What have you fettled today?

[David Martin]

That was one I made about 11 years ago..

[CAMRAMan]

Update: VAR levers ordered from SJS. £10 (inc. P&P). I'm in the wrong business.

Worth every penny in swearing, blisters and pinch flats, though.

The cul-de-sac will consider it money very well spent if it merely eliminates the language emanating from my general direction yesterday.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Tredz having informed me that there would be "a slight delay" in my order as they were "awaiting a restock", I decided I wouldn't wait any longer for the brakes I'd ordered to arrive but get some used ones to tide me over so I can at least get back on the road. I found what seem to be a decent pair of early V-brakes, made a firm called Saccon, for a whole fiver in Jake's Bikes, where to my surprise I was served by the Israeli woman who had ridden into me at the end of May! I don't think her colleagues are going to let her forget that story now they've heard it. Then I found a pair of threaded oversize 700c forks at Bristol Bike Project for a princely £15. I've fitted the brakes, given them a quick test run, and they work nicely. They don't quite have the ultimate power of the Dia Compes they've replaced but they're much smoother and, most importantly, they spring away from the rim when the lever is released.

I'll leave the forks till I have a good dollop of time and gumption and either I've got some other bike to ride or the present pair have seized up totally.

[tiermat]

Have just disassembled a 6510 shifter so that I can paint the cap and lever.

this is a pair I bought from (IIRC) Tewdric a while ago that had a bad case of the lacquer worm.  Attempts at polishing came to nought and I have a plan for those and a frame I bought recently.  A very famous colour scheme may come into it....

[clarion]

I've had a think about my problems with the S3X.  The SA lever doesn't pull far enough, I think.  So I've swapped over to a Shimano lever as a test.  Fixed gears on a friction shift - what could possibly go wrong?

[tiermat]

I've had a think about my problems with the S3X.  The SA lever doesn't pull far enough, I think.  So I've swapped over to a Shimano lever as a test.  Fixed gears on a friction shift - what could possibly go wrong?

You damage your other shoulder and wrist?

It'll be reet.

[jogler]

a laminator

[IanDG]

I've gone into 'fettling overload'

Wheels, pedals, saddle and seatpin removed from the Bob Jackson. Saddle, pin and pedals going onto the borrowed tandem. Wheels going onto the black Henry Burton to convert to fixed. The Bob Jackson to have the wheels from the 'Burton' and be converted to gears for the winter (and saddle etc. to be replaced) when the Henry Burton Aravis will be stripped and the frame sent for a re-spray. There's an old Raleigh frame to be sprayed an built up for a winter fixed/hack. Got my dad's bikes coming to me (1 road bike and 1 mtb) to be altered and adjusted for my son's - on top of that I'm preparing a base so that I can build a nice new bike store and convert the old concrete block shed into a workshop.

Nothing like keeping busy

[clarion]

I've had a think about my problems with the S3X.  The SA lever doesn't pull far enough, I think.  So I've swapped over to a Shimano lever as a test.  Fixed gears on a friction shift - what could possibly go wrong?

You damage your other shoulder and wrist?

It'll be reet.

And it was.  For whatever reason (and impact may well be one), the gear lever liberated from my Orbit, which I have been using in friction mode for years, when switched to index gives me two positions either end and a long sweep in the middle. 

Step 1  Top gear

Step 2 False neutral (approx)

Central section: Middle gear

Step 3 False neutral (approx)

Step 4 (and this is where the sweep angle of the indexing is greater than that of the SA lever) Bottom gear.

Now, I've not given it an extensive test, as I had to stop a couple of times to cough and allow the chest pain to subside, but I did try tentatively standing on the pedals in bottom gear, and starting off on a hill.  No slip.  Promising.

There's plenty of space in the middle, but, if I put the lever about half way, it is secure, so nothing to worry about there.

I hope this is the end of the problem.  Certainly, if the positions are the two extremes and the middle on the Shimano lever, that would be fortuitous, and I'd just use friction.  I don't see the cable tension overhauling this lever the way it can the SA one.  So long as I remember two clicks to change gear, I'm sound.  And, as changing gears most of the time is no clicks for me, that's OK.

[Juan Martín]

I have a choice of 5 speed freewheels for the project, one from the old Coventry Eagle and one that came with the 'Witcomb'. The C/E looks the favourite for this part of the world with a greater spread of ratios. Both removed and into a bucket of degreaser overnight for a good clean.

[CAMRAMan]

Update: VAR levers ordered from SJS. £10 (inc. P&P). I'm in the wrong business.

