Bikes Store-4U

Bicycling Magazine’s Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: Including Road Bikes and Mountain Bikes Your local bike mechanic might have you thinking that “wrenching” is right up there with rocket science. But the truth is, anyone can master the ins and outs of bicycle maintenance if he or she has a good teacher. In lieu of a professor, the editors of Bicycling and Mountain Bike magazines have created a shop companion, which they refer to as “another tool for working on your bike.” They guide you from the basics of your preride checklist to tuning your derailleurs and overhauling your hubs. And they offer updated info on maintaining front shocks and even a handful of rear suspensions. What’s more, they can walk you through the arduous task of rebuilding ancient parts that some shop mechanics haven’t even heard of. If you’ve ever tried to work on your own car, you’ve undoubtedly developed a healthy fear of automobile shop manuals. But unlike the cryptic list of part numbers and equations you’ll find at Pep Boys, this guide is written by people who want you to see just how rewarding bike maintenance can be. –Ben Tiffany
Customer Review: Not very helpful
I bought this book a while ago and am now trying to use it as a reference as I build my own bike starting with just a frameset. The authors obviously know their stuff but I find the presentation of the information in this book somewhat inadequate. They could use more pictures, diagrams, labeling of pictures, etc. Also, obviously the book is very much outdated. I was in the bookstore the other day and glanced thru what I believe is the updated version and it appears to be pretty much the same. I even found the exact same paragraphs and pictures in the updated version. I think this book is okay but I seriously doubt it could serve as your only reference.
Customer Review: Not “Complete” by a long shot.
Maybe I should have known that a book of this limited volume could not possibly have presented a complete treatment of bicycle maintenance and repair, especially for road bikes “AND” mountain bikes. But, what “is” in the book should at least be well presented. It is not. Instead, it appears that this book is written as a reminder for people who already know what the author(s) are talking about and who have done it before, not for Joe Blow / Never done it Before consumer. If you are a rank beginner then the section on changing tires will be of help, but anything else out of this book will leave you frustrated with the sketchy, incomplete, and poorly communicated explanations. Save your money on this book and a work stand and just take the bike to a bike mechanic; or, perhaps look into “Barnett’s Manual” or “Sutherland’s Handbook for Bicycle Mechanics”.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 9th, 2011 at 6:12 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.