Break It, Fix It, Ride It CD

Distributor: Bikefanatic.com

RRP: $49.95

Everyone who owns a bike should learn to fix everything on it themselves. That’s a hell of a blanket statement if ever I saw one!

While most modern mountain bikes are complex-looking beasts that appear far beyond the mechanical capabilities of the average backyard mechanic, with the right tools and the right know-how there’s very little on a bike that can’t be fixed at home.

Tools are the easy part to come-by, the know-how however isn’t and rather than leaving everyone out there to learn how to wrench by trial and error, the guys at Break It, Fix It, Ride It (BFR, It) have assembled a wealth of modern day bike mechanics knowledge into a simple and easy to navigate CD-ROM program.

Upon installing and loading BFR It you will be greeted by picture of a flash-looking Intense duallie, roll your mouse over the part of the bike you want to know how to fix, click on it and you’re on your way. BFR It provides step-by-step instructions with clear, detailed photographs and references to the correct tools and terminology for just about every piece of mechanical work you could want to perform on a bike.

The navigation and progression of each repair is logical and intuitive to navigate and the clear, well thought out photographs and diagrams makes learning and performing the tasks simple even for inexperienced mechanics.

From truing wheels, to disassembling and rebuilding suspension forks to bleeding hydraulic brakes, BFR-It can take you from mechanical newbie all the way up to the sort of guru your mates will constantly be pestering to work on their clapped out and neglected rigs.

BFR-It also comes with handy lists of the necessary tools for setting up your home-workshop, from beginner right through to professional level tool-kits.

I have only 2 complaints about BFR-It. The first is the lack of a ‘Home’ button, once you’ve navigated deep into a particular section the only way back to the main menu is to keep banging away on the back button. It’s annoying but hopefully it will be addressed in later versions of the software.

My second gripe was the level of sponsorship evident in the product, you’ll learn how to bleed Hayes hydraulic disc brakes, ONLY, disassemble Marzocchi forks ONLY and set-up Avid’s cable disc’s ONLY (as a few examples). This could reduce the usefulness of the guide to people who don’t own the specific parts shown in it.

All in all though, despite these gripes this is a fantastic product and one that anyone who’s serious about learning how to work on bikes should make a part of their collection. I’ll even go as far as to say that everyone out there who uses our site, should make it their business to get a copy of Break It, Fix It, Ride It, it really is that good. You can check out a demonstration of BFR-It here (high speed connection recommended) then click across to BikeFanatic.com to pick up your own copy.

Comment on the review here

 8 out of 10