Maintenance book recommendations?

Jeff said:

Hi.

Just bought a used mountain bike for use commuting to/from university through the winter in a
cold, snowy climate. I know little (well, next to nothing) about maintenance and repair, but I'm
willing to learn. I'll probably buy Zinn's book.

Would anyone care to suggest alternative books (I'm hoping to keep my costs down and only buy
one book)?

Gotta run - Blues Brothers is on the tube.

Check out Leonard Zinn's (I bet I even butchered his name) stuff can't think of the title off hand
though dammit... He writes a column for Velonews and has a couple of tomes out.

Please don't buy the Bicycling Guide - not only for your sake, but if noone buys it, then perhaps it
will go out of print or be updated for modern bicycles.

App

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 20:31:54 -0600, Fred Marx <[email hidden]> wrote:

:
:
:Jeff wrote:
:
:> Hi.
:>
:> Just bought a used mountain bike for use commuting to/from university through the winter in a
:> cold, snowy climate. I know little (well, next to nothing) about maintenance and repair, but I'm
:> willing to learn. I'll probably buy Zinn's book.
:>
:> Would anyone care to suggest alternative books (I'm hoping to keep my costs down and only buy
:> one book)?
:>
:> Gotta run - Blues Brothers is on the tube.
:>
:
:Check out Leonard Zinn's (I bet I even butchered his name) stuff can't :think of the title off hand
though dammit... He writes a column for :Velonews and has a couple of tomes out.

Doing a Google search I see that he has a book on Mountain bike maintenance and also one on road
bike maintenance. Is this the book to get for road bikes? I have two books now:

A 1984 edition of Tom Cuthbertson's "Anybody's Bike Book" (I guess this predates my indexed shifting
Miyata One-Twelve, from around 1992, I think.

John Forester's "Effective Cycling", 1995 edition.

"Jeff" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Hi.

Just bought a used mountain bike for use commuting to/from university through the winter in a
cold, snowy climate. I know little (well, next to nothing) about maintenance and repair, but I'm
willing to learn. I'll probably buy Zinn's book.

Would anyone care to suggest alternative books (I'm hoping to keep my costs down and only buy
one book)?

Gotta run - Blues Brothers is on the tube.

Barnett's Bicycle Manual is available for $115 from Barnetts. Their older editions are available for
free download on the web. Doing a Google search will turn up some place to download chapters 1-38.
The only remaining chapters are an index and worksheet (its a companion book to a course on bicycle
mechanics). Its almost 700 pages and a very good manual (better than Zinn's book).

Tom

Jeff said:

Just bought a used mountain bike for use commuting to/from university through the winter in a cold,
snowy climate. I know little (well, next to nothing) about maintenance and repair, but I'm willing
to learn. I'll probably buy Zinn's book.

Read all of Sheldon's Website before you shell a penny. I possess only one paper book on bicycles,
and if you don't plan on building wheels you won't need that one, either.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Distortion Field!

[email hidden] (Thomas Reynolds) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Appkiller) wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Please don't buy the Bicycling Guide - not only for your sake, but if noone buys it, then
perhaps it will go out of print or be updated for modern bicycles.

If you mean "Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance" what don't you like about
it? Specifically, what info on modern bikes is missing?

I'm not defending this book. Just curious.

Tom

To quote "The Critic", "It stinks." Insufficient coverage of all manufacturer's components and
outdated explanations of installation of parts, e.g., indexed bar ends. The version I have appears
to have been good at one point in time but has nothing re: STI (and I got it about four or five
years ago as a freebie for subscribing to Buycycling). It was partially updated but the updates
weren't cohesively incorporated but rather grafted on.

App

[email hidden] (Thomas Reynolds) wrote in message

Quoted message said:

If you mean "Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance" what don't you like about
it? Specifically, what info on modern bikes is missing?

I'm not defending this book. Just curious.

i have that one. i havent cracked it in a long long time, becuase as alleged, it is basic and
incomplete.

*but*.. if you are looking for a ground-zero manual, arent looking to spend much, and arent planning
on going pro, why not? my first days of bike tech were comprised of me pulling apart pieces of my
bikes, cleaning and greasing them, and putting them back together. later, when i bought the book, it
greatly steepened the learning curve, and saved me a lot of pain in letting me in on the left hand
thread secrets, and a lot of other bits and pieces that are useful to a new bike-maintainer.

sure, to someone who knows their way around a wide variety of bicycles, or is a frequent reader (and
understander) of rbt it might be a little on the dull side, but it wasnt dull when i started out.

a lot of my friends come to me, intersted in bicycle maintenance, and ask me waht book id reccomend.
i have never read another bike maintance book, as the internet picked up where the bike mag guide
left off. however, i happily tell them that the bike mag guide will work because it is gentle, well
illustrated, and to the beginner- 'complete', IMVHO.

anthony (applies SPF 65, and dons Nomex)