I imagine it happens to every serious cyclist after a while… whether it arises from a desire to know, repair and tweak your own gear to it’s highest possible level of performance, or you’ve had one too many experiences of walking your bike home after something broke down on the trails, or you’ve simply run out of money due buying all the carbon/titanium/beryllium widgets for your prized steed and you have none left to pay for service at the LBS, everyone eventually learns how to do work on their own bike.

My conquest of knowledge of all the inner workings of my bikes has been going on now for about twenty years… I’ve slowly over time accumulated an assortment of tools and literature, but recently I’ve been making a concentrated effort to master all elements of bike maintenance… in no small part assisted by the fact that my wife and I ride everyday to work on our commuter bikes, and in our spare time bring out our expensive, tweaked mountain bikes to rip around on for fun.

I’ve been reading bike magazine articles over the years, looking on the internet, and buying books on the subject (including the fantastic “Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance”)…  but let’s be honest here… no kind of instruction compares to actually watching the process while it’s explained to you.

Shimano knows this, and has subsequently released the focus of this review:  Shimano’s DVD “Mountain Bike Maintenance and Repair”.  In it, Shimano proclaims that the DVD has “Everything you need to know to keep your bike running and adjusted like new”, a “Complete tool description and proper use as explained by a 10 year veteran of the NORBA and World Cup race circuits” and a “Chapter indexed DVD allows you to go directly to the job at hand” (WOW! Technology these days!!!)

The length of the DVD is 46 minutes and will cost you around $50AUD.

On the back, the DVD promises to cover:

• Proper cleaning of your bike
• Introduction to bike specialty tools
• Inspecting your bike
• Disc & cantiler braking systems
• Complete drivetrain system
• Front and rear derailleur adjustments
• Chain
• Headset
• Wheel truing
• Lubricating your bike
• Assembling the new XTR
• Humungous amounts of product placement (ok… I admit it, I added this one…)

Cleaning your bike section:

Matt gives just general information here that should be common sense to any avid cyclist (such as don’t put a direct spray over bearing seals/areas/etc…. ) and it was mostly about stressing caution when cleaning your rig. However, I'm always surprised at how many people with expensive bikes clean them by spraying them with direct streams from hoses, not to mention those who use high pressure washers!

Bike tools:

Well, it won’t take you very long to know who Shimano is in bed with for this video… Park Tools is given a HUGE plug in this video.

Braking system:

Mostly just emphasis on V brakes.  No mention of disc brakes at all.

Drivetrain system:

Matt spends a good deal of time here, which is great, since this is one of the areas everybody should learn well. Covered comprehensively, it makes the video worth the purchase alone!

SIS adjustment:

Mentions are made for Rapid-rise/low-normal systems and how adjustments on the derailleur are reversed for this system.  They do a good detailing about how limit-screws are used and adjusted on derailleurs, as well as how to use the barrel-adjuster to fine tune your shifting – complete with diagrams!!!

Front derailleur:

More straightforward discussion about adjusting the front derailleur and it’s limit screws.

Chain:

Interesting things… they do recommend using Shimano’s replacement pins for rejoining chains back together again (I’ve never used one of these before… I’ve always just pushed the original chain pin back into the link), but then they neglect to mention to look for the pin that’s different from the rest and to work with that.  Instead, they tell you to just work at any link you choose.  Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong all these years?
They tell you to remove the pin completely from the chain, and to use a new replacement Shimano pin when putting the chain back together.  I’ve always pushed the pin just enough so the links could be disconnected and the pin is still attached to the outside link, but whether Shimano is telling us to dispose of this pin entirely for chain strength integrity, or it’s secretly so you have to purchase more Shimano products, is arguable.  I’ve never had a problem reusing pins myself….

Headset:

Covers threadless headsets nicely (doesn’t talk about installation, but rarely does the average rider need to worry about that).
However, people with the old school threaded headsets are left out in the cold, given only a photo of a threaded headset, and a description by Matt using his hands on a theadless headset.  Given the number of threaded headsets being used by people who would buy this video, those 14 or so people should probably read a book or update their damn gear to something made within the last 10 years!

