jas0n said:been trying to make the bike I bought from ebay functional today, didnt
do too badly, but needs more work ...
What bike did you buy? New or secondhand?
Quoted message said:so far had to tighten the seat bolt as the saddle is wobbly, think it
might need a washer as it was a bit looser again after a short ride.
If your anything like me at first I had the saddle quite low to the
frame but as my experience grew the saddle was raised a bit at a time.
So adjusting the saddle height and tilt might be something you do a
lot in the first month or so.
Quoted message said:i pumped up the tyres and got some green goo type stuff come out of them
whilst doing it - they must be slime innertubes - lovely stuff!
Don't forget to always take a spare inner tube about with you too.
Puncture repairs to tubes are best done at home. Also take a small
pair of rough old tweezers with you to pull out whatever got through
the tyre to cause the puncture, in addition to normal necessary
spanners and tyre levers.
Quoted message said:the dynamo is too close to the tyre to push/engage so theres some more
adjusting to be done, although its not rubbing so left alone for now.had to adjust the v brakes as rear one was rubbing and mudguard rubbing
too ... the rears i dont think are centered.
If its anything like my bike I tend to have the front v brake set
pretty close to the rim as the front wheel is pretty immune to going
out of true and make sure you set the toe in on the brake blocks to
reduce braking noise/squeal. Setting the toe in only lasts for me
about a month before I have to do it again. I tend to have the rear
brake set with a greater gap as its more likely to go out slightly of
true sometimes.
Quoted message said:so went out on a litle test ride - the gear range has definately
improved from my previous 6 speed although the front cage seems to rub
on a fair number of gears - I could trim it away for some of them but
definately needs some adjustment.
Its the same for me on the left gear shifter I use '2' and just past
'2' like a sort of '2.1' setting as this eliminates front cage
knocking in some gears.
Quoted message said:after all this i think id possibly be better off just dropping it off at
a decent bike shop and getting it serviced properly although i spose
doing it yourself helps you when things go wrong in the field
Personally I prefer to do it myself. When I first got my cheapo ebay
bike I found for the first 2 weeks I was tweaking the spokes to get
the rear wheel back to true a fair bit. Where as the front wheel was
only ever done once and that was after a minor accident. The point is
I would have been at the LBS quite a lot and spent a lot of money. My
local dealer is very expensive and very profiteering but you may have
a more down to earth fair priced LBS to go to. My LBS quoted me £60 to
tweak/true 4 wheels. Everytime I've spoken to my local LBS the prices
quoted are far higher than most people elsewhere would expect to pay I
think. That £60 went a long way in equipping me with some decent bike
tools and trueing myself didn't take long to learn thanks to numerous
helpful websites. I'm semi reasonable at doing it now.