- So today we're gonna be lookin'
at settin' up our E-bikes, common problems that happen
after those first few rides, and a few setup techniques too.
(electronic noises)
So by law any bike that is sold in the UK
needs to come out of the shop with reflectors,
we're talkin' front reflectors, rear reflector,
pedal reflectors, wheel reflectors.
It's your call if you wanna remove them,
but if you're using your E-bike seriously off road,
I would seriously consider it, 'cause these things rattle
around, they break, and they, you know,
don't look that pretty on your bike, either.
But obviously if you're ridin' at night,
commutin' on it, keep them on, it's you know,
an amazin' safety feature.
So on the back wheel another thing you're gonna find
is the spoke protector.
Basically this little disc is meant to protect
your spokes and any damage if you overshift
or your deraileur gets damaged or twisted.
Sometimes if you're going to easiest gear,
the chain will go over the top of the cassette
and mash down on behind the cassette, gettin' jammed,
damagin' spokes.
These tend to come loose over time or to develop
a bit of a rattle.
It's up to you again, if you wanna remove it.
I personally do 'cause they always break
or they just look pretty clumsy to me.
Easy way of doing this is to remove the cassette,
slide it off, and these literally just clip on,
so you just turn 'em backwards and just remove it.
The first time you get out on your E-bike,
just testin' out on the road outside your house,
you're probably going to be pretty unimpressed
with the power of those breaks.
That's because you need to bed them in.
So the best way to bed those pads in quickly,
as you're ridin' along, just on and off the brakes
intermittently, little bit of drag walks peadlin' it along,
just go steady with those breaks, 'cause if you go
flyin' along flat out and pull those breaks hard,
you're gonna glaze those pads straightaway
and they're gonna be really weak and just won't bed
in properly.
So a way to make that process even faster is
do that draggin' technique, but try stoppin'
and addin' a little bit of clean water, somethin'
from a bottle or your tap, just make sure that water isn't
dirty or contaminated in any way.
Just with that water just run it over your rotor,
and repeat that process, pullin' that break on and off.
You'll feel the break pads get a lot more bite to them
and maybe a little bit of noise, little bit of howlin',
but this is perfectly normal, it just means that
the pad's wet, vibrating slightly when you're pulling that
break on.
But, even quicker than that, try addin' a little bit
of trail water.
This is a little tip of mine, personal one.
Best to get some mud, and some water, in a cup
or sa pray bottle, somethin' like that.
Addin' those bits of dirt increases that friction
as well between the break pads.
Just try dropin' a bit of that round on the disk.
Again, there's gonna be a lot of noise
but it will disappear once that brake pad dries out.
Just remember, when you're out on the trail
after all this beddin' in process,
your brakes should be totally silent.
If you're experiencin' low brake power
and a hell of a howlin', squealin' noise every time you
pull that break on, means your brakes been contaminated,
it's got oil on it, somethin' isn't right.
The only way to correct that is by replacin' those pads
and cleanin' that rotor thoroughly.
(relaxed music)
So it's always a good idea before any ride
just to do a bolt check on your bike.
We're talkin' suspension linkages, your rear mec
and the bolts, cable clamp, rear axle, head set,
stem, pretty much any bolt you can see,
just get an allen gear or a torques key.
Just make sure it's torqued up for the manufacturer's
torque settings.
Lot of them can be really tight, things like crank bolts,
you know, you have to put a lot of toque on,
but things like carbon seat posts, seat clamps,
and suspension linkages you tend to go a little bit
easier on there.
If you're unsure just check your manual,
or even note that a lot of components will have that
neat a meter setting on them.
Just check that before you crank it up,
because they do feel sometimes loose,
but they're loose for a reason.
(relaxed music)
So we're gonna talk about some basic suspension set up
techniques.
Basically first thing we look at is sag on suspension.
Manufacturers tend to spec around 25 to 30 percent sag.
Sag, if you don't know what that is,
is static right away on the bike, we're not talkin'
about bouncin' on that seat, we're talkin'
about gently sittin' on that bike, liftin' our feet
off the ground, and seein' how much that shock meter
has traveled.
It's normally indexed on there, it'll show you actually
how much travel you're usin'.
Or there's a ring you can slide up, like an elastic ring.
Just put that up with no rider weight on it
and once you ride, sit on that bike,
that ring will move down the shock shaft,
showing how much of that travel you're actually usin'.
Just remember, if you ride with a pack,
particularly if you carry a spare battery
and a full water, you know, a Camelback,
that, if that's full up with tools, battery,
it's gonna add a hell of a lot of kilogram weight
to your bike.
