I just bought "Zinn and the art of road bike maintenance" for my new road bike. While reading the book, Zinn discusses having his mountain bike maintenance book for additional info (which kind of pisses me off). I have a 1993 GT RTS-2 mountain bike that is in need of some TLC. I plan on rebuilding this bike and using it as my practice maintenance bike.

I was thinking of getting the "Zinn and the art of mountain bike maintenance" book to have for the mountain bike, but don't want to spend money on a book that has basically the same info, or is too new to cover a bike made in 1993.

Just wondering if you folks have seen both and if you think it's worth purchasing the MTB book or if I have more than enough info in the road bike book?

Thanks in advance.
Dan'o :}

That's why I won't buy either one. That's a dirty trick.

Well, I don't have any road bikes, so I bought the mountain bike version and I'm quite happy with my purchase. Perhaps your local library or bookstore has the mountain bike version so you can take a look before thinking about buying. Amazon offers the "Look inside" preview for the book, too.

I don't know if its a dirty trick, but I'd expect his MB book to cover nearly all the history in mountain bikes. The road book does, at least the first edition does.

I have a hybrid as well as a road bike. What a quandary.

This.

https://www.cityofwoodland.org/gov/de...ry/default.asp

Looks like they have a videodisc of Zinn/mtn bike, but no book. Maybe they can get one from somewhere else though.

I think it's pretty fair that a book with "ROAD Bike Maintenance" in the title does not cover mountain bikes.

I bought both books and they're fairly similar, just basic differences between the two typical bikes...not a big deal. If you have both types of bikes you might find both useful, might not, but it's been years since I looked at both the same day. If you feel "cheated" because you wanted one or the other but not both, I have no idea what would make you happy.

Then WHY in the ROAD bike maintenance book does it discuss that if you want more information about an area of your ROAD bike should you buy the MOUNTAIN bike book? HUMMM?

DURR!

Because there's more to know than just road bikes?

How'ze about suggesting to Zinn he combine the two books into ONE book? Or he could leave it as 2 books - AND an optional COMBINED book. Which would need to be somewhat less expensive than the 2 single editions.

Write your own and market it? Tough enough in the bike biz without dealing with how to make convenient demands come true...don't believe they were released simultaneously, but not sure.

I believe the MTB book is from 2001 and the road book is 2005.

Not familiar with the Zinn books but I can see where items that are rare on road bikes but common on MTBs could be covered in one book and not the other. Examples would be disc, cantilever or V brakes. They are all common on MTBs but much less so on what most regard as road bikes.

The trouble is that with the proliferation of cyclocross and commuter bikes these are becoming commoner on pavement bikes. About the only items mostly exclusive to MTBs any more are suspension forks and rear shocks, and even suspension front forks are now on some so called hybrid or commuter bikes.

IMO too much marriage and melding of parts from MTBs to some types of pavement bikes to try and have separate books that differentiate the way the Zinn books try to. The only road bike type with minimal MTB influence is the pure high performance road bike.

Here is offered a 1998 version for under $5 (including shipping)

https://search.half.ebay.com/zinn-mou...ke_W0QQmZbooks

I work in publishing. Part of my job is to help authors design books. I'd like to offer some perspective here.

There are many reasons to split a topic such a bike maintenance into separate books aimed at road bikes, mountain bikes, triathlon bikes. Regardless of content, the market might demand books aimed at specific types of bike. There is also less risk in publishing smaller titles that can be revised more nimbly and quickly, and with less risk of author-burnout than a larger, one-size-fits-all tome.

I looked at Zinn's publication history. Here's my educated guess as to how things developed:

1) He published a book on Mountain Bike Maintenance, and it was a success.

2) Either he or his publisher wanted to build on that success by targeting road riders. Do they mess with a successful book like Mountain Bike Maintenance by dropping it in favor of something new called just Bike Maintenance?

3) No! They leave the successful book alone, and produce a new book to target the road bike market.

Now the publisher has two books. They each have a title and cover-image appealing to their specific market. Each can be updated independently of the other. Each can be updated far more quickly than could a single, combined book. Author and publisher can react more nimbly as bicycling technology develops and changes.

It sounds like the OP was working on a mountain-bike. It thus seems reasonable for Zinn to recommend his book on Mountain Bike Maintenance.

The road bike book covered ALL the above, but according to the Zinn store they are different books. At this point I just went and ordered it to have. It wasn't too expensive and if there's some info he kept only in one book then I guess I need to have it. Probably a BUNCH of cross over, but oh well. Ain't the first time I bought something to get only one or two different things over similar that I've purchased.

The mtn bike version was last issued in 2005, while the road bike version has a new 2009 edition, supporting JG's theory.

Just as an FYI update, I got the Mountain Bike book today, and the while there is some basic cross-over info, the book has a ton of different info definitely geared toward mountain bikes and hybrids, so I believe it was worth the purchase. Don't know about other books about mechanics, but the Zinn book was recommended by this forum and they seem to be pretty darn good. Much better info than the Park Tools Big Blue Book.