Book recommendations for learning how to build up a bike

[Stephanie A.]

As I continue to change things on my current bike, I've realize that what I really want is a book that helps me understand building up and maintaining a bike. YouTube videos and helpful websites are great. I'm so thankful that they exist. But my brain craves a single, cohesively written text I can easily read through and turn to when I'm thinking about changing shifters, selecting different drivetrain parts, understanding geometry, taking apart bikes, wiring, and making adjustments. I really only see myself dealing with non-fixie commuters and touring bikes.

I found a book online called How to Build a Bike (in a Weekend) by Alan Anderson with illustrations by Lee John Phillips. Has anyone used this? Does anyone have other suggestions?

[Franklyn Wu]

The first bike I built by myself was my first Rivendell--the Romulus. I remember going over to Riv to collect the frameset and the parts. At the time I mainly relied on Park Tools' website. Later, I got these two books from a garage sale and used them as I became a more proficient amateur mechanic. I don't use them anymore as now I look up tips online when i have a more obscure issue to deal with or a new technology to learn (like when I got my first disc brake bike two years ago).

If you want I can mail you these books as a start!

Franklyn

Berkeley, CA

[Will M]

Stephanie,

There is also Jenni Gwiazdowski's (2017) How to Build a Bike: A Simple Guide to Making Your Own Ride, but I have not read it.  On repairs, I have Tom Cuthbertson's (1998) Anybody's Bike Book: A Comprehensive Manual of Bike Repairs but find it lacking (intended for the novice).  When I built up my Rambouillet from scratch, I found Sheldon Brown's website plus YouTube / Park Tools websites the best resources.

Helpful?

Will M

NYC

[Eric Floden]

A few years ago I found a very nice book by an English cyclist who visited several manufacturers (Chris King? Phil?) as he sought to asemble bits for his upcoming build. Can I remember it? Nope...

Will go through my library listing later today in hopes I can find it

[Eric Floden]

Found it. Hey' it's over 10 years old!

It's All About the Bike

the Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels

Penn, Rob

The bicycle is one of mankind's greatest inventions - the most efficient self-powered means of transportation ever invented. Robert Penn has ridden one most days of his adult life. In his late-20s, he pedalled 40,000kms around the world. He's in the middle of a long love affair with the bicycle. Yet, like cyclists everywhere, the utilitarian bike he currently owns doesn't even hint at this devotion. Penn needs a new bike, a bike that reflects how he feels when he's riding it - like an ordinary man touching the gods.

So Penn has designed and built his dream bike. He's got an artisan in Stoke to hand-build a bespoke frame; he's travelled to San Francisco for the perfect wheel, from Padua to Provence to find the perfect components - parts that set the standard in reliability, craftsmanship and beauty. En route, he tells the stories of the science, history and culture of bicycles, extracting pertinent and quirky stories - the role of the bicycle in women's liberation, the marvel of the tangent-spoked wheel, the quasi-religious admiration for Fausto Coppi in Italy - that explain why we ride, and why this simple machine remains central to humanity in the 21st century.

[Eric Marth]

Hi Stephanie — This isn't a book, just a few pages from an old Rivendell Reader, but worthwhile. 

"One way to assemble a bike." 

http://www.cyclofiend.com/Images/pdf/RR28_bikeassembly.pdf

[Bill Schairer]

Thanks for this, I just ordered a copy on abebooks for less than $5, including shipping!  How can I lose?  Looked like there were plenty of copies available.

Bill S

San Diego

[Paul Clifton]

My experience with bike mechanic books is that they all say the same stuff, but in different ways, with different styles of illustrations or photographs, and in varying degrees of detail. It might be worth a trip to the library to flip through a few of them and see what jives with your experience and preferences.

The one I used as a kid was called something like "How to fix your bicycle" and it just confused me (and my dad who is a competent mechanic). So definitely skim anything you can before you buy it.

The content I would really want in a book is tips and tricks, like how to hold everything just right to get the cable tension for my brakes perfect and what parts are compatible with other parts (like using a 9 speed chain on 8 speed cassettes, or using Shimano road shifters with mountain derailers). I don't know of a book that has that stuff, but I bet there is one out there that does.

Paul in AR

[Mackenzy Albright]

Not to discourage books. I love books. Just an FYI I am a really really really big fan of the Sheldon Brown website. Every time. i need to do a thing to my bike that I cant remember how to do it i just type whatever I need and sheldon brown.  like "chain length sheldon brown"  problem solved. 

I love that every write up is well written. builds in problem solving and issues based DIY compatibility options instead of assuming group sets and new parts. etc. 

I wish somebody would just compile the sheldon brown website into a hardcover book. ISOLA PRESS. After jobst brant - here is your next project! 

[Scott Luly]

Mackenzy:

DITTO...

Until just the other day I didn't know he passed away in 2008, RIP.

The site is remarkably helpful for tips, DIY, and trivia things like cog spacing...haha.

Outside of Service Instructions it's my go to resource. Crazy the number of topics that are covered. And, as you say, he wrote well such that his guidance is easy reading.

Scott

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[Stephanie A.]

Thank you so much for all that you have shared. 

Okay...I'll try to get by with all of the online resources you've shared and search through the libraries around me first.

[Will M]

Hi again, Stephanie.  Did you see that Igor Shteynbuk at Velo Orange has posed part 1 (of 4) in a video series building up a rando bike from scratch?  Not a book, but useful?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUdpmiCokTc  

[Stephanie A.]

Yes! When I got the email announcing the series I knew I'd have to follow it.