Bicycles

[FastDoc]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Assembled a Diamond Back 'City Bike' for Mrs. C's former boss today. It's a Christmas present for his youngest son. Jack is a heck of a nice guy but could cut off his hand with Jello, so I was volunteered.

We are in Chinabike territory with a Diamond Back, though I was pleasantly surprised when I spun the wheels in my hands and the bearings were well adjusted. Then I checked the fork and crank. Ahhh, now I am in familiar territory. Both are so tight that neither turn.

Pulled the headset apart and I figure the assembler must have dropped the bearings in his grease can because there was actually some there. Bottom bearing spindle was a sealed unit and just needed adjusting. It just took a BFH to do it. The assemblers must use an impact wrench to tighten the cup and lockring.

Brakes were a pain to set up. Derailleurs, no picnic, but not as finicky as the brakes. Both, out of the box, were awful.

So, a job that would take me maybe 45 minutes took two hours to get to Cheesy standards, and I even let a few things slide. I will recommend that Jack replace the awful steel crankset for low end alloy crankset with steel rings. Even with steel rings, the new crankset will weigh less than the left crankarm.

BSO's I think don't get enough credit. I think much of their bad reputation is poor (or no) setup rather than not being usable bicycles. For us bicycle types it's easy to get snobby when people are just enjoying their bicycles, same as us :-)

I've set up a few BSO's in the past for friends. Just a little time anbd patience and you're good to go.