The new bike has arrived

[lulubel]

It's here, and it's beautiful.

(I'll post some pictures later on. My camera battery is charging at the moment!)

The delivery process was confusing, but very well handled if we'd understood what they were on about! The outside bell rang a couple of hours ago (we're in a 2nd floor apartment), my OH answered it, and established there was a bike for me, and that we were in. Then the person at the door chattered away in very fast Spanish, and went away before my OH could ask her to repeat it more slowly. So, my OH rushed downstairs and got to the door just in time to see the van driving off!

We speculated for a while, and about an hour later the bell rang again. This time it was a man, and my OH let him in. The bike was brought up in the lift by 2 people (the original driver had obviously gone back to get help carrying it), they brought it in, I signed for it, and off they went.

For Motozulu's benefit (and anyone else who's considering buying a bike from Bike Discount), I was very impressed with the packaging. I'd forgotten to order the strong box, so it was shipped in their standard box, which was still very hefty and closed with big staples that I had a job getting to come out - very frustrating when you're anxious to get a first look at your new bike! There was a handle-hole in one end - I think the box is intended to be dragged along the ground by that - and someone had cut a hole in the other end as well, so 2 people could carry it between them. The second hole had made one of the tyres visible from outside the box.

The bike was packed well. The wheel hubs and brake discs were protected by plastic discs, the frame was wrapped in strong cardboard, and the forks and handlebars were wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap. There was some extra cardboard and polystyrene packaging to protect it and keep it from moving.

The forks had been turned round, and the bars were strapped to the side of them with very tight cable ties, so simply a matter of turning them round and fixing the bars to the stem. The front wheel was also strapped to the frame with cable ties. All I had to do once the bars were on was put the QR skewer in the front wheel, remove the plastic insert from the brakes, and put the wheel on. Then I put the seat post in (the frame was greased ready to receive it) and attached the saddle, removed all the packaging, and the bike was effectively ready to go.

It's still raining!

Continued below .....

 

[lulubel]

I didn't ask Bike Discount to do any particular setup on the forks (although they will do this for free), and the air pressure seems to have been set very high, which is fine because I know I'll have to do plenty of tweaking before I get it how I want it, so I can start by letting some air out! I also need to let some air out of the tyres, which are pumped up extremely hard. (This is probably a good thing because the tyres are at the very ends of the box while the bike travels, so if the box does take a hard knock on either end - if it's dropped, for example - the pressure in the tyres should help protect everything from damage.)

The frame is a very small size (13"), which is perfect for me because it's the same size as my old MTB. This does mean space on the frame is very limited. It only has one set of bottle cage mounts, and the bend in the top tube means these are only accessible with a 500ml bottle, and even that is a very tight fit, and you'd have a job getting it out while you're riding. I can also see a danger of my preferred adjustable cage rubbing the seat tube, but fortunately, I have a very minimalist lightweight cage I can put on it instead.

My plan at the moment, while temperatures are relatively low, is to use the cage for a storage bottle and carry a hydration pack for my water and "stuff". I do have a saddle bag, but if I'm going for a dropper seat post (which I haven't totally made a decision on yet), I'll need to lose the large saddle bag and get something small that just attaches to the saddle rails and not the seat post. For summer, I'm thinking about a bar bag (which I've seen quite a lot of MTBers using) with a hydration bladder inside it, rather than my current bar mounted bottle cage, which does look a bit naff - fine on a cheapo bike, but very out of place on my lovely Cube!

I'll write more about it when I've got some photos to show you.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Excellent. Now go and get it dirty.

 

[lulubel]

I'm going to get out on it first thing tomorrow morning (well, after I've done some work, which sadly has to take priority, but I'll start nice and early). There are some easy trails just outside town that I'm going to take it on first, to start getting a feel for it and tweak the setup, and I'll progress from there. It's looking like the rain will have mostly stopped by tomorrow, so it will be muddy, but I shouldn't come across any unexpected rivers.

 

[Cubist]

I'm going to get out on it first thing tomorrow morning (well, after I've done some work, which sadly has to take priority, but I'll start nice and early). There are some easy trails just outside town that I'm going to take it on first, to start getting a feel for it and tweak the setup, and I'll progress from there. It's looking like the rain will have mostly stopped by tomorrow, so it will be muddy, but I shouldn't come across any unexpected rivers.

Great news....

Will the camera be charged by then?

 

[Motozulu]

I'm very jealous of you - congrats and I hope you are both very happy together. I think I'm going down the same route as you Lulubel and getting the Radon shipped out to me next year - thanks for the info on shipping and I look forward to the photo's of your new 'pride and joy'.

 

[lulubel]

Here are the promised photos. I was having trouble with lack of light when I took them, and as a result some of them seem to be a bit blurred. Not sure why exactly .....

Here it is! As you can see, the top tube is low, and there's plenty of seat post sticking out. I can just about get my (small) clenched fist between myself and the top tube when I'm stood over it. I know standover on MTBs is generally considered to be less important now than it used to be, but I'd still rather not land on the top tube if I have to get both feet down suddenly.

The saddle isn't the one that came with it, which was a Selle Italia X1 and looked horribly uncomfortable. It's my old and much loved SDG Allure (the one that was on my old road bike during the crash, and is scuffed down the side you can't see in the photo). I did have it on the Surly, but the Surly now has a new one, and I've put the scuffed one on the MTB where it's more likely to get scuffed some more!

Reba forks. Very nice

I've figured out how to adjust the pressure in the positive and negative chambers, and where to adjust the rebound setting, but I'm not sure about the compression. This is the top of the right fork where the remote lockout attaches.

