|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
On taking delivery of Dutch city bike
FWIW, some less than obvious points arising from my experience of
buying Dutch bikes by e-mail and using them in a country where they are totally unfamiliar. 1. A bike like the Amsterdam is a low-service utility item. But it is a complicated bike all the same. Small things can irritate if you do not know how to adjust them. Example: taking the gearchange cable off a Nexus 8-speed gearbox is real simple: any old idiot can do it. Putting it back on is also real simple -- on paper. There's a knack. With the knack it is a two-minute job from wheel-off to wheel back on and gearbox fully adjusted. Without the knack it is a frustration that can run on and on for hours. You want someone to show you, really, because it isn't easy to describe how you twist the cable to line the nut up to the slot and push it in with the tiny hex key you will buy for specifically that purpose. When the Marathon Plus are being swapped in, insist on watching like a hawk when the mechanic puts the cable end back into gearchange mechanism. Note that you need a torque wrench to avoid damaging your rear track ends by overtorqueing the axle-nuts; if you don't have a torque wrench, you need to buy one at an engineering shop (the BBB one sold by bike shops doesn't go high enough) together with a deep socket to fit the axle nuts. To get those axle nuts off the rear axle on the road, I carry a short Park spanner which at one end is a pedal spanner (same size as the Nexus wheel nuts) and at the other end a headset wrench (available in two headset nut sizes); it bolts up to the frame behind a bottle cage. 2. The same applies on the other side of the rear wheel, and at the front, with the roller brakes, where there is a knack to taking off the brake operating mechanisms and putting them back on without having to adjust the brakes afterwards (magic!). As with removing the gear cable and putting it back on, you really want to have someone show you how to squeeze the brake bracket and in which direction to pull, and to practice removing and refitting it at home. 3. You are presumably already downloadin from the Shimano Europe and Paul Lange sites the spec and installation sheets of every component on your bike and making a file in a book of plastic leaves so that you have an operating manual. 4. Jay, if you want, i can send to your college e-mail a set of screendump jpegs of my folders for the Gazelle Toulouse, so you can see the file numbers at Shimano you're looking for. If you don't mind a lot of files arriving suddenly, I can just send you the actual pdfs and html pages that together make the service manual for my Gazelle Toulouse to save you hunting around for them. I don't imagine Electra's Amsterdam operating instructions will contain any of that detailed stuff; certainly none of it came with either of my Dutch bikes (the assumption is clearly that the bike will be adjusted and serviced only by the dealer). 5. Jute's Law of Universal Perversity: RTFM -- and you'll never need it. Don't RTFM -- and by sunset you will be sorry you didn't. Andre Jute http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...20CYCLING.html |
Ads |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Getting to the New Jersey High Point to Cape May Bike Route from New York City, Jersey City, and Hoboken | www.GETNJ.com | Rides | 0 | January 13th 08 02:26 PM |
Id this english delivery bike?? | [email protected] | Techniques | 5 | April 2nd 07 01:59 AM |
new bike delivery wait? | scienceproject | Australia | 15 | September 25th 05 04:01 AM |
Delivery of bike | Johnnie Scott | UK | 8 | August 12th 05 06:33 PM |
Good modern trade / delivery bike wanted | Les Waters | UK | 0 | January 9th 05 10:24 PM |