Customer Reviews:
 Decent, but best for rank novices June 26, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought this book and the Zinn book at the same time. Both books have good illustrations, but this book is much less detailed and helpful. It is VERY basic and leaves out detail needed to really tune anything to any extent.
Having said that, this book does a fair job of showing how to do routine maintanence/repairs. It spends time describing things that should be obvious at a gance, while leaving out detail you need to fix something, however. So, it would seem to be aimed at the rank novice, with 2 left thumbs--above a "Dummies" book, but not by a whole lot, IMHO.
Zinn's book is more detailed, and offers a more comprehensive tour of subjects than this book. It can be used by the novice, but aims at those who have some basic understanding of what is right before their eyes--bike or tool.
However, if you are a gear-head, you probably won't be happy with less than Barnett's painfully exhaustive 4 volume set--which is likely overly detailed for anyone short of a professional shop-set.
Anyway, if I had to do again I would have bought the Zinn book and skipped this one.
Easy to understand & well written. June 18, 2008
This is a good book for the beginner; it has a lot of drawings, pictures to help you understand different styles of bikes and the parts that make them a bike.
I found that it had a little too much on the older bikes but perhaps this is good as I have taken a real liking to bicycles and hope to build my own this winter; Todd does not waste words, the book is well written and precise; it is nice to have when learning as it does provide a good understanding of how bikes parts work together to make a bicycle.
It does have all but the latest shifters and such; in reality bikes are made of many brands and models of parts making it impossible for any single book to have all you need to know about all bikes; for the latest specifications most bike component manufactures have web sites where you can download your model of derailleur, fork for the manufactures specifications.
I gave this 4 stars because of the dated information the negative and 4 for the positive comprehensive coverage of so many possible items he coverers so well.
This is a good book for the beginner, gives a comprehensive illustrated example of how bikes work.
Hooty
 Almost all you need. June 4, 2008
I have this title and one other and after starting out for the first time last year, I have overhauled my bikes, three neighbor's 20 year old bikes, two from people I work with and both of my brother's bikes. A little common sense and a set of Park tools and one other very popular book will cover most of what you need. This book has more illustrations and describes most procedures twice, is brief and in detail. No wonder it is the number one seller.
Excellent bike service book March 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got this book about two years ago when I bought my first serious road bike. Whether you are serious biker or just have a few kids bikes in the garage, this is a truly excellent piece of work. Starting with the basics of bicycle maintenance, it proceeds to review every major (and minor) component of the bike (road and mountain), and then discuss them from a trouble shooting point of view, followed by step-by-step photos of whatever it is you want to do. Wrench in one hand, book in the other (a bike stand helps) I have replaced/adjusted/cleaned derailleurs, brakes, gear cassettes, etc. with nothing but this book. Just did a major spring overhaul last weekend. A clean well-lubricated drive train and shifting mechanism is such a nice thing. You kind of forget between cleanings. You still need to get some special tools at your local bike store, but this tells you which ones and why.
you never knew how easy it was March 21, 2008
this book rocks. I never knew how easy it is to do most repairs on my bike. I have successfully straighted both my wheels (with the purchase of a 8$ tool) and finally got my rear derailer to go into low gear and centered my back break so it would not kick out more to one side. Super easy (well the wheel straighting takes some fine adjustments, but it's by no means complicated) and a super satisfying feeling to fix it yourself. Book is ez to read w/ clear descriptions and well organized. if your thinking about it at all get this book.
|
