We expected to have our brand new Footbike assembled and be happily kicking by now, but unfortunately there have been a few slight hiccups.
First, it turns out that the owner of our neighborhood bike shop that normally works on our bicycles declined to touch the Footbike. He was definitely curious and intriqued, but like most Japanese he’s very, very conservative and hates to take a risk. He explained that he didn’t have confidence in working on it, and felt that if anything went wrong we would blame his workmanship. We gave it our best shot trying to convince him, but to no avail.
So, we decided to tackle the job ourselves. Aligning the brake pads, positioning the wheels, and mounting the handlebar went smoothly enough, but then we ran into a few difficulties.
First, the front brake cable assembly wasn’t assembled the way it’s shown in the manual. Quite the contrary, it was actually shipped as parts in the bag. . . . Without any closeup photos or illustrations to go by, we’re trying to figure out how it should actually come together. No big sweat, but it’s going to take a little bit of puzzling, and some time.
Second, we have to figure out the fork/handlebar alignment. It’s off slightly, but enough to realize that it needs to be fixed before we jump on and start kicking.
Third, the bolts on the handlebar/fork mount are really tight, to the point that we haven’t been able to budge them yet, but don’t want to over torque them and break anything. We need to adjust the height, and also set the elevation angle for our height.
Small problems that we’ll get over fairly quickly. Still, it would be helpful to have more photos or illustrations in the manual. The manufacturer seems to have assumed that everyone will either know the assembly process already, or they will get a bicycle mechanic to do it for them.
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