Bloomsbury Pocket road bike maintenance

Pocket Road Bike Maintenance is a simply written, easy to use guide to achievable home road bike repairs.

When publishers commission cycling maintenance books they need to know their target readership well enough to get the tone, the content and the ease of use just right.

That's not as easy as it seems. Too simplistic and a book will seem patronising and condescending to those who think they know it all but often don't.

Too complex and it'll put off everyone else.

The good news is that this one seems to achieve exactly the right balance of tone and content. As a bonus, the tough cover and ring bound format means it's fairly robust and it's easy to lay flat on a workshop bench.

The content covers pretty much everything that an average DIY home bicycle mechanic is going to attempt, but stops short of the stuff that's often better left for a trained shop professional, like complete wheel building.

Easy to follow step by step guides cover simple fitting, adjustment and repairs to all the most common items, including drivetrains from Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo.

There's even a basic guide to electronic shifting, although this is brief to the point of assuming prior knowledge or assuming that retro-fitting and fine tuning will initially be carried out by someone else.

The many press fit bottom bracket variations are similarly, and probably wisely, left to the DIY imagination while simpler tasks like replacing chainrings, greasing bearings or fitting handlebar tape properly are well covered with useful photos.

That may be making this book sound more simplistic than it really is.

It's a comprehensive guide divided into 10 chapters and 128 pages covering road bike types, tools, cleaning, wheels, tyres, gears, drivetrains, brakes, contact points, headsets and tips for roadside repairs.

The level of detail hits just the right note, the photos are generally clear and the price is very reasonable compared to some of the bigger, and often more comprehensive, books on offer.

Best of all, it's nearly bang up to date in terms of road bike technology. I say 'nearly' because the bike technology market is changing at a rate that makes it impossible for a maintenance book to cover everything.

Presumably the next edition will cover disc brakes, wireless gear shifting and tubeless tyres.

Meanwhile, this is a great DIY guide for new road riders or for those who've been riding for a while but no longer want to rely on someone else to do their simpler home or roadside fixes.

Verdict

Simply written, easy to use guide to achievable home road bike repairs; tone and content is spot-on for the typical home mechanic.