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Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 5:47 am
by potownrob
As some of you know, I ordered a new mountain bike online from bikesdirect.com. It's a Motobecane Fantom29 Trail. I had UPS hold it at the depot for pickup so mom wouldn't freak, picked it up last week, and it's been in the box in the garage since then. Tonight, it was cool out (in the 30s), and I don't have work til midnight tonight, and had a second wind (been up and working since 10am) so I decided to work on getting the new bike assembled. Now most reviews I've read or seen of this and other motobecane bikes from bikesdirect portray the assembly as a simple 20-60 minute procedure, usually involving assembling the front brakes, attaching the handlebar, putting on the seat, pumping tires and spinning on the pedals; this was not the case with this bike.

The bike came in a humongous box, so I expected it to be in maybe 4 pieces (front wheel and handlebar detached, seat post and pedals detached); almost everything you can think of, other than the fork, stem and front derailleur were unassembled or disassembled. There was foam and paper and rubber bands and baggies taped, ziptied and rubberbanded to everything. Anyone in their right mind, upon seeing this mess, would pack it back up and bring the box to a bike shop... It took 3 cigarettes, 2+ hours and bobby fischer brain-melting contemplation and strategizing to get this thing put together, and i still have to figure out how to get the rear derailleur positioned right to get the rear wheel in place, and make sure everything's adjusted right. the brakes were the easy part.

There was a manual with the bike. The only instructions relevant to my bike or any mountain bike from the past 20 years were the 4 steps on the cover of the manual, which didn't go far beyond taking the bike out of the box and turning the fork around. I got stuck in a couple of spots because I either didn't have the right tool (multitool doesn't do it all) or didn't know how something was supposed to go. Luckily, I happened to have bought a set of torx wrenches at Harbor Freight for something else, and I went into my car and found them once the scavenging raccoon was out of sight. I needed a Torx-25 to attach the brake rotors to the wheels and stood staring at them until I decided to assemble something else and come back to it. I later looked up tools needed for tektro brakes and looked for the torx wrenches (once the raccoon was gone outside - i was locked in the garage with the bike). Quick release skewers and other goodies left for me to figure out too. On the bright side, I feel like a junior bike mechanic now. Without boring you guys even more, I'll post some pics with commentary. Any insight on the rear derailleur greatly appreciated (I'll probably have to look at my other bike or pics online to figure it out either way).

can't work on bike without food: dueling mcdoubles to the rescue
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what's this?? why?? gah!!!!
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deep breaths..
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GAH!!!! what am i supposed to do with this thing?!?!
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you can't be serious...
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not sure if i wanna laugh or cry...
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doesn't look too hard
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GAH!!!! none of my hex wrenches fits!!!!
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ok, i got the handlebar on
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front brakes assembled (took a little contemplation)
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nice frame, wanna share a bed??
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now THAT's the tool for the job
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front wheel assembled, WOOHOO, we're (almost, maybe) halfway there!!
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still need to figure this part out...
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Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 8:44 am
by theholycow
Looks like fun. I've done all of that (except disc brakes), but never all at once, and rarely with shiny new parts. I have all the tools, though years of disuse and raiding my bike tools for other projects has left them scattered and disorganized.
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Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 5:16 pm
by AHTOXA
Very nice!

I just got my bike back together as well with new goodies. My drivetrain is so shiny but not for long!

Edit. Don't forget to use blue locktite on some of the components such as the disk brake mounting hardware. I also recomment a torque wrench to tighten those. I remember there is specific torque spec on those.

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 5:18 pm
by ClutchFork
Nice Bike, and thankfully, most if not all bicycles come standard with manual transmission! :lol:

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:18 pm
by potownrob
AHTOXA wrote:Very nice!

I just got my bike back together as well with new goodies. My drivetrain is so shiny but not for long!

Edit. Don't forget to use blue locktite on some of the components such as the disk brake mounting hardware. I also recomment a torque wrench to tighten those. I remember there is specific torque spec on those.
thanks. all the bolts came with blue stuff on them already. kinda ironic if you ask me...

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:20 pm
by potownrob
InlinePaul wrote:Nice Bike, and thankfully, most if not all bicycles come standard with manual transmission! :lol:
yeah, be happy i didn't go with the singlespeed 8) :P :lol:

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 9:02 pm
by theholycow
potownrob wrote:thanks. all the bolts came with blue stuff on them already. kinda ironic if you ask me...
Sounds like office chair screws.

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 3:38 am
by noob5,000,000
Nice. I actually just rode a bike with gears for the first time a few days ago :lol: .

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 3:58 am
by potownrob
noob5,000,000 wrote:Nice. I actually just rode a bike with gears for the first time a few days ago :lol: .
im not sure I could ride a singlespeed bike anymore. Once (if)I get built up and fit enough on my 27 speed MTB I may be good enough to ride another singlespeed. I've heard (read) good things about the newer single speed mtbs but I still may need to stick with at least a 2x8 (if it exists; I know 2x10 is common but more higher end) setup for the hills, plus I also would want the higher ranges for going faster on roads. On my trek 7000 I ended up removing the big front chainring once it was too worn out to use (not sure exactly why I removed it; this was back in the 90s). I gave that bike to a friend and he said he took it to a bike shop a few years later and they fixed all kinds of stuff I had set up wrong (incorrect headtube size for suspension stem I had installed, various things out of adjustment etc.) :lol:

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 6:22 am
by potownrob
theholycow wrote:Sounds like office space screws.

fast forward to ~2:50

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 8:36 am
by theholycow
potownrob wrote:im not sure I could ride a singlespeed bike anymore.
Guys like us have a lot of curb weight, a lot of torque, and not a lot of horsepower. We need wide-range gearing if we want to be able to operate on varying terrain/hills or at a wide range of speeds.

Re: Potownrob's New Ride [ISDN USERS BEWARE: PIC HEAVY]

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 9:22 am
by potownrob
theholycow wrote:
potownrob wrote:im not sure I could ride a singlespeed bike anymore.
Guys like us have a lot of curb weight, a lot of torque, and not a lot of horsepower. We need wide-range gearing if we want to be able to operate on varying terrain/hills or at a wide range of speeds.
amen brother 8)