I have ridden bikes off and on for 54-years and mostly I have enjoyed cycling but I have never thought of myself as a cyclist。 I have never raced a bicycle， and only recently have participated in the occasional ‘fun ride’ and ‘bunch riding’。 The epitome of my cycling career was in the early 1980s while living in England where Suzanne and I started commuting and touring with matching Raleighs and then Suzanne bought an Alex Moulton AM7， an eye catching bike if there ever was one， and I was gifted I have ridden bikes off and on for 54-years and mostly I have enjoyed cycling but I have never thought of myself as a cyclist。 I have never raced a bicycle， and only recently have participated in the occasional ‘fun ride’ and ‘bunch riding’。 The epitome of my cycling career was in the early 1980s while living in England where Suzanne and I started commuting and touring with matching Raleighs and then Suzanne bought an Alex Moulton AM7， an eye catching bike if there ever was one， and I was gifted a Mercian from Suzanne's cousin Laura which I was still riding 28-years later。 Circumstances then meant I had to learn how to maintain the bikes and my source of information was Richard’s Bicycle Book， subtitled a manual of bicycle maintenance and enjoyment。 Having recently resumed my enjoyment with cycling I have been slowly familiarizing myself again with bike maintenance and came across this magnificent tome The Total Bike Maintenance Book and immediately began comparing it with its 1979 predecessor。 Apart from one being A5 sized pages， small print and hand-drawn sketches for illustrations and the other being A4 size with each topic laid out per page and high quality photographs for illustrations， I use the page-69 assessment to compare the two 'bibles' of bicycle maintenance。Page-69 of Richard’s Bicycle Book is concluding a section on tricycles and commencing a section on quadricycles， whereas The Total Bike Maintenance Book has a section on ‘Shortening chain to singlespeed’ and a side-bar called Magic Moment: “I can’t remember seeing many emergency bicycle repairs in movies， but I can recommend the ziptie repair from Two Seconds。 The film is about a woman downhiller who quits racing。 She packs up her bike and sets off to build a new life， but when she tries to put her bike back together， she finds she’s lost the smallest sprocket from her cassette。 I’m not sure why she had to take her cassette off her wheel to ship it， but after some pondering she replaces the missing sprocket with a ziptie。 The ziptie neatly holds the other sprockets in place， allowing her to refit the lockring。 In a short scene that must have been highly appreciated by a small section of the audience， she carefully readjusts the high end-stop screw to prevent the chain from shifting onto the missing sprocket。 Top movie， and full marks for imaginative use of zipties。” How can any bike repair book compete with this Magic Moment？ How about Richard’s Bicycle Book’s advice on dealing with dogs: “If the dog attacks: one defence is the aerosol pepper sprays 。 。 。 A water pistol with a water-ammonia solution will also work 。 。 。If you have neither of these and can’t or won’t climb a tree get a stick or large rock。 No？ The bicycle pump。 Try to ram it down his throat。 In any event， don’t cower or cover up， because the dog will chew you to ribbons。 Attack。 Any small dog can simply be hoisted up by the legs and his brains dashed out。 With a big dog you are fighting for your life。 If you are weaponless try to tangle him up in your bike and then strangle him。 Kicks to the genitals and which break ribs are effective。 If you have got a pump or a stick， hold it at both ends and offer it up to the dog horizontally。 Often the dog will bite the stick/pump and hang on。 Immediately lift the dog up and deliver a very solid kick to the genitals。 Follow up with breaking the dog’s ribs or crushing its head with a rock。 If worst comes to worst， ram your entire arm down his throat。 He will choke and die。 Better your arm than your throat。” Needless to say The Total Bike Maintenance Book does not provide advice on dealing with dogs and zipties hadn't been invented when Richard’s Bicycle Book was written！Zipties versus bike pump？ I will never leave home （on my bike） without them both！CJHD05-Sep-13 。。。more