What to check when buying from bikes direct?
 

Hell yeah, the title rhymes.

But seriously. One of my friends is getting her bike in from BD on Thursday, what should we check on the bike? I have the following:

BB greased/tightened
Chainring bolts
Lockring

Anything else? Or should we just tear it apart and rebuild it?

Probably going to have to do a lil truing of the wheels. Grease pedals and check all the bolts.

From the stories I've heard, strip it down to bare frame and rebuild. I don't think I'd go that far though, cuz I'm lazy.

So am I, but I also don't want her bike asploding on her. Haha If a full teardown is needed I suppose I can do that.

This.

The BB will need to be torqued down, hubs will need to be greased and set correctly,wheels will need to be tensioned and trued. grease various other things with threads

This probably holds true for any bike you buy, from LBS or anywhere else for that matter!!!

It depends. Which model is she buying ? For example I have a Kilo WT with sealed cartridge bearing hubs that require no maintenance or adjustment. I also have a Moto Mesenger with loose bearing hubs that needed adjustment and will need periodic cleaning and repacking with new grease. Also, the wheels on the Moto needed a lot more truing and tensioning than the Kilo. The cranks on the Kilo were pretty tight and only needed to be retightened a few times but the Moto needed about a dozen retightenings. The chainring bolts on the Kilo were tight from the git go, but those on the Moto were all loose. Then, there may be bad or ill fitting parts or even missing parts. The seat binder bolt on my Kilo was stripped and the stem and bar on my Moto were the wrong size. So, it needs to be thorougly checked, and remember to not force anything.

Any LBS that would require the buyer to do all this isn't worth buying from them.

Windsor The Hour.

If I have to literally take the whole bike apart, I might as well have her take it to a shop :p

I don't have a truing stand nor do I know how to true wheels :\

You might get lucky on the wheels. My dawes didn't need truing, but pretty much everything except the headset needed to be greased. Knowing how to true a wheel doesn't make it any more enjoyable from my experience. It's one of those things I'd rather just pay someone to do if its more than a few quarter turns out of true.

that is generally recommended. I wonder how the shop will look at you/the bike

Like this:

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...0/wtfkells.gif

:lol:

I've bought two bikes from BD, Motobecane Phantom Uno and SE Stout 29er. Both are good bikes, BTW.
The Uno has cartridge bearing hubs so no worries there but the cones on the wheels of the Stout were tight.
I automatically put the wheels on the truing stand no matter where I buy a bike.
Check the crank and chainring bolts, it only takes minutes, if there's no creaking I wouldn't go any further.

All machine-built wheels need truing/tensioning. ALL of them.

I haven't touched the BB/cranks (chainring bolts were/are tight) of my Kilo. Rear wheel got trued but front is still fine.

But what do I know.

Nothing. :lol:

hahaha

****, what am I doing in college**********??

definitely check the cones on your hubs, mine were pretty tight out of the box and the wheels weren't spinning smoothly. other than that, you should be greasing and checking everything that you assemble on the bike anyway. the cog/lockring on my kilo were already greased and properly tightened when the bike arrived.

besides truing the wheels, it really only takes about 30 minutes to setup and tune everything and cut brake cables/housing.

Partying, riding

No exaggeration, especially around here (Austin). I can think of one shop out of about 5 that I went to with my Moto track from BD that didn't give me that look when I asked for their help. Then I was so touchy that by the time I got to that one good shop I basically just asked them for their advice and to borrow tools, even though they were receptive to actually helping me.

This is on my mind b/c of the recently revamped "go to your LBS" thread. If you live around here, I recommend you do not go, except maybe to Clown Dog bikes. And please, for the love of god, avoid Freewheeling Bikes on 24th and San Gabriel. They will treat you like the speckled turd you are ;0;0

I'm in the same boat. I have a Windsor coming soon.

What type of grease should I to lube up all the parts during assembly?

Any write ups on how to check the cones on the hubs?

http://www.pricepoint.com/images/sty...5%20PHIG38.jpg

or

http://www.pinkapple.com/productphot...lmist_1oz2.jpg

:lol:

I use Valvoline. Used to serve it up with a plastic knife from 7-11 but went out and got a mini grease gun a couple years ago. I still use a plastic knife to fill the gun.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/wcs...4_pri_larg.jpg

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/c...image_2701.jpg

You can get both of these for just a buck or two over the cost of a tube of bike grease if you don't mind hitting auto parts store then the Harbor Freight.