Just got my nimbus in the mail today. Put it together and thought ’ take it for a spin, get use to it’. So I did. The tire was low on pressure, maybe 15psi, so I pumped it to the recommend amount 65psi. Took a few times, but i eventually free mounted it and started to ride off. Went up the nearby hill ok, started to go down and went down a bit faster than I normally would, when all the of sudden ‘BOOM’. Sounded like a freaking gun shot went off. I saw the plump of compressed air flow out from underneath me, and my uni quickly came to a stop. Upon further inspection, my inner tube was completely blown out.
From what I did ride, it was a huge improvement over my old one, although the cranks are kinda small compared to what i’m used to. I can get over that ok. Maybe next tire, I will pump it to 50psi, since 65psi is a bit of an overkill.
The tire was not seated correctly in the rim. The rim has a hook on each side to hold the bead of the tire. The bead of the tire needs to fit evenly all the way around the rim. When you first install a tire it is almost never evenly seated the first time you inflate it. You need to manually adjust things and deflate/inflate several times before the tire gets properly seated.
Sheldon Brown has a guide here that covers seating the tire:
The guide also explains how to more easily get a tire on the rim. It’s all explained in text words when a few pictures would make the process and the trick much more clear. If it doesn’t make sense then go to a friendly bike shop and ask them how to get a tire on the rim. Once you see the trick in action you’ll go go “ah ha” and say of course. They can also explain how to check that the tire is properly seated before inflating it to full pressure.
That would explain alot. Yeah, I jsut put the uni together and inflated the tire, and off i went. I am still relatively new at uni (less than 2 months total ride time), so I know I still have a lot to learn. I take everything everyone says and try to pull out all the important parts and run with that.
I picked up the Nimbus II. I know some love it and some say its cheap. Either way, its 100x better than what I have now. I think it will be a good uni for a while, till I get the mUni bone and go that way. For now, though, I’m gonna concentrate on street stuff for now, then maybe move my way over to mUni. Also due to the lack of mUni trails around the area. I have to go north or east from here to find anything decent.
Ok, I just tried to take my tire off, so I can go to the bike shop in the AM and get a new tube, and ride a bit more tomorrow. However, one bolt does not want to come off. I’ve practically tried everything but a hacksaw to get this damn thing off. Its fresh out of the box, but not sure if UDC can do anything about this bolt being stuck. Are there any suggestions to getting this thing out? It won’t even grip the little indent it has for teh bolt to seat properly.
Presumaby this is one of the bearing house bolts? Is the problem that the head which is meant to locate to a lug in the frame isn’t, and therefore the bolt head is turning when you undo the nut? If that’s the case, listen to skrobo, get a vise-grip, mole-wrench or whatever they call it in your neck of the woods and lock it on there, if the bolt turns out to be faulty I’m sure UDC will replace it FOC.
I managed to get it off, and it kinda was the bolt’s fault. There was a thread all messed up, but fortunately it came with two extra bolts. On the bad side, the bolt holder thing in the frame is FUBAR. The indent to keep the bolt from moving is gone. I might go to home depot or something and get 4 regular bolts to put the tire back on once i get the tubes for it. And yes, I do plan on getting a couple more extra tubes just in case this happens again, which i’m sure it will.