Customer Reviews

Barnett's Manual: Analysis and Procedures for Bicycle Mechanics (4 Vol. Set)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The most detailed book on bicycle repair I have ever seen. Even though it is written for professionals, the detailed step-by-stem procedures leave nothing to assumption. All procedures are covered by detailed worksheets which you are encouraged to photocopy and use as a guide through the repair. The illustrations are great. Details, worksheets, and illustrations make this book very user friendly, even though it's target audience appears to be professionals.

At over 1000 pages (grease-resistant), a binding format that separates this massive book into four easy-to-handle volumes (and allows you to transfer the pages to a ring-binder, if preferred), every little detail the novice needs, all the advanced information the experienced mechanic wants, quick-find chapter dividers, and comprehensive coverage of all parts of the bike and all technologies are just some of the features that make this manual the bicycle tool you can't do without.

More than a thousand computer-generated illustrations with phenomenal detail and clarity are used. More than ever, words and pictures are used together to optimize and simplify understanding.

There are recommendations and procedures for numerous new tools introduced since 2000.

Almost 200 additional forks and shocks covered in their new release fifth edition (available on their website. Look for BBinstitute or Barnett Bicycle Institute using Google). Dozens of new disc brakes covered. Integrated headsets now covered. Expanded coverage of Campagnolo products. Procedures for servicing newer models of pedals and cartridge-bearing hubs added. Wheel-building procedures for low-spoke-count and paired-spoke wheels. Procedures in every chapter have been refined and expanded.

Best there is out there for sure. Great investment. Not a waiste of money !

Don't waste your money on those paperbacks that clutter the sports sections of Barnes & Noble and Borders.
The Nashbar & Performance Bike offerings are just as inadequate.
By the time you've spent $10-$20 each on 2 or 3 of those anecdotal "manuals" with their "fits all" diagrams,
you can almost pay
the Amazon discounted price for this...........
.........THE REAL THING.

This is the BICYCLE REPAIR/MAINTENCE BIBLE!!!

Expensive? Think again!
With the average mid price bicycle hovering around $800.00, and the better road bikes at $1,500.00 (and up)this book (AND THE PROPER TOOLS) will pay for themselves.

Why fool around with other so called "bicycle repair" books which cover little more than chain cleaning/cable adjustments??

The vast amount of small bike shops closing their doors & the remaining "Bicycle Superstores", who employ a new "mechanic" each week-Barnett's Manual will save your hair & scratches on your frame!
Barnett's Manual will guide you through basic tune up proceedures/adjustments to keep your bike in top shape.

YOU ARE NOT A "HANDS-ON" TYPE" PERSON??
You STILL need this manual! The knowlage gained from Barnett's Manual will keen your eye to the "Mechanic" while he is repairing your bike!!

ONE SIZE FITS ALL-IN DEPTH!!!
ANY NOVICE can gain a thorough mechanical understanding of bicycle components, repairs, tune-up, & adjustments.

ADVANCED!
Simple tasks like the "correct" proceedure to mount a tire/tube right up to bottom bracket/headshell facing & complete suspension fork rebuilds are covered!

HOWEVER! With the hundreds of makes, models, mid-year changes in spec'd equipment-not to mention modern bicycle technology which changes faster than dish TV programing, DON'T EXPECT EVERY MAKE, MODEL, YEAR of every bike/component to be covered.

Providing you have the bicycle specific tools required, Barnett's Manual will complete your toolbox.

PLEASE!
Buy it from Amazon-Nice people! Nice Prices!

Barnett's is easy to love. Its beautiful, elaborate technical line drawings on every page elevate the manual nearly to coffee table status and reflect a deep love of the bicycle. Its extremely thorough step-by-step instructions leave nothing to chance. It presents interesting, sometimes nonstandard service or assembly procedures that work well. The philosophy of detail, logic, measurement, and consistent methods in my view go to the heart of effective bicycle service and bring rigor and professionalism to the bicycle mechanic's trade. Honestly, there are few things I'd rather do on a weekend afternoon than sit down and rebuild a brake caliper or hub or other bike part, Simple Green and clean grease and paper towels everywhere, with a volume of Barnett's on the floor opened to the correct grease-resistant page.

