Mountain Biking - Is a new bike like a new car?

I get my new bike this weekend and I was wondering about a breakin period. Like they always say with cars, "you shouldn't drive over 55mph for the first 300 miles or so", should you do anything to breakin a bike or can you go right to some tough trails on the day you get it?

Sometimes as such with marzocchi forks, breaking in is needed, but doesnt really mean that you should go light on the bike the first ride out. The only thing that needs breaking in is the suspension, front and rear, and in many cases that can be accomplished by adjusting the rear shock sag, or changing the springs in the front shock to accomodate the riders weight. Bikes are meant to be ridden out of the box, but it is best to customize or adjust the bike according to your riding style, and weight to give it the best performance as quickly as possible.

Also with MArz forks, after about 100 hours of riding (a month or so depending on frequency) you should get a full rehaul on the fork. This cleans on the internals, retunes the fork and you can judge whether you need new springs. Just a healthy thing to do :)

Also your drive train may need adjustment within the first 30 days due to cable stretch which will make it seem like your shifters are screwed :)

ride it just like you plan to in 3 months or 3 years. but keep in mind stuff will "settle" such as cables stretching and spokes so you should take it to a shop for a "check up" if you don't know how to do it yourself.

so my Z1 needs new oil after 100hours or after a month? so far 20hours of riding

Originally posted by math2p14
so my Z1 needs new oil after 100hours or after a month? so far 20hours of riding

Give or take. My current ride is around 100 hours (I think) and I can feel some sloppiness. I ordered a heavier spring, sill increase the weight of the oil and do a little tuning to it in order to get it feeling nice a perfect :)

Drivetrains will sometimes "wear in" too and you'll notice some subtle smoothness in shifting as it does. The same can be said for some types of clipless pedal designs. In addition to the items mentioned above, other things that you will want to check with regular riding (especially in the first few hundred miles) include tightness of all the bolts, headset and crankarms. You may want to take it easy for the first few rides to make sure nothing has been overlooked by the assembler but after that, ride it like you normally would.

so my Z1 needs new oil after 100hours or after a month? so far 20hours of riding

I would say do it sooner. Say 50hr of riding. Marzocchi some times does not put enough oil in the fork and it is not the greatest of quality. Just like with new engines you will get some debri in the oil so your first change should be sooner. Then after that you can go longer between changing.

:beer:

Originally posted by stateman
I get my new bike this weekend and I was wondering about a breakin period. Like they always say with cars, "you shouldn't drive over 55mph for the first 300 miles or so", should you do anything to breakin a bike or can you go right to some tough trails on the day you get it?

Disk brakes can take a few rides to break in but I don't think there is any major stuff to worry about. Most bike shops will offer a couple of free tune ups...one within the first 30-60 days and the next one within a year of purchase (or at least that is the way my LBS works but they will do minor stuff in between for free).

During the first 30-60 days the cables can stretch a bit so you might want to re-adjust them or get the bike shop to do a minor tune up..then you should be fine.

Justen