Anyone here assembled their recumbent? I'm new to recumbents etc, but am wondering if I could assemble one by myself and save some money by ordering one online and having it shipped to local bike shop and just picking up there.

Looking at either a Sun EZ-3 SX or AX at this time. I've never assembled a bike before, but love tinkering etc. Do they come with good instructions?

Sharon

Assembly isn't all that difficult, but if you aren't familiar with the basics of setting up derailurs and brakes from scratch it could be very frustrating.

Your local shop may not be willing to participate in having it shipped to them for you to pick up, there are liability issues. They may however be able to order it for you. If I'm not mistaken (I don't dig around in the catalogs much) QBP carries the Sun products, but the dealer doesn't get full discount if they don't order 3+ bikes.

EDIT: Most bikes don't come from the factory with instructions beyond the owner's manual. They generally require that bikes be assembled by an authorized dealer, and it is assumed that the assembly will be done by someone familiar with bike assembly. Unless they are intended fo direct to consumer sales, they likely don't come with assembly instructions. I don't know for sure what Sun does.

Some online bike retailers will also ship to your house, so you can avoid having to ship the bike to your LBS first. Recumbents are similar to regular bikes in many ways, especially the drivetrain and derailleur parts. So if you have trouble, you could bring your bent to the LBS and have them set up those parts. They'll probably charge you for the work, though.

Which online bike shops ship? After checking prices online, I'm not sure I'll really save any money doing it myself.

Which online bike shops ship? After checking prices online, I'm not sure I'll really save any money doing it myself.

Well, both my company (www.rebel-cycles.com) and ActionBent (www.actionbent.com) will ship to residential addresses, for one. Hostel Shoppe (www.hostelshoppe.com) is one of the largest online 'bent dealers, and they also ship to residential addresses (AFAIK).