The Do's & Don'ts of an A-Bike

[gold682]

OK, I have received £150 in Currys vouchers and am about to purchase the A-Bike this week.

However, just to sum up, what are the do's & don'ts of owning an A-Bike and anything to watch out for ? Plus apart from air in tyres what maintenance is required ?

So far I have:

DO :
Ensure tyre pressure is maintained at 90psi.
Purchase the official bike pump.
Brake early enough

DON'T :
Lean back !
Ride on rough ground.

Things to Watch for:
Scraping of rear tyre.
Stiff steering (although I believe this is by design).

If anyone can add anything to this, then please do.

Cheers
Paul

[kenwshmt2]

You will want stiff stearing.
If the stearing is stuff, you wont be rocking so much.

Ask if there are tools provided.

[jkevinwolfe]

Take it easy riding. If you pedal hard it will be a miserable experience. Take it slow and the A-bike requires very little energy to ride.

Kevin

[newcross]

Stiff steering (although I believe this is by design).

You will want stiff stearing.
If the stearing is stuff, you wont be rocking so much.
Ask if there are tools provided.

I saw thatsme's A-bike, and it was dangerously stiff!! I'm sure A-bike is not designed to be like that...

UK A-bike distributers don't provide any tools unfortunately.

[Guest]

regarding stiff steering..how srtiff should it be?
i bought mine last week and it's challenging to steer it...ie very stiff
there doesn't appear anyway to adjust it in the user guide either...

so it doesn't perform like a normal cycle in steering you have to constantly
adjust the steeering with a jolt on the handlebars...i've watched some
youtube videos of abikes ad their steering appear MUCH smoother than my
a-bike...

does this 'wear in' or can we adjust something?

currently it feels rather dangerous...i'm keeping to the paths as i feel on the road it's not upto the job.

[rjlawrencejr]

Are "paths" what we on the States would refer to as "sidewalks?"

Your question about the level of stiffness is a good one and is definitely one i cannot answer definitively. At best, i can say that it is likely you will become accustomed to the steering, meaning it will feel less stiff over time. I know it took me a couple of days to grow into my bike, but once I did, riding has become truly joyous. Here in LA I ride all over. This past Friday, I took my longest ride to date - about 12 miles, all on the city streets. I even took it with me to one of LA's most popular tourist/shopping destinations: The Grove. This includes taking it with me into the movie theatre. The bike fit perfectly under the seat.

The a-bike + public transport = perfect companions

[newcross]

I know the posts are a month old, but let me post a reply on the stiff steering.

Most of stiff A-bike steering would go away as you ride more, but some A-bike have stiff steering unfortunately, and i mean they are bloody stiff!! I can tell this because I saw thatsme's A-bike at London meeting. Anyway, there is a couple of posts telling you how to get rid of this nuisance. I recommend everybody who face this problem to register and search this forum.

Meanwhile I'm working on updating topic shortcut so non-register user must wait until it's done.

[newcross]

To solve stiff steering, refer this
http://www.abikecentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=176

[franc]

... If you pedal hard it will be a miserable experience. Take it slow and the A-bike requires very little energy to ride.

This is definitely right! Take it very slow, I would rather say.
The thing is, that just walking is faster then!
I cannot ride faster with this "bike" then I could run, with less energy by the way.
franc