How To Set Up A New Bike | Maintenance Monday

- I have just got my hands on this new Orbea Orca Aero.
Yeah, believe me.
I do know how lucky I am.
But I thought I would talk you through the process
of setting a new bike up to your own personal preferences.
It's not a regular everyday occurrence, I grant you,
but you may borrow one from me or you may hire one.
So, it's definitely a useful skill to have.
(energetic music)
The first thing I do when setting up a new bike
is to get my saddle position sorted.
Now, the centre point for all bike fit measurements is here.
So, the bottom bracket.
And therefore, everything that you do relates to this.
So, the first thing is to get my saddle height sorted
and that is nice and straightforward.
So measured from the centre of the crank spindle
to the top of the midpoint of the saddle.
I'm looking for 777 millimetres, since you asked.
(laid back music)
Then we get our lay back sorted.
So, that's how far back you have your saddle
in relation to, yes, you guessed it, the bottom bracket.
So, to find that measurement
is a little bit trickier than your saddle height.
You need a completely level floor
and then a completely vertical wall.
You then measure, horizontally, from the centre
of the bottom bracket back to the wall
and then subtract the distance
from the tip of that saddle back to the wall.
That will give you your lay back measurements.
(laid back music)
So, my saddle is now in the right position.
So, that's going to stay fixed there, no matter what.
So, we're going to turn our attention
to the next contact point,
which is, of course, the handlebars.
And the first thing we're going to do here,
is to actually get the drop right.
So, that's the difference in height from the saddle
to the handlebars.
And to find it we measure vertically from the saddle
to the floor, this time, not the bottom bracket axle,
and then do the same at the handlebars.
Then to actually move that stem up and down,
to change the height of the handlebars,
we just simply replace spacers.
So, from either below to above, in order to lower it.
Or from above to below, in order to raise it up.
And if you can't get your bars at the right height,
then I'd suggest firstly
that you may well have go the wrong size frame.
If you're convinced that your frame is right,
then, unfortunately, it is going to be new stem time.
(relaxed music)
Now, as you can see, I've got a little bit of extra work
to do to cut down that steerage.
But, we'll not let that hinder us for now.
The next measurement that we need to do
is to check the reach.
So, the distance from the tip of the saddle
to the centre of the handlebars.
Now, given that, that saddle position is fixed,
as we've already learned,
the only way to actually adjust the reach,
is to buy a new stem, unfortunately.
But, before you rush out and order one,
there is one other thing
that may well have an effect on that.
(bass music)
Bar and lever position.
You see, you can get totally obsessed with stem length.
Or at least some people can, anyway.
But actually, it might not mean all that much
depending on what type of handlebar you've got.
Because actually, the really important contact points,
like the lever hoods and the drops, may vary by
as much as two to three centimetres depending on
whether you've got a compact handlebar
or a traditional type of drop bar.
All those different things.
So actually, before you go and order a new stem,
you need to check that the important things
are actually in the right place.
So, for me, luckily, these are.
But, what I do need to do, is now reset the lever angle
because I like a really nice flat transition
from the top of the bars to the lever.
And as you can see, that one's pointing up slightly.
Unfortunately, to move them is a little bit labour intensive.
You need to unwrap the handlebar tape, very carefully,
as far as the lever clamp there.
Then you loosen the bolt in the brake lever,
move it down slightly to the desired position,
and then re-tape it back up.
And unfortunately, a bike is never gonna feel right
until you have your lever hoods in
the right position for you.
(bass music)
The bike nearly feels like mine now but not quite.
So, I always go to the brakes to make sure
they feel as I want them to.
Generally speaking, I seem to like a little bit
more lever pull, so more squeeze on the brake,
than the average mechanic who sets up the bikes.
So, as you can see, not much there.
What I'm gonna do is loosen the cable cinch bolt
and then get like a millimetre of serve cable through,
so then I get them feeling as I want them.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so the bike now feels like mine.
But, before I roll out the door on it,
I've got to do that all important bolt safety check.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'd trust the Orbea bike mechanics,
who set this up implicitly.
But, at some point, you kinda got to take responsibility
for your own bike.
So, with a trusty torque wrench in hand,
I'm gonna go over all the important bolts
to make sure they are cinched up just the right amount.
And even if you discount safety,
it's actually just really annoying
having something come loose on your inaugural bike ride
on your new steed.
(bass music)
All that's left to do now is pump up my tyres.
Now, of course, the correct pressure for you
depends on your body weight and also the roads
that you ride on.
But for me, on these 25 mm continental tyres,
I'm gonna go for 75 PSI or about 5.2 BAR,
front and back.
Nice and soft for crappy British roads.
So that is how you make a bike feel like yours
before you even turn the pedal.
Now, unfortunately, before I can be seen in public on this,
I do have a little bit of homework to do, obviously.
I need to cut my steerer tube.
If you need to know how to do that,
we have a video on that already.
So click just down there to see exactly what to do.
Do make sure you subscribe to GCN as well,
before leaving this video.
And then, one last thing for you to maybe check out,
once you've finished this one, is the video just down there,
which is a little bit more information
about those, all important, bike measurements.

How To Set Up A New Bike | Maintenance Monday

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