Customer Reviews

Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a good book for the repair of bicycles. However, the writing tends to be sparse and direct. While this in its self is not bad, often more writing can help a less experienced reader in better conceptually understanding how the thing works. On the plus side, you will never have to guess which park tool to use as the author references each tool by name and part number.

As another reviewer mentioned, I feel that the Bicycling Mag/Todd Downs book is a better value. Downs has a casual writing style that makes the reading easy. He covers much more information including some history and the pros and cons of different types of conponets. This book includes both photos and drawings, while the Park book only uses photos. Drawings are a plus and they show views (sections or cut-a-ways) that are difficult to achieve using only photos.

I guess the best way to summarize the difference is to say that the Bicycling book is produced by a publishing company staffed with editors and artists. Their sole business is publishing, so they are experts in written communication. Park is a tool company and their manual reads as though it was written by people who make and use tools, i.e. machinists. That's not bad, it just results in a different style of book.

For me, I preferred the Bicycling book as I enjoyed the extra information. Both books seemed good on the technical info...

I purchased this book aswell as Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair and although this book is o.k. the Bicycling magazine's one has more detailed information and is far less expensive. For the money and the reputation I really wanted this one to be better but alas it wasn't.

Prior to reading this book I knew absolutely nothing about the maintenance & repair of bicycles but as I just purchased a decent MTB I needed some sort of guide. Within an hour reading this book I discovered that my chain was too long, the rear derailleur housing cable was too short, my linear pull breaks were out of kilter and my front derailleur required some lateral adjustment - and this is a brand new bike!!

I found the book to read more like a novel than a technical manual and could not put it down. It is extremely well written, the examples are beautifully photographed and I would highly recommend this book to anybody who owns a bike in fact I would go as far as to say you can not do without this book. Even a complete novice like me now feels confident enough to carry out the above adjustments myself and lets face it some people might not want to trust their brand new pride of joy to some local bike shop that charges like a wounded bull.

As I get to feel more comfortable with doing my own maintenance and repairs this book will pay for itself over and over. Calvin Jones would have to be the authority on bicycle mechanics.

Highly recommended

It seems like eons since such a comprehensive bicycle maintenance guide has been available for the DIY er. In the meantime technology has changed like never before.

Calvin's guide not only includes all the stuff DIY ers are struggling with today like chain and derailleur technology and of course disc brakes, but also a few we are yet to experience like cartridge wheel bearings. You may ask how he squeezed so much into 223 pages, all the servicing details for a wide range of makes and models, with lots of really clear pictures; plus a few for the more advanced mechanics, e.g. facing the fork crown race. To achive all this, the guide meshes with parktool.com and of course the various Park Tools, complete with their reference numbers.

Next time you are weighing up whether to send your bicycle in for repair or DIY, grab a copy of BBB-1, it might just change the way you think.

I bought this book to better understand my own bicycle and how to repair it. Not being a professional and being only a sometime rider, and also being one who likes to do his own work, I needed a book that would tell me what I needed to know. This book exceeded my expectations as it also shows the tools I need and how to use them. Very basic material but it doesn't pre-suppose and unlimited knowledge of bicycle mechanics as some articles and magazines do. Well worth the price.

This book is well illustrated, very straightforward, and easy to read with step-by-step instructions. I highly recommend it as a reference for all serious cyclists and anyone wanting to do their own bicycle maintenance & repair. This concise book deserves a place in all bicycle repair shops.

WP Fleming
Santa Fe Bikes & Gallery
Santa Fe, New Mexico

For decades, bicycle repair manuals repeated the same kind of general instructions for maintaining and repairing the bearings and mechanisms of the bicycle. Over the past 20 years, new mechanisms and materials used in bicycles now require more attention to torque settings and other adjustments, some of which are brand-specific. This new book strikes a data-packed balance between the general advice and the details relevant to modern bicycles for home bicycle mechanics. It doesn't read like a novel to me, though; it's top-notch technical writing!

This book is a strong showing for a book that was published by a bike tool company -- a first effort, apparently.

However, it needs an index.

Haynes, which has a bike book along with its auto books, generally has pathetic indexes (very sparse), but at least they sometimes work for the reader.

Let the next edition of the Park book benefit from a strong index!

Over 223 pages, (the only glossy paper is the front cover and the back
one), PARK has properly organized into different chapters, differnet
repair work required on the generic bicycle.

The main purpose of this book, is its assistance in determining
which tool is appropriate for any given job. In addition, it
provides the possibility of of the reader buying it online, since
the book provides the exact part # for that Park Tool, from various
online bike webstores, through amazon, perhaps.

As a learning document, for various repairs, the material is relatively
thin, as the various steps in doing any given repair are missing,
just the initial and / or perhaps the final outcome of the repair work,
for example.

A lot of time went into the thinking of the book, organizing it by
theme, into chapters, taking photos, so the overall work took more
effort than it appears from just flipping through the pages.

Overall, it's a great marketing device and sales reference for
the cyclist at large to decide what tool he needs to buy, for any
given repair. But, to learn how to actually do the repairs, other
books are preferable than this one - although the tools to do those
repairs, obviously, will need to be acquired in one way or another,
regardless which book is read to do the repair work on your bike.

FYI, there a 2008 edition avialable in LBS at this writing, August 19th. You might find it superior to the 2005 version sold here at this time.