The family have offered to buy me a book on bike mechanics. Nice of them seeing I've been repairing and building bikes since the 80's, nearly all learned using the time honoured trial and blunder method. However, with hydraulic discs and some other new stuff around, and with so much utter rubbish on the internet, I thought, 'why not?'
The question is, which book? Mtbs don't really feature in my world so I don't require anything heavy on that score. Although I ride steel, my son has a cf racer.
Any suggestions?

My pick would be Chapman Piloting & Seamanship. Not sure why I don't have that yet.

I think it's a good choice considering you have bike stuff down. But being from where you are, the stuff in that book might come natural too.

I used to build wooden boats, pretty much just bikes now.

"The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brandt. I found my copy at a used book store... paid 47 cents for it on "half price day"... the regular price in that store would have been 99 cents, which partially explains why that book store is no longer open, eh?

the standard go-to book on bike mechanics is the "Big Blue Book of bicycle repair" from Park Tool has a fairly good section on hyd. brakes, and disc brakes in general...... get the newest edition possible...

I would add Zinn's Road Bike Maintenance to the list. I learned to lace a wheel from that book.

Actually, the Park Tools book is a sensible choice considering their website is my go-to site for mechanical information on the internet. Thanks.

I've heard Zinn's mentioned pretty often too

+1 Along with the Park book (highly recommended) Zinn is probably the most complete repair manual and is updated frequently so it covers the latest components.

I've purchased a couple of Zinn's through the years and have no complaints.
Cheers,
David
Way up North

I learned all my bike fix it stuff from Tom Cuthbertson's "Anybody's Bike Book" but I still ride steel and use DT friction shifters.
Jon

Zinn has a separate book focusing on MTB too, I expect that has hydraulic brake bleeding..

and of course did you save the product information sheet of your specific brake?

there may be download and print options..




...

Zinn has been ordered. My only concern, and it's a very minor concern, is that it was published in Jan 2016 and it can't be too long before the next edition comes out.

Yes, the next edition promises a chapter devoted to installation of tire-valve mounted power meters. You shoulda waited.

Glad I didn't, I know how much power I'm not producing

The problem with any book is that they don't update themselves. I'm pretty good working on a certain class of bikes but I've grown to realize that my knowledge is slowly becoming obsolete. I'd say to try internet websites, like Park Tool but I'm thinking they could stand a more frequent updating on topics like cable pull ratios too.

Another problem with such guides is that they may have good instructions regarding "how to do something" but most aren't much on telling you "what to do". You can pull your hair out struggling with a rear derailleur adjustment but, if the problem is a bent derailleur hanger, they don't tell you that.

If you truly have just done repairs by trial and error, rather than observation, analysys, logic and careful experimentation, then I don't see why the rubbish on the Internet would bother you. However neither www.Sheldonbrown.com nor https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help are rubbish.

Amen to that, which is why I've never bought one myself, but when the family offers, why turn it down?

Another vote for both Zinn's, Zen and the Art of Road Bicycle Maintenance, (kudos on ordering it already,) and the Park Tool, Big Blue Book of Bicycle Maintenance. I keep both handy to my work bench, and have a few others in my bookshelf for reference, as well.

Bill

The problems mentioned above are solved with Barnett's Manual. I can personally attest to the excellence of this manual. I've owned a few others, including some that have been mentioned here and, IMO, Barnett's is head and shoulders above the rest. From the website:

"Barnett's Manual DX is simply the most comprehensive resource ever published for bicycle mechanics. Digital publication enables us to publish new editions that correspond to every new equipment model year, whereas the discontinued print version could only be updated about once every three to four years."

With unlimited downloads for life!

https://www.bbinstitute.com/the-barnett-manual

The best basic bicycle repair book I ever have read was "Glenns's complete bicycle manual" It is very out of date unless there have been revisions over the 30 years since I bought it. It has been superseded by information freely available on many internet sites, updated on an almost daily basis. I would not waste money on any book on bicycle maintenance today
Bicycle repair is about knowing the various requirements of the component suppliers used by various bike companies, which can change from year to year. No book can address that