Assembling internet bought bike

ijc1g09

New Cannondale Caad10 105 in a box sitting in my kitchen and I find myself scared to touch it in case my complete lack of any experience maintaining, assembling and tweaking bikes should damage it in any way when I go to ride it.

Looking for a list of things to do before riding such as what I should grease and lube as I assemble and what I should tweak or align and basically check. I read somewhere you should clean the chain and relube as the grease on it is 'inferior' and will turn to black mush.

Thanks for your help in advance

TommyEss

Never built a bike from scratch, but I thought the prevailing wisdom on brand new chains was that the lube they come with is the best it'll ever have, since it's put on before it's put together, so reaches the parts other lubes can't.

Scroll down to "Factory Lube"

gjpollitt

Put some copper grease on threads of pedals as it makes it easier to remove them if you want to fit spd pedals etc

You shouldnt need to lube anything yet. Put the bike together, adjust seat and handlebars, check brakes/gears are working ok making any adjustments, correctly inflate tyres and check rotating smoothly without wobbling and you're good to go.

I built mine 2 months ago and it was only last week when i stripped/cleaned/lubed chain and rings etc. The lube already on the bike was fine for the first few hundred miles. Just check regularly and the bike will be ok

ijc1g09

Thanks for the help, just put it all together and pretty happy with what I've done!

However, if I lift the handlebars up and therefore the front wheel off the ground a gap appears between the head tube and top of the fork and its a bit 'clunky' with the fork wobbling about ever so slightly. I phoned up the company I bought it from who had helped earlier with a few problems and they said don't touch the bolts adjusting the fork, take it into a shop and get it done professionally.

I'm a two hour drive from a bike shop and would rather just try tightening some things up, what do you think?

thanks

simon_masterson

ijc1g09 wrote:

Thanks for the help, just put it all together and pretty happy with what I've done!

However, if I lift the handlebars up and therefore the front wheel off the ground a gap appears between the head tube and top of the fork and its a bit 'clunky' with the fork wobbling about ever so slightly. I phoned up the company I bought it from who had helped earlier with a few problems and they said don't touch the bolts adjusting the fork, take it into a shop and get it done professionally.

I'm a two hour drive from a bike shop and would rather just try tightening some things up, what do you think?

thanks

That sounds like you need to tighten your headset. Don't do this if you don't feel confident, but you shouldn't damage anything. So far as I know (and I watched my father-in-law replace my headset last weekend), as long as there is no play in the handlebars or stem it's tight enough, but don't quote me on it!! I'm privileged to have an expert in the family, but nonetheless I say that it's the preferable option to do it yourself and have it checked by someone in the know. No use paying the shop to do a simple task.

I will add that you need to use grease on things like seatposts, pedal spindles, steerer tubes and headsets. It DOES matter; the longevity and performance of these components can be seriously affected if you don't; particularly if you, like most people, don't remove these components very often.

It's not difficult nor expensive, and unless you're a pro you don't need to be constantly disassembling your bike and reapplying. When we disassembled my bike at the weekend, there was still evidence on the steerer tube of the grease put on in the factory. It is over 30 years old.

adm1

ijc1g09 wrote:

Thanks for the help, just put it all together and pretty happy with what I've done!

However, if I lift the handlebars up and therefore the front wheel off the ground a gap appears between the head tube and top of the fork and its a bit 'clunky' with the fork wobbling about ever so slightly. I phoned up the company I bought it from who had helped earlier with a few problems and they said don't touch the bolts adjusting the fork, take it into a shop and get it done professionally.

I'm a two hour drive from a bike shop and would rather just try tightening some things up, what do you think?

thanks

That sounds like the headset needs tightening. Look at the top of the fork - right on the very top, there should be an Allen bolt. This tightens it upi. It may be underneath a cap.

Slacken off the bolts that hold the stem to the top of the fork (steerer tube) a little, then tighten this Allen bolt up until the play between frame and fork is gone. The fork should still rotate freely - if it feels stiff, then back off until it is nice and smooth. The tighten up the stem bolts again.

It's an easy enough adjustment - just don't go mental on over tightening stuff...

Leeuw

adm1 wrote:

ijc1g09 wrote:

Thanks for the help, just put it all together and pretty happy with what I've done!

However, if I lift the handlebars up and therefore the front wheel off the ground a gap appears between the head tube and top of the fork and its a bit 'clunky' with the fork wobbling about ever so slightly. I phoned up the company I bought it from who had helped earlier with a few problems and they said don't touch the bolts adjusting the fork, take it into a shop and get it done professionally.

I'm a two hour drive from a bike shop and would rather just try tightening some things up, what do you think?

thanks

That sounds like the headset needs tightening. Look at the top of the fork - right on the very top, there should be an Allen bolt. This tightens it upi. It may be underneath a cap.

Slacken off the bolts that hold the stem to the top of the fork (steerer tube) a little, then tighten this Allen bolt up until the play between frame and fork is gone. The fork should still rotate freely - if it feels stiff, then back off until it is nice and smooth. The tighten up the stem bolts again.

It's an easy enough adjustment - just don't go mental on over tightening stuff...

Sounds spot-on advice - my favourite method of checking for play in a headset is;

Do as adm1 says

then

squeeze front brake, and rock bike back and forth gently. If you can feel a "clunk" tighten a little more - and continue/repeat until no "clunk".

Works every time for me

ijc1g09

Ok so....

There are only two allen bolts I can see anywhere apart from the stem ones and one of them is the attachment of the front brakes to the headset. The other one is underneath a cap at the top and so I thought I'd have a shot at that so I loosened it...and it promtly dissappeared into the bottom of the headset....

After a moment of bemused hysteria I turned my bike upside down and started fanning the bike up and down to try and get it out to no avail...suggestions please...

ijc1g09

I'm also assuming this plug type thing is the star nut?
http://cdn.cannondale.com/Manuals/2006_ ... ote_en.pdf

cougie

Yes that's the star nut one. Back that off a bit.
Now you must have one or two bolts on the stem that hold that onto your fork steerer ? From that diagram you posted - there should be two ?

Loosen those off.

Now tighten the star nut on the top.

Then tighten up the stem bolts - making sure its in line with the wheel.

Now check for play. Put the front brake on and rock the bike to see if there's any movement. If there is then repeat the moves but make sure to tighten the star nut more.


Where are you in the country thats two hours away from a bike shop ?

MichaelW

You can pay for a mail-order bike setup service at most bike shops. It is not that difficult but you need to know what you are doing. They use the a so-called M-check system.
The vertical bolt on top of the cap threads into a star nut which is captive within the steerer tube of the fork. You cant lose the nut, you may have removed the bolt completely but it should go back in. The vertical star nut bolt is a tension adjuster, the 2 horizontal stem bolts hold the assembly all together once you have set the tension and rotated the bars in line with the tyre.
Note that height is controlled by the location of spacer bars, above or below the stem. You always need to correct amount of spacer as supplied, don't go removing them..

When putting nuts and bolts together, reverse thread them till the threads click into place then do up by hand, this prevents cross threading. Take care threading cheap, tough steel bolts into expensive, soft aluminium components. Apply the correct size allen key. Stop. Push the allen key firmly to seat it. If you suddenly yank it around, half inserted, you will damage the bolt. Tighten just enough; they usually provide some torque specs (Nt) for use with a torque wrench.
All threads should be lightly greased, ideally with anti-sieze (coppaslip) buy std white lithium grease works fine.

Note that the non-driveside pedal has a reverse thread to prevent you unthreading the spindle during pedalling. Pedals need to firmly attached but they also need to be removable.