket?),
and it's expensive. But that one can be scrounged up from online sources.

Then you get people like me: I now own my own dropout alignment tool. No
reason, it's the sort of thing that just happens sometimes.

Oh, and if you have a mountain bike with a suspension fork, bear in
mind that the fork's servicing procedures are unlikely to be in any
book. There are enough different fork designs to fill a good-sized
book without ever mentioning the rest of the bike.

On that note, I cannot speak for other fork-makers, but Marzocchi has
what appears to be the service manuals for every darned fork they ever
made available online. It came in very handy when I re-did my 1997 Z.2.
--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

Bob Sims Lie De wrote:
Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike, so I don't have to keep going to the bike shop
when the thing breaks down. I've read reviews on Amazon of authors like
Leonard Zinn, etc, but there seems to be a lot of choice.. anyone got
any recommendations to make? I'm not looking at high-level stuff, more a
well-diagrammed, straightforward manual which includes most of the
common problems a bike owner would come across and solutions to solve
them. Thanks


I own Hayes, Zinn (got both cheap/used) and Barnetts (new 5th editio
- note that the version you can download online is the 4th editio
from 2000 )

If you don't want to spend too much money, I'd get Hayes or Zinn (use
or from Amazon), but there is so much useful info online that you don'
even need those necessarily. I find it's useful to cross referenc
because some sources cover issues better than others

Since I'm currently building up a road bike from scratch, I appreciat
the level of detail in Barnetts and can spend hours looking at explode
diagrams of brifters but it's overkill for just general maintenance tip
and the older online version is fine unless you're a fanatic about up-to
date detail


-

Bob Sims Lie De wrote:
Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike, so I don't have to keep going to the bike shop
when the thing breaks down. I've read reviews on Amazon of authors like
Leonard Zinn, etc, but there seems to be a lot of choice.. anyone got
any recommendations to make? I'm not looking at high-level stuff, more a
well-diagrammed, straightforward manual which includes most of the
common problems a bike owner would come across and solutions to solve
them. Thanks


I own Hayes, Zinn (got both cheap/used) and Barnetts (new 5th editio
- note that the version you can download online is the 4th editio
from 2000 )

If you don't want to spend too much money, I'd get Hayes or Zinn (use
or from Amazon), but there is so much useful info online that you don'
even need those necessarily. I find it's useful to cross referenc
because some sources cover issues better than others

Since I'm currently building up a road bike from scratch, I appreciat
the level of detail in Barnetts and can spend hours looking at explode
diagrams of brifters but it's overkill for just general maintenance tip
and the older online version is fine unless you're a fanatic about up-to
date detail


-

Bob Sims Lie Detector wrote:

Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike, so I don't have to keep going to the bike shop
when the thing breaks down. I've read reviews on Amazon of authors
like Leonard Zinn, etc, but there seems to be a lot of choice.. anyone
got any recommendations to make? I'm not looking at high-level stuff,
more a well-diagrammed, straightforward manual which includes most of
the common problems a bike owner would come across and solutions to
solve them. Thanks
Peruse Anybody's Bike Book, completely approachable to the
novice.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Bob Sims Lie Detector wrote:

Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike, so I don't have to keep going to the bike shop
when the thing breaks down. I've read reviews on Amazon of authors
like Leonard Zinn, etc, but there seems to be a lot of choice.. anyone
got any recommendations to make? I'm not looking at high-level stuff,
more a well-diagrammed, straightforward manual which includes most of
the common problems a bike owner would come across and solutions to
solve them. Thanks
Peruse Anybody's Bike Book, completely approachable to the
novice.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Thanks to everyone who gave advice on the question below- which manual
to buy for basic repair of city bike.

I have one more question, which may sound stunningly obvious but my
library unfortunately doesn't stock any kind of bike manuals/guides,
and the reviews on the Web are unhelpful... which is better to buy for
a basic city bike, Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, or
Zinn and the Art of Basic Road Bike Maintenance? As far as I can tell
the Road Bike Maintenance deals mostly with what we in Britain a
"racing bike" (low handle-bars), whereas the Mountain Bike version
obviously doesn't sound quite what I'm after. My bike is the standard
City bike with large frame and thin tyres.

As you can see I don't know much about bikes!

Thanks again and any help gratefully appreciated.

wesfcommuter wrote in message ...
Bob Sims Lie De wrote:
Hi, I'm new to biking and am looking for a decent Repair/Advice Manual
for my city/road bike, so I don't have to keep going to the bike shop
when the thing breaks down. I've read reviews on Amazon of authors like
Leonard Zinn, etc, but there seems to be a lot of choice.. anyone got
any recommendations to make? I'm not looking at high-level stuff, more a
well-diagrammed, straightforward manual which includes most of the
common problems a bike owner would come across and solutions to solve
them. Thanks



I own Hayes, Zinn (got both cheap/used) and Barnetts (new 5th edition
- note that the version you can download online is the 4th edition
from 2000 ).

If you don't want to spend too much money, I'd get Hayes or Zinn (used
or from Amazon), but there is so much useful info online that you don't
even need those necessarily. I find it's useful to cross reference
because some sources cover issues better than others.

Since I'm currently building up a road bike from scratch, I appreciate
the level of detail in Barnetts and can spend hours looking at exploded
diagrams of brifters but it's overkill for just general maintenance tips
and the older online version is fine unless you're a fanatic about up-to-
date detail.



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