Bicycle Mechanics - what's the best book for bike maintenance?

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maenad
07-08-02, 09:02 AM
I'm getting more and more into cycling but the trouble is that I live in a place with no English book-shop. I don't want to order a book until I'm sure it's a good one. Can anyone recommend one which:
a. Is generic. I'm in Poland, not the USA, so a book which tells me to get Home Depot's thingy serial number abcdefg to do the repair - that's no good.
b. Is for beginners. I've SEEN someone change an inner tube, but never done it myself - that's the limit!
c. Won't break the bank! :)

Thanks everyone. Also, please let me know if you've come across any particularly BAD books. If I end up just taking pot luck from Amazon, I'd like to know which books to strike off the list before I start!


aerobat
07-08-02, 10:03 AM
The Zinn books are good - there's one for road bikes and one for MTB's. The Bicycling book is good as well, and then there is Bartlett's, very complete but it is pretty expensive.

moabrider47
07-08-02, 10:31 AM
I agree with aerobat, the Zinn and Bicycling books are excelent for beginners. I found Zinn to be the better between the two of them though. Just make sure to buy the right one. There is a Zinn and the art of Road Bike Maintenance and Zinn and theart of MTB maintenance. If you have the cash though, Barnett's Manual is the way to go. It is by far the clearest, easiest to understand manual out there. It has tons of pictures and step by step instructions, along with tool lists, tool recomendations, and a big trouble shooting section after each chapter. The Manuals are packaged in a 4-book set for $100, or you could buy one or more fo the four books for $30 each. Each of the books in the set detail a certain part of the bike. e.g. drivetrain, shifters, etc. Its worth getting all of the books in the set, as some books refer to other books. At Amazon, you can usually get the whole set for under 100 bucks. Just make sure you get the newest volume(4) so you get the most modern information.