New bike day - Yay! or maybe Nay :(

yearofthegoat

I bought a new Orbea Occam from Tredz, as they had stock. (EDIT: it's an H20 29er)

Bike looks fantastic, but(!)
- both the brakes rub on their rotors
- there is some white plastic sticking out from under the rear tyre bead (not all the way round just an 8 inch stretch),
- and the chain rubs on the chainstay/chainstay guard when on the smallest sprocket.

I'm fairly sure I can sort these out myself. Tredz said they'd cover up to £35 for an LBS to sort it out (likely not enough around here though). The only one that might be a real worry is the chain rub.

My other - bigger - concern is that the bike is too big.

Orbea's sizing chart put me (174cm tall / 80cm inside leg) either at the top end of a Medium or in the bottom 2/3 of Large, so I went with Large as that was in stock, and I thought Medium might be too small overall (reach etc).

When I put the seatpost all the way down, I can put my feet flat on the floor with knees slightly bent, especially once the suspension settles downwards. However when I pop up the seat to a riding position - heels on the pedal with a straight leg - the seat seems too high off the ground, I kind of have to jump off (or let the dropper down).

In terms of standover, there's around an inch between the top tube and the crown jewels, which seems a bit small?

However, reach-wise it's fine, maybe even a bit small. I read about the 'tip of the elbow on the saddle and reach for the stem', and I can reach past the stem by about two inches. Seems odd.

Ideally I want to keep the bike as it's a PITA to send it back and would cost me £35 (but so be it if I've ordered the wrong size).

What do people think?

yearofthegoat

Some pics:
Chain rub:


White tape:

webboo

Being able to put your feet on the floor when sat on the saddle has no relevance to the bike being the right size. You don’t need to able to do this. When riding and you are about to stop, stand up on the pedals, stop then put one foot on the floor or swing one leg round as they do in a cyclocross dismount.

yearofthegoat

Thanks. Yeah, the feet-on-the-floor just tells me that it isn't wildly too large.

The dropper is fully inserted in the seat tube, and when the seat is popped up to normal ('road') riding position, there's about 4 inches of post showing. Does that seem about right?

It's just that I've seen loads of vids where there's way more seat height above the top of the seat tube. Appreciate a lot depends on the bike geometry, and this Occam has quite a high handlebar height (it seems), especially with 29" wheels. Maybe that's all it is.

Thanks for the tip, but sorry, I don't know what a cyclocross dismount is.

Is it: be up on the pedals, stop and at the same time swing (say) right leg over while the left foot is still on the L pedal? (I do sometimes do that on my current bike)?

Cheers

N0bodyOfTheGoat

For a random comparison, as someone 178cm tall and ~82.5cm cycling inseam (not trouser inseam), my 18" frame Voodoo Marasa has...

~440mm reach
60mm stem
~500mm stack

Currently, with crank down and in line with seat tube, top of pedal to top of saddle is ~89cm and I suspect I could raise it by up to ~1cm (to equal my road bike) but I'm not getting a knee trouble.

It's a very upright position compared to my 18" Voodoo Wazoo fatbike, that from memory had similar geo but I ran it with a 110mm -8 degree stem for at least the past two years (because it spent almost all time on tarmac and I wanted more steering stability).

Double checked the chain length isn't excessive and causing the chain rub?

me-109

With some suspension compression once you sit on it I imagine the chain would have clearance and not rub continually, although you'll likely get some slap on rough terrain.

Surely you can let the air out of the tyre to work out the cause? Admittedly it shouldn't have gone out like that, but if it's part of the tyre beading or casing then that's more to do with quality control of the tyre manufacturer and may only be visually crap.

yearofthegoat

@me-109 Well yeah of course, I can probably (haven't had hydraulic brakes before) set the whole bike up myself at my expense; disappointing on a brand new bike that has been 'set up ready to ride' (Tredz quote).

I think I'll drop the back wheel off, check out the rim tape - I think that's what it is - and replace the wheel. Could be that it's not quite in the rear drop-outs fully and that's what's causing the chain rub? And maybe the brake rotor rub as well.

@N0bodyOfTheGoat Thanks. The Occam H20 Large has 474mm reach and 627 stack. Stem is 35mm. These are on-paper specs. The bike feels very upright to me - my GT Tequesta has much lower handlebars and longer reach - i.e. I'm more stretched out. But it's a very old bike now and totally different geometry.

