PaginaVilot

Hi,
I'm new to the whole biking world.. but I have a fuji track that I bought as a complete from my LBS. But I recently bought a motobecane messenger from bikesdirect.com for my girlfriend.

I put the bike together exactly like it says to in the manual, but, is their anything I should really take a look at? We're going on a little ride tomorrow and I just want to make sure nothing will go wrong, and I'm deciding if I should take it in for a tuneup or something before I go..

Compared to my bike, it doesnt feel comfortable to me. But then again, they're two different bikes. And also I have bullhorns on my bike.. and there's risers on the motobecane.

Their are no weird noises or anything.. and the wheels aren't wobbly.

mastershake916

It couldn't hurt to take it to an local bike shop.

GTPowers

It'd be good to have them check for wheel true and to tripple check your lockring/cog to make sure its tight. I've grabbed the MM about two weeks ago and I'm loving it. Hope she enjoys!. Btw the tires suck...and the bar...its huge.

xiaodidi

I got one yesterday and had to take the spoke wrench to the back wheel in a big way. Other than that, no issues after about 50 miles of shakedown.

The brake pads gotta go ! But only after I burn the crap out of them (cheap bastid).

Wheels are crap, but they have surprised me. An anonymous monkey slapped them together but 15 miles in the rumble strips, with no lights, last night proved them to be tough. They have been making silly "I need tensioning" noises... they are getting less frequent... or maybe I've stopped noticing. Will put them on the truing stand when I get the chance.

I bought it more out of curiosity than necessity and I'm pleasantly surprised so far. Tomorrow it gets to taste the hills. We'll see.

Ingleside

At our shop we will do a safety check on pretty much anyones bike. Any good shop should be willing to spend a few minutes checking your bike out to make sure its safe and road worthy condition. Being that you already bought a bike from they I don't think they will make a big deal about you buying a bike online.

shanky

Hey Ingleside ... what shop do you work at? if you are allowed to answer that... was planning to come down to the city this weekend, wanted to ride around and see the shops. i have seen/used a lot of them.

Thanks

Shanky

mander

The hub and headset bearings may be loose, besides what has already been mentioned. If you don't feel confident that you can check this for yourself, taking it to your lbs could save you some expensive repairs.

GTPowers

Headset was DEFIANTLY loose.

Any precautions with tightening the nuts? I don't have a wrench that size (and I dislike my LBS)...safe to take a pair of pliers/rag to it to tigthen it down?

Now that just sounds ghettoo...

operator

NO. Buy the correct wrench. Do not half-ass it. It is acceptable to use non-standard tools to do standard things sometimes but this is not one of them.

GTPowers

Alright. I shall take your word for it and buy some larger wrenches.

Looks about 20m+.

operator

You maybe able to get the LBS to tighten for you. Once it's tightened properly, you won't really need to adjust it again until it gets worn or it needs replacement. You'll need a headset wrench, and then an adjustable or a fixed one for the top cap.

GTPowers

LBS it is.