Bicycle Repair Manual

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Couldn't get home without it - Rated
Full of practical advice, clearly presented and above all memorable. Got stuck out on the trail recently, but remembered some of the tips gleaned from this book, and ended up being able to contunue back home. Invaluable!

Bolt the what on where? - Rated
Spectacularly unhelpful maintenance manual. Inadequate textual deacription....pictures too small or unhelpful....terms and parts not described or explained....too much assumed knowledge....omits several important basic tasks. Surprising but sadly true as Sidwell's "Bike Book" is great.

Essential Information for Greater Biking Enjoyment! - Rated
Reading this book made me want to go out and buy new bikes for the whole family!

There's nothing quite like the pleasure of riding out of a beautiful bike showroom on a great bicycle! Yet within months, I always noticed that the feel was gone. Pretty soon, I wasn't riding as much.

Now from reading this book, I know that all bikes need regular maintenance to keep that top-performance feeling. And I know what to do. It's a wonder that my bikes and my children's bikes ran at all before reading this book!

My idea of bike repair was to patch a puncture, adjust the seat and handle bars, and get a new chain if it broke. That's about 3 percent of what you really need to know.

The book is also useful as a guide to what type of bike to buy in the first place. The pros and cons of various types of materials and structures are well developed.

For those who enjoy mastering physical tasks, this book also offers much potential pleasure. "Keeping your bike in tip-top shape is very satisfying -- and makes riding more enjoyable."

Although I am far from being a mechanical person, I could clearly do everything in the book. But I do need different tools. No problem! The book shows you just what to buy, with many choices (more kinds of bike stands than you ever knew existed, as an example). Not only that, it tells you which ones to take with you on a long touring ride. If you don't have the right tool, it shows you how to improvise with materials usually found along the side of any road. This was fascinating! In fact, the paperback is just the right size to take along on a ride, so you can figure out what to do if you bend a rim.

One of the real insights for me was to realize that all of the bearings are meant to be rebuilt once a year. And there are a lot of bearings on any bike.

Where a bike might have different types of equipment (such as for brakes and transmissions), you get descriptions of what to do with all the major types.

Many pictures show you what each part looks like, and the steps to go through for maintenance. This is the main drawback of such a compact book. Some of the images can be a little small. But I see no way around that if you are to have a truly portable guide to repair and maintenance.

Most people will decide to still get some maintenance and repair at the local bike shop. But this book can show you what's involved so you can figure out what it might cost in time and money to do the work yourself.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the Troubleshooting Chart to give you an idea from the symptom you have observed what is a likely cause, the solution, and where the information is found to implement that solution.

I suggest that you both get this book and try doing some of the maintenance. If you enjoy this, it could become a very satisfying hobby. You could also do maintenance for other people to help cover the cost of the tools. I suspect that less than 1 bike in 50 is properly maintained.

If you have children who like to learn to fix and maintain things, this could be a fun family activity. My dad was very good at such things when I was a wee lad, so good that I never learned how to fix anything. Be sure to pass along what you know and learn instead.

But whatever you do, be sure you get out and enjoy biking with loved ones! That's the ultimate payoff.

A brilliant little book that I never want to be parted from. - Rated
The minute I got this book I used it to adjust my gears and clean my headset. I do lots of cycling but I'm not too good at some of the more complex repairs - this book is 10 times better than any other bike maintenance book I've seen. It contains everything you need to know, whether you are an occasional weekend cyclist or a hardened racer. It covers all types of bikes from road bikes to mountain bikes and children's bmx's. It is packed with easy to read information on how all the parts of a bike work, how to clean, maintain and repair them. Every page contains easy to follow explanations - all accompanied by very clear pictures. It covers every level of expertise from fixing a puncture and changing a brake cable to truing a wheel and repairing suspension forks. I cannot imagine how I ever lived without it.

too high-level for its intended use - Rated
It's small, you can carry it around with you, it's got loads of nice colour photos, but unfortunately it doesn't have sufficient detail to really explain how to do much maintenance or repair at all!! I needed a real "how-to" kind of book and this is not it