# Detail work needed out of the box on a BD bike?



## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

My brother's considering a Motobecane Messenger to ride a couple miles each way to work. I think it's a great idea - it's supposed to save him money and not be too much trouble to deal with. He's seen what happens to my bikes...

I'm curious as to how much wok they need when they come out of the box. Not the assembly part - I know they need a little, and I think my brother is fine figuring that out. But the fine points.

Is he going to need to adjust the headset? Hubs, if loose-ball? Wheels adequately tensioned? I think if I can let him know upfront to look at any of this stuff, or maybe get some help from a shop, it'll make for a better ownership experience for him longer-term. (We're not in the same city, btw, or I'd just offer to help him myself.)


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## cyclesport45 (Dec 10, 2007)

All those things, or more, may need to be looked at. Or, maybe none of them. If he hasn't the experience wrenching his own bikes, taking to his LBS would be a fine idea.

BD bikes come out of the box for you just as any comparable bike does for a bike shop. Usually needs some simple final assembly, and perhaps minor tweaking. Depends on nothing more than dumb luck.


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## stephen9666 (Apr 7, 2010)

I have two BD bikes. One was made in Taiwan and one was made in China. The Taiwanese bike was much better assembled than the Chinese bike. 

The Chinese bike needed lots of wheel truing. The wheels on the Taiwanese bike were ready to go right out of the box. One of the rims was actually bent on the Chinese bike, but it's not clear to me if that happened during shipping or not. Also, the Chinese bike had misrouted cables. I had to disconnect a brake cable to untangle them. So, how much it needs might depend on the country of origin of the bike he gets.

They might need some bearing adjustment. I think I opened, lubed and adjusted all the hubs on ours. It will need a complete derailleur setup. They're pretty much just bolted in place and shipped out, from my experience. The brakes will also need a complete setup and adjust.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Well, he's getting a singlespeed. So at least it won't have derailleur cables to be routed wrong. I sent him a link to the Park Tools assembly checklist.


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## tednugent (Apr 26, 2010)

Probably need to adjust the brakes... not really hard to do.
wheels may need truing.

After that... the detail work is fitting the bike


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## chocostove (Jan 31, 2007)

Don't forget to check the hubs. I've assembled a few BD bikes for friends and on most of the low end bikes the hubs were adjusted way too tight right out of the box and virtually no grease either.


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