Mountain Bike Maintenance: The Illustrated Manual
Posted by Levon in Books, tags: bike, book, maintenance, mountain
Mountain Bike Maintenance: The Illustrated Manual Complete step-by-step guide, from simple repairs to major overhauls.
Mountain bikes endure a great deal of punishment.
Mountain Bike Maintenance explains how to keep a bike trouble-free on- or off-road.
From fixing flat tires to replacing worn brakes, from headset to chainset, this book is crucial for every level of mountain-biker from beginners to veterans.
Mountain Bike Maintenance shows how to: - Make maintenance a pleasure — not a chore - Customize your bike for special conditions or a personal riding style - Increase a bike’s speed - Do roadside repairs - Extend a bike’s life.
This book is filled with practical advice, new technologies, tricks, tips and shortcuts — an essential reference for mountain bike owners.
Customer Review: Good but not great
The book seems well organized upon first glance. However, as I read through a procedure, the text seems to cover 75% of the task and then trail off. I don’t feel there is a resolution to the topic before the next one starts. I like the "why/how it works" discourse at the beginning of each section to explain how a system is intended to operate, but beyond that the procedural portions are not as satisfying as "Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance". Zinn just seems to cover each topic as completely as possible (covering different brands quirks) rather than a general procedure that leaves a little of interpretation by the user for their particular case. This author at least encourages working around breaking the chain to save from constantly replacing links whenever you work on the drivetrain. I recommend the Zinn reference over this one for a beginning home mechanic.
Customer Review: My "go to" book
Mel Allwood’s book is my first point of reference whenever I work on my bike. The book is blissfully concise, and often I can get the gist of what I need to do just by reading the picture captions. Very typically, I will open the book to the task I want to perform, skim the photos and captions, and then I’ll put the book down and get right into working on my bike. And isn’t working on the bike what it’s all about?
Mel’s book doesn’t cover everything. For example, it doesn’t get into pressing our own headset. So if you’re inclined to perform those more technical and specialized tasks at home, you’ll need other books to supplement Allwood’s. I have several such books in my library.
Despite having several books on bike maintenance, Allwood’s remains the first one that I turn to. After all, I want to work on my bike, not read about working on it. Allwood helps me get on with the work, and that’s what I like about her book.
[tags]bike, book[/tags]
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