Recently had my bike stolen, and having little money I’ve bought a used one as a replacement. It’s fine enough, but needs a little fine tuning. The main issue is that the hand-brake at the front wheel is a rim brake.
Is there a way to install a disc brake on the front wheel instead, or would I have to change the entire frame?
Also I’ve only ever done basic maintenance, but now I need to do a bit more (install a new set of gears). Does anybody have a recommendation for a good manual?
Regarding your brake: You need a fork with disc brake mounts. You also need a front wheel with a hub that can accept a disc rotor. And, assuming you want to keep your existing brake lever, you need to choose the correct type of disc brake. Cable-actuated disc brakes come in “standard” and “road” versions for use with mountain or road brake levers, respectively. The big question is, why is a rim brake not adequate? A well-adjusted rim brake should be perfectly fine for most uses.
Regarding your gears, I assume you mean replacing the cassette on the rear wheel. Park Tool has a good tutorial. Make sure the new cassette has the same number of gears as the old one. Replace your chain at the same time.
In the future, this would be a great question for !bikewrench@lemmy.world.