Assembling your new mountain bike with minimal tools

there's a good chance your next mountain bike will come in a box just like this so new bike day starts with unboxing and assembly which is exactly what we'll be doing today [Music] first of all this is a Diamondback brand bike and that won't affect the instructions all that much most mountain bikes require the same basic steps to unbox and assemble what makes a Diamondback different is the care package it comes with which I'll tell you more about later to simply put a mountain bike together all you really need is a multi-tool but to dial in all the settings you should have a floor pump and if you have air suspension a shock pump before we start turning wrenches I want to talk about the concept of torque most bike parts include markings like this one which says 6mm 6 Newton meters is the torque value we should tighten these bolts to but that would require the use of a torque wrench which most of you don't have so by using my torque wrench and a small multi-tool we can try to get a ballpark frame of reference for a few common values I have my torque wrench set to 4 Newton meters okay very very easy in fact I can take my finger and I can pull it ok now we're gonna set this to 5 Newton meters yeah it's definitely not bordering on difficult it's firm but not difficult ok we're at 6 ok now I'm going really firm with my hand in fact you can see this sort of imprint if I want to push this with my finger it is it is actually painful to do that with my finger torque is a lot more important when you're dealing with carbon parts but even on alloy parts you should be careful with that out of the way I want to talk about one more thing grease it's a really good idea to use this on stuff like through axles and pedals because they could seize if you don't just saying any grease is better than nothing it doesn't need to be high-end with that let's get to putting together this bike almost always the rear wheel Fork and most of the components will be pre-installed you'll need to remove all the straps and ties to access the rest of the parts the handlebars will usually be tied to the side and you'll need to make sure that are oriented correctly before you install them different countries will have the front and rear brake levers on different sides but in most cases the front brake hose will route directly down without crossing any other cables that's one way to tell that you have the bars positioned right to secure the handlebars in place you'll need to remove the clamp on the front of the stem first and then tighten the clamp down just enough to keep the bars in place now you can Center them and adjust the pitch so that they sweep backwards some people like their bars pitch forward more aggressively but it's good to start somewhere in the middle until you develop your own preferences this particular stem calls for all the bolts to be tightened evenly which you can do by checking to see that the gap is the same on all sides some stems call for no gap on one side of the clamp but they're not as common and will usually be marked now you're gonna want to install the seat post on this bike all you need to do is put the post in and close the clamp but if your bike came with a dropper post you're gonna need to make sure you can access the cable and then hook the little nub into the end sometimes you need to turn the bars in order to reach the cable and then guide the cable back in when pushing the post down in any case we're not gonna worry about the height of your seat until later at this point I find it easier to turn the bike upside down so that it's more stable if you're worried about marking up your bars you can put them on some packing material on goes the front wheel first lift up the lever on your through axle and unscrew it now take note of what side of the wheel the rotor is on and what side of the bike the caliper is on if you have the wheel aligned correctly it should drop in effortlessly and require no force to get in place at that point the through axle should go back in with very little effort save for maybe jiggling the wheel around screw the thru axle in and then close the lever it should be tight enough to leave a good impression it's too loose give it one more turn and try again now for the pedals take note as one of your pedals will have some grooves or a line in the shaft and one will not the one that does not gets installed on the drive side of the bike and tightens clockwise just like a normal bolt the other pedal the one with the markings is reversed thread it tightens counterclockwise but here's the thing as long as you're facing the drive side of the bike you know the side with the chain both pedals will appear to thread clockwise you'll figure it out to get your pedals nice and tight make sure you find an angle where you can tighten against the crank arm and if your bike has multiple gears up front make sure the chain is around the largest one because if you slip with that sprocket exposed you're gonna have a bad time so now your bike is more or less together but we're not done yet unless your bike is used they came with new brake pads and rotors which means we need to bed them in if you touched your rotors during the installation clean them with alcohol to get any oil from your skin off the surface now hop on your bike get up to a moderate speed and squeeze the brakes lightly enough so that you feel yourself slowing down before you come to a complete stop release the levers and continue rolling repeat this process about ten times and you're done by betting your brake pads you're allowing them to heat up and distribute an even layer of material across the surface