It's the Little Adjustments

It's the little adjustments that make a bike your own.  Epic Bikes set the ICT up right, but they can't know about when I broke my left wrist in 4th grade and so I prefer the left brake lever slightly higher.  Nor do they have my notebook with 30 years of "now it feels right" measurements all on paper.  Again, they set it up right, but not exactly dialed down to right.  Right in the ballpark though, and a good starting point.  Perfectly rideable right out the door.

One example of this dialing in that will actually show up on camera is with the back rack.  Here's the before pic:

and after:

Apart from the time of day (and wow did that change the apparent paint color), the change is subtle.  Initially, the rack bolts protruded just enough to occasionally knick the inside of my knees.  Rearranging things so that the support rods run to the inside of the frame bosses changed all that for the better.  I don't mind occasionally bumping a smooth seat stay when standing up, but scraping across a square-shouldered bolt head was a little much.

Another example of dialing the bike in was the choice of pedals, Raceface Rides.  Flats, OK, but why relatively inexpensive ones without metal teeth?  Simply because I don't want to tear up my fishing shoes while riding this thing.  At the same time though, the plastic teeth give enough grip for off-road.  Certainly not  as grippy as metal – call it an engineering compromise.  Surprisingly, they can be serviced and there are even rebuild kits from the manufacturer, not something I'd expect at their $40-ish price point.  We'll see how they hold up, but in any case they are easily replaceable.

Anyway, it's these sorts of things that need dialing in for the first month or so, before a bike is ready for serious use.  Don't ever be afraid to take a wrench to your new bike.  It's yours, after all.  Might as well get it right.