Good books about bikes to buy??????

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Ok alot of you know alot about bikes, and I'm needing to learn . I dont think the knowledge is bestowed on you at birth ,so there must have been books yall got to learn this information. Would someone please tell me what are the best ones to buy and where to buy them. I see alot online and in differant places so I need a headsup on this before I waste money on books that are not helpful. Thanks :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
Here's what I use......

"Glenn's Complete Bicycle Manual" by Clarence W. Coles and Harold T. Glenn (check alibris.com for used book)

"The Haynes Bicycle Book" by Bob Henderson (check alibris.com)

"The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair for Road and Mountain Bikes" by Todd Downs (amazon, eBay or alibris.com

"Bicycle Repair Step-by-Step" by Rob Van Der Plas (amazon.com)

"Atomic Zombie's Bicycle Builder's Bonanza" by Brad Graham & Kathy McGowan (amazon.com)

Online........Sheldon Brown's site with Harris Cyclery. Park Tool has some good maintenance pages.

For the older bikes -- you really need to find a copy of Glenn's. Mine was written in 1973. Lots of old cruiser stuff in it and wonderful explanations and instruction for tearing down and putting back together.

Enjoy your quest for knowledge....have a good one!
 
Yeah I already know how to build them in my sleep ...What I'm looking for is which books to buy so that I can tell one 30's or 40's bike from another. I know I'm becoming a pain to those who know and I want to be able to do it myself.
 
I have found "Collectable Elgin - J.C. Higgins Hawthorn Bicycles" to be a great resource. It is black and white catalog reprints of balloon tire bikes sold by Sears and Wards from the mid 1930's to 1960. I think it is still available at thecabe.com.

Volumes 1 and II of "Evolution of the Bicycle" are also good, but a lot of the dating is incorrect in those. And the pricing is a joke. The guy that put the books together just asked people to send photos of their bikes with information as to model, year, etc. and value. As you can imagine some people think their bikes are priceless. But the books have enough good info to make them worth while owning in my opinion.
 
I agree with Gordon, the Elgin/JC Higgins/Hawthorne book is the one I turn to most. Scott at the Cabe sells the ones that are still in print. There are also a series from NBJ, aka Newsletter By John, one of the earliest classic bike resources. There's an "Introduction to Classic Bicycles" which has a lot of good info. Then, there's the Monark book, Colson book, Shelby Book, and the Dayton/Huffman book! These are all spiral bound, with photocopies of original ads, and some color pix of original and restored bikes. These all sell for $35 each, shipped, which ain't cheap, but neither is the information! Scott and Classic Bicycle news have recently come out with a Rollfast/Snyder book, and a Columbia/Westfield(prewar) book, and they're EXCELLENT! Much higher print quality. There are several "real" books about vintage bikes, like The American Bicycle, and several Schwinn books. I bought most of mine used on alibris, MUCH cheaper!!! The Evolution books have some sweet bikes to look at, but as Crassly said, there's a LOT of misinformation there. I wouldn't count on it as a reference. (Things like "1949 Schwinn Tornado" when they weren't introduced til late '57...) I had to have all the info I could get me hands on, including copies of American Bicyclist from the 40s and 50s, though lately prices on ebay for those are silly. I'm NOT paying $70 for a MAGAZINE, even if it's from the 30s! LOTS of good ads, and manufacturer info, like when new models were introduced. Lastly, I picked up a big box of old bike newsletters from 1989-96, the pre-internet era! This was how I became a Zen master of Vintage bikes!! :mrgreen: ~Adam
 
my first and favorite book was "anybody's bike book", from like the 70's or late 80's. i started with that and then just kept checking out every older bike book my libarary had at the time. hmmm... maybe thats why i know so much about 3speeds, coaster brakes and such and so little about v brakes, auto shifters or suspension forks.
 
'Bicycle: The History' by David V. Herlihy is a great resource book that goes through the complete history of how bicycles were invented, from the Velocipede right up until the modern day. This is more geared towards the turn of the century but is a great read anyway.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=VDlaT0K ... #PPA435,M1
 
My all time favorite bike book is "The Big Book of Vintage Bicycle Hubs". What a reference! No good for bicycle styling differences, but an awesome hub work how to guide.
 
B607 said:
I'd tell you a good Schwinn book for prewar stuff but I doubt you'd need it. :mrgreen: Gary

i'll bite...what's the best schwinn id book :?:
 
Its funny I was looking at used books and they were all about $7 or $8 and then they had a couple used Schwinn books $189...$194.I figured it was normal because everything esle about Schwinn is overpriced. Saw a guy on the Cabe trying to sell a bentup rusty fenderd pos Schwinn Black whatever they call them for $600 . It was a $75 bike. unbelievable.
 

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