goo_mason
Champion barbed-wire hurdler
- Location
- Leith, Edinburgh
'The Ultimate Guide to Bicycle Maintenance' is a glossy, 184-page softback 'mag-book' from Dennis Publishing which is immediately visually attractive to anyone harbouring a desire to tinker, fettle or service their bike. Decked out in full colour throughout with a pair of eye-catching Kona bikes on the cover, it begs to be picked up. I have to freely admit that I first saw this book by the newspapers in Tesco a few weeks before I was offered a copy for review, and after a flick through I was almost ready to pop it in my basket. The only reason I hesitated was that it was just too close to the end of the month & I had to watch my money; no impulse buys when I still had my daughter and a cat to feed! However, having had time to sit down and read the book properly I can say it's well worth every penny and I'd have been justified with the overspend had it made its way in with the milk and bread. I soon discovered that there's much more to learn, even for those who - like me - have done a maintenance course and feel pretty confident in their skills; and as someone who owns three different styles of bikes, this book is an essential addition to my maintenance kit.
The author, Guy Andrews, is a former road and MTB racer, mechanic & magazine editor (Mountain Biker International, Cycling and Rouleur) and it's clear that he's put as much thought into the style & layout of the book as he has into the advice it contains. It's laid out logically into 9 sections:
- Introduction
- Cleaning & Maintenance
- Contact Points
- The Drivetrain
- Gear Systems
- Wheels and Tyres
- Steering
- Brakes
- Suspension
The book has much to commend it; it doesn't miss the vitally important step that similar manuals usually do – setting up the bike to fit you properly. Too often a maintenance manual wants to hit the ground running and jump straight into stripping the bike down, forgetting that the single most important thing you can do to 'fix' a bike and make the ride perfect is to fit it to you. Once you've got that right, you can move on to the rest. A massive thumbs up to Guy for getting this in first.
After that, the rest of the book is yours to dip into at your leisure (or more likely at the time you need guidance on a repair, an upgrade or handy tips). Simply go to the section which covers the area of the bike you're interested in and the information's there. If there's a difference in requirements for different types of bikes, there's a separate step-by-step guide for each one. If there are differences between manufacturers' components (eg. Campagnolo, SRAM and Shimano), what to do for each manufacturer is covered separately too. Every item is detailed in numbered steps, each of which is illustrated with a colour photo so you can see exactly what's being described. It certainly beats those annoying moments in other manuals where the illustrations are selective and generally never show the details of the step you really need help with – this should help avoid the oily spots in the hair or smeared on the bald patch by the head-scratching, baffled amateur mechanic! Additionally, there's always a helpful Editor's Tip and a Know-How box, with the occasional FAQ (not always serious, eg. “Is it true that ball bearings always roll under the fridge? - Yes. Even if you don't have a fridge.”)
In summary, it's hard to find fault with this book. It covers everything from the simple puncture repair to the complexities of fitting an Aheadset and forks (with a suitable warning about the level of expertise and the cost of the tools required) in a refreshing, engaging style. It really does detail everything that the home mechanic could possibly need to know (and far more than what was covered in a maintenance course I attended for over four times the price). For £9.99 I can confidently say that this is a must-have for anyone (from utter novice to the experienced fettler) who wants to tackle their bike maintenance themselves and the resulting satisfaction of a job well-done.
'The Ultimate Guide To Bicycle Maintenance' by Guy Andrews (Dennis Publishing, 2010) is available for £9.99 from WHSmith, Tesco, Sainsbury, www.magbooks.com and www.amazon.com.