Wheel truing:

Decent description of wheel truing, however it was mostly confined to how to bring shift the entire rim over to one side or the other, with little description as to how to remove a warp in the wheel.  The technique of working in the area of the most warpage, with decreasing amounts of spoke tension adjustment radiating out from the problem area isn’t mentioned.  Possibly because it becomes to delicate or technical a procedure for a video of this coverage (aimed at basic maintenance, rather than comprehensive knowledge).

Lubes:

Mentions the use of a needle syringe, which is a great tip for small precise lube areas such as derailleurs. No mention of suspension at all in this section though... Some about cleaning and lubing suspension seals would have not gone astray.

Assembling the new XTR:

Front Drive system (FC-M960):

This is where it gets good and techy.  They talk about the outboard bearings and hollow bottom bracket installation, with step by step directions, close-ups and diagrams.  They even mention the specific name (part number and all) of the tool needed.  It’s very thorough and confidence inspiring.  They do continually talk about torque settings, but refrain from showing any torque wrenches during the video.  As well, just how do you check the torque when using a non-standard tool, such as the Shimano specific outboard bearing bottom bracket wrench?

Dual control lever:

They talk about replacing the cable on the dual shift control lever.

Disc brake system (BR-M965):

Again, a fantastic section.  Step by step, with diagrams, of how to install your disc brake system.  Attaching banjo fittings, measuring hose lengths, cutting hoses, attaching hoses to brake levers.
Bleeding is also done fantastic, with close-ups of each step of the bleeding process.  Bear in mind that this is only done for Shimano brakes, as you would imagine from a video like this.
They proceed to move on to how to attach Center-lock rotors to your hubs.

What did I have a problem with?

• The bike technology they work with on this video seems to be circa two years ago.
• There aren't enough examples of what stuff looks like when it’s working wrong or broken or there are problems.  Only shown a perfect bike in perfect shape (with the most expensive gear).  For instance, they talk about the “sharkfin” effect on worn teeth on your chainring, but we aren’t shown an example of worn teeth, or the effect it has on your chain when it skips.
• Sometimes during the video, people are talking quite loudly in the background, and it proves to be an unnecessary distraction.  I kind of wished that they could have told people that they were shooting a video and asked them to be silent around where the cameras were.
• A major problem of this DVD is that I’m not sure who it should be aimed at.  On one hand, it covers some of the most basic concepts that people with bikes should know, such as cleaning and lubing your bike properly.  Then, it tells people how to assemble and bleed their hydraulic brakes… a fairly advanced and involved process that requires some very specific tools as well.  But it skips concepts in the middle, such as replacing your drivetrain, such as your rear cassette, determining the length of a new chain, and such.  Suspension isn’t covered at all, and although understandable since Shimano doesn’t make any suspension products, a quick mention of cleaning and lubing your seals wouldn’t have gone astray. It seems that Shimano has tried to cover all levels of riders in one video, but in the process, has left some gaping holes in the complete skillset that one needs.  Beginners to bike maintenance won’t even bother to attempt the hydraulic brake set-up and bleeding, and the experienced riders out there will feel like being told how to clean their bike is a waste of time. Plus the XTR section… how many people who have purchased XTR are going to need to know these basic concepts of bike maintenance and repair?  Besides, of course, the people with too much money whose first mountain bike is specced with XTR and have no clue about bike maintenance at all.  (Actually, there’s probably a good number of these people, but that’s not the point…)

Shimano would have been better off to release a series of these videos, each graded to the skill and knowledge of the rider, with appropriate skills and component groups to match (beginners, washing, Deore compents, etc.. and then experts, hydraulic brake set-up and XTR).

The good things about this video were the use of the diagrams, close-ups and the amount of detail they went into for the XTR section.

Generally, I thought it was a decent video.  I learned a reasonable amount of information, but as I said before, Shimano would have done better by either including more comprehensive coverage of all the different topics of bike repair and maintenance, or by breaking up the video into a series of DVDs.

Funnily enough, I recommend this video to either beginner/intermediates or people who are buying XTR… a strange combination…

A good reference video for working on your bike, but for serious bike mechanics or people looking for comprehensive instruction, this video should be used in conjunction with other forms of reference, such as books, manuals, etc….  Beginners and intermediates could do far worse, however, on choosing a guide on their first foray into bicycle repair and maintenance.