When you are looking for the best bicycle maintenance books, you need something that speaks your language. If you are a beginner you are looking for something that does not have all the technical jargon that you will not be able to follow. We review the best bike repair books available on the market.
Bike Repair Books Review
Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance
This book along with Zinn & The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance are the best bicycle maintenance books. They are comprehensive enough for the advanced home mechanic, but written in a way that is beginner friendly.
As the title suggests this does not cover mountain bikes nor hybrids, so if you have one make sure to get that version listed below.
Zinn & The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance
This mountain bike repair book is a must have. It has everything you will need in it, from bike set-up to drivetrains.
It is well written and very thorough. The Zinn collection has plenty of pictures to describe each step of the process in enough detail so you won’t be left guessing what that step was to fix your bike.
The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance & Repair: For Road & Mountain Bikes
The benefit to this repair book over the Zinn collection is that it is an all in one repair book that covers road bikes as well as mountain bikes.
This book speaks very well to the beginner mechanic and has very detailed explanations in their step by step guides. This book has been revised 6 separate times to constantly update the information to keep it current and relevant.
With nearly 500 pictures and drawings you won’t be baffled.
PARK TOOL Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair
As with the other repair books, this one is also comprehensive with great pictures. One of the downsides to this book is that it is the most expensive.
This repair book is not as geared to the beginner mechanic and can be quite a dry read. It does not make the information any less valuable, it just happens to make it a little more difficult to digest.
Bike Repair and Maintenance For Dummies
This bicycle repair book is definitely geared towards the beginner mechanic. If you are looking for a laugh while learning to repair your bike then this could be the book for you. On the other hand, the tone is so humorous that it may irritate you.
Additionally, it is not a complete guide to fixing all the problems on a bike, it is more of a summary of things you should do.
This book assumes this is the first time you have touched a bike, so it is definitely not a book for more experienced mechanics.
Bicycle Maintenance Books Summary
No matter how many new technologies come out and upgrades there are, the main parts of the bike remain the same. There are constant additions to new editions, but the core of the books stay the same.
If you are looking for less expensive options than the books provided, you can always check youtube. The only problem is you never know if you are going to get good quality advice, and it can take time to find the best video for your purposes.