What, you thought I was done?
- Zinn & the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance – There are three bicycle books listed here, in order of recommendation. The first two are very good and cover almost everything, but they’re illustrated with b&w photos or line art….useful, but not perfect. The third book isnt as detailed, although still a very good book, but is lavishly illustrated with color photos to show how things are done. If you’re on a tight budget, get the Zinn book, if you can spend a bit more get the Haynes book as well. I’d recommend all three if you can afford it…with these three you should be able to build a bicycle out of nothing but a pile of junked parts.
- The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance & Repair: For Road & Mountain Bikes – Extremely detailed. Like aMerck Manual for bikes.
- The Bicycle Book (Haynes Automotive Repair Manual Series) – Excellent photos and great details about the specialized tools needed. The book is a bit simpler than the other two, but is an excellent companion to them.
- Cottage Water Systems: An Out-of-the-City Guide to Pumps, Plumbing, Water Purification, and Privies - A well-illustrated but basic text on how water systems work…heavy on explanation but not very heavy on how-to. Worth reading before you start trying to dam up the creek and bring water to your BOL.
- The Home Water Supply: How to Find, Filter, Store, and Conserve It - Much more intensive than the previous book. This one goes into greater detail about interior plumbing and other things not covered in the previous book. Definitely a better choice for it’s overall completeness, but not as well illustrated and not as easy to understand.
- The New Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systems – Includes Branched Drains – Very crunchy…reminds me of a bunch of articles clipped out of Mother Earth News. But, if you can ignore the hippy feel to it, this is a good source of information, with diagrams, on how to dispose of greywater in a manner that isn’t wasteful and winds up saving youw ater in the long run.
I must say, its kind of a pain to pull books off the shelf, look ‘em up on Amazon, link ‘em, put ‘em back, etc. I think I might have to do this in a more orderly fashion..five books, once a week or something…………
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve been thinking about getting a bike book or two even though I’m not someone who bikes much.
Steelheart
Zinn’s books are quite good. I’m not all that mechanical and they’ve helped me keep my bikes on the road.
I realize it is a pain to do this sort of thing, so thanks for taking the time. Most of what you have posted so far are already in our library, but you have listed some that are not and really should be. I appreciate the effort.