Starter books/web sites/bike repair/etc.?

[joxur223]

Anyone have a good book or books to recommend for a newbie getting into mountain biking? I think I'm getting the actual trail riding down (I follow a mostly "fall, bleed and get back on the bike" strategy) but I really have no clue how the bike works, especially the shocks, derailleurs, how to change a flat tire, etc.

So does anyone have any recommended reading? I'd really love something practical that I can use to help me figure all this bike repair stuff out

-ed

[seenvic]

Look for maintenance books by a guy named Zinn.

Mountain Bike by William Neely is great for learning a few things about riding. A cartoon approach, but it is effective.

[terryg]

Sheldon Browns Web Site has a lot of stuff from riding to repairs to how things work:

www.sheldonbrown.com/home.html

[Angela]

As far as riding I have found that trying to always ride with riders who are better than you are makes you push yourself more and you learn a lot from watching them and asking questions.....

As far as bike repair I personally really like the parktool.com website.........go there and click on the left button under repair help.

They have great pictures and very detailed directions including the level of difficulty to do the repair...........now admittedly I have never actually followed any of those directions (I basically just make sure my mechanic is amply compensated and has plenty of Park Tools to do the work with) but I've heard others say they are easy to follow.