Bike Update

Apparently you get what you pay for. LOL ;)

The cheap $129 Repco Blade 26 66cm Men's Mountain Bike I bought online from BigW turned out to be the colour I preferred (black with green highlights), which was a bit lucky as there are blue and green varieties sold by BigW and when you order online for 'click and collect' pickup it is a random selection (although you could swap for the other colour if there was floor stock available in store). I noticed that there was a slight indent/damage/tear in the cardboard box the bike comes in, but it didn't look too bad so I decided to take the one that was ready for collection -- although I had seen there were two other green ones also available in boxes in the floor display, so I should have asked to swap for an undamaged box. D'Oh!

I unpacked and assembled the bike yesterday. Only needed to insert and fasten the handle bars and seat, and adjust the bell and reflectors on the handle bars. Then screw on the two bike pedals. And finally insert the front tire (which came deflated to make it easier to squish to get it past the brake calipers) and tighten the nuts and then pump up the front tire (the rear tire was already pumped up, but probably needs the pressure checked before I ride the bike). I did manage to get the front tire put on incorrectly, despite double checking which was the correct 'direction of rotation'. Putting the front wheel on with the bike upside down managed to get me confused somehow, so when both wheels were on and I turned the bike upright I noticed that the front and back wheels had the 'direction of rotation' on the tires pointing in opposite directions!.Tip: when you put on the front tire, just check the direction arrow is pointing the same way as it is on the reat tire that comes pre-assembled.

Unfortunately although the assembly process was an easy 20 minute job (only needing the allen key/Phillips head screwdriver that came with the bike, and one small shifting spnner) the final step of pumping up the front tire proved to be a show-stopper. It just wouldn't pump up, and I could hear air escaping from the part of the wheel opposite the valve. After browsing google and youtube trying to work out if the bike was tubeless or had an inner tube (turns out it has an inner tube), I then had to remove the front wheel again, use a butter knife to carefully lever off the tire (I didn't have a bike tire lever handy), and listen to find where the air was escaping from the inner tube when I pumped it up. I found a small (<1cm) cut in the inner tube, possibly caused when the box was damaged (?) or maybe it just came like that from the factory? Anyhow, before driving back to the store I used the online customer service to lodge a complaint and request a suitable replacement inner tube set be delivered free of charge to my home. Unfortunately there was only the 'bot' customer service available on the weekend, so I'll have to wait until Monday to see if someone calls me, or ring up to check if they will be sending me a replacement part. I don't want to spend another hour driving to the store and back just to collect an inner tube set.

If I do have to drive to the store to collect the replacement tube(s) I will first check what size my wife's bike needs (she got a free bike from a friend that has flat tyres), and buy a suitable inner tube set for her bike while I am there.

Next weekend I'll be walking the City2Surf on Sunday, so I probably won't take the new bike out for its first ride until the following weekend, even if the replacement inner tube gets delivery during the coming week.

ps. I also have an old/new bike I bought from Aldi about five years ago and never used (had trouble adjusting the brake calipers correctly) and the tires had gone flat while it was sitting outside for years. Now that I've played around with removing the tire and replacing an inner tube, I might also remove those tires and check what replacement tubes are needed, and then clean up and fix that bike for DS2 to use. Not sure if the chain and gears on that bike are still OK though. I did a free 'bike maintenance' course run by our local council a few years ago, but have never really been much for playing around with car or bike mechanics (despite spending a decade as an experimental scientist for a mining equipment research company -- so I spent a lot of time fiddling around with minerals processing lab equipment, slurry pumps, and experimental chemical engineering setups). I don't enjoy fiddling around with bikes, but as a local bike shop would charge over $100 for a basic service, I'm motivated to do a bit of DIY. Probably a good idea to have a spare inner tube and know how to replace a punctured tube anyhow ;)

**** update ****

I phoned customer service on Monday to check if they were going to send a replacement inner tube, and after being on hold for five minutes the rep a) couldn't find the bot generated service ticket generated on Sunday (apparently the automated system doesn't *normally* generate support tickets?), then b) put me on hold to check with her manager - then came back and said I would have to pack up and return the entire bike and get a replacement. After double checking that I really couldn't just get a replacement inner tube, I gave up and decided to disassemble the bike, pack it all backinto the carton (with a few bits in a paper bag, as it wouldn't all fit back into the original box after the packing and cable ties had been removed during unpacking). I then spent an hour driving back to BigW to return the bike, explain the situation again to customer service, and then be given the choice of either just getting the inner tube replaced (!) or exchange the whole bike. Having brought the entire bike back to the shop (and not entirely sure some parts hadn't moved around in the box and scratched the paintwork while driving back to the store) I decided to just get a whole new bike. I assembled the replacement bike today and it all seems OK this time, so tomorrow I'll give it a short test drive and check everything works and is still tight after a short trip.

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