Motobecane Fantom Team Rebuild

Its now time to take the Fantom Team apart and rebuild it from the tires up. The tear down will allow me to make sure the bike is built perfectly from the ground up. This is the ideal way to build any bike. Most shops are not going to take apart a boxed bike and then rebuild it due to the time it takes. Well here we go. I made sure I had a nice open areas on my bench to lay all my parts out in order making sure that I wouldn't loose anything.

I pulled all the drive train part and put them in my solvent tank which consists of a bucket with a lid and some orange degreaser. Next was the frame.

My large frame weights 7 pound 1 ounce. You may say that this is really heavy but when a company claims a medium frame weight of 5 pounds 4 ounces that does not include the rear shock most of the time. The rear shock is 205 grams which is almost half a pound. That would put the frame weight to 6 pounds 9 ounces. Considering the gussets on the downtube and seat tube its not a horrible weight. I pulled off the rear end and started taking a razor to all the clear coat around the pivot areas. This will help the pivots have a more consistent torque because you wont be dealing with the clear coat cracking in some areas and not others. The pivot area will be nice and round on the frame. This is called Frame Prepping.Just hold the NEW razor in a slight angle and the clear coat will come right off.

You also want to get the clear coat off the rear drop out to make sure your wheel has a nice even fit. I took the hanger off and put blue lock tite on both bolts.

Next I did the headtube after pulling the headset off.

JUST BE CAREFULL!! This is a great time to look over a frame for any cracks or other problems. Now is its time to rebuild the bike. The rear end is super easy to take apart and rebuild which is good because you should do it at LEAST once a season. If you ride mud, do it every two months.
Lube is our friend. Use plenty of grease because the bike will take what it needs and the extra will scrap off allowing you to reuse.

The rear shock can use a little grease in the area where the bolts go through. The black pieces that I am pointing at come out by just pulling on them. Put a little grease on them and reinstall. IF you can't get them out don't worry about it. Just leave them be.

When installing the pivots back into the frame you will need blue lock tite and a torque wrench. The torque wrench is not definitely needed but makes getting the pivot bolts to 12nm more precise. You can use your judgement just not to tight. You will need the lock tite for the bolts to ensure they don't come loose which makes the bike ride like crap.
Time to put the headset back in. DO NOT PUT LUBE ON THE INSIDE OF THE HEADTUBE! Headsets are a friction fit so NO LUBE between headset and frame. Do clean the races where the bearings rest and a little grease would be good for a wet environment. Leave clean for dry environment to keep dirt from sticking to the cartridge bearings.

I decide to take apart the seat post clamp and lube the bolts a little to help prevent any squeaking. I also put some grease under the seat collar. Make sure you put grease in the seat tube to prevent the seatpost from getting stuck in the frame.

When you pull the crank and bottom bracket out the BB shell will probably look like this.

It need to look like this.

Now that I got the bike all put back together, I wanted to take the rear wheel apart and check out the pawls on the freehub body. Once I got the hub apart I noticed the pawls and the drive teeth were pretty dirty only after 75 miles.

The rear hub is VERY easy to take apart and add some mineral oil too. Use mineral oil because you want a lube that is very thin and will not bind up the engagement between the pawls and the engagement teeth.

I removed the rotors from both wheels and retorqued them to 6.2nm. Also when building a bike double check to make sure the rim strip is running right down the middle of the rim and not riding up the side of the rim. If the rim strip gets between the tire and the rim seat then the tire could blow off the rim at a really bad time.