Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance

Road bikes are surprisingly complex machines, but theres no need to spend excessive amounts on repairs and maintenance. The cost of a copy of "Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance" should be sufficient in most cases. This well-organized and -illustrated guide, which incorporates the latest in component technology and innovations, shows how to maintain every part of a road bike. This includes chains, derailleurs, shifters, wheels, brakes, cranks, bottom brackets, pedals, saddles, seatposts, handlebars, stems, headsets, forks, and frames -- all covered in Lennard Zinns trademark clear and concise prose. Novices and seasoned mechanics alike can benefit from the clear illustrations, exploded views of how components go together, and practical tips on how to completely and properly maintain all aspects of their road bikes to ensure hours of trouble-free riding. Zinn shows exactly when to tackle a maintenance project and when a trip to the bike shop for repair is unavoidable.

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Reviews

Zinn & the ARt of Road Bike Maintenance rating

by: on: 16-Oct 2009

Lennard Zinn takes you through your road bike to get it tuned up and in perfect working order for beginners and professional bikers alike.

Contents 25/25
Ease of Understanding/Practicality 23/25
Pictures/Illustrations 18/25
Additional Features 20/25
Total 86/100

Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance takes you from basic bike anatomy to maintaining, tuning up and troubleshooting problems. Lennard Zinn has been an award winning writer of bicycle maintenance books and has released an updated release for road bikes to keep your road machine in top condition.

With winter now upon us we can put those bikes up and get out our winter sports gear but you should not just hang that bike up on the rack and forget it. It's time to do some preventive maintenance as well as get anything you find fixed and have it ready for the next nice day.

Preventive maintenance is a term I really learned in the military and have come to respect the idea behind keeping things working and in top condition. Money spent on preventing rust and other wear and tear as well as fixing things when they are small really makes sense and saves you money.

Lennard Zinn has spent years as a bicycle frame builder, master framebuilder is the term I keep reading on the internet so he does know his bikes. He takes beginners and experienced riders through the bike anatomy, preventive maintenance and on into those complex repairs like replacing gears and crank bearings.

The Art of Road Bike Maintenance goes from simple bike anatomy and tools to doing what you need to fix and keep your bike in top shape. He explains not only the common bike parts available from stores and gives explanations for generic parts as well as those more expensive brand name parts and bikes.

Zinn goes into specific part replacement and tuning up your bike really well but he also goes into many of the special and brand name parts and systems, including Shinamo, Trek, Campagnolo, SRAM, and many more. Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance works equally well for less expensive bikes purchased at stores like Wal-mart as well as those more expensive and better made bikes like Shimano and Trek.

Each repair or tune up section has basic terms and explains in detail what you are going to do and how to do it whether it's a more expensive bike or the lesser costing ones. Each repair or tune up is broken into levels of difficulty and the book starts out with tools in each level you will need.

Some of the tools you may already have but others you will need depending on what you want to do on your bike so the book starts off with very helpful information about tools, what they do and where you can purchase them. You can also wait to purchase many of the tools until you need them but in the first two levels of repair they are mostly common tools and other things that are handy to have around a home as well as for bicycle repair.

The book goes into tools to take with on everyday riding or longer trips and explains emergency repairs you can perform to get you to your destination or to somewhere to make better repairs. They also go into helpful information for safety equipment you should wear or have when biking for various types of riding like those every day trips or longer treks.

Each level of repair and tune up gives you from basic and necessary repairs like inner tube patching or replacement and adjusting brakes to replacing bearings or other integral parts. Level one repairs are things like adjusting brakes and gears, repairing or replacing inner tubes and other common tasks associated with keeping your bike in shape.

Level two repairs are more in depth jobs like replacing crank arms and pedals while level 3 repairs are things like overhauling parts or even building your own bike from the frame up. This book not only goes into repair and troubleshooting but at level 3 you have all the knowledge and with the right tools explained in the book you can build your own bike with parts you order or purchase.

Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance is a great book that goes into such depth that you will understand and know how to repair, tune up and even build your own bike. This is one of those all in one books that goes beyond simple repairs and shows you everything you could possibly want to know about a bike and how to work on it.

The book includes an important chart with torque information for various parts as well as information on how to fit your bike when you adjust the seat, handlebars add a and even purchase a new bike. The Art of Road Bike Maintenance includes a glossary and occasional tips throughout the book to give more in depth tips from professionals about the topic they are in.

I really like this book and highly recommend Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance for a fantastic manual for repair, tuning up and maintaining your road bike.

no V-brake section, attn hybrid owners rating

by: on: 27-Sep 2009

I have a hybird bike (Trek 7.3fx) that sits a little more toward the road bike side of the Road-Mountain bike spectrum among hybrids. Because of this, I thought this road bike edition of the Zinn book was more appropriate.

Turns out I was wrong. There is no V-brake section in this version. You need the mountain bike version for that. I am now a happy owner of Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, but it would have been nice if the choice had been clearer earlier on.

For what its worth, having seen both the road and mountain versions of this book, I'd recommend the mountain bike book to hybrid bike owners. Of course this depends on the particular bike you have, but the hybrids I've seen will mostly likely be better covered in the other work. Especially if you have V-brakes, the choice for the mountain bike book is a no-brainer.

Perfect for learning about your bike... rating

by: on: 16-Sep 2009

If you ride a road bike and don't like paying the wrench at your local shop to maintain it, buy the book; it tells you how to fix what's broken and it even tells you when your probably not going to be able to fix it yourself. Also it gives you a complete list of tools that you will need that corresponds with the level of the repair. I've ridden bikes my entire life but I have only recently been fixing my bike myself. Since I bought the book I have fixed broken spokes, replaced the cogset on the rear wheel and built a single speed city cruizer. If you want to fix your bike and don't really know where to start buy this book. But be prepared to have many of the page corners covered in chain lube and citrus degreaser...Good luck you won't need much if you have this book next to your tool box.

Wow! very impressive manual on bicycle maintenance rating

by: on: 10-Sep 2009

This book is well illistrated, well organized, well written and very comprehensive. I am a bit new at bicycle maintenance, but I find this book very helpful and it looks like it will be near my bicycling supplies for a very long time.

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