Author: Seth's Bike Hacks
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Anyone who has received a bike in the mail knows how awesome it is to see this box at the door. This is like the egg that a bike hatches from, but it’s not going to peck through the shell and start walking around on its own. We’ll need to coax it out. It may come as no surprise that bikes come with a lot of packing material. You'll spend just as much time dealing with all this crap as you will assembling the actual bike—just ask a shop mechanic. Most bikes are packaged with the pedals, seat post, and handlebars removed. The really hairy stuff like the bottom bracket and cables are mostly done for you, but you'll still need a fair amount of experience to get everything else assembled correctly. On a mountain bike you'll usually need to line up the disc brakes, and perform a basic tuneup to other parts like the derailleur. I usually put the bike together, then remove everything that isn't 100% essential. Nobody likes this plastic guard behind the cassette, and these reflectors will only become litter on the mountain bike trails. After it's assembled I start to fine tune things the way I like. The cable routing is going to need to change here, and I'll probably make a few more tweaks after riding for a bit. After it breaks in, it’ll need another tuneup, particularly to the gears. I also find that headsets work in slightly after a few good drops, so this bike will be back on the stand a few times over the next few weeks. So this is my new bike, the Diamondback Sync'r Pro. This bike was not designed to be treated gently, so we'll need to give it a proper beat down this weekend, you know, to break it in. I’ll take it to the trails, and probably jump off some stuff downtown just for good luck. This is a much bigger bike than my last hardtail, from the wheels, to the bars, to the tires. It’s clear that this bike will destroy everything in its path, but it’ll be interesting to see how it handles more technical riding. As for my Trek 4900, it's not going anywhere. Bikes don't get jealous, so you can be in a polygamous relationship with as many of them as you want. I'm excited to get to know my Sync'r Pro a little better over the next few weeks. Thanks for riding with me today and I'll see you next time. T-Shirts http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/hardtail-shirt/