But the style can be a bit much. Barnett's is written in an almost robotic style that can get difficult to read. The formal structure - the vocabulary grouped all at the beginning of each section, many procedures broken into over fifty steps - at times seems suited more for computer than human being. For example, Barnett's lengthy and technical wheelbuilding instructions verge on incomprehensible, whereas Sheldon Brown's free online instructions are shorter, more heuristic and colloquial, and ultimately far easier to use. The irony is that Barnett's best explanations, buried in these huge checklists and stilted subsections, are often just as colloquial as anything in the literature.

A more serious complaint is Barnett's incomplete selection of topics. One expects a modicum of completeness from an expensive four-volume set aimed at professional shop mechanics. Several reviewers have complained that Barnett's is out-of-date in its lack of treatment of low-spoke-count wheels and other new technologies. As a bit of a retro grouch, the lack of the newest fads doesn't bother me much. But I would argue that backwards compatibility is at least as important and is sorely neglected here. The 212-page thirty-eighth chapter on overhauling suspension forks and rear shocks consumes most of the fourth volume even though not all bikes - not even all mountain bikes - have suspensions. After admirably concise distillations of diverse service prodcedures in the previous chapters, that chapter miserably misses the forest for the trees. And after that expenditure of paper, not even a page is dedicated to overhauling internal-gear hubs or working on fixed-gear drivetrains even though such bicycles have a large place in the cycling landscape.

At the end, though, I'm thankful for my copy. Barnett's has details and mundane procedures not covered elsewhere, and it is much easier to get out one's wrenches and get greasy with Barnett's than with a computer screen. At the time of this review, it's hard to find a hard copy of Barnett's; I can only hope that the book returns to print soon.

No other bicycle repair manual goes into the level of detail that the Barnett Manuel does. The manual provides trouble shooting tips, torque specifications, exploded diagrams and tool recommendations for every repair possible on a bicycle. The target audience for this manual is the bike shop or the enthusiast that wants to do everything on a bike themselves.

The manual consists of four volumes:

Volume 1
Introduction
Frames
Forks
Bearings

Volume 2
Wheels
Tires
Drive trains

Volume 3
Handlebars
Seats
Shifting systems
Brakes

Volume 4
Suspension
Appendix

The 5th Edition is the last printed version. This edition will provide everything you need to repair any bicycle except for some of the newer technologies such as the 2007 and newer Campagnolo Ultra Torque crank sets and some of the newest mountain bike suspensions. These newer technologies are covered in the CD version of the manual. The CD also has more photos but only of the newer technologies. All of the other photos and line drawings in the CD are the same as the print version.

Highly recommended if you want do all everything on the bike yourself.

This guide covers all the basic and most advanced bicycle repair procedures. Graphics are instructive and clear. As opposed to other manuals it includes good trouble shooting and diagnostic sections. It includes indications, symptoms, maintenance cycles, tools, tool usage, complications, checklists, different types of parts--their specification and dimensions--and it goes on. The only irksome aspect is that after buying the latest print edition I was prompted to buy, at a similar price, the expanded DVD with the latest components. This is not fair.

This set of manuals provides detailed instructions for how to perform maintenance on your bike. I used this manual for instructions on how to build wheels and successfully built my first wheelset. The step-by-step instructions are easy to follow. If that is what you are looking for, you will not be disappointed.

It's what I expected, but not what I had hoped it would be. If you never worked with a bicycle before, and want to be a good bicycle mechanic, it's well worth it. If you have some experience with bike repair over the years, it may just reinforce what you already know in many areas. But it is the bible of bike repair.

Very impressive. Unfortunately, I can't give it 5 stars because of the price, and the fact that it's a bit dated. Something like this should be on a subscription system, as new parts/procedures come out, pay a small fee and get the new/updated content.