Posts Tagged ‘grays’
Good for learning about bicycles…. … because you have to learn all about them to get Pacific Grays Peak Mens Dual-Suspension Mountain Bike working.
Shipping was fairly fast, taking a couple weeks to get to my semi-minor town.
Firstly I notice the tires were twisted funny on the wheels. Very cheap. I had to adjust the tires to get everything roughly symmetrical while gradually putting air in. This took half an hour.
From here I followed the instructions and put on the front tire, seat and handlebars. No problems here. Took another half hour because I’d never done it before. Well, just be sure to tighten the handlebars REALLY well. I fell the first rut I hit because I lost my steering.
The next unofficial thing needed is truing the wheels while gradually tightening the brakes. The included instructions make no mention of how to do this, and you’ll have to find out via google. I found it’s important to adjust the brakes while truing, or else you’ll go nuts trying to figure out why the brakes don’t work right. I lost probably 3 hours on this.
Next goes on to derailleur adjustment… this is where my nightmare truly began. The instructions tell you what to do, but leave out a critical step: NOTICE THE ORIENTATION OF THE ADJUSTMENT WIRES AND FLIP THEM AROUND AS NECESSARY TO MAKE SHIFTING EASIER!! I found I couldn’t operate the front shifter at all with all the strength I had. Then I just unbolted the adjustment wire and spun it around the other way on the bolt. Suddenly shifting took less than half the oomph of before! Too bad the derailleur actually BENT in this experience. I torqued the shifter so hard it ripped and bent a metal part. I emailled the company and they got me a new one in a couple weeks.
Then I realized I couldn’t install the new derailleur without using a chain tool to temporarily break the chain — a tool I did not have. So I ordered a $20 tool to do the job. That was another week of delay. I think I spent upwards of 8 hours just on the derailleurs.
So over approximately 5 weeks and 12 hours of active effort, I now have a finished bicycle I don’t really trust so much. If I hit a bump or shift gears fast, the chain pops right off. But hey, at least it was cheap and looks nice. I do like the shock system too — it is a fairly cushioned ride.