Detailed Manuals for the Trek Liquid 20

A long time ago, back when I had a $1000 Buick Century, my dad managed
to buy for me the complete Buick mechanic's shop guide to the car.
This literally had every single detail, to the smallest mote, about
this car, how to diagnosis and repair it. It was definitely money
well-spent.

Now a decade later, I have two $2000 Trek Liquid 20s. The bike is
great, and I love it, however, it's a lot more finicky than any other
bike I've owned... bubbles in the hydraulic fluid, leaking calipers,
flats, misadjusted deraillers, corroded headset, etc. etc.

I'd like to keep and maintain this bike for as long as possible. So I
am searching for two things:

1) the equivalent of those 'shop manuals' I had for my old Buick for
my Liquid 20 -- and I mean all the parts... the bike, the shocks, the
brakes, the transmission, everything. And in hyper-detail, not just a
superficial guide that comes w/ it

2) a complete set of bike tools with which I can do everything and
anything to my Liquid and never have to find another tool again. I've
looked through the Park Tools site, and found, for instance their
"professional tool kit" http://www.parktool.com/tools/PK_57.shtml
a href="http://www.parktool.com/tools/PK_57.shtml"http://www.parktool.com/tools/PK_57.shtml/a
but I actually don't know if that is the ideal set -- maybe it has
things I don't need + lacks speciality tools I would need.


Basically, I want to have a pile of tools and manuals that would allow
me, with sufficient patience and study, to do any imaginable
mechanical procedure or repair to this specific bike.

Advice?

i'd suggest contacting Trek directly so you don't spend a fortune on tools
that you either do not need or cannot use. i've never heard of manuals
specific to a model of bicycle, they usually would not be needed because
many parts are essentially the same from bike to bike, manufacturers aside.
generally the processes for maintaining a road bike are standard with some
deviation, but i assume there would be a great deal more to do on a mountain
bike w/ discs, dual-shocks, etc.

shawn

"Michael Slater" wrote in message
om...
A long time ago, back when I had a $1000 Buick Century, my dad managed
to buy for me the complete Buick mechanic's shop guide to the car.
This literally had every single detail, to the smallest mote, about
this car, how to diagnosis and repair it. It was definitely money
well-spent.

Now a decade later, I have two $2000 Trek Liquid 20s. The bike is
great, and I love it, however, it's a lot more finicky than any other
bike I've owned... bubbles in the hydraulic fluid, leaking calipers,
flats, misadjusted deraillers, corroded headset, etc. etc.

I'd like to keep and maintain this bike for as long as possible. So I
am searching for two things:

1) the equivalent of those 'shop manuals' I had for my old Buick for
my Liquid 20 -- and I mean all the parts... the bike, the shocks, the
brakes, the transmission, everything. And in hyper-detail, not just a
superficial guide that comes w/ it

2) a complete set of bike tools with which I can do everything and
anything to my Liquid and never have to find another tool again. I've
looked through the Park Tools site, and found, for instance their
"professional tool kit" http://www.parktool.com/tools/PK_57.shtml
a
href="http://www.parktool.com/tools/PK_57.shtml"http://www.parktool.com/too
ls/PK_57.shtml/a
but I actually don't know if that is the ideal set -- maybe it has
things I don't need + lacks speciality tools I would need.


Basically, I want to have a pile of tools and manuals that would allow
me, with sufficient patience and study, to do any imaginable
mechanical procedure or repair to this specific bike.

Advice?

"Michael Slater" wrote in message
om...


Basically, I want to have a pile of tools and manuals that would allow
me, with sufficient patience and study, to do any imaginable
mechanical procedure or repair to this specific bike.

Advice?

You're going about it wrong...as your Buick was all GM, GM could supply all
the info. On your Trek, only the frame is badged Trek (I'm willing to
wager) and even Trek-owned companies that contributed components,
specifically Bontrager, maintain separate identities. Your bike has parts
made by Shimano, Hayes, Bontrager, probably Cane Creek, SRAM, Manitou, etc.

You should go to individual manufacturer's websites and look for .pdf
service guides for your exact parts. Bontrager is real good about this,
RockShox isn't, most are in between. Find what you need, print it out, and
put it in a folder. Boom, instant service guide.

Things like seatposts and headsets are generic-enough that a book like
Barnett's Manual is more than enough, but for most parts specific info is
available, just not in one book.

As for tools, buying them all at once makes you feel good, but isn't all
that practical. Buy what you need when you need it, and get quality tools
like Park or Pedros. For starters, though, get a set of metric allen
wrenches, nice cable cutters, Philips head screwdriver, spoke wrenches, and
maybe a crank puller. Get a workstand too...Parks are the only game in
town. Their bottom-of-the-line PCS-1 is awesome for home users, especially
if you're just working on those two Liquids (or if you only have one
seatpost size among several bikes).

Chris

"Chris" wrote in message thlink.net...


You're going about it wrong...as your Buick was all GM, GM could supply all
the info. On your Trek, only the frame is badged Trek (I'm willing to
wager) and even Trek-owned companies that contributed components,
specifically Bontrager, maintain separate identities. Your bike has parts
made by Shimano, Hayes, Bontrager, probably Cane Creek, SRAM, Manitou, etc.

You should go to individual manufacturer's websites and look for .pdf
service guides for your exact parts. Bontrager is real good about this,
RockShox isn't, most are in between. Find what you need, print it out, and
put it in a folder. Boom, instant service guide.


With your suggestion in mind, I started assembling this 'library'

a href="http://karavshin.org/blogs/black-coffee/archive/000543.html"http://karavshin.org/blogs/black-coffee/archive/000543.html/a

http://karavshin.org/blogs/black-cof...ve/000543.html