Reassembly of a WorkCycles Kr8 Bakfiets

WorkCycles Kr8 bakfiets-black 4

You’ve just received your brand spanking new WorkCycles Kr8 bakfiets and are obviously looking forward to swinging your leg though it. We’ve built it, checked it and test ridden your bike but unfortunately we then had to partially disassemble it for shipping. Thus it’ll have to be reassembled properly. It’s possible that your Kr8 differs in some details (different options chosen) but the basic principles will be the same. Where relevant I add notes about how other variants will differ.

For a Kr8 with Magura hydraulic brakes and/or electric assist please ALSO see these special instructions.

Performing the assembly is critical to your safety, the smooth functioning and longevity of your bike. Though it’s not difficult some basic mechanical skill is necessary. If you’re not confident you can do it yourself we recommend enlisting the help of a handy friend. If that’s not possible then bring the bike to a bicycle shop to have it completed.

Time required
This process would take a WorkCycles mechanic about an hour, a bike mechanic not familiar with these bikes perhaps 90 minutes, and an average mechanically handy person somewhat longer, maybe two hours. It’s not brain breaking work, but there are a lot of steps. Just take your time and do it properly.

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1. Unboxing
Usually you will receive the Kr8 in two boxes; a large box and a small box. The large box contains what you see in this photo. As you can see by this photo the front frame unit, the rear frame unit and the handlebar are connected by the brake & shifter cables. The best way to open the box is to lie the unopened box on it’s side on the floor and with a short knife gently cut the box at the edges to open it. Remove the cardboard and leave all the parts lying on the floor. Lifting the bike out of the box in the upright position is not advised as it will pull on the cables. Gently unwrap the frame and components and lay everything out as you see it here.

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2. Tools
You will need the following tools to put the bike together:
– Hex / Allen keys in metric sizes 6, 5, 4 and 3mm
Spanners/wrenches in the metric sizes 15mm (with open end for the pedals), 13mm, 10mm (you will need two of these) and an 8mm. Box end wrenches are nicer to the bolts.

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3. Internal Cables
Once you have all the tools together start with the front frame unit lying on it’s side on the ground. Lie the rear frame coupling holes close to the connecting bolts. Connect the internal cables for the lighting by gently pushing the cable connectors into each other.

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4. Frame, coupling
Remove the nuts and washers from the thread using the 13mm wrench.

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5. Frame, connecting the coupling
Stand over the rear frame unit and lift it slightly off the ground. Now that you have the rear unit in your hands gently slide it onto the four connecting bolts. When you do this make sure the lighting cable is snuggly inside both front and rear bodies and not pinched between the edges.

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6. Oops! This is how NOT to do it. You need to avoid pinching the cables.

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7. Perfect. Once the rear frame is sitting on the connecting bolts rest it back down on the floor.

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9. Frame Bolts
Evenly tighten the four frame bolts with spanner 13.

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10. Headlight
Using two size 10 spanners remove the headlight / fender bolt from the front forks.

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11. Headlight and Front Fender
Place the headlight clamp in the correct position and slide the bolt all the way through. Sandwich the lighting cable between the rear side of the forks and the front fender eyelet mount. Using two size 10 spanners tighten the nut on the headlight clamp / fender bolt.

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12. Front Fender Stay
Remove the fender stay bolt from the front forks with a size 8 spanner. The fender stay mounts on the outside of the forks. Tighten.

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13. Front Wheel
Insert the front wheel so that that the roller brake arm slides into the brace that holds it in place. The axle nuts should be very loose so it is easy to fit the axle into the forks. The axle washers should be on the outside of the forks.

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14. Front Brake
The Kr8 is equipped with with Shimano Rollerbrakes (*unless you ordered Magura hydraulic brakes) The front forks have a small holder/brace on the inside of the left blade. The rollerbrake reaction arm should fit snugly inside the holder/brace.

*Here are special instructions for assembling a Kr8 with Magura hydraulic brakes.

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15. Front Axle / Wheel
With a 15mm wrench loosen the axle nuts enough to be able to slip the axle into the fork. Orient the wheel in the correct direction: roller brake on the left, hub dynamo connector on the right side. Pull the axle washers to the outside, against the axle nuts. Point the brake reaction arm upwards in order to slip it into its holder on the left fork blade.

We’re ready to install the front wheel. Using your three hands to simultaneously hold the two axle nuts/washers, the fork ends, and the brake reaction arm guide the axle into the fork ends while slipping the end of the brake reaction arm into the holder on the inside of he left fork blade. It might take you a few tries. Once the axle and reaction arm are in place rotate the dynamo wire contacts so they face to the rear. The exact angle isn’t important.

Now you can secure the axle nuts: Have your helper (or your other hand if you’re quite handy) press downward to hold the axle in the fork ends. Lightly tighten one axle nut, making sure that the dynamo wire contacts don’t rotate. Now pulling the rim against the fork blade to snug the axle up into the fork end lightly tighten the other axle nut. Loosen the other axle nut and do the same pull rim to snug axle nut procedure. Sometimes one step is enough to get the wheel aligned in the fork. Other times require repeating this process a couple times. Once the axle is properly sitting in the fork gradually tighten the axle nuts on either side.

