Product Description

This new edition of the best-selling Bicycle Repair Manual covers the latest cycling information needed to keep your bike in top shape-from the basics of bike parts and set up, to cleaning and maintenance for mechanics, transmission, suspension, and brakes. Clear, jargon-free text accompanied by detailed step-by-step photographs show beginners all they need to know and experts how to maintain their bikes for specific needs, while troubleshooting charts and servicing schedules help diagnose and solve any problem. The Bicycle Repair Manual is the most comprehensive guide to the essentials of bicycle maintenance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #645372 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

From School Library Journal
YA-A well-illustrated guide for the repair and maintenance of all types of bicycles, with understandable instructions, including monthly and annual service guides, emergency repairs, and a trouble-shooting chart.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This follow-up to the authors' beautiful Richards' Ultimate Bicycle Book ( LJ 4/1/92) has the same visual impact. Not for those with no familiarity with bicycles or tools, it can be used to great advantage as a quick reference by those with some prior knowledge. Repairs are divided into chapters covering brakes, wheels and tires, transmissions, bearings, and routine maintenance chores. The explanations for mechanical processes are excellent, with many sections employing photographs or illustrations to detail the repair steps. Although it is not as detailed as Tom Cuthbertson's Anybody's Bike Book (Peter Smith Pubs., 1988), the working photos and illustrations are much better. In fact, these two books can serve most libraries' needs for bicycle repair guides.
- Lisa J. Cochenet, Winfield P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Once automobile owners could reasonably expect to be capable of simple maintenance and repair of their cars. With the advent of onboard computers and the constant updating of (and tinkering with) car design at all stages of automotive engineering, those days are largely past. Bicycle owners, on the other hand, may smugly rejoice that with this book to assist them, they can still perform routine maintenance and repairs on their transportational vehicles. The little manual's clear, concise writing and informative color pictures add up to easily read, useful guidance for the aspiring home bike mechanic. Ballantine and Grant cover both routine and preventive maintenance, providing a handy troubleshooting chart, monthly and annual service charts, and a glossary to abet those endeavors. Especially interesting is the emergency-repairs section that suggests replacement components a cyclist might be forced to employ in the field; this section alone is probably worth the price of the book, and what's more, the accompanying photograph--featuring a "bandaged seat" and tires reinflated with grass and leaves--would be a fine poster for a bicycle workshop (a mite small herein, though). Mike Tribby

Customer Reviews

Essential Information for Greater Biking Enjoyment!
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.

great pictures and proceedures, lacking in new features
The book is well thought out, well illustrated, and very entertaining for all levels of bike enthusiasists. It did not cover A-heads or V-brakes showing little about anything out in the last 5 years. For an overall view of bike repair it is wonderful, for a techinical manual on new equipment and their repair is is seriously lacking.

This one worked for me.
I have looked at just about every bike repair/maintenance book out there. I don't like any of them. Either they are too vague and basically are advertisements for professional repairs or they are outdated even in the latest editions. Or, worse yet, expensive advertisements for tools and gimicks. The Bicycle Repair Manual is really all anybody needs. If you need much more than this then you are repairing junk which should be replaced. This manual allowed me, in the space of just a few hours, to go from knowing nothing about derailleurs to completely removing, reinstalling, and perfectly adjusting the gear system on an old bike I bought at a garage sale for a few bucks. It now operates better than some I could spend a couple of hundred times as much on. And all because of this book. I cannot think of a better recommendation to give a book of this kind. The only thing it lacks is wheel building, gear tables, and information on fancy mods.