General maintenance.

[GuardTwin]

I use to check my own bike a lot then i stopped for some stupid reason and just replaced bits here n there whiles I had my mountain bike. (Not a great idea) Now that I've had my road bike for a while I want to get back into doing the checks myself but with more knowledge on how to do it properly and not "I assume this is fine." by looking at the designs.

Can anyone recommend any useful books that explains why something may needs to be changed ( into some good detail) E.G the tire, breaks (disc breaks or normal.) the chain and maybe how to tell you're buying the right stuff for your bike.

Videos are great but sometimes i fall asleep as some are not clear or the person waffles on a little with their personal experience of "my tire was worn out and i fell off ended up under a car and had a..." which is fine for a scare tactic as most of these are "buy parts from my link" but they seem so brief. With books you can read it and if you want "skip" some bits to the part you're looking for. and keep going back to it if you need to.

 

[Licramite]

I washed the bar tape on sunday, I will brush up my generals later.

 

[GuardTwin]

haha >.< lol (Why did i find that funny?)

 

[Roadrider48]

YouTube really is good for maintenance vids. Plus, the more you do different jobs, the better you will get.
And it'll save you a fortune at the LBS.

 

[mrandmrspoves]

Zinn and the art of - series are well written, entertaining and informative. Not cheap new but have a look on www.abebooks.co.uk for reasonable priced second hand copies. Get the most recent version you can afford unless you ride a classic.

 

[maltloaf]

Park tools site is great for maint how-tos
I bought Zinn and the art of Road Bike Maintenance and it's great. £15 from Amazon or thereabouts.

 

[alicat]

+1 for the Zinn books. The illustrations and the author's dry sense of humour are top notch.

 

[solidthegreat]

Haynes bike books are available pretty cheap on Ebay and should give you what you need IMO

 

[young Ed]

experience
be that learning from others experienced hands or doing as me searching the internet and youtbe for many hours before attempting it but once done one time it is a thousand times easier the next and i am now almost confident i would completely rebuild every part of most bikes (non-suspension)
also asking on here is very good help i find
Cheers Ed

 

[Licramite]

get a proper bike tool kit and a bike stand - absolute essentials, since I got them its made fiddling with the bike as my wife puts it , so much easier.
still can't get the gears right, they work fine on test, on the road they still play up.

 

[young Ed]

get a proper bike tool kit and a bike stand - absolute essentials, since I got them its made fiddling with the bike as my wife puts it , so much easier.
still can't get the gears right, they work fine on test, on the road they still play up.

work stand is essential i will link to a good cheap one soon
and yes gears are stupid and impossible! i got so peed off with gears i went on rage and removed the gears from my old bike that i didn't use and it is now merging into a fixie!
Cheers Ed

 

[L14M]

CGN do very good vids over on youtube. I do most stuff, brakes, tyres, bar tape cleaning the chain relubeing etc. I don't play with the gears much.. Once they start getting bad I pop into the LBS as the bike gets a once over from them!
Liam

 

[ianrauk]

work stand is essential i will link to a good cheap one soon
and yes gears are stupid and impossible! i got so peed off with gears i went on rage and removed the gears from my old bike that i didn't use and it is now merging into a fixie!
Cheers Ed

No they are not. They just take a little time to learn and a little patience.

 

[young Ed]

No they are not. They just take a little time to learn and a little patience.

well i don't like them.... yet!
Cheers Ed

 

[Licramite]

Gears! - set them on the stand so you can change into any gear in any ratio
put it on the road and high ratio - it will only change from 6-4
on middle ratio - it will go down to 3 and only in granny ratio will it drop to 1 & 2. (with a struggle)
and yes on some of my local hills I only have one gear slower than granny - 1 , and thats legs2. and I use it.