How To: Unpack and assemble a new bicycle

Bill D., the tech lead at all3sports.com takes us through the steps involved in unpacking and assembling a brand new bicycle. The first he says is to set up or insert the seat post. He recommends using a work stand if you have one at home. He says not to unpack everything at the beginning, but to just expose the seat pack first. Use a wire-cutter to get rid of the film protection used for packing. He has mounted the frame-set on the work stand. The seat post goes into the frame-set. He asks that you put the seat post into the frame a reasonable depth and fasten the screws using a 4mm Allen wrench. Next, he asks you to get rid of the remaining film protection materials. The next set, he says, is to attach the handlebar front brake. All you have to do is remove the stem cap, put the handlebar into the stem and then put the stem cap back on very carefully and finally tighten the screws with a 5mm Allen wrench. The really important thing in stem mounting he says, is to make that there is an equal amount of space and gap on the top as well as the bottom. And for setting up the front brake, you need to put the brake cable into the hole and then slip the bolt from the back of the hole and fasten it with the 5mm Allen wrench while making sure that the brake is nicely centered. He then explains the third step, which is installing the arm rest. He asks you to first put the raiser, which comes along with the pack, into the bolts in the arm rest. Then insert the arm rest into the slot given and fasten the bolts with your 3mm Allen wrench. The final step is to tighten everything using a torque wrench. Then all you have to do is put on the pedals as well as put some air into the tires and you ready to go. Finally, Bill asks you to make sure that you find the pack of goodies while opening the box. The goodies may be anything like armrest pads, space raiser or things like that.