Advice Wanted- Beginner Biker, Which Repair Manual to Buy



B

Bob Sims Lie De

Guest
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
 
[email protected] (Bob Sims Lie Detector) wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> 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

The Zinn books are good. The Haynes book has better
diagrams. I recommend getting both. If one confuses you,
read the other one, too.
 
Bob Sims Lie Detector <[email protected]>
wrote in message
[email protected]
> 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

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=38747

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A: Top-posters.
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In article <[email protected]>,
Bob Sims Lie Detector <[email protected]> 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,

The Zinn book is pretty good, there isn't any book I'd
recommend over it, unless you would be happy with a shop
manual like Sutherland's or Barnett's.
 
On 21 Apr 2004 09:37:34 -0700, [email protected] (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

Bike to your nearest library.
 
On 21 Apr 2004 09:37:34 -0700, [email protected] (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.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.
 
In article <[email protected]>,
Werehatrack <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 21 Apr 2004 09:37:34 -0700,
> [email protected] (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, [email protected]
http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/ President, Fabrizio
Mazzoleni Fan Club
 
Originally posted by Bob Sims Lie De
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.
 
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 <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> 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.
>
>
>
> --