Maintenance book recommendations?

(Appkiller) wrote in message . com...
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

"Jeff" wrote in message ...
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

(Thomas Reynolds) wrote in message . com...
(Appkiller) wrote in message . com...
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manufacturer's components and outdated explanations of installation of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 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

(Thomas Reynolds) wrote in message
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)