It says compression on it, but I'm not sure if there's anything here you can adjust?

Comfort grips (and they do seem like they'll be pretty comfortable).

And with my hand on them. With my hand at the end of the bars on the wide part of the grip, this is where my first finger naturally lands on the brake lever. I'm not sure if this is where I'll naturally want to put my hand or not, but I figured I'll try it like this and see how I feel before I start moving things around. If I move the brake levers inwards, I'll either end up with the shifters a long way away or the brake levers a long way in (if I put the shifters on the outside).

Vile pedals that will cut my legs to pieces if I fall off, so I'd better try hard not to. I'm still undecided about whether to go clipless or stick with flats. Both have their pros and cons, and I'm not sure which set of cons I'm more willing to put up with. (I may put the resin pedals from my old bike on it while I'm deciding, because they just leave me with massive bruises!)

Racing Ralph tyres have a small and shallow tread pattern compared to my old tyres, which might be quite good on the usually dry surfaces around here. (I'm not too sure how well they'll grip if it's muddy tomorrow.) I wonder if they might be in danger of cutting up on the rocks, though. If they do, I'll be on a serious tyre hunt!

That little, red label you can just see on the left side of the photo says the tyres are tubeless ready, so does that mean they are tubeless? How do I know? The front wheel feels very light, but that might just be because I've got used to handling the heavier wheels on my old bike.

The total weight of the bike is exactly 12kg, which is 400g less than the weight quoted on Bike Discount, presumably because the weight quoted is for the 15" or 17" frame. (The 2013 model is quoted 500g lighter than the one I've got, so they've obviously shaved a bit of weight of somewhere.) It's 1.6kg lighter than my old MTB, which isn't a massive reduction in weight (and I could probably have got a lighter bike for similar money), but a huge weight reduction wasn't really what I was after. I'm good at climbing - I get lots of practice at it - so, while less weight is nice, it's the performance of the higher quality components that I'm more interested in.

(Motozulu, there's something of relevance to you there. Don't get too hung up on weight saving. My Surly is 700g heavier overall than my old road bike, but the steel frame is more forgiving, and the rims on my road wheels are lighter than my old ones. That adds up to me being around 1mph faster on average than I was on the old bike, and it seems to climb much more easily. I think choice of components and where the weight is located is more important than overall weight, and this is probably particularly important on a MTB.)

Tomorrow morning, I will be taking it out for its "maiden voyage" and (as I'm sure you can imagine) I'm almost delirious with excitement, as well as a bit of nervousness that it either won't live up to my expectations or I'll let it down with my own incompetence!

 

[Cubist]

@lulubel Oooh that is nice!

Your brakes are set up for two finger braking. If you do want to try one-finger stuff, then make sure you can wrap your hand all the way round the grip, and reach the ball at the end of the lever with the first joint of your forefinger for max leverage. You'll need to move the levers inboard of the shifters, and play around until it all feels right.

Tubeless ready tyres are just that. They will seal on tubeless rims as long as the rims have tubeless rim tape, tubeless valves and sealant fluid such as Stans. You need to check whether your rims can be run tubeless or whether they need a conversion kit. Fully tubeless tyres are UST and are twice the weight of your current tyres. The front wheel will feel light, because IIRC Cube use Schwalbe lightweight tubes.

Ralph Evos are indeed very thin walled. Give them a try, but carry a tyre boot with you just in case. If the terrain is a rocky as you describe, you may be better off with Schwalbe Snakeskin which have a protected sidewall.

The compression control is via the pushloc on the bars. Fully depressed it'll be locked. All the way open is fully active, and anywhere in between is on a sliding scale of whether the fork will react to little or bigger hits. It's a bit like a stepless floodgate adjuster.

Pedals? If I were you I'd go clipless.

 

[02GF74]

nice bike - must feel like Christmas has come early

re: The frame is a very small size (13"), which is perfect for me because it's the same size as my old MTB.

you sure you are on the correct size frame - there is a lot of seat post showing - you assume that you old MTB is correct size for you.

also the Q/R levers on the wheels, should point to the back - that way they will not come undone when you brush against branches/rocks/twigs etc.

 

[neil earley]

Looks fab enjoy your early xmas present ps some vidio,s would be nice of your rides.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

You teased us then delivered!. Lovely bike

 

[GrumpyGregry]

we like. muchly.

oner thing made me smile. the idea that somehow in the event of things going pear shaped one might be able to land with both feet flat on the floor thus using the stand over height. Well, maybe, one day.... there must be a knack to it

 

[MattHB]

nice bike! I had ergo grips like that on my hybrid and they were great.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

[quote="lulubel, post: 2128048, member: 16002] For summer, I'm thinking about a bar bag (which I've seen quite a lot of MTBers using) with a hydration bladder inside it, rather than my current bar mounted bottle cage, which does look a bit naff - fine on a cheapo bike, but very out of place on my lovely Cube![/quote]

We need you to set a trend. Why would you want to strap a 500g or 750g or 1kg dead weight to your bars of all places in the form of water bottles?

Surely something like this is better alternative to either a full blown ruck/knapsack style camelback or bottles. Back in the 90'd we all used fanny packs along with frame mounted water bottles until we wised up and/or got e coli from the cow muck!

If you must put your bottles on the bike surely behind the saddle is the best place provided they don't then stop you getting off the back.

 

[Motozulu]

That bike looks like the dogs danglies lulubel - enjoy. I'll try not to get too hung up on weight but as a slightly over 13 stone bloke I do need a lighter bike - I'm rubbish at climbing, but as you say - the kit it comes with is just as important I suppose.