LENN ARD ZINN ZINN & THE ART OF t1DUNTAIN BIKE t1AINTENANCE ZINN & HE TD t10UNTAIN BIKE t1AINTENANCE 4th Edition LENNARD ZINN Illustrated by Todd Telander BOULDER, COLORADO Zinn & the Art ofM ountain Bike Maintenance, 4"' Edition © 2005 Lennard Zinn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or photocopy or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Distributed in the United States and Canada by Publishers Group West Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zinn, Lennard. Zinn & the art of mountain bike maintenance / Lennard Zinn ; illustrated by Todd Telander. - 4th ed. p.cm. Rev. ed of Zinn and the art of mountain bike maintenance. c1997. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-931382-59-X (paper) 1. All terrain bicycles-Maintenance and repair. I. Title: Zinn & the art of mountain bike maintenance. II. Zinn, Lennard. Zinn & the art of mountain bike maintenance. III. Title. TL430.Z56 2001 629.28'772-dc21 2001035854 VELO. VeloPress•, a division of Inside Communications, Inc. 1830 N. 55th Street Boulder, Colorado 80301-2700 USA 303/440-0601; Fax 303/444-6788; E-mail [email protected] To purchase additional copies of this book or other VeloPress books, call 800/234-8356 or visit us on the web at www.velopress.com. Cover design by Kristina Kachele Interior design and composition by Erin Johnson Cover photo by Don Karle, bike built by Lennard Zinn. To Sonny, my wife, without whose support this book could not have been }'Vritten; or at least a few more decades would have passed before it got done. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................ 1 CHAPTERS 1 Tools ...................................................................... 11 2 Basic stuff: Preride inspection, wheel removal, and general cleaning ................ 23 3 Emergency repairs: How to get home when something big breaks or you get hurt .... 3 7 4 Chains .................................................................... 53 5 Transmission: Front and rear derailleurs, cables, and shifters ....................... 67 6 Wheels: Tires, rims and spokes, hubs, cassettes, and freewheels .................... 103 7 Brakes: Cables, levers, and calipers ............................................ 135 8 Cranks and bottom brackets ................................................. 183 9 Pedals .................................................................... 203 1D Saddles and seatposts ....................................................... 221 11 Handlebars, stems, and headsets .............................................. 233 12 Wheel building ............................................................ 267 13 Forks .................................................................... 287 14 Frames ................................................................... 323 15 Cycling computers ......................................................... 345 APPENDIXES A Troubleshooting index ...................................................... 351 B Gear development ......................................................... 359 C Mountain bike fitting ....................................................... 363 D Torque table .............................................................. 3 73 E Pedal and cleat compatibility ................................................ 391 Glossary .................................................................. 395 Bibliography .............................................................. 403 illustration index .......................................................... 405 Index .................................................................... 409 About the author .......................................................... 421 A TIP OF E H My heartfelt thanks go out to Todd Telander, whose illustrations made the procedures more intelligible and beautiful; to my editors and in-house support system, Charles Pelkey and Mark Saunders, for separating the wheat from the chaff and adding more wheat when necessary; to Terry Rosen, for bugging me to write this book for so many years; to Mike Sitrin, formerly ofVeloPress, for doing the same and promising to publish the first edition when I did; to Felix Magowan and John Wilcockson of Inside Communications for their vision, financial support and encouragement; to John Muir and Robert Pirsig, for writing such great books to encour age this effort. Special thanks to Erin Johnson for making it look beautiful, and to VeloPress for the countless efforts to improve it. For technical assistance with the details, thanks to Wayne Stetina, Steve Hed, Ken Beach, and to Scott, John, and Rusty at Louisville Cyclery (Louisville, Colorado), as well as to folks at Shimano, RockShox, Manitou, Cane Creek, Hayes, Avid, ITM, 3T, Cinelli, Deda, Easton, Salsa, Mavic, Selle San Marco, Cannondale and Ritchey. Thanks go especially to Portia Masterson of Self Propulsion in Golden, Colorado, for her suggestions for the second edition and to Charlie Hancock, Sander Rigney, Doug Bradbury and Chris DiStefano for assistance with the third edition. I also want to thank my entire family for all of their support and inspiration: Emily and Sarah, my daughters, for showing me that books can be written, completed, and published at a prolific rate; Dad and Mom, for encouraging me my whole life; Rex and Steve, for their suggestions; Kai, Ron, and Dad, for being authors them selves and an inspiration to me; and Marlies, for taking the kids when I needed it. Thanks, Sarah, for proving Groucho Marx right.