So just be aware of that when you're checkin'
out your sag.
Some of the problems you might find when you're
out on the trail if your suspension is too soft,
basically means that bike is gonna sit in the travel
a lot more.
This is gonna affect that whole bike's geometry.
Let that bike sit, you're gonna have a slacker head angle,
a lower bottom bracket.
It's just not gonna be that nice to ride,
particularly with the bottom bracket low.
You're gonna experience pedal strikes.
It's gonna harshly bottom out on any hit, basically,
so just make sure that suspension's dialed in.
The opposite, if you have your suspension too hard,
it means that bike's gonna sit too high in the travel,
head angle's gonna be steep, the bottom bracket's
gonna be high, it's basically just not gonna ride
very nice.
Every little bump you hit is gonna be transferred to you.
Really important to get those basic suspension dialed in.
So a really easy way of adjustin' all that rebound
and compression and all those, you know, complex things
on your rear shock, basically findin' that middle settin'.
The way we do that is basically each click on that shock
is index, so if you're windin' it, you know,
wind it to one extreme, and then wind it out,
countin' those clicks as it goes.
So if there's 20, you know, that middle range settin'
is gonna be number 10, so you wind it back 10 clicks,
that way you're in the middle and you can just plus
and minus each way to your preferred settin'.
(relaxed music)
So you're gonna find that your E-bike
comes out of the factory with quite a standard set up
on the bike.
I mean, the levers are probably gonna be right butted up
against the grips, probably gonna be flat,
your handlebars gonna be in a position you can also
change, too.
Gettin' that cockpit set up to personal preference
is a really key part of ridin' your E-bike
and bein' comfy in that area.
So you're gonna find from the factory your break lever's
actually quite close to the grip, kind of butted up
almost against them.
They're also gonna be quite flat, so what we tend to do
is actually move that lever in board, 'cause you see like
when I go to break, you know, with my hand fully
on the grip, my finger isn't on the end of that lever,
what we're gonna do to increase one finger breakin'
is bring that finger to the end of lever
so it fits nicely in there.
So what do we do, just slide that lever in,
undoin' the pinch bolts on the back,
and just get it into a nice position.
Another little adjustment on your breaks is a thing called
the reach adjuster.
It's activated sometimes by an allen gear,
on the Maguiras, you've got like a nice thumb wheel here.
Basically you can wind that in and out,
just to adjust the reach.
Basically the reach means how far that lever is.
You can have it close to the handlebars by windin'
it in.
This helps with like arm pump and things like that,
but if you're got bigger hands, longer levers,
you tend to find that you're gonna pinch your knuckles
behind that as you pull, pull the break.
So just wind that out just so it just feels
nice and comfy, just get it in a position that feels
natural to you.
(relaxed music)
So you might find when you're out on the trails that
your gears aren't indexedin' as well as they did
when you first bought the bike.
Basically that inner cable stretches.
Way we remedy that is just this adjustment here,
it's called the barrel adjuster, see the adjustment
on the whole of the gear cable setup now
on these bikes.
All we're doing is just basically addin' a bit
of tension to that, so basically every single click
on that shifter should designate a shift at the rear.
If you click that shifter once,
and it isn't goin' up a gear, it basically means
where that cable was stretched isn't pullin' the mec
up the block high enough.
So what we do is just increase the cable tension.
On this you'll hear the chet mac changin'
and noise, and it'll jump up into that gear
when it's actually selected, just runnin' nice
and smoothly at the back.
Just check each click, indicates a gear change.
And if it doesn't downshift, basically you've added
too much cable tension, so just increase,
just decrease that by a quarter of a turn.
Just really minute adjustments on that,
don't go windin' it out, you know, three or four winds,
just like quarter turns at a time, just 'til that gear
noise disappears.
So when you are adjusting your gear,
it's absolutely nothing to do with the rear mec.
Basically it's all cable tension which is done
at that shifter end.
You don't wanna be messin' around with the screws
on here at all, that just limits how far the mec can move
sideways, you know, up and down the block.
Everythin' is done from that barrel adjuster.
And lastly, and most importantly, just make sure
that batteries topped up, charged up overnight.
You're gonna wanna spend a lot of time on this bike
the next day, I can assure you of that.
And that's it.
I hope you're enjoyed all these top tips
on settin' up your E-bike, beddin' in,
and common things that happen in the first few days
of ridin' one.
If you like what you've seen today,
be sure to check out my chain and cassette replacement
video here.
Also give some comments in the drop box below,
give us a thumbs up, and subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already done so.