Back when I was still in University, I had a $1000 Buick Century. My dad made a great investment and bought the official Buick/General Motors service manuals for it.
These were the same manuals that the mechanics themselves used (or at least had sitting in their workshop). Printed on tissue thin paper, the manual was split into two binders each four or five inches thick. They were full of troubleshooting flowcharts, technical diagrams, and step-by-step explanations.
It enabled me to do much more maintenance on that car than I ever would have otherwise.
Now a decade later, I have two Trek Liquid 20's. They cost twice as much as the old Buick, are nearly as complicated, and are definitely much cooler. The thing is, they're more finicky and complicated than my old 1980's Schwinn Sierra, so it's harder to keep them going.
I really like the bikes. I want to keep them around as long as I can, so I figure it's worth the investment to deeply understand how to maintain and repair them.
With that goal in mind, I decided to find the equivalent of the Buick Technical Manual for my Liquid 20. The problem is, a bicycle is much more like a computer than a car, in that it is assembled from openely distributed pieces... a PlexWriter CD-Rom, a Western Digital HardDrive, an NVidia graphics car inside a chassis supplied by Dell. My Buick was an all-GM product.
It's a problem because that means there is no monolithic service manual. You have to cobble together technical information from all the different companies that supply components to the bike. Hayes brakes, Shimano drivetrain, Fox shock, etc.
So that's what I'm trying to do here, assemble a collection of links and mirrors to provide a one-stop location for all the technical information available on the repair and maintenance of all systems on a Trek Liquid 20.
It's tedious and currently incomplete business.
Service manual library for a 2003 Trek Liquid 20.
The RockShox website is one giant 404 error (even product pages are missing -- thank God for the Google Cache). Most of the manual urls are dead.
The page full of service guides is full of dead links too. KindSoul@RockShox emailed me two of the guides:
Note that neither of these manuals is the 2003 Psylo U-Turn service manual. But presumably between these two manuals, you can get close to the right instructions. Since the same Psylo C 7 XC spare parts list covers 2002-2004 models. [mirrored] the designs must be very similar.
03 Aftermarket fork part numbers list is a big fat 404.
Available Online:
RockShox FAQ
Fox Racing publishes the owner's manual online [mirror] but doesn't provide any shop or service manuals, except for some tuning tips.
MBaction published a cool technical diagram of how the adjustable shock works in several different terrain conditions.
Reading lots of user reviews on this shock, it is said that Fox says the shock is not user servicable at all and that it needs rebuilt after eighteen months. (Uh oh.)
Hayes HFX-9 XC Hydraulic Disc Brakes
Hayes wins for having the most service information online.
Full Installation, Maintenance, and Service Manual [Mirror]
Shimano XL SL-M570 Mega-9 Shift Lever Set
Standard Link-Type Front Derailleur - FD-M571
RD-M750 rear derailler
It's not clear whether I have a RD-M750-SGS or an RD-M750-GS. The component itself says "RD-M750" but the Shimano website seems to have deprecated the component (replaced by M760?) so all I have to go on is the cached page.
Service Instructions page [Mirror]
SRAM Powerglide II 7.0 Cassette 11-34 (I think!)
It's not very clear the exact model. This is my best guess. The SRAM website (parent of the RockShox website) is just as bad as RockShox -- plagued by 404 errors everywhere. I salvaged a tiny bit from the google cache, but nothing useful beyond simple stats.
FULL SPECIFICATIONS
FRAMESET:
FRAME: ZR 9000 Alloy. Double butted seamless drawn tubing. Custom butted head tube. Bi-axial downtube. Triangulated Rocker Link design. Black Magic composite seatstays. Liquid geometry adjusts to changing terrain. Handmade in the USA.
FORK: RockShox Psylo XC, U-Turn, HC2 damping, adjustable rebound, travel gradients, 80/125mm travel
REAR SHOCK: Fox Talas R air spring, self-adjusting negative, travel adjust on shock, adjustable rebound
WHEELS:
WHEELS: Bontrager Race Disc: Trek Regional Team wheel; Disc-specific rims, welded for huge strength; Bontrager Offset Spoke Bed; Fully serviceable, cartridge bearing hubs; International standard brake rotor, no adapters req.; Race Cro-Moly skewers; 965 g, 28h front/1050 g, 28h rear
TIRES: IRC TrailBear, folding, 26x2.25"
COMPONENTS:
SADDLE: Bontrager FS 2000, Cro-Moly rails
SEATPOST: Bontrager Select
HANDLEBARS: Bontrager Crowbar Sport
STEM: Bontrager Select, 10°
HEADSET: AHS 1-1/8" alloy cups, semi cartridge, sealed
DRIVETRAIN:
SHIFTERS: Shimano Deore LX
FRONT DERAILLEUR: Shimano Deore LX
REAR DERAILLEUR: Shimano Deore XT
CRANKSET: Bontrager Race 44/32/22
CASSETTE: SRAM 7.0 11-34, 9spd
OTHER:
BRAKESET: Hayes HFX-9, hydraulic disc
PEDALS: Shimano M515, clipless