Mountain Bike Maintenance: The Illustrated Manual

Rating:
Summary: As Good As It Gets!
Review: A lifelong cyclist and part time bike mechanic who works in a bookstore in the off season(not Amazon) I get to read a fair number of books pertaining to bicycling and bike repair. Short and sweet, this book stands heads and shoulders and feet and knees above all the rest! Far more than the usual collection of turn this screw, push this cable, variety of bike repair tips, this book gives equal ink to the all important "Whys" that other books completely omit.

My Dad, a highly skilled mechanical engineer, used to say that the problem with most manuals is that the step by step instructions they provide are worse than useless if anything falls outside the norm. Tell someone how to do a job, he would say, and he's sunk as soon as a single variable changes.

Allwood clearly belongs to my Dad's camp and this wonderful book is full of details on why things are built a certain way, how they should function, how to tell when they are not functioning properly, etc. As a result, while it is not impossible to find oneself lost in a Lost World while attempting a repair, nine times out of ten Allwood provides enough detail to get one out of any jam.

In addition, there is a great deal of ink devoted to design details. The section on shocks is almost good enough to serve as a mini-course for engineers new to the field, for instance.

As with all books, there are some areas that could be improved. The section on adjusting derailleurs, for instance, seemed needlessly complex with the excess detail serving to confuse rather than clarify. Had I been the editor, this section would have gotten a rewrite.

That said, most other sections of the book are clearly written, well illustrated, and entertainingly presented. In short, this is the only repair manual I have ever read cover to cover simply because it was too damn good to put down.

Five stars and a cheer to boot! And lets hope Allwood has another book in the works!

Rating:
Summary: A virtual bible of explicit, user-friendly details
Review: If there's only one at-home reference needed for your mountain bike's maintenance, make it Mel Allwood's Mountain Bike Maintenance: The Illustrated Manual, a virtual bible of explicit, user-friendly details on the care of any mountain bike. Allwood's an expert mountain bike mechanic, but explains that these bikes are surprisingly simple in design, and easy to work on. Chapters detail minor adjustments ranging from brakes to `transmission', cable-cleaning and chains and speeds, and include plenty of black and white and color photos for clear detail throughout. Highly recommended.