Originally Posted by
NOS88
One other thing you might want to consider doing.... check to see if any of the good shops in your area do any maintenance classes. I know my favorite LBS does several between late fall and early spring. If this kind of work is new to you, it's nice to have a qualified wrench looking over your shoulder as you attempt things for the first time.
Good point.
An LBS near me has a "
Wrench Club". There's an annual membership fee to cover insurance. You rent the workstand and tools by the hour. If you get stuck, mechanics are available on a sliding scale from advice, to helping, to doing it for you.
As for reference material, all the books I've seen (remember, I work in a library) neglect one important point: troubleshooting. The assumption is that their instructions are so comprehensive, and that you're such a good mechanic, that everything will be perfect, first time, every time. For me anyway, that's simply fantasy.
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Shimano Techdocs. Their instruction sheets include troubleshooting. You'll likely need this, especially when replacing shift cables. I like the simple, clear, "if the shifting is wonky like this, do that" explanation. And since the sheets are model-specific, there's no guesswork or interpretation involved.