Bicycle Mechanics - Where'd you get your bike smarts?

I'm relatively new to "serious" bicycling, but I'd like to be able to work on my bike myself. I've been reading lots of the posts around here and I think I'm catching on, but there are still plenty of terms I just don't understand.

Where did some of you more knowledgeable forum members acquire your bike smarts? Can anyone recommend a good solid book on bicycle maintenance/repair?

Thanks!

There are a lot of good sources. My top three:

www.sheldonbrown.com

www.parktool.com

"Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance" (or "...Mountain Bike Maintenance," if you swing that way).

Websites are great, but sometimes there's no substitute for a good book with clear drawings open right next to you while you work on the bike. Zinn's are the best I've seen.

RichC

Most of it came from common sense and 'screwing around'. The only thing I haven't figured out with screwing around is suspension rebuilds and anything with bearings :)

Like Maelstrom I too got most of mine for taking apart and putiing back together. I also found that my local club has some very smart people that are always will to share it.

uh we learned because the bike shop wouldnt steal parts from a friends bike like we could, er did.

Actually, it was necessity, when you live in the suburbs, and dont have a means to get to the bike shop, you learn to fix / adjust what you have.

Im sure that the "Chainless Downhill" was pioneered by some kid on a broken bike. Ive done it, havent you?

Haha scooby, its soooo true. Kids come up here and on purpose remove the chain for a couple of non pedalling runs. Soooo quite :)

Yeah Mael, but we did it because of hardship, its a begger pushing your bike back up a hill, and in the day's of rear coaster brakes, and a weak front caliper, yikes!! its either cajones or sheer idiocy!!

I have been working on bikes for about 20 years now. I was "officially" trained in the industry part of it a former British cyclocross team mech.

I learned things the hard way. When I was a kid and my bike broke... which it often did because it was a cheapo dept. store bike, I didn't have the money to send it to a shop to get it fixed. My parents didn't understand things like investing in cycling. They figured that cycling and bikes were just like any other toy... buy it once and be done with it. But to us as kids, it was freedom, transportation and a way to get out and do things so it behove us to keep our bikes in working order. By the time I was purchasing my own bikes, I knew what kind of investment they were and had built up enough basic knowledge to do some of my own wrenching. There are still many things I can't do because I either don't have the proper tools or skills. For those things, I will take the bike to a shop but I think it makes their lives a little bit easier when I know and can tell them exactly what I'd like to have done.

Rich's web links are good. You can also pick up a good, general book on Bicycle Maintenance for $15-$20, or borrow one from a local library. Also, check out the Barnett's manual at the top of this forum.

In any case, you'll need a few tools. First is a set of metric allen wrenches. A good cycling multi-tool will provide a lot of what you need for changing cables, etc. After that, there's a lot of more specialized tools you'll wind up needing.

Bottom line is, check the information and try it. After that, experience is the best teacher. Once in a while, the lessons are painful, usually not. You just recognize what works and what doesn't. Because of the "painful" ones, never do any major adjustment right before a major ride or event. If anything goes wrong, you want it to be close to home, when it won't matter so much and help is close at hand.

When I got into serious cycling there were no websites. I learned a lot from books and magazines and tried to apply common sense.

I don't really know much about the newer stuff, as all my bikes are 1991 or earlier.

I like Zinn's books. I find that I have to relearn everything every time I try something because so many of the parts don't work exactly like they used to. First indexed shifting, then cassettes, then STI, now rapid rise. you not only have to read the books you have to read new ones.

I learned from experience, book, and talking to other wrenches. It also helps that I work in a shop.

a haynes manual. Now if only Icould get wheelbuilding under my belt...

Just find an old bike and take it apart. You will learn a lot from doing that. All u need are some wrenches, an allen key, crescent wrench and some screwdrivers.

I started out (way back, almost 30 years ago, anyway) with Eugene Sloan's first book on bike's: The Complete Book of Bicycling. He has learned a lot since, then, he admits. But, that book gave me the confidence that _I_ could work on my own bike: Adjusting the derailleurs, replacing a chain, replacing brake pads, through bottom brackets, heatsets and finally to taking the bike apart down to the bare frame and building it back up, with new parts where needed. I have never had a bike shop do anything on any of my bikes except one emergency wheel rebuild in the middle of a tour in Canada.

Books were my guide, mostly on bike maintenance, that and learning by doing.