Following a closed thread on here I saw this comment

who doesn’t check their mail order bike over before riding it?

To be honest I check every single bike I’ve ever bought as there is normally something not tight enough or something that needs greasing. I don’t trust any LBS or direct sales…or is it just me?

Depends what you class as check. I fit the bars, pedals and ride.

I don’t check caliper bolts, suspension bolts, etc

Everything gets a double check before the first ride and again after.

I check it all regardless of the point of sale

Why wouldn’t you check everything accessible is nipped up? With a set of Allen keys to hand it takes a couple of minutes tops

I ride first and adjust if anything gets wobbly. Had A Trek Fuel and after my first descent the bars had almost fully rotated 😯

I’d assemble, ride round the street then adjust ready for brake testing in the local tail centre car park.

(why was the thread closed?)

Quick once over of all the bolts I can see, wheels out and back in. M-check. Ride.

You should give it a check over before or after every ride, regardless of it being new or not

I just ride….but from experience maybe you should check.

On my last bike I just stuck on the handlebars, pedals and air into tyres when I took it out the box. In my eagerness to ride my new steed, off I went. For the next few rides I was more worried about setting tyre/ suspension pressures than anything else. After a few rides, on cleaning, I noticed the wee screw holding the rear deraileur onto the hanger was missing (deraileur fell off when I took rear wheel off!) and main pivot bolt was half out! Don’t know if it was like this out the box or from riding…hence maybe best to check over any new bike properly.

As I’ve brazed the frame together, the first 6 months are usually irrational worry of the head tube snapping off 🙂

Why wouldn’t you check everything accessible is nipped up?

Yeah fine, but why is it acceptable when you’ve just spent several £1000 on a bike?

I would check everything and quite possibly strip and rebuild at least partially. I don’t trust anyone to fix my bikes hence I actually do all my own spannering bar wheelbuilds

Yeah fine, but why is it acceptable when you’ve just spent several £1000 on a bike?

I still did it after spending £x000 on a bike. Screws, bolts and fasteners still come undone regardless of cost.

I check all bolts, usually undo and grease them. Also apply some Lizard Skins frame rub patches, check mech adjustments, check torque on stem and bars etc.

Same with my cars. I always strip them right down to their component parts and completely rebuild them before I go anywhere.

I did the house too – that took a while.

I have not had a bike I have not built up myself in about fifteen years. I look at getting a complete build then I think I would swap that and that and come to the conclusion I may aswell just build one.
I would check it all over though if I bought a complete one.

Problem is, if the bolts are threadlocked, then
a) you can’t judge how tight they are, even a loose bolt won’t tighten unless the torque is high.
b) if you break the threadlock, then even the re-useable stuff is never quite as strong again.

I still check most stuff though, usually the adjustable bits like headset, brake calipers etc, and bar angle, stem height etc is tweaked anyway.

In the closed thread, the OP could probably have learnt how to adjust his/her gears quicker than that thread took to escalate! The bike’s been halfway across Europe in a couriers lorry, the odds of the gears working first time is astronomically small! You’d think in 2 years cycling they’d either have learnt how to adjust gears, or at least know they go out of adjustment and need tuning.

a) you can’t judge how tight they are, even a loose bolt won’t tighten unless the torque is high.

What the hell do you use for thread lock.

The last bike I bought complete from a LBS was built abysmally.

Bars dropped as soon as weight was put on the hoods (cx bike) as Stem bolts weren’t tight, gear limits weren’t set and various other bolts were not tight.

Shop were adamant that it was pdi’d. Offered to take it back to redo. I said no thanks and did it myself.

Yes, I also normally forget to tighten the stem plate bolts after I’ve flown somewhere – it’s the perfect example of why you do it. I set the bars to where they should be and always plan to adjust fully right at the end, normally forget.

What the hell do you use for thread lock.

242.

Stick it on, torque the bolt up, it sets and you’re done. If you put a torque wrench on it again it would take a much higher torque to get it any tighter so you’ve no idea what it was when the shop/factory did it. So you’ve either got to take it apart, clean it and re-assemble it with fresh threadlock and re-torque it. Or trust it.

I check everything down to removing the forks to check theres grease in the headset and drop the lowers on the forks for a lower lube service.
Make sure wheels are properly true.
Brake calipers are properly aligned and bled.
Gears are properly indexed and cables lubed.
All bolts are torqued correctly.

Only then will it leave the house

Quick once over on the bike itself, only ever bought one bike new and that was a canyon.
Forks get stripped straight away though, lowers lubed. Probably the only bit of a bike I do maintenance on before using.. but the last 3/4 sets of forks I’ve had left little faith in whoever assembled them.

Once dropped a lot of money on a bike (think, thousands) and the first car-park test ride revealed that the front brake caliper was completely loose.

TBF, they did have the good grace to look a little sheepish as the bike was whistled away to be properly checked over again… 🙂

TBH, i check everything over, whether it’s from a shop, or mail order, or a mates bike that i’m servicing/borrowing.

Always, always, always find something that’s either broken, loose, tight or just put together wrong. Quite often badly enough to cause consequent damage.

That’s even on bikes costing north of 5000 euros from shops that market themselves as high end experts.

TBH, it really quite annoys how much some of these places charge for service that is at best sloppy and at worst dangerously incompetent.