graeme_moss

I just bought a new bike off the internet 85% assembled (Vogue Elite RB Men's 3 gear 28 inch). One part I have to assemble myself is putting the front wheel on. However the forks seem too narrow to go around the wheel, including the nut holding on the Shimano rollerbrake, see first picture with just a nut on the axle:

https (colon slash slash) photos.app.goo.gl (slash) xd8ykYMEw175e7D96

I have tried pulling the forks apart but it will just not fit around this nut on the left side, and a rubber washer sitting over a nut on the right side.

If I take off this nut on the left side, I can fit the fork inside it, but that seems wrong to me, especially given this nut is only meant to be at 15-20 Nm (hand tight?) and presumably is part of how the brake works.

So the best I can do is this on the left side (note the fork is on the inside of all nuts):

https (colon slash slash) photos.app.goo.gl (slash) 1oXFXqajUs9YqQK78

and this on the right side (note the outermost black painted metal is for a basket, the fork is on the inside):

https (colon slash slash) photos.app.goo.gl (slash) SmMJxENgU1RbXah58

Should I try to use more force to pull apart the forks, and if so how, or is the setup above OK (will the brakes work correctly or will they be damaged?), or is there no obvious solution?

Any help appreciated. This bike is for my son's new school and he starts on Tuesday this week, so I'd really appreciate getting this fixed soon...

Thanks. (I've added photos via pseudo-links above to avoid the restriction not to add photos or links -- thanks Iride01!)

Iride01 

Don't give up so easy. Use some ingenuity!. You could put your photos on a hosting site and then write the URL in the plain text of your post. Might need to remove the https:// and also might need to change "." to " dot ".

Iride01 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xd8ykYMEw175e7D96

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1oXFXqajUs9YqQK78

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SmMJxENgU1RbXah58


I have no experience with drum brakes or roller brakes on a bicycle. So I don't quite know what to say since I'd have to see and touch it.

15 to 20 newton-meters is a little tighter than hand tight. About 11 to 14 foot-pounds.

The fork end looks bent in the last pic. Might need to ask the place you bought it from about that. All this bending you say you are doing shouldn't need to be done as a normal thing. So maybe you had a damage claim you might have mucked up.

I'd take it to a bike shop if no one here offers anything. A local bike shop probably won't charge much to put it together for you. Likely for a little more, they'll double check that everything else on the bike is in road worthy condition.

70sSanO

Here is a YouTube that shows the installation. It looks like there is also a front rack. For now I wouldn’t install the rack until I figured out the brake and fork. Once you can see how it goes together you can add the rack.


John

Geekage

If there's a space issue, the first thing I'd do is check that the space is correct. It should be 100mm between inside faces of the fork tips. And likewise between nuts on the hub. Which one doesn't measure out right? Maybe wiggle the roller brake a bit to see if it hasn't fully seated on the splines. Grab the disc (actually it's a radiator) and wiggle and rotate it around while pushing it onto the hub. Don't worry that it rocks around a lot, that's to make up for any misalignment between the hub and the brake.

The second thing to do would be to make sure the fork tips are parallel. That right hand fork tip looks a bit askew, so I wouldn't rule out damage in transit. Was there a plastic fork block wedged between the fork tips when you received it? Park Tool's FFG-2 runs about $116 retail, so maybe have a shop check it out.

Third: yeah, the above video seems to indicate the nut goes against the brake- what little I did watch. That's how it is on my bike, but the nut looks much thinner:

sorry about the dirt.

So, yes, the nut does go on the inside. If the fork tips are 100mm and the hub is more than that, then the nut may be the wrong thickness, though that seems weird. Maybe check the bearing adjustment? If the hub is 100mm and the fork tips are less than that, then the fork was either welded wrong or damaged. It's up to you if you want to pursue that with the manufacturer or shipper.

(apologies if this doesn't flow from one paragraph to the next or I'm repeating myself, I don't really want to wordsmith it)

graeme_moss

Thanks for all the replies, I very much appreciate it.

So after being unable to resolve the issue myself over the phone to the (internet) bike shop, in the end a guy came from the shop (1h40m drive away) this morning and fixed it.

He also could not put the wheel on when the bike was standing and so he turned it upside down. He tried to pull the forks apart with his hands (not sure whether that did anything) and then he managed to shove the wheel onto the (now upside down) forks successfully. I felt a bit stupid not being able to do that myself, but I'm also glad it's him applying the force and not me, potentially voiding any guarantee etc. I've no real clue what's reasonable force to apply in such situations, especially when all the youtube videos show the wheel going on without much force.

So hopefully that's the end of it, and not the start of trouble down the road...

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I'm glad such a forum exists that can help newbies like myself.

ShannonM

Either the fork is bent, or it's too narrow for that hub. Maybe the drum brake hub is wider than the almost-universal 120mm spacing for front hubs. IBut even if that's true, the bike designer would have known that and specced the correct fork. Either way, you shouldn't need to force the fork blades apart to get the wheel into the fork.

Something is still wrong here. I think that something is a bent fork or a mis-aligned dropout. Was there a plastic bit in between the fork tips when you took the frame out of the box? If not, the odds on "bent fork blade" go up.

--Shannon