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16. Hub Dynamo
The Kr8 comes equipped with a hub dynamo in the front wheel*. This dynamo provides the power for your front and rear lighting. In this photo you can see the connector which joins the lighting cables to the dynamo.

*If your Kr8 has an electric assist kit installed the lighting will be powered by the motor’s battery pack and the front hub will be a motor instead of a dynamo. In that case many other things will be different and many of these instructions will seem very confusing to you. We’re working on a solution to this problem.

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17. Hub Dynamo Connector
Gently push the connector all the way down onto the pin.

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18. Hub Dynamo Connector, done
Connected, the dynamo is all set to power your lights. However sometimes this connector can come loose from general, around town abuse. If you notice your lights are not working, first check to see if the connector is correctly attached.

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19. Handlebar Stem
Slide the handlebar stem inside the headset.

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20. Handlebar Stem cap
Carefully remove bolt cap with a fingernail or small screwdriver.

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21. Handlebar Stem, adjust and tighten
Place the stem at your preferred height. For safety reasons there is a minimum length of stem that needs to be inside the headset. This minimum length is marked on the stem itself. For reference we have mounted the stem at an average height in our photos. Tighten using hex / allen key size 6 and make sure the stem is tight, you don’t want it slipping while riding.

The angle of your handlebar will have been changed for packing. You can return the handlebar to the correct position using hex / allen key size 6 by loosening and tightening the hex bolt underneath the stem head. Orient the handlebar so that the grips slope slightly downward toward the outside. This puts your wrists in a comfortable, neutral position.

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22. Check
By now your bike should look something like this.

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23. Steering Linkage
Lean the bike against the wall with the right side (drivetrain side) facing outwards.

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24. Steering Linkage Spherical Joint
Each end of the link arm has a small ball joint. Using your fingernail or small screwdriver pry the clip out.

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25. Connecting the Link Arm
The ball joint studs are already mounted on the front fork and the short steering arm. Put the link arm in position and push the ball joint casing firmly down onto the stud.

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26. Connecting the Link Arm
Make sure the ball joint is secure.

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27. Connecting the Link Arm
Replace the clip. Your steering linkage is now correctly in place.

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28. Cable trough
Using hex / allen key size 3 remove the cable routing through bolts.

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29. Cables, setting them in the trough
Place the brake and shifter cables inside the routing trough, so that they all run parallel to each other inside.

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30. Cables, securing the trough
Using one hand to hold the routing trough in place, insert the three bolts by hand. First tighten all three bolts just slightly. Once you have all three bolts in place tighten fully.

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31. The Box
The Kr8’s Box is shipped as 6 separate units with the box’s frame or skeleton attached to the panels. To build the box up start by mounting the box’s bottom plate and putting the parking stand loosely in place.

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32. Parking Stand (putting it in place, not yet mounting)
Turn the bike around so the right side is leaning against the wall. At this stage you will not yet attach the parking stand but it needs to be correctly in place under the box’s bottom plate before you start building up the box.

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33. The Box
There are 4 mounting holes in the box’s bottom plate that correspond with four mounting holes on the front frame. Using hex / allen key size 4 and a spanner size 10 fasten the box’s bottom plate to the frame.

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34. The Box, Side Panels
The box’s two side panels are sent to you as pictured here, a left side panel and a right side panel. Note the small black kickstand bracket (actually a hinge for the stand’s axle) at the bottom of the frame. Mount the side walls by first removing the two underside bolts with hex / allen key size 4. Then slide the side panel onto the bottom plate so the underside mounting holes line up with the corresponding holes in the box. Insert the bolts and tighten.

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35. The Box, Rear and Front Panels
To attach the rear panel remove the bolts from the curved metal joining plate and the last free bolts in the side panel frames. Slide the rear panel down into place and tighten all the bolts. Attaching the front panel will be obvious by now as you can clearly see how the system works.

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36. The Box, completed
The box should be complete by now and look something like this. If you ordered a WorkCycles toddler support seat (as pictured here) you can simply mount the seat using the bolt we supply and the seat belt mounting hole on the right side of the bench.

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37. Kickstand Mounting, Hinges
Underneath the box you will find the two black parking stand hinges. Loosen the hinge on right side slightly using hex / allen key size 5 and slide the kickstand into the bracket.

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38. Kickstand Mounting
With the kickstand spring in place slide the pin into the small pin holding tube on the frame.

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39. Parking Stand Mounting
On the left side of the bike remove the bolts and the bottom piece of the stand mounting bracket but leave the top piece in place.

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40. Kickstand Mounting, the Hard Part
Now comes the tricky part. You need to be on one knee, supporting the box with your body. With your left hand reach over and lift the kickstand into the up position. In order to get the left side of the kickstand into the mounting bracket you need to squeeze the kickstand leg against the rear side of the box. You can keep your thumb on the box frame for a better hold or you could fasten a zip-tie for a temporary hold. With your right hand attach the bottom part of the kickstand bracket by sliding the bolts through the holes and tightening slightly.

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41. Parking Stand Mounting, tightening it up
Tighten the stand brackets fully on both sides of the bike.

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42. Pedals
Each pedal is threaded in the opposite direction: The left pedal has left hand threads (backward from “normal”). The right pedal has right hand threads.

The rule to removing pedals from crank arms is ‘Back-Off’. That means use your size 15 spanner in a backwards direction on both sides of the bike to remove the pedals. To attach the pedals simply use the rule ‘Forward-On’.

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43. Ride your Kr8!
To put the bike on the parking stand first hold the handlebar, then with one foot push the stand down until it meets the ground. As the kickstand meets the ground pull the bike backwards, the stand will pull into position and your bakfiets is now stable for loading it up and ready to ride!

11 Responses to “Reassembly of a WorkCycles Kr8 Bakfiets”

  1. Ville Hakanen Says:

    Picture 9: Tightening with how much torque?

    Pictures 15-18: Three pics how to snap dynamo connector but not a word or a photo how to install brake cable?

    Picture 34: Screws for fastening side tubes to bottom plate are 12 mm long and for side panels 10 mm long. Be careful not to mix them. My bike came screws already mixed up in it was a hassle to short it out.

    Picture 35 is a bit confusing because fastener buttons for a canopy should be on the outside of the box, but in pic 35 they are in the same side as seat belts which gives the impression that the canopy fastener buttons should be in the inside.

    Reassembly took about 4 hours from me but I tried to do careful job. For example I used Loctite in all threads and I had to do some fitting with a file for box panel mounting holes and I didn’t know about different length bolts for the box. I heard that with newer bikes you have some printed guide in the shipping box about this.

  2. henry Says:

    Ville,
    9. Just tighten them down securely with a normal sized wrench. I don’t have a torque spec and it isn’t critical.

    15-18. Good point.

    34. Sorry about that. We’re still refining the exactly screw sizes and how they get packed and marked.

    Yes, we now send a printed drawing with the bike. Thanks for your feedback though!

  3. Lorraine Adams Says:

    There’s no instructions with ours and screws, bolts, washers etc are all mixed up… 🙁

  4. henry Says:

    Hi Lorraine, That’s unfortunate to hear. When we ship the Kr8 to customers the nuts and bolts are (normally) all in the places they belong, not jumbled together in a bag.

    I don’t see your name in our order system. Did you purchase the bike from WorkCycles or via a dealer?

  5. Lorraine Adams Says:

    We bought it through Flying Dutchman Bikes in London. We had it sent on boxed up as we are not in London.

  6. henry Says:

    Hi Lorraine, Aha, that’s what I suspected. As I wrote before when WorkCycles ships bikes to customers the box is mostly assembled and the remaining operations are obvious because all the nuts and bolts are loosely screwed into the places they belong in the finished product. It sounds like Flying Dutchman (who is normally really good BTW) shipped your bike in a different, more disassembled state. Please contact them for more instructions since they must know how they shipped the bike. They should also have our pdf that shows which part goes where. Good luck!

  7. Joshua Perkins Says:

    These instructions are very good overall, but I did have two minor issues in assembling my bike that could have been avoided with a little more detail.

    First (and more important), the parking stand installation should really be done at the same time as mounting the box’s side panels in order to avoid the “tricky part” in step 40; simply loosen both parking stand mounting brackets and insert the kickstand into the bracket as you slide each side panel onto the bottom plate, making sure that the pin is properly positioned in its holding tube before tightening everything up. It took me more than five minutes to complete step 40 as shown, and I was only able to get it done once I rested some of the bike’s weight on the right foot of the parking stand, which allowed the stand to flex enough to make it over the hump onto the left bracket.

    Second, it wasn’t immediately obvious whether the front panel should be inside or outside of the mounting tabs on the frame, but I eventually noticed that it is outside of the tabs in the picture for step 36, so I chose that way.

    Everything else was well-documented and clearly explained; it took me just about the two hours you estimated to build up the bike. It rides like a dream!

  8. henry Says:

    Hi Joshua, Thanks for the suggestions. These instructions are ready for an update. They’re now a couple years old and there have been a number of running changes to the Kr8 specs as well.

    We’ve also been busy making instructions and how-to’s for all sorts of WorkCycles things and will begin putting them online soon.

  9. Bob Says:

    Masterful packing and bolt pre-positioning made assembly intuitive and easy. Very well thought out & executed.

  10. Henrik Says:

    In stage 5, would it be useful to apply some kind of grease or something to even out the contact pressure? I’m worried the coating might be damaged otherwise.

  11. henry Says:

    Henrik, The coating is super tough and we haven’t seen any problems here. No grease is necessary, nor do I believe it would help.

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