BROOKLINEBIKER

Hi everyone,
I am in interested in geting a very detailed bike maintenance manual. I would like something with lots of pictures, diagrams, and very detailed step by step by step instructions. Will the Park Tools "Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair" meet my requirements? Is it different than what they provide on their website (which does not have too many pictures)? Is there a better book on the market for my needs?
Thanks!

MauiWowwee

I ended up getting one, and I have a better understanding of how to do my own maintenance on my bike.

GravelMN

The Big Blue Book is a good reference. Others include the Bicycling Magazine and Zinn books of bicycle repair and maintenance. Some cover all bikes, a few a specific to mountain bikes or road bikes.

headloss 

Isn't the Park book identical to the website? or does it have more photos/illustrations?

I like the Zinn book myself but I occasionally look at Sutherland's and Barnett's (more casual reading than for instructions). The problem with Zinn is there are separate road and mtb books, too much overlap to buy both, and yet some key things missing in the road bike book such as v-brakes that are common on hybrids.

Andrew R Stewart 

I wouldn't be too worried about getting THE ONE BOOK that will cover everything.

First by next year this imaginary book will be out of date.

Second the best benefit of an instructional manual is to teach the mechanical method. How to look at a component and understand the various relationships both within it and how it relates to other components around it. Once this method is understood the book becomes a paper weight.

Lastly more and more the future info about components will be found on line, not in a single printed source. So learning what you need to find out will be more and more important (which is part of the method). Then it's just where to find the info that will be the challenge.

I learned my method from Anybody's Bike Book. Which is a very simple and long ago dated repair guide. But it started me on the road of how to think about bikes and problems. It's this getting on the road and going that's the important thing. Not which color your, metaphorical, car is. Having said all that the Park and Zinn books are great. Pick the one that fits your learning style. Andy.

JBHoren

Much depends on the bike(s) you'll be maintaining -- newer books tend to focus on contemporary bikes and their components, but if you're working on C&V bikes you'll be better served with "C&V"-era books. Anyway, that's been my experience... especially with most of the "Big Blue Book" material.

BigAl36

I have been taking servicing my bikes since I took my first one apart at 14. The Park book has always been a great resource, especially when you have the web to search out issues in greater detail. Have given a few as gifts to riding buddies.

cny-bikeman

+1 Although I would not go quite that far, most of bike repair is observation and logic rather than specific procedure. References are most useful for knowing what tool to use and how to use it, proper torque, compatibility issues and some technical information.

What the OP seems to be asking for is essentially a cookbook for bike repair, but there are too many variations in what parts were used to assemble a bike, how it was assembled and what happened to it since that time to lay out all the possible variations to do a specific task. Rather than baking a cake it's more like trying to figure out why a lasagna dish with 15 ingredients does not taste quite right, though admittedly quite a bit easier than the latter.

Manuals and online guides generally do not directly address the mechanical or diagnostic method directly, and relatively few address some of the reasons for a given procedure, so one I have promised myself that I will get my site/blog going by the beginning of the year that is intended to do just that. Until then the easiest way to learn beyond "turn this screw in that direction to fix this problem" is to think about the why of the operation of a part or of a repair procedure rather than just the how.

mconlonx

FWIW, the Park book is what they teach out of at UBI. Book production geek detail: layflat binding is way handy in the shop. Pretty much all of it is online at the Park Repair Help website, much of it linked to helpful video. Between that and YouTube tutorials from many different sources, this sub-forum, I'd probably have a grungy, grease smeared tablet out in the shop at this point...

Sutherland's FTW, though, especially prev. editions when dealing with older stuff.

Andrew R Stewart 

"What the OP seems to be asking for is essentially a cookbook for bike repair, but there are too many variations in what parts were used to assemble a bike, how it was assembled and what happened to it since that time to lay out all the possible variations to do a specific task. Rather than baking a cake it's more like trying to figure out why a lasagna dish with 15 ingredients does not taste quite right, though admittedly quite a bit easier than the latter." CB

I couldn't agree more. having known some one who has written a cook book, and others who have done other topics in print, I know of the huge challenge it is to write a book about such a broad subject. Just where do you say "sushi is not what I'm focusing on" when you're covering Asian cuisine? My late wife was way into Asian cooking and we had, maybe, 25 different cookbooks on the subject.

If I were to only have a few bike repair books I'd have a Sutherlands (which I still reach for a few times a year), Anybody's Bike Book (because it's written in a differently then the cold manor of so many others), the Park Blue Book (which I still don't have at home) and The Bicycle Wheel by J Brandt. I just added the newest version of Bicycling Science and Bicycle Design, an Illustrated History. Because having a context of how a bicycling actually works and exposure to what's been done before makes a smarter and better thinking mechanic. Andy.

mconlonx

Brooklinebiker? As in Brookline MA? If so, a great resource in Boston is the Broadway Bicycle School over in Cambridge...

