Reddit reviews The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: For Road and Mountain Bikes(Expanded and Revised 5th Edition)
We found 3 Reddit comments about The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: For Road and Mountain Bikes(Expanded and Revised 5th Edition). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Get a hybrid bike. If you're in a big bikey city like Austin you can easily craigslist something. Here in New Orleans it's all $1000 triathlon bikes or Wal-Mart specials.
A lower end Trek Hybrid would be fine. Try for something with a little front suspension and index shifters (where you push a button to shift instead of twisting a grip). If you buy it new the shop will tune it for you for free, but you can get a much better deal on something used.
Bikes aren't hard to tune, a $15 book will show you how to keep it up. If you don't want to mess with it, just get something new.
Looking at the Trek's on their website, yikes. Used to be you could get all that for $350 new, now it's $600. An older Trek 7200 or something similar would be fine. My first decent bike was a Miyata Triplecross, which was a Cyclocross frame (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) built like a hybrid with flat bars and slightly larger tires. It was built in the 80's, a steel frame, and worked fantastically.
Now, I happen to think my 2000 Rans Rocket is The Jam, craigslisted for $500 very used, but easily tuned. Pedaling a recumbent is like pedaling a couch, which is nice, but short wheelbase ones like that are difficult to get used to steering. A long wheelbase recumbent like a Sun EZ would be easier to start on, and reasonably common used (a ripoff new).
Otherwise, an easy answer is get a decent mountain bike (easier to find used, anything like a Trek 3700 or Specialized Hardrock or any major brand) and replace the tires with these babies. BAM, instant hybrid, and a frame that'll last you forever. You'll need new tubes too, those are thinner than standard tires. Get a pump if you don't have one and keep the PSI up, those like to be about 80 psi, too low and you'll get pinch flats jumping curbs or hitting potholes.
If you feel like it, post what city you're in and people can suggest used craigslist bikes that seem to be good deals.
Zinn is a crazy person! Don't get that book! you want The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: For Road and Mountain Bikes
I've been using an older version of this book, and it's never let me down. It's also incredibly cheap to buy online.