[sgv321]

Hello, Im new here & am hoping to get into Mountain Biking. I just picked up a Motiv Groundpounder yesterday at Costco, & installed a Catseye onboard computer. I like the way the bike looks & hopefully it will be a good staring bike for me to grow out of & into a better one.

I have a few questions:

1. How come when I pedal the Motiv Goundpounder, the circle that my legs travel in is so small. I dont really get to fully extend my legs, & my knees come up quite high. The frame & seat is the right size/height.. any ideas? (as you can tell I dont have the MTB lingo down yet) Can I adjust this? How much would it cost to adjust?

2. When I was testing the Catseye Computer, I was spinning the front wheel & noticed that the left side front brake pad was touching the front wheel all the time & so it does not allow the front wheel to spin freely. I cant tell when I ride the bike but I dont think it is supposed to be like this, is it? How can I fix this? (I didnt get a owner's manual with the bike)

3. I wanted to take off the front wheel, so I released the quick release lever on the front wheel & tried to pull the wheel off. The problem is that the tire on the front wheel is wider than the width of the open brake "caliper". So the tire cant squeeze thru the open caliper, it would if it had a much skinnier tire on it. Am I supposed to deflate the tire? I used to have some Shimano brakes that you could lift a small lever to open the brake caliper more, but the Motiv Groundpounder does not have this feature & also it needs to open A LOT in order to have the tire squeese thru.

 

[crono35]

I don't know what's causing the crank problem u mentioned, but it seems that your seat is too low. You sure it's the right height? your legs should almost be fully extended at the very bottom of the circle, and generally you shouldn't be able to put both feet on the ground. The only other explanation is crank arms of the wrong length, but you mentioned that the circle's too small and that your knees go too high, so i don't know how to sort that out.

As for the tires, there should be some way to release the front brake enough to let the whole wheel out. It'd be stupid to put a quick release on otherwise.

The brakes can be fixed by tweaking the adjustment screws on either arm. Just twist in the little screw to move the calipers around until the wheel can spin freely.

It's a good idea to get started on somethin lesser, that way you'll be all the better when you get a nice ride. Hope the sport catches ya!