Customer Reviews

The Bicycle Book (Haynes Automotive Repair Manual Series)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You can learn a lot watching bike mechanics "operate". You can learn what tools to use, and how to apply them, and what pieces fall out when you take something apart. But who has time to hang around a bike shop? Wouldn't it be nice to have a book that shows you what to expect, and how to deal with it? This is it, in Technicolor glory.

Every page of this book has clear color photos showing exactly what to do. The book is broken down by chapters for the various mechanical systems of the bicycle. Each chapter goes through the various technologies in use. (Example: five kinds of brakes.) Each one is ripped apart and put back together with you. Each chapter has a section on what tools you will need (and recommendations on saving money).

Haynes is famous for automobile and motorcycle repair books, and this is even better than those: All photos are in color, the steps are broken down and illustrated clearly, with the use of tools shown explicitly. (This is not always the case with the automotive books, which assume a certain proficiency with mechanic's tools.) Very nicely done. I hope they update it periodically as bicycle technology evolves.

This informative manual is geared towards early 90's bike technology and quite frankly misses the majority of today's advanced components. However, the publication is well written, easy to understand, and properly illistrated. I would recommend this Haynes Repair Manual for beginner bike mechanics working with yesterday's technology.

This is a great instructional book for bicycle maintenance. It is written so that a novice in bicycle repair can understand the procedures. There is a chapter on how to disassemble and repair each aspect of your bicycle in detailed form. The book covers all different types of components on both road and mountain bikes. The instructions are easy to follow. The pictures are clear, and one can easily see what the authors are talking about. As a necessity, specialized bicycle tools are required to do many of the more complex manipulations. Each section has a troubleshooting guide, and chapter three is nothing but a troubleshooting guide. This book makes a great reference manual and will enhance one's basic knowledge of bicycle mechanics.

The best book for bike repair and maintenace I've ever had. Good, clear text and photos made it easy for me to understnad what to do and why. It enabled me to completely overhaul my bike last winter, and now it rides great! Don't leave home without this one. It's the biker's best tool.

I have a 1999 mountain bike that I love and want to maintain. This book is perfect! All of the problems that i've encountered have been addressed in the book, even though there's little information about "Y" frame suspensions. Each chapter on repair has a quick reference diagnosis chart. Before buying, I compared this book to the other top ranked repair books at the store, and this one was much easier to understand and use because of the clear way it's written and illustrated. If you don't already know much about bike repair, but love your bike, this book is for you!

This book is a very good book for the hands on first time at home bike mechanic. The color pictures really make a difference in understanding the individual parts of each system. The explainations of how the each system works and how to maintain and repair is clear and consice. I would recommend this book to anybody.

This is a great bike maintenace book for beginners. The photos and directions are very easy to follow. The techniques they describe are not fancy and do not require expensive tools. For more complex jobs, they tell you to visit your bike shop, which is probably what a beginner should be doing. Intermediate-to-advanced home mechanics should look at the Zinn or Park books instead.

I have the Big Blue Book and Chris Sidwell's book and in my opinion this is the best. With all the pictures and step by step instructions,it is easy to understand. Buy it. You will be glad you did!

Clearly, HAYNES having published 1,000's of home-repair
automobile mechanics on 100's of different model cars,
it was time for them to make some extra cash, and do a book
on bicycle repair, too! Having seen the automobile books, they
do come in handy for cars built back in the 80's and some in
the 90's, but increasingly, home repair has become next to
impossible as cars become electronic gadgets and computerized
in all aspects, and I'm not referring to remote car starters,
or even GPS systems or boomerang anti-theft tracking devices,
either.

Specifically, in regards to this book, it has a lot of glossy
color photos, but only average desktop publishing skills in
arranging text, and photos. It's practical, for sure, and is not
introductory, either.

Part of this book, reminds me of PARK TOOL's school manual they
give out after their quick weekend-course on bicycle
maintenance, in the sense that dozens of different specialized
tools are seen in the pictures, that the home mechanic will not
have, obviously, and considering they're specialized tools, with
low sales volume, are probably very costly to acquire from PARK
themselves, or through your LBS.

The final conclusion on this book, is that it's definitely worth
the price, if you're interested at all, in maintaining a bike,
doing work on it, and repairs. I'm not referring to high-end
bikes, MTB's or road costing $1000's of dollars, but your low-
end, mass-marketed and sold bikes costing $200, for example.

It has walk-thru's, color pictures, diagrams, explanations,
lists tools you need to do the work to repair so-and-so
situation, is sturdy, and almost 200 pages.

You don't want to spend eighty to two hundred dollars on bicycle upkeep for your high speed Schwinn? You hate the fact that the slightest bump in the road puts your Specialized mountain bike on the rack at the local mechanic? If you have the capability to turn a wrench and have a stand to work on your bicycle in your garage, pay attention to the information in this manual, it will help save you both road time aggravation and save some of those dollars for your Starbucks latte later. Haynes manuals, in my experience with my cars, is not quite a Chiltons but can be very good for the do it yourself kind of person who does not want to read all of the text and can get what they need from the pictures alone. One caveat, some of the photos will not give you the most perfect view and you will have had to have some experience with bicycle repairs previously to really appreciate this book. The big thing is to take your time with your repair or rebuild or upgrade, keep the manual nearby for reference, and don't let the occasional side blurb about the dynamics of a process throw you. This is a manual for a better experienced cyclist who can change out their tire as fast as the riders and crews at the Giro d' Italia but really would rather tweak a few things and hit the trails.