Friday, May 18, 2012

House-breaking the Tern..

The Eclipse S11i gets a tweak...
Bring it home... 
I clocked off from work at 7:30pm. 
Takes about 25 minutes to drive home from the office.
Bringing a bike home means making space from my overcrowded property. 
We have six bikes at home, adding the evaluation bike means seven.


Taking ownership
Even though the bike is on loan, I treat it as if its my own.
Now, on the bike, I noticed one thing: the MKS EZY quick release pedals were not there. This is a standard-issue with the bike. Instead, I got a pair of Wellgo folding pedals.
I think someone in the shop had sold the QR pedals or had swapped it. If I am to pay for this bike, I will give the dealership a good fucking for ripping me off. 
But since I am just evaluating the bike, its live and let live.
Okay, while tweaking with the Andros steam, I noticed that the Kinetix handble bar was offset at least by two inches.
This is nothing I can't fix with a hex wrench.
A couple of adjustments and its back to normal.
Next, I inflated the Schwalbe Big Apple 2.0 24" tires. It was almost flat when I received the bike. I got it up to 65psi and noticed that the tire was rubbing the rear fenders.
This needs a delicate touch-up.
While I cranked the pedal to see if the wheels are touching the fender, something went terribly wrong.


A problem I knew too well
I inspected the rear disk brakes. 
Noticed that the calipers were touching the rotors.
The Tern Eclipse S11i is fitted with a set of Avid Elixir hydraulic disk brakes.
In our Malaysian weather - hot and humid all the time, the DOT4 fluid on the brakes reservoir tends to 'swell' under the heat.
When you don't ride the bike, pressure build-up in the brake lines causes brake drag.
And like the Ashima PCB hydraulic disk brakes, the Avid Elixir had developed the same problem.
I removed the nut plug on the rear disk brake and as soon as the nut came out, brake fluid started to ooze out.
With a small syringe, I started to bleed the brakes till I can see a gap on the rotor and brake pads.
Then, I cranked the wheel to spin it and this problem is no longer apparent.


Fixing the luggage truss and Kanga rack
I'm pretty excited to fix the Tern luggage truss and the Kanga rack which was provided by Mobility Holdings.
Being the first piece in the country, it was truly a thrill to mount it on the Eclipse S11i.
Took me about 10-minutes to complete the task.


The Kanga rack fitted on a luggage truss
Cables everywhere!
The Kanga is a cool design.
If you have a Tern without too many cables dangling around, it would be perfect.
In the case of the Eclipses S11i, well, the cables got into the way.
I need to re-wrap them so that they don't obstruct the rack as well as impair the steering of the bike.. 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi

I have this bike and looking for a rack and wondered if this rack would make it more difficult to fold and make it more bulky for commuting on trains etc? Be nice if i we could see a picture of the bike folded with this rack?

Thanks