First ride experience and questions

[richa]

My new quest arrived this morning and I spent a few hours assembling it. A big chunk of that was spent trying to undo a control cable mess I'd made by not paying attention to how they were routed when assembling the front triangle. I think I may have actually assembled it few times before I had it straightened out.

When completed, I had a few spare parts, which seems to happen a lot with me. I had a big rubber O- ring and two small rubber tubes. If anyone can tell me what these things are for I'd really appreciate it.

After watching the "how to ride" video and adjusting the seat as upright as possibIe I gave it a go. First session was about an hour and went well; at the end I could get started on level ground, ride fairly straight both fast and slow, and make u- turns in the width of the road. The "open palms" thing works mysteriously well.

After a short break i rode for another hour session; riding around in some local residential neighborhoods and trying some local hills. All went well; I was pleased. It's really comfortable and fun to ride.

After a two hour break I tried another session and seemed to have regressed. I actually fell over when trying to start up a slight incline; which I'd been able to earlier in the day. If anyone has any advice or pointers on how to get started on inclines I'd appreciate them.

Lastly some technical questions. At the end of the day the headset seemed a little loose. How much play should it have and how do I go about tightening it? And which way do I rotate the rear shock to make the ride softer? I tried both ways and I didn't really notice a difference. I'm around 175lbs.

Rich

 

[billyk]

Welcome!

Hi Rich -

Your experiences sound pretty normal to me .... but I'd think carefully about those extra parts. There might be two plastic spacer tubes that are part of the rack, or needed if you don't mount the rack; did you put that on? Not sure about the O-ring, but very likely someone will comment on that soon.

I suggest that you search through this forum as many of your questions are answered, or at least discussed at length. Just rummage through the Q pages.

In particular there's some discussion of the headset and front shock, which perplexed a bunch of us. (See the thread "Is the Quest 2 front shock adjustable?"). And it's tricky to describe which way to turn the rear shock ... "clockwise looking down, or ???". But I think if you give a full turn or so in each direction, then bounce the bike, you'll see. It adjusts well.

Billy K

 

[Jeremy S]

Rich, I am new to this stuff

Rich, I am new to this stuff but I don't think your headset should have any detectable play at all. For information on the headset you might see Doug's blog post:

http://cruzbike.com/mysteries-diatech-headset

 

[Plazebo]

Cable Buffers etc.

Hey Rich,

The rubber tubes, if they are split down the side, are meant to wrap the cables to prevent rubbing at the front of the frame. Both of mine fell off whilst riding despite my efforts to check them every time I started a ride.

As the owner of a newly acquired Quest I advise:

1. Reading the manual on adjusting the disc brakes (but don't be afraid to modify the procedure)
2. Check the bolts that secure the front wheel before every ride (imagine how I learned that)
3. Keep an ear out for unfamiliar noises as you ride. Stop if you hear one

My mods so far:

1. Gear shifter rotated for knee space
2. Home-made seat extension and headrest
3. 11-34 tooth cassette
4. 1.5 inch tyres

 

[jphipps]

Exrta stuff

The big rubber o-ring is for part of the bell ( I think), to keep it from ringing. I also had two ceramic stand-offs that I cannot find a place for. I have about 300 miles on my quest so far, the bike seems very stable at speeds above 15mph. Getting across traffic intersections where I have had to make a stop for traffic is the most challenging for me.

 

[John Tolhurst]

The rubber ring hooks around

The rubber ring hooks around the ends of the short supports that stop the rack from folding. Just so they dont pop off. Then if you take the rack off, that is when you will use the two stand offs, on the ends of the T at the top of the seat post.

 

[richa]

Thanks


Thanks to everyone for clearing up the mysteries! And to everyone that posted all the other useful info on the forum; I keep stumbling across more good stuff; Maybe someone could compile all the useful ideas into a user manual (it could be just topics and links to the forum posts). That would be super useful to future owners, and save them lots of time and possible aggravation.

The bike is amazingly comfortable. After riding for an hour I can get off and have absolutely no aches or pains anywhere. At first I thought the seat padding should be harder, but the more I ride the the more I find it seems to work as is.

i did make some seemingly typical modifications for make it fit me better; i put on a longer handlebar stem (which I had lying around), added some spacers to lift the back of the seat pan up 1/2 inch or so (The TFT is extended to the 8 1/2 mark, which made the BB low enough that front of the seat pan pushed on the back of my leg), and put on an 11-34 cassette.

Of minor concern is the headset. I've had to tighten it up 3 times. Although its been less loose each time so perhaps this will stop being an issue soon.

And the tires seem to have slow leaks. But ill likely replace them with something more durable soon anyway as I'll gladly trade some performance for robustness.

Rich

FWIW, the seat came with a black rubber pad under each of the three mounting points, and I'm not sure the middle one was supposed to be there because it kept the other two from being able to make contact at the same time ; I.e. the seat wobbled. Since I added spacers anyway, it's a moot point for me.

 

[jphipps]

Headset and other stuff

I had the same problems with the headset becoming loose. I went to the local hardware store an purchased a long rod ( approx. 3 ft.)that had threads on it, and some large washers and nuts to screw on the rod. I then emulated what modern headsets do with a star nut and long screw to take all the play out of the upper and lower headset bearings. A picture is attached. Make sure the headset adjustment is loose and the collar is flush with the bottom of the two quick-release fitting. I was not able to make the two quick-release fitting stay put during a ride as it would rock forwards very slightly because of the way it is loaded or maybe it becomes slightly deformed during the tightening process. If the quick-release fitting moves ANY amount your headset will loosen. Anyway I put a hose clamp right above the two quick-release fitting with metal to metal contact so the quick-release fitting will not move in a rocking motion. This solved my problem.See attached picture. Also use lots of thread locker on the headset screw and collar.

I also changed the pedals after the second ride to some BMX metal platform petals that have small set screws used as gripping devices, the brand I used are called nite-ops. I would not consider using cleats for at least a year. I may never have to use cleats. This one change made riding much easier for me. See picture of pedals attached.