of the rotor if you were to immediately hop on your new bike slam on the brakes and come to a full stop your rotors could end up with a clump of braking material in one area with that out of the way let's adjust the height of your C post if you have a dropper post extended all the way up now brace yourself on a wall or something and drop your crank all the way down with your leg totally straight your heels should sit flat on the pedal adjust your seat post until you achieve this I mentioned torque earlier in the video and this is particularly important on dropper seat posts too much torque can prevent them from operating smoothly if you have a quick-release it should be just possible to close with your thumb any tighter and you should probably loosen it up a bit now if your bike came with air suspension we'll need to set it up I made a video on this a few years back and it really is a topic that warrants its own discussion so definitely watch that in this video I'll just cover the most basic setting which is known as sag first put on all your riding gear and get on your bike ideally you'll have a friend to help hold you up but my friend today is a wall stand-up and get into an attack position cycle your suspension by bouncing up and down a few times now very carefully reach down and push the o-ring on your fork to the bottom then very slowly get off your bike the suspension will decompress bringing the o-ring with it my fork calls for 30% sag which means my oring should be slightly less than a third of the way up the stanchion Google what the SAG should be for your fork and then check it just like I did from there you can unscrew the air cap and use your shock pump to adjust it less pressure add sec and more pressure reduces sag don't obsess too much about the number on your pressure gauge just go by the o-ring if your bike is full suspension repeat this same process for the rear shock now for your tire pressure which is another topic which warrants a dedicated video what pressure you run will depend on your tire size your weight what type of terrain you're riding and whether or not your tires are set up to 'bless this particular bike has twenty seven five by two point three inch tires and has inner tubes so I'm gonna pump it up to 40 psi to be safe but this bike also came with tubeless valve stems in the box which means it's tubeless ready and can be set up to run much lower tire pressure lower pressure results in a smoother ride and better traction to make this bike tubeless all I need are the included valve stems and some Tula sealant which you can get in the link below or at any bike shop the procedure goes like this first let all the air out of your tire [Music] then push on the base really hard until the tire pops in work your way all the way around and then pull the tire over the rim so you can pull the inner tube out this can be challenging if you've never done it before once the tube is out you can install your tubeless valve stem which needs to make a good seal I like to push firmly on it from the inside of the rim and then get it hand tight [Music] now pull the tire back onto the rim in all but one spot at the bottom shake up your bottle of sealant real good and pour it into the tire different seal and brands require different amounts so check the bottle or the manufacturers website now slowly rotate the wheel 180 degrees so you can access the opening to pop it back on some tires do require more effort than others but every mountain biker eventually gets the hang of it now pump up the tire as fast as possible with a high volume floor pump or air compressor if you're having trouble getting the tires a whole dare try coaxing it on to the side of the rim when you finally get some pressure in it you'll hear it pop into place now just splash the sealant around the inside of the tire or better yet take it for a ride around the block for the sake of brevity I'll spare you additional details on the topic of tubeless at this time I'm gonna answer some very likely questions you'll have about this bike such as what did I get this for this is a Diamondback release 1 and if you notice it's way too big for me that's because it's not for me it's part of my loaner fleet having different sized loaner bikes around will allow me to introduce mountain biking to more people in future videos and with a very attainable bike like the release one I'll be introducing them to the sport on something they may actually be able to afford this is a full suspension trail bike with hydraulic disc brakes through axles tubeless tires a clutch adjustable air suspension and plenty of room for upgrades like internal cable routing for a dropper post what's better it came with these platform pedals a shock pump tubeless valve stems a spare derailleur hanger mud guards and a torque wrench multi-tool I saved this little commercial for the end because I really wanted this to be a tutorial for any bike even if you're not looking to assemble a bike anytime soon I hope this video has provided a little bit of wrenching knowledge or even some entertainment for beginners thanks for watching today and if you're a more experienced rider who didn't need this tutorial I hope you'll stick around and help someone out in the comments section thanks for riding with me today and I'll see you next time you [Music]

Channel: Berm Peak

Views: 2,256,502

Rating: 4.9407601 out of 5

Keywords: mtb, mountain bike, bike repair, biking, bike riding, bike tricks, bike trials, DIY mtb, mtb repair, bicycle repair, cycling diy, cycling how to, bike assembly, enduro bike assembly, trail bike assembly

Id: UnvY8VaWoaQ

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 11 2019