I've found the parktool.com site helpful

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

Agreed - Park Tools has some great content on Youtube. So does GCN

YouTube is better than a manual.

and again park tools website. It is 100% all you will ever need* and not specific to their tools
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To be honest I think I just 'figured it out' mainly, as bikes are incredibly simple things that rely on tension making things happen. Tension in the top of the chain drives the cassette. Tension in the cable pulls the mechs. Tension in a the upper spokes keeps the wheel hub dropping down. And tension in the springs moves the mechs back. There's not a lot on a bike that works in compression, so if you realise that things 'pull' and not 'push' that should get you on the right track.

Almost all issues arise as something has lost tension.

And the adjustments you need to make are to set the limit of how far things can move. Biggest mistake I think people make is moving the limit screws on mechs in the hope it will address an issue of cables strectching and losing tension. Once you've set the limit screws on install, you should never need to touch them again - something else is wrong and you are trying to make two wrongs make a right.


*ok, so I also used shaldonbrown to teach me wheelbuilding. To date no source of information has ever allowed me to work out the black magic required to tape bars in a way that looks even and stays on. A personal failing and disability.

Just specifically on your comment about adjusting derailers. If you've been riding for a while and the shifting was fine, but now is getting noisy / starting to mis-shift into a gear that is smaller than what you want, it suggests the cable is stretching which is an early warning it's reaching it's limit and so you need to start thinking of replacing (an easy task, 10 mins). If you sort the issue now with a retension, then in another 1000km it'll probably be stretched again and then you are into the realm of it snapping mid ride.

On the other hand if this was a new bike, then some stretching in first 500km is normal. And re-tensioning is the right thing to do.

There is a small barrel adjuster at the back of the rear mech - you want to rotate that anti-clockwise 1/2 turn at a time to add tension. As per my above post, don't touch the limit screw adjusters unless it's a new install.

yes, I have messed with the barrel adjusters with pretty good results. The bike in question at the moment is a lower end cyclocross, going on 9 yrs old, that probably needs new cables as it shifts sluggishly, if at all. I figured this would be a good one to "practice" on.

Ah, a youngster of a bike ;-) My cyclo-cross was initially used as a daily commuter and ran up 30,000+ miles before I replaced it on commute duties and it's now back to it's initial purpose, for my (very) occasional cyclo-cross forays, and more often to ride with the 'new' gravel bike craze. Which I swear is just what I was doing 35 years ago - riding my old steel road bike on any old road / gravel / bridleway. Although I note I wasn't wearing head to toe rapha/castelli gear and spent more time riding and less time debating tyre pressures.;-)

One thing to watch out for is that cyclo cross bikes often have different cable routing to allow shouldering of the bike, so your front mech may be slightly different, or have a less common pull direction.

Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance

Since you mention books - I also love having a paper manual even over a video many times - and other mention Park Tool videos, there is the Park Tool Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair from Calvin in the PT videos.

Haven’t bought it but it looks good, and I am going with either this or the Zinn book mentioned above.

While you’re on maintenance books, might as well add Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance if that’s not on your shelf :)

Nice thing about Zinn is that he breaks it down into simple, small, easy to manage "how tos". This was the book that really first gave me confidence of doing anything on my bike other than changing a tire. And as new editions have come out I've gotten rid of some very dirty old editions consulted while I was working on something.

And Pirsig's book has been a favorite for decades!

Forget the book, seriously.

The books get rapidly outdated now, and you can easily find much more specific information for your particularly bike and type of repair on youtube or the internet that it's the way to go. The park tool website beats the pants off any book out there.

I overhauled my whole tribike, including new cockpit, drivetrain, brakes with youtube. Not gonna lie, it was a lot harder than people crow about here, and I def didn't save any money (def lost money all things considered if you count the number of life hours I spent troubleshooting things!) But if you're really committed to tri for the long haul, it's a worthwhile thing to at least learn given how busy bike shops get.

I'm def not one of the mechanical engineers here though - I definitely would NOT say with any faith that my repairs are better than the LBS. In fact, I can guarantee that mine will be worse!!

Lastly, several forumites here will tell you you need like no tools and minimal know how to fix your bike. I actually agree with this for the most part, but as a noob, if you're self-learning, that's less likely to be the case depending on what you are doing. I had to buy a bunch of extra parts and tools just to find the right ones for my bike, took an annoying amount of trial and error that a LBS would have done instantly.

A very common and debilitating disability many of us suffer from.

+1

You can go to Youtube for their videos as well.

IMO videos add more clarity than books, and stay up-to-date.

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I have this book and his tri bike maintenance one as well. Both are awesome. Easy to follow yet super detailed. He even goes all the way to emergency road repair, including covering sharp areas around the tubes with a PowerBar wrapper, or packing the tire with grass. He teaches not just how to do repair and maintenance, but how to do them with finesse.

I have also printed out stuff from Park Tools before I got these books.

My opinion having used Zinn, is that I personally would NOT recommend it. Youtube and the web was farrr more specific for particular repairs to MY bike, and Zinn was too general. I thought the Zinn would be helpful as a garage reference, but it was so limited compared to the web that I just got my internet into my garage and set my laptop up there when I needed references.

Didn't use my Zinn for the entire time I had it, then literally threw at it away as it was literally useless compared to the internet for me.

Videos are of course better over most specific tasks when ready to actually perform, but it's nice to have a background of how all the basics work in a manual, or read a ton on Park. I always read about car/bike repair first, then find a few good video to watch to see more specifically what I read about. You can read a lot faster than a video can explain, so you can learn a bunch of the basics first from reading.

I really like Zinn's books in general, but consider:

• The latest version is the 5th edition, which tells you how hard it is to keep this information up-to-date.
• The latest version was published in 2016, which tells you how likely it's outdated

Yeah, but that's been true since as long as Zinn has been publishing, yet his books have always been relevant and useful. I realize it sometimes seems like bikes are changing fast but bike makers haven't split the atom in the past 4 years. Zinn is a great starting point, for a general understanding of what to do. It was never meant to be a reference guide. I always consult the manufacturer's manuals for a specific part regardless of when it was made

There's a pretty decent mobile app called - imaginatively - "Bike Repair".

When I was starting out this helped me a lot. Tasks are categorized nicely and there are some really helpful images. If you need to know which way to turn your barrel adjuster to bring the derailleur inwards or outwards, and which screws are for L and H stop, and what the hell the B screw is for, this is your puppy.

Also a nice feature, if you let it know your location it taps into weather data and will recommend what kit to ride out in for the conditions.

Worth a look.

Cheers, Rich.

Park Tools Big Blue Book and their videos. Sometimes the book is all I need, sometimes I need both book and videos together. I feel the book helps me understand a bit why something may have gone wrong and the function of parts, as opposed to just straight copying the video without my brain engaged.