Sutherland's Handbook for Bicycle Mechanics [Ring-bound]

Howard Sutherland (Author)

Product Details

• Ring-bound: 613 pages
• Publisher: Sutherland Pubns; 6 edition (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 091457809X
• ISBN-13: 978-0914578093
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 12 x 3.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,432,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sutherland's is The Standard!, April 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sutherland's Handbook for Bicycle Mechanics (Ring-bound)

Most bike shops have a copy of Sutherland's -- and with good reason: it contains a huge amount of useful information. The scope is mostly reference tables, diagnostics, gotchas, and hints. For example, Sutherland's lists bolt circle diameters and subtle variations for most brands of cranks and chainrings; it also describes how to diagnose various problems with poor shifting, skipping, and so on. Sutherland's is not a how-to manual, nor an engineering guide like "Bicycles and Tricycles" or "The Bicycle Wheel". Nor will it substitute for one of them. However, there is nothing that will substitute for Sutherland's! If you work on bicycles a lot, you will find lots of information to help you do it right and do it quickly. If you work on custom bikes (mixed parts), unusual bikes (parts with odd construction or dimensions) or old bikes (hard-to-find and unfamiliar) parts, you will find it especially useful. You will also enjoy this book if you simply enjoy bike part trivia -- a Swiss bottom bracket has the same thread pitch and diameter as a French bottom bracket, but with the right cup thread reversed. True or false? The answer is in Sutherland's, and is easy to find. Sutherland's contains 25 years of specifications, experience and hints, collected from many sources ranging from manufacturers to folks who service bikes every day. It has lots of time-tested tips on "how to deal with hard problems", frame damage, compatibility, part substitutions, and so on. Each new edition has lots of updates for recent changes in the bike biz. Sutherland's is both authoratative and practical. Sutherland's is well-thought-out right down to the construction -- a binder so it opens flat, you can spread out the pages you need right now, and the pages are heavy paper coated to make them grease-resistant. Sutherland's does not compete with any other book or guide, it is alone. Sutherland's _is_ the standard.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacking updates, February 16, 2011

By 

Guitar Nut (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sutherland's Handbook for Bicycle Mechanics (Hardcover)

Being a senior rider and have built countless bikes, this book was required reading. I had purchased my own copy (3D Edition) years ago and the only thing that bothers me is that this well written, spiral-bound text wasn't planned out well enough to allow shops and mechanics to simply order the yearly up-dates as new mechanical systems are are added to our bicycles. No one really needs 10 copies with a 90% redundancy. If you're new to bike building this book is a must with all the exploded views and tolerances. Just realize you will need another one every few years as technology advances.