SkipII

I'm grabbing one of these, hopefully delivered later this month. I am planning to assemble it myself, even though my family is looking at me warily and muttering something about taking it to a bike shop.

I'm fairly handy in the garage, having rebuilt three cars and two motorcycles, but as a newbie to biking I thought I would ask if there are any things I should be aware of (or wary of!) as I unpack this thing and test my chops at bicycle assembly. I already know I will take the wheels to a bike shop to get trued up but everything else seems fairly straightforward.

As well, are there any simple, affordable mods that are worth making out of the gate? I'm still learning all the new terminology and aftermarket brands, but I am also going to assemble a wish list.

Thanks for any suggestions.

mack_turtle

it should be no different from assembling any other bike, so general assembly guides should tell you everything you need to know. taking it to a shop will cost you $100 or more (which is fair, considering it's over an hour of labor to do it right), and will probably take several weeks because bike shops are swamped with labor right now. are you buying a complete bike from them, or assembling a bare frame? complete bikes usually come in the box 90% assembled, so you just need to attach some things and tune the brakes and shifting the same way you'd do for any other bicycle.

mack_turtle

Poseidon went to the trouble to produce several assembly videos for their bikes: https://www.poseidonbike.com/pages/installationvideo
watch the video that is relevant to your bike and post whatever specific questions you have that were not answered in that video.

msu2001la

I've never heard of this bike before, but glancing at the video linked above it looks pretty straightforward. You basically need to attach the seat, handlebars, stem and wheels. This should be pretty straightforward for you, especially if you've done automotive work before.

I'd be surprised if you need to get the wheels trued. They're likely fine out of the box. I've had 2 bikes and 3 wheelsets shipped to me over the last 10 years and none of them needed to be trued, but stuff can get banged around during shipping so good to check.

mack_turtle

with experience assembling hundreds of new bikes out of the box: wheels are usually true, but the spoke tension has been been "de-stressed" on new wheels. I recommend giving the spoke tension a touch-up after the first few rides, or preempt all that by stress-relieving the wheel before you take it out on the road (or trail).

Rolla

Setting up the mech disc brakes will likely require a bit of fiddling. Budget your time accordingly.

dwmckee

Shops around here charge $60 and are running about a week to get most things done. You get it done correctly the first time and a decent shop will check the common small stuff you may not realize are wrong out of the box like a loose headset, overtightened wheel bearings and poorly seared tire beads.

SkipII

Thanks, all. Yes, there is a video but I just wasn't sure if there was anything tricky about the dropped bar,. since the video is for straight bar.

mack_turtle

there's nothing particularly different about fitting a drop bar on a new bicycle. install bar on fork, tighten bolts evenly to 5-6Nm.

fitting a bike wit a drop bar is another story, and should be the topic of another thread in the Fitting Your Bike forum.

mstateglfr 

tops of the bar should be level with the ground. the hoods of the brake levers should be level with the tops of the bars.

Dont go full hobo and crank the bars up to the sky. It renders the brake levers useless in the drops, makes for some extreme wrist angles when riding the hoods, and simply looks bad. If you need the tops of the bars higher, raise the stem on the steerer. If you need the tops of the bars even higher, get a stem that angles up.
It will take a few days for the new stem to arrive, but you will have a bike set up properly in the end.