Setting up your bike once you receive itUpdated a year ago

Summary

Setting up your bike correctly after unboxing it is a crucial step that should not be overlooked. Proper bike setup ensures not only a comfortable and enjoyable riding experience, but also plays a significant role in preventing injuries and enhancing overall riding performance. When a bike is tailored to fit your body's dimensions and riding style, it can significantly improve handling, efficiency, and comfort, making your rides more enjoyable and effective. Moreover, a well-adjusted bike reduces strain on various parts of your body, such as your knees, back, and shoulders, thereby minimizing the risk of overuse injuries. Whether you're a seasoned cyclist or a beginner, taking the time to adjust your new bike to suit your specific needs is an investment in your cycling journey, contributing to both your immediate comfort and long-term riding goals.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Tom from Alpkit and Sonder bikes customer service. In this video, I'm going to show you how to set up your brand-new Sonder bike. Remember, this is just a guide to get you going. Riding is all down to personal preference. So, if you need to make any slight changes while you're out riding or make adjustments in any way, feel free to do that. This is just a guide to get you started.

First, we're going to look at saddle height. To set your saddle to the right height, loosen the seat clamp bolt, lift the seat post to the desired height, and then tighten it again. Check the information pack to ensure that you've tightened it to the correct Newton meters. To find the correct height, you may want to do what I'm doing and lean the bike against a wall or get a friend to help. When you've got the correct saddle height, you'll find that at the bottom position, the six o'clock position, your knee should be ever so slightly bent, as you can see there - not dead straight and not super bent.

Now we've looked at saddle height, let's look at the bars. When setting up your bars, you want to make sure firstly that they're in a central position. We've got some really handy markers on the bars so that you know when they are in the central position. As well as that, you need to think about the angle at which they're pointing. Depending on the sort of riding you're doing, that will dictate where you should have them. If you want to be a bit more aggressive, you might want to point them down. If you want to be a bit more upright, you might want to lift them up slightly, but it's all personal preference.

To adjust the handlebar roll, loosen the stem bolts ever so slightly and adjust to your desired angle. Once you've done that, make sure you tighten up the bolts again. We recommend using this cross bolt pattern when tightening up your bars: one, two, three, four. Ensure you've got an even gap at the top and at the bottom of the stem.

Once you've done all of that, if you feel that you're a little bit too far back or too far forward, you can make some slight adjustments on the saddle rails. Loosen these bolts, and you can make ever so slight adjustments forwards and backwards within the limit. You can also adjust the seat angle by tightening or loosening each of these bolts.

I hope you found this video useful. If you have any further questions or anything we haven't answered in this video, we're always on hand to answer them. So either give us a call or drop us an email. We'd be happy to help. Here at Alpkit, we're all about going nice places and doing good things. So, if you've got a fantastic story or a great picture you want to share with us, feel free to send it across to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.