I’ve built another road bike and the 1st ride is due this weekend.
I’ve been a road rider for years so nothing new to me but no bar tape fitted and a few other thing left to “guesstimate”
What do you consider a test ride ?

Ride out of the house and depending on how good it is keep going. 🙂

I’m thinking take a 4/5 mm Allen key and I’m away for 60 miles.
I don’t really do test rides. Guestimates tend to work based on a professional fitting.

I saw 40 miles and thought that’s a bit extreme for a MTB shake down, but then, oh yeah, roadie content again on Singletrackworld. Does anyone here ride mountain bikes any more? 😛

Just mocking 😉

Seriously, I guess so on a road bike. I’m no roadie, but sounds like a good test if you mean shake down before something serious (races?).

An MTB, I’d be taking to local trails with plenty of rough stuff but not take it too far from the car with tools in the car, or better take tools in bag to adjust things that make slacken or need adjustment on first ride (headset etc), not to mention a shock pump assuming it’s not a fully rigid. If freshly tubeless then prepare for potential leaks or blowing off rim, i.e. spare tube and pump/CO2.

I’ve been a road rider for years so nothing new to me

Yeah,but you’re not really are you?*

* cause you started a thread asking if things will be ok,like a nervous newbie 🙂

Only joking,it will be fine 😉

Just ride half a mile away, then ride home.
Repeat this another 39 times.

All the thrills, none of the spills.

Narr just wondered what people consider to be a “test ride” .
My guesstimates tend to be pretty spot on so a test ride then full tape the bars and get the saddle angle correct .

I did a recent road ride with no tools/spares/food. Just made sure I was within a few miles walk. Was a bit of a whim. Managed the 60 miles comfortably.

Get the bars taped, go for ride with a multi tool/relevant hex tool(s).
Remember to take money and gels in case you end up getting carried away by the new bike and need to do a espresso & cake stop 40 miles away from home 💡

Oh, and to answer your question, yes I would .

Sure
Just take a multi tool

Edit: and cash card just in case it totally goes belly up 😉
(Had chain ring fall off once)

Why wouldn’t you get the saddle angle right at the start? If nothing is new to you & 60 miles is a “test ride” surely setting a saddle up will take seconds?

No way pedro the impending doom would be unstoppable, think riding with bits of bike falling off like a bad cartoon movie. I suggest riding it around your living room, it’s the only way to be sure……*

*this probably won’t happen just take a small multi tool and ensure key point like crank and b/b are torqued sufficiently 😀

Why don’t you ride 10 miles then pop back and ask us again ❓

Few laps “round the block” to check for any big blunders, back home to check bolts, brakes and cables, then ride as normal.

I have faith in my ability to build a bike, so I’d do a regular ride, I’d always take a multitool anyway, so easy enough to tweak bits. No reason not to.

What a silly question. If you are a proper roadie then surely you have a family member on speeddial for a hasty pickup in case of the slightest drop of rain… so just run the same protocol if the bike doesn’t feel right 😀

In all seriousness, I trust myself to put a bike together properly but getting comfortable can take some tinkering so I like a quick ride on the turbo first to fine tune saddle position and so on then crack on 😀 My main worry is aggravating achey knees rather than the bike spontaneously combusting

so seriously do you lot go riding without multi tools etc?

so seriously do you lot go riding without multi tools etc?

No way I would personally!

Yup Smithers, I only take pump, tube, gels/snacks and a tenner .

so seriously do you lot go riding without multi tools etc?

I don’t take anything half the time, including water if I’m just going out for an hour/hour and a half.
But then my local woods is Epping, hardly remote if there was ever an issue.

Maybe I’m paranoid but on every ride, whether it’s MTB, CX or road, I take minimum of one tube, multi-tool, tyre levers, phone and small box of essentials ( money, puncture repair kit, few nuts and bolts, chain links etc). All fits in my back pockets and has helped avoid walking home on mor than one occasion.

I built up a cross bike once and then did a 30-something shakedown ride the day after. it was the 3 Peaks CX race….

Needless to say the shakedown ride shook some bits off the bike.

Shakedown.

W8nkerism of a word if ever there was one. And you’re riding on the road ffs – it’s not as if your Front Mech rubbing on the odd gear for a few dozen miles is a life or death situation.

I’ve got a 40-50k mtb ride planned in the peaks tomorrow, will be taking the new HT that’s not seen so much as tarmac yet. I have no faith in my spannering skills whatsoever but it’s only riding a bike, if something falls off – i’ll reattach it.

The only allowance i’m making for the new bike is carrying 2 tubes instead of 1 as it’s a 29er so there’s obviously no chance of anybody having a tube for such an obsolete rim size and i’ve taped the tubeless rims up myself so they’re going to stay on for about 23 seconds!

Get someone to drop you off 50 miles away so you have no choice than to adapt to your new steed.

Hmm…. maybe I should have been more accommodating to a ‘shakedown’ ride… halfway round stopped to check everything still in place and found saddle had come loose and slipped back to the furthest back it could go meaning it had worn a chunk out of both carbon rails and I’d forgotten to helitape the front of the chain stay meaning nice chunk out of the lovely green paint. 🙁 Bugger!

I didn’t do the full 40 miles, only a 30 miles spin this morning.
If I’m honest I was a bit pissed when I wrote the opening post 🙂
Anyhow, the new build was awesome, this is my first bike using Sram Red, I usually use dura ace so the main question was around the lever position due to their different shape.

A quick tweak of saddle to tilt it slightly and an adjustment of the front mech was all that’s needed.

Also, I really like the american classic 350’s

New bike due Wednesday, 102km audax booked Saturday. Could be a long day in the Peak District….