Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Two-wheeled Weirdness: Up and Running.

The Footbike I've mentioned previously landed on the doorstep at 1pm looking like it had survived it's long trek from Nevada.



The first thing I noticed was there wasn't much noise coming from the inside of the box as I moved it indoors, it sounded more like it was full of clothes instead of a Footbike.

This told me they had either packed it well or I got the wrong box, turned out it was the former, which was a good thing... I have enough clothes for now.

A few deft moves with one of my many knives revealed the internal workings of the Footbike packing department, it would seem they think their product is made of something akin to glass when one considers the lengths gone to to secure the box's contents.



And Moses was right, they had neglected to include a manual for the thing.

This wasn't a problem for me but I can see it being an issue for some of the less mechanically inclined out there.

Quite a bit of time was then spent removing packing material, tape, and zip-ties from the frame and components to reveal an unblemished pile of parts, which is surprising when compared to what you find when uncrating some of the other bikes you can get these days.


Now comes the fun part, putting it all together...

After about two hours of assembling, inflating, and adjusting (yeah, I was surprised at the time taken too) I finally had my Footbike and it was ready to go.

They had even included a bell.


Now it just needs to stop raining...

First Impressions Out of the Box


The Footbike appears to be using decent components and is a well made machine, though I'm not sure it's something I would pay $400 for myself.

My only complaints so far are of the nitpicky variety, a manual of some sort should be included, even one of those ikea type instruction sheets would do.

Things like cable ends should come already attached and the front brake cable should be already assembled instead of having to sort it out myself when assembling the Footbike.

While they had included an Incredibell-like noisemaker and reflectors for the wheels, it would seem that the Footbike doesn't actually come with any front and rear reflectors.

This is something they might want to consider adding to their products in the future since I do believe that in most locales, bikes are required to have them.

More reviews and observations to follow...

(I know I put the bar ends on upside down, I've since fixed that error.)

(And in case anyone is wondering, parts of the photos are fogged to hide the bomb damage in my living room.)

4 comments:

  1. Nice report. I recieved mine on the same day as you but I didn't assemble it until yesterday A.M.
    It took about an hour, but I used to assemble bikes for a "Big Box Store". I was impressed by the nice paint and finish on the Footbike and the machining seem to be supurb. All the bolts etc. mated to their threaded recepticles just as nicely as could be.

    I too was a little suprised to see the front brake cable not threaded or routed, but in defense of Footbike it was an easy install.

    I also mentioned to Moses that a detailed manual would be a plus. I don't see the general population rushing off to their local bike shop seeking professional assembly. Just my opinion of course, time will tell.

    A bottle of touch-up paint would be nice and I suspect that in the future some will be provided.

    We took ours out onto the street yesterday afternoon (my 23 yr old daughter and myself) and we had a blast. It seems to perform flawlessly. Looking foreward to more good weather.

    I agree whole heartedly with you about the seemingly excessive packageing....no way these will ever get damaged in shipping! And I think the price may be a little steep, but I'll reserve judgement on that until I've had more time Kicking It!

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  2. 2 hours? No way man that shouldn't take longer than 15minutes!

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  3. Yeah, well, a lot of that time was spent wading through packing material and finding tools.

    Also, I'm including time spent putting air in the tires, tightening all the fiddly bits, and adjusting everything.

    I still need to adjust the angle of the stem but I don't have an allen key that fits it yet, the ones I do have are rather rounded off.

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  4. Sweet,
    Glad you got it, it looks like a fun bike. I look forward to the reviews.

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