UKC

I need to save me pennies and do my own work on my road bike, anyone bought a good all round manual recently?

In reply to eccyamigo: zin and the art of road bike maintenance

In reply to eccyamigo:

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help

I agree...

In reply to eccyamigo: +1 for zinn

In reply to eccyamigo:

Modern road bikes are really pretty simple to service if you've got the right tools - park tools are good but very expenisve, icetoolz are a much cheaper (and very good) option. I'd either buy their tool kit: http://www.highonbikes.com/icetoolz-essence-road-bike-mtb-complete-tool-kit...

or buy the single tools you need to complete that set depending on what you've got already, and then just set aside a weekend to strip it completely, give it a thorough clean/grease and rebuild. Anything that's not obvious, youtube is your friend, and once you've done it the once, you'll never need to visit the bike mechanic for anything other than truing a wheel again.

The other thing you might want to get is a cable cutter - don't buy expensive shimano cable sets just get a few meters of unbranded gear and brake cable outers and a set of cable inners from your local bike shop - shouldn't cost more than a few quid and I can't say I notice the difference.

In reply to eccyamigo:

If you want a real book to compliment the online offering then Park Tool "Big blue book of bicycle repair" is good.

In reply to eccyamigo:

Save your pennies, and use youtube.

In reply to eccyamigo:

Personally I'm not that impressed by "Zinn and the ..." though a lot of people rate it, horses for courses I suppose. The Park Tools book and on-line videos are good.

Regarding tools: I'd get the best you can afford (though it's easy to spend lots of money) in roughly this order:

Set of Allen (hex) keys
Flat and Phillips screwdrivers
Adjustable spanner
Chain tool and chain wrench
Cable cutters
Pedal spanner
Cassette removal tool
BB tool (Leyzyne do a combined external BB and cassette tool for Shimano parts)
Bike Stand

Add to this things like degreaser, lubes and rags/cloths and you are good for 90% of the jobs you are likely to do. There's probably one or two other things as well that I can't remember at the moment.

If you need to true a wheel then you can use the forks/rear drop-outs as a substitute stand - if it's badly out then a wheel stand will make things a lot easier.

After that lot you are getting in to the realms of jobs that you may do on a yearly or less basis so you've the choice of either using your LBS or splashing the cash but as an example, the cheapest headset press is about £70, the good one is £250. You can make your own using threaded bar and large washers.

ALC

In reply to eccyamigo: youtube.

In reply to eccyamigo: Sheldon! What a hero he was.

In reply to eccyamigo: http://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/index.html

In reply to higherclimbingwales: Youtube vids can be annoying cause they always choose the very able mechanic with the charisma of an apathetic slug, put him in a dark room and let him waffle for about four (fckng) hours before he cracks on with showing you how to do the work (using this tool, which im going to talk about for another half an hour, which can be ordered from us, or any good bicycle repair shop, quite cheaply, doesnt matter which brand you go for but we find these ones to be quite useful, blah blah blah...)

In reply to eccyamigo: manuals and youtube are no substitute for skill and "feel" for the job. you are heading for a world of hurt.

In reply to eccyamigo: I have the Hayes Mannual which has helped me out alot over the years. Very good on t the step by steps.

In reply to unclesamsauntibess: This is also very true. Whenever I need things like the rear mech set up with new cables, I let the guy in the LBS do it for £5 and whilst I wait, I admire my unscuffed knuckles and in-tact sanity*
(*Its all relative)

In reply to eccyamigo:

If you want a book, then Zinn is very good, but there's no real substitute for experience and playing. It's also the case, that there are some things that are probably not worth doing yourself, unless you have particular interest and want to have a mechanical "play" (also legitimate, by the way!). There are some jobs that require good, expensive tools, for jobs that you will only rarely do - from a value for money perspective, it's often best to get these done at a bike shop, unless you're going to derive specific enjoyment from doing it yourself.

Tim

In reply to unclesamsauntibess:

Perhaps if you have no mechanical aptitude, but if you're the sort of person who's used to doing a bit of home DIY and what have you, it should be very easy to service a modern bike via youtube.