BROOKLINEBIKER

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the recommendations. I should emphasize that I am novice wrench and would very happily use a repair "cookbook." That said, I would love to get a feel for bicycle contraction and operation theory and will look into the books that explore the science, relationships between components, evolution of design, and so on. I am curious: can anyone explain what they mean by "mechanical method?" I assume this concept goes well beyond merely how something is fixed?

FBinNY 

Staying with the cookbook analogy others used, consider the difference in approach between two people learning to bake. One uses a recipe that says 3 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla, etc. then step by step instructions in mixing and baking. the other goes to a culinary school where and studies food chemistry, what happens to various ingredients when you bake, and/or how various foods react with each other.

It's similar in bike repair, where it's fairly to follow step by step instructions to assemble and adjust a new bike. But plenty of things happen over time, and diagnosing a problem when doing a repair requires understanding how things work, and where to look for clues about what's wrong. You don't learn this in a step by step book.

Consider rear derailleurs. All derailleurs are basically the same, and yet can be different. If you learn a step by step approach for one, you might not be equipped to adjust one that's slightly different. But if you truly understand derailleurs, you can look at any derailleur, figure out what the various parts do, and diagnose and correct any problem. That's what I believe others are referring to when they say "mechanical method".

Andrew R Stewart 

Yes to this description. Exactly what I was trying to say. This is why I also mentioned books that are not repair manuals but "text books" on the design history of the components and interactions that cycling is full of. If you've ever watched a true chef whip up a dinner it's amazing. They don't measure but calculate. They observe changing relationships while the food cooks. They don't look at the clock.

A bike wrench does much the same. If skilled he (she, sorry to be gender challenged) can assess the bike in the time that the customer is trying to describe their complaint. The whole bike's needs, which usually goes far further then what the customer was bothered by.

Fix by numbers won't teach this method as well as mentoring under a pro. But these days with the interweb, everyone feels that after reading an article or two they have the same skill set as the pro Andy.

BROOKLINEBIKER

Hi Andy and FB in NY,
Those are helpful answers. Well, I can read books on design but I do not have access to a professional mechanic for mentoring. I also have a job and family so I have time limits on how I approach the task of learning the big picture of bicycle mechanics. Besides books, are there other options I may have for learning? (There are a couple places locally that offer classes but they are very expensive).

cny-bikeman

Actually the "mechanical method" does not necessarily go beyond how something is fixed, but certainly goes more deeply into it - not just what to do but why. What I mean by the term is using observation, logic and at least a seat-of-the-pants knowledge of physics in understanding how to solve a mechanical problem. There's not really much theory (the term is often misused) in bike repair, and you don't have to know much about history or evolution to be an effective mechanic, though I by no means dismiss those as being helpful.

I certainly knew nothing beyond what was in front of me when I overhauled my entire coaster brake bike at age 12. What I already had at that time was a strong interest in science, exposure to tools from watching and helping my dad, and a very logical mind. Fortunately the only tools required to overhaul an entire coaster bike were a Bendix cone wrench, an adjustable Crescent wrench, and a screwdriver.

What one does to diagnose a problem is not of course limited to bikes or even mechanical objects. Exactly the same process of observation and logic (esp. deductive/inductive reasoning) applies to other problems. Working on bikes prepared me for understanding how to diagnose computer problems, and later household issues.

rhenning

Bicycle books are a bit like bicycles you seem to get more of them. This is most of my collection. Many are the same book in different additions. Richards for example I have 6 different years of it from the 1970s to the 1990s. Each addition has different bikes and kinds of bikes in it. There is no one book that will cover everything. Roger

Andrew R Stewart 

"I certainly knew nothing beyond what was in front of me when I overhauled my entire coaster brake bike at age 12. What I already had at that time was a strong interest in science, exposure to tools from watching and helping my dad, and a very logical mind. Fortunately the only tools required to overhaul an entire coaster bike were a Bendix cone wrench, an adjustable Crescent wrench, and a screwdriver." CB


I had quite the opposite experience with my first CB hub overhaul. I was maybe 21 years old and had worked my way into the cool service oriented shop in town only months before. A bendix hub overhaul came up on the stack and I was the wrench which got it. I remember looking at my boss and saying that I had never done one before and didn't know how to start. He laughed, and said that I had serviced a few SA AW hubs and why would I be intimidated by a lowly Bendix, what with it's only having about 12 parts... I took on the challenge and was impressed at how simple it was yet how effective the design had been (and still is). Andy.

cny-bikeman

All of the books ever printed will not cover everything - that's what makes being a mechanic interesting. I'm on the opposite end of the scale. I have an old Sutherland's Manual, period. Worked for over 20 years as mechanic and service manager, I've never owned a bike repair book, though we may have had s Richard's at the co-op. Having started so early doing my own work, other than initial assembly of the Moto in 1972 I have never had a bike of mine worked on by anyone else.