Jonathan Vaughters

Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance

4 stars (new edition coming out soon) - This book was one of the best in 2000, but is now a little dated. Watch out for a new edition in late 2005, which should have improved coverage for recent hardware. 5 stars (Zen-like as the title implies) - The key to this book is its attitude which can't be better. This is an all positive upbeat book full of valuable information - assuming you have interest in the topic. I believe that all people can do many fix it tasks if they approach these tasks with a cool, positive mindset. This book parallels my thoughts and if you follow along, you will also find that you can do anything on your bicycle right up to building your own custom starting from a frameset. When reading about this book, I was skeptical about the illustraions in lieu of photographs, but now that I've used the book, I think the author very wise to have taken this approach. A good illustrator can bring out subtle aspects of the topic which would be lost in the clutter of a photograph. The only folks who wouldn't benefit from this book are those who know enough already to write it. I can't recommend it highly enough for the rest of us. 5 stars (Basic anatomy for the cycle surgeon) - I found Zinn's book to be an elegantly simplified explanation of the bicycle's parts and how they work together. Rather than trying to be a comprehensive reference manual for the professional bike mechanic, this book focusses of skill that will be helpful to the rider. For example, it gives you periodic maintainence routines to help you prevent breakdowns and keep your bike running smoothly. The book is further broken down into chapters that deal with the different functions your bike performs; shifting, braking, drivetrain and the like. Though I mostly use this as a reference manual, in order to make specific adjustments and repairs, I find that is teaching me a lot about how the bike functions as a whole. As a person who is new to the sport, the book has greatly increase...
VeloPress :: Sports & Recreation :: Sports :: Reference :: Maintenance and repair :: Cycling - General :: Bicycles :: Todd Telander :: Lennard Zinn :: Jonathan Vaughters :: :: Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance