Your Home Bicycle Workshop

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This is my third book. The first, The New Bike Book: How to make the most of your new bicycle, is an owner’s manual to help you understand and care for your new bicycle. Then I wrote the best-selling book Bicycling Magazine’s Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair. In this new ebook, I shift gears and tell you how to create the ultimate home bicycle workshop — the perfect place to maintain and fix your bikes.

You can purchase and download my book on the Road Bike Rider site using the link at the right. To learn more about it, keep reading for Road Bike Rider founder and cycling journalist Ed Pavelka’s overview below, where you’ll also learn more about me.

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There are 14 great reasons to have a home bike workshop . . .

and master mechanic Jim Langley covers them all as he arrives at this bottom line:

“Perhaps the best reason — and plenty of cyclists who have shops have told me this — is that working in and designing, building and tweaking your home bicycle workshop can be every bit as satisfying as riding the bicycles you service there.”

Meet Jim Langley

Jim Langley has a remarkable cycling résumé; he worked for Road Bike Rider from December 2003 to March ’05, dropped back to occasional contributions, then returned as their regular technical writer in April 2009.

Jim lives in Santa Cruz, California, with his wife Deb; they have two grown daughters. Proving that he has athletic skills way beyond pedaling and wrenching, Jim also plays tournament-level table tennis.

Jim’s first round of contributions to RBR is archived on the Premium Site, where he serves as technical editor. You’ll also find his expertise in Jim’s Tech Talk, in each issue of the RBR newsletter.

In addition, Jim is author of the innovative ebook that works like a website, Your Home Bicycle Workshop.

Read more about Jim

Meet Jim Langley

In addition, Jim is author of the innovative ebook that works like a website, Your Home Bicycle Workshop.

Here’s his brief autobiography:

Probably like most of you, I fell for cycling as a kid. But unlike most of you, when it came time to get a real job, I stuck with what I had done in college — and with what I loved — and kept working as a bicycle mechanic. That was my profession between 1972 and 1989 in shops in New Hampshire, Vermont and California, where I live today.

During those years I assembled and repaired thousands of bikes. Sold a bunch too. Built a couple of frames plus hundreds of wheels. And I introduced the great sport of cycling to legions of customers.

I learned everything I could about bicycles and repairing them through experience, reading and from all the people kind enough to show me the way. Plus, I got serious about riding, first touring (across the US in 1979) and then racing — everything from road and cyclocross to mountain and triathlon. Road racing is still a passion.

In 1989 my cycling background and degree in English led to a full-time job with Bicycling magazine. RBR’s Ed Pavelka was the magazine’s executive editor then, and he hired me to run the new West Coast editorial office.

At Bicycling I became the technical editor, handling how-to articles, buyer’s guides, bicycle road tests, the Tech Q&A column and the New Products department. I still have an Excel spreadsheet showing nearly a thousand products that went through my hands. I also served as the magazine’s curator of bicycle history and collectibles.

I did all of the wrenching, too, before we expanded the office and hired a mechanic. And I was in charge of the photo shoots, experience that came in handy when I was asked to rewrite the photo-intensive book Bicycling Magazine’s Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair.

Today, I put my cycling expertise to use as an Associate Engineer, Shop Manager and Wheelbuilder at Praxis bicycle components.

Also on the internet, I maintain a personal website where I help people get into cycling, and share info and photos of many of my cycling collectibles, including 600 head-tube badges, old magazine and catalog covers and my highwheeler. I also have a popular YouTube bike channel, run a Q&A blog and am on Facebook and Twitter a little. Plus, I’m still writing for Bicycling magazine once in a while. Follow me online or look for me on the newsstand.

I’m still crazy about cycling and ride literally every day. In fact, I haven’t missed a day in more than 26 years, some 9,850+ consecutive rides (and counting).

My original goal was to ride daily for 10 years. But after reaching that milestone I kept right on going, because bicycling is what I do and who I am.

Jim’s love of working on bikes has spurred him to write Your Home Bicycle Workshop. This ebook is unique in cycling, detailing exactly how to create a pro-quality repair and maintenance area in your home, garage or other suitable location (see contents).

When there’s a home workshop trick only an expert would know, rest assured that you’ll find it in this ebook.

Your Home Bicycle Workshop isn't about fixing bikes — very good repair guides already exist, and Jim's website also describes various procedures. Instead it goes into great detail about what it takes in tools, equipment and workspace design to handle any mechanical job in efficient, productive, comfortable surroundings.

With Jim Langley’s guidance it’s easy to create a home bike workshop you’ll love spending time in.

And this ebook goes a giant step farther by showing you — not just telling you — about the shop setup and bike tools Jim recommends.

It contains an amazing 201 color photos and illustrations!

Says Jim: “I’ve tried hard to give you information you can’t find anywhere else. So the TOOL LIST is more extensive than others and provides links to how to use the tools. There’s also a helpful list of SMALL PARTS you need in a home workshop. That’s a hard list to find too.”

For those who want to economize or prefer to make their own equipment, Jim provides tips on constructing different types of repair stands at a cost between $5 and $60 (see his instructions for the “Home Depot” stand that’s easy to make). Also explained are two low-cost ways to make a truing stand.

A thoroughly detailed index makes this ebook handy if you print it and don’t have access to the computerized search function. When you’re reading the ebook on your computer, the index is linked to the contents, giving you another way to find specific information you want and instantly click to it.

In fact, Your Home Bicycle Workshop works like a website. It’s the most technically advanced ebook we’ve seen for cyclists.

Check this — in addition to dozens of internal content links and external links to helpful sites, this ebook features 92 mouse rollovers. Where tools are listed, simply move your cursor over each diamond-shaped symbol and a photo appears. Very cool! And extremely helpful as you decide which tools to add to your personal bike workshop.

To see this exclusive rollover feature in action, click here to open a PDF of page 29 and move your cursor over the diamond symbols.
(The green hyperlinks may not be operational in extracted pages.)

BONUS! Your Home Bicycle Workshop contains numerous interesting and fun vintage bike ads, photos and illustrations from Jim Langley’s extensive collection. Some of these are extremely rare and could be printed and framed to decorate your home workshop or office.

Please note: This ebook displays best with newer versions of Adobe Reader, a utility that’s factory installed on most computers. If it’s not on yours or you’d like to upgrade an older Reader, you can download the latest version FREE by clicking here. With the new Adobe Reader you’ll enjoy all the unique features of Your Home Bicycle Workshop.