Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
Scunnered
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Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Scunnered »

Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance - is this book any good?
Is it current?
What level does it cover - full strip down and rebuild?
Why "Art"?

thanks
Samuel D
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Samuel D »

Scunnered wrote:Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance - is this book any good?

I have an old edition. It’s thorough and probably more correct than the typical maintenance book, but it is thorough with words rather than pictures. There are plenty of pictures, but not as many as some readers may expect today. I prefer it this way, incidentally.

Scunnered wrote:What level does it cover - full strip down and rebuild?

Pretty much, yes.

Scunnered wrote:Why "Art"?

Artistic licence. It’s presumably a play on the book title, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, even though that book is of an entirely different nature.
Brucey
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Brucey »

interestingly I have long thought that many books on bicycle maintenance might benefit from a longer discourse on the concepts of 'quality' in relation to maintenance.

In particular with a 100% adjustable machine like a traditional bicycle, 'quality' is not always bought, it is more often made by careful setup and maintenance.

cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
scottg
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by scottg »

I use the road version, covers newish parts. It won't help you with Sturmey or old pull chain derailleurs.
The wheel building section is quite good. Zinn updates it every couple years, give your old one to
interested new rider.
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Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG
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steady eddy
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by steady eddy »

Great book - "Art" as in the practice of a skill. See The New Collins Compact English Dictionary - or any similar publication.
brooksby
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by brooksby »

"Art" = "skill/talent" in this context. And of course zen and the art of mm was itself a play on "Zen in the art of archery" (eugen herrigel, IIRC)
Samuel D
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Samuel D »

By “artistic licence” I was only referring to Zinn’s play on words with his surname and Zen, not the contents of his book.

I wasn’t aware the motorcycle/quality book took its title from an archery/philosophy book before it.

I trust Scunnered is pleased with all these answers concentrating on art!
Scunnered
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Scunnered »

Samuel D wrote:I trust Scunnered is pleased with all these answers concentrating on art!

:lol:
To my way of thinking, art has little application to mechanics!
nirakaro
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by nirakaro »

The word has a wide range of meanings.
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Sweep
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Sweep »

The Park Big Blue Book of Bicycle Maintenance is far superior in my opinion.

The only book you need.

Very to the point, written for practicality tools in hand rather than being a "good read" picture book.

The pics are functional and all the better for it.
Sweep
Samuel D
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Samuel D »

Here’s a spread from Zinn’s book (in this case my old edition from 2000).

Image

Click to read.

I did have to flip a few pages – not many – to find a spread with no pictures whatsoever.

Some people prefer an arrow on a line drawing to show the 12 mm that the star-fangled nut should be below the top of the steerer tube. Do you? I think words do the job more economically and often more precisely, so I prefer Zinn’s approach.

Any mechanically minded cyclist should have a copy of Zinn’s book, whether or not they have others. He’s part of the landscape!
tempsperdu
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by tempsperdu »

I have Zinn MTB version and (don't laugh) Haynes The Bike Book.
I more often than not find Haynes better than Zinn but not as good as YouTube.
I think if I had to choose a book it would probably be Park.
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kylecycler
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by kylecycler »

Sweep wrote:The Park Big Blue Book of Bicycle Maintenance is far superior in my opinion.

The only book you need.

Very to the point, written for practicality tools in hand rather than being a "good read" picture book.

The pics are functional and all the better for it.

Sweep, do you reckon you're better off reading from the book than from the Park Tools website or YouTube videos? Perfectly willing to believe you are - I go back as far as this (although I was only in my teens at the time):

201386322009_1 (2).jpg

Anyone else remember that? It was like my bible for a while.
RodT
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by RodT »

Well, I looked at the sample from Zinn and was alarmed to see that he recommends replacing handlebars and stem every four years.
I know some cyclists who replace their knees more frequently than that.
My hard-ridden Cinelli is seven years old. New bars and stem for Christmas, then?
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Sweep
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Re: Zinn Road Bike Maintenance - any good?

Post by Sweep »

RodT wrote:Well, I looked at the sample from Zinn and was alarmed to see that he recommends replacing handlebars and stem every four years.
I know some cyclists who replace their knees more frequently than that.
My hard-ridden Cinelli is seven years old. New bars and stem for Christmas, then?


Cripes. Any more gems in there?

I've got stems and bars still in service after 20 years.
Sweep
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