I'm probably worrying overmuch seeing as it's my first new bike in a very long time (and 8x the price).

If I return it and get a Medium, the reach will be 24mm shorter and (more) cramped.

If I ever get another new bike it'll be from a bike shop where I can sit on the thing before buying. Only bought online due to lack of stock everywhere and my own impatience to get out riding more.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

yearofthegoat

Took the tyre off and it is rim tape. Stuck fast so I guess I could leave it but would rather remove it and put some on properly, as there are long tears in it, inside the rim - wouldn't be very airtight I'm guessing?

Anyway, Tredz have offered to cover the full cost of a service and PDI check (£50), so I'm taking it to an LBS to get it checked over and sorted.

loltoride

Lets have some pictures then!

steve_sordy

The bike is not too large, but your dropper travel is!

I had this on a YT Capra. It had a 150mm travel dropper and even with the dropper body fully inserted into the seat tube, the saddle was 10mm too high for comfort. It always felt too high when riding. "Use the 'effin dropper then, that's what it's for!" I hear you say. I did, but as soon as I used the dropper I was back to the same position. I just could not get the saddle to the correct height on the fly as it were. Eventually, the dropper failed at an early stage and I replaced it under warranty with a 125mm travel dropper, then the bike was perfect.

Can you swap out the dropper? An alterative would be to remove it, sell it and replace with one that has less travel?

reaperactual

Same dropper situation with me too at 5'10" on a medium frame! 150mm travel was just a little too tall when fully inserted and extended.

As mentioned if the fully extended position isn't right then it's not being used for its proper purpose and would become very irritating, very quickly.

Took my dropper off, put a standard rigid seat post on and got decent price selling the dropper as new on eBay. A 125mm dropper would be fine for me so probably the same travel would fit your needs too.

mully79

im 6ft with short legs( 31" trouser seam) on a large trek fuel. I can only use a 100mm dropper for the same reasons.
Advice above is good. The Orbea's always feel a little short to me.
Also possibility of shorter crank arms or thicker pedals !

yearofthegoat

Yeah, that's definitely something to consider. At its lowest it's low enough for getting more clearance and hanging off the back if need be.

As for pedalling position, I just get up on the pedals and let the dropper smack me in the seat bones. Not as quick as letting it right up to the stop, but it works okay. (I'm not racing after all).

@mully79 Yep, that's actually my reason for not returning it for a Medium, but also explains why their sizing seems at odds with all the other mfrs. I was a straight Medium with Spesh, Giant, Trek, Boardman, Calibre, but with Orbea I'd have been at the very top of Medium. Weird but it tallies with the bike, so fair enough I guess.

dcwhite1984

Congrats on the new bike day always a nice feeling.

I like the fact that you trust Tredz and fully agree that it should be set up ready to ride, however if i ordered a bike from anywhere i would always go over it myself and check everything, doesn't take long to do and gives you piece of mind that all is okay and you're not relying on someone else.

The brakes are rubbing which sounds like a mechanic bolted on the caliper span the wheel pulled the lever and went "yep that stops, right whats next" rather than taking the time to properly align and center the caliper and rotor.

As others have said, the dropper sounds like it has too much travel, i had the same issue with a 210mm dropper i bought for the hardtail due to my own miscalculations, the one i got i was able to reduce the travel by 20mm which has sorted the issue.

And for reference i have no hope of reaching the floor if the bike is upright on my 29er full sus and im sat on the saddle, whenever i stop i either just get off the saddle or lean the bike over so i can put one foot down to the side.

Hope you get the issues sorted - lovely looking bikes those Occams.

yearofthegoat

@dcwhite1984 Cheers, it does look great. It's the black version. I did check it all round (which is ofc how I noticed the issues), torqued bolts up to spec etc., but hydraulics is one thing I can't do myself - yet. Kudos to Tredz for covering the LBS check cost. Loads simpler and quicker than returning it to them. It's going in tomorrow so fingers crossed nothing else crops up and I get a proper ride on Tuesday.

sw19carpenters

It also takes a while to just get used to a new bike.
I'd been riding my 26" wheeled mtb for years.
Took me a while to feel good on the new 29" but love it now.