Reddit mentions of The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance: Tips & Techniques to Keep Your Motorcycle in Top Condition

I'd go for something more like this...

The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance

I thumbed through it the other day, and it looks like a good overview of motorcycle maintence. I'd use it, and also get the repair manual specific to the bike you purchase to restore.

The books recommended here are not as much motorcycle repair and maintenance as philosophy and how enjoyable it is to wrench on a bike.

This book is really well written:
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Techniques/dp/1884313418/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466746439&sr=8-1&keywords=motorcycle+maintenance

The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance.

It was definitely a godsend, as I had no clue about nearly all of the bike's systems.

I got the book before purchasing my motorcycle and read it front to back. I still open it up for reference.

I have this book and it seems to be about what you're asking for. It covers motorcycles very broadly and is full color. Instead of learning the steps to change something on a specific bike it covers the process and tools you use and teaches you how to do it.

This book has taught me a ton of maintenance:
Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance

The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance has lots of info on engine design and engineering considerations in motorcycle design. Aside from that its a great book to have as a reference.

I can highly recommend this book (The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Zimmerman - I've bought six motorcycle repair books since I got my bike and this is by far the best one for an uber-beginner like me.

The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance

You'd want a manual, but you'd figure it out!

Short of that, do some work on your current bike with a manual in hand. If I remember, this book has some basics of how a bike works, so maybe that's a place to start?

I'm late but i just started reading : http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Guide-Motorcycle-Maintenance/dp/1884313418
Click on Take a look inside and goto page 7, 8, and 9 they have a pretty good list of tools to start with to help you with all basic maintenance.

The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Zimmerman is a good place to start, although he tends to focus on older British bikes, if I recall.

This book seems to have the best reviews on Amazon (of similar books).

Also, I couldn't let it pass...check out Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a great work of fiction.

This is a good general book:

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Techniques/dp/1884313418/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Another one, this one is a little more technical:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566374790/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1PE3H171UOWG2&me=&seller=&colid=1A5JGJNLDX273


Look around on amazon.com and you'll find more.