Worth every penny in swearing, blisters and pinch flats, though.

The cul-de-sac will consider it money very well spent if it merely eliminates the language emanating from my general direction yesterday.

The VAR lever arrived today and was immediately put to use on the Beinn wheels. It must be a dodgy size, as I had problems getting the first bead on! Anyway, with the VAR I got the tyre on, but it took small increments to lever it all on, but it worked! Result, thanks Kim.

[mcshroom]

Finally got round to removing the pig-iron chainset and BB from the Raleigh and replace them with the stronglight ones I bought months ago (shiny ). Also switched out the OEM rear brakes for cartridge ones and re-tensioned the front and rear brake cables.

Finished by fettling the mudguards (again) to try and remove the rubbing when I'm climbing out of the saddle.

[BrianI]

Fettled a set of mudflaps out of BrianI patented sections of 4 pint milk carton covered with tesco value duct tape.
They look rather nice and shiny, with go faster red reflective stripes on them! 

[clarion]

Swapped the crappy factory-fit barrel adjuster for a better SA one on one of our Dahons.

Repair pending since the Brum bike factories ride

[iddu]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/jtbT8EOgtKM&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/jtbT8EOgtKM&rel=1</a>

Looks a bit better than the VAR lever, but doesn't seem to be available in the UK.

"Simson/Simpson Tyre Mate" - several UK retailers...

Plastic, so apart from size not too bad to carry on the road.

Edit: The VAR workshop ones were metal, and had a slight hook on the lip to stop the tight bead slipping off the plane surface - You could get anything on using one of those

[Juan Martín]

Back to the project...after much measuring and thinking, I ordered a YST threadless BB to replace original press fit version. This was fitted yesterday evening without problems after filing away he ends of the frame tubes that project into the lugless BB shell to allow the new BB to centre. Stronglight cranks fitted - drive side without problems; non drive side doesn't seem to want to pull on the last couple of mm but it seems stable enough so I'll investigate that later.

Built the bike back up today, everything went on fairly quickly - using the maintenance stand certainly makes things easier. After an hour or so I was cabling up the mechs thinking that I could probably get out for a run on it soon...and so adjusting the rear mech I couldn't get it to go up to 1st gear, chain too short? cable stretch? something like that? eventually found the cable was slipping through the clamp - which wasn't clamping as its thread had stripped. Removing the mech from the frame I found that clamp bolt wouldn't turn out, so I hacksawed the head off the bolt and drilled it out; cable now clamped temporarily with BA nut and bolt - which is a bit of a faff but I'll tap it out to some convenient size later.

And it all seems to work - at least in the maintenance stand. It hasn't stopped raining here since midday and I don't really fancy being stranded a couple of miles up the road in the rain if something busts, so perhaps tomorrow.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Fitted the new V-brakes which I picked up this morning. Yikes but they're powerful! Had to do a bit of fettling to the spring in the lever too. Then I ran a magnet over my bike and discovered that a few shiny bits that look like steel are actually polished alloy.

[Bledlow]

At last! New chain on Brompton. I'll do the sprockets on Monday.

[Arch]

We've been up to the attic/eventual master bedroom and sorted a pile of mixed scrap timber into unusable and 3 or 4 types of usable, and pulled out all the old nails from the re-usable stuff.   

It was a bit dusty. But at least we earned our cake and ice cream afterwards. And I'm learning how to use a crowbar effectively.

[Kim]

And I'm learning how to use a crowbar effectively.

Short hard swipe to stun the headcrab, then finish them off with the magnum...

[Arch]

And I'm learning how to use a crowbar effectively.

Short hard swipe to stun the headcrab, then finish them off with the magnum...

errrrrrrrrrrrr. Thanks...

Moving on, this afternoon we went out and split some logs, so I've been wielding an FBH.

(******* Big Hammer)

Now, I'm struggling with fine motor control in my hands....  Luckily, today's dinner was knife and fork, not chopsticks!

[Ashaman42]

And I'm learning how to use a crowbar effectively.

Short hard swipe to stun the headcrab, then finish them off with the magnum...

Nice  My usual approach is to panic, flail around, bounce off doorways whilst running backwards and accidentally blow myself up with grenades.

[Polar Bear]

Roadside repair - one arm of Mlle PB's front V's jammed in the 'on' position.   Loosened off the stud bolt, freed and wiggled the spring furiously whilst adding some oil.   A few minutes later it started working again so I replaced the spring properly and tightened the stud bolt.   

By the time we'd got home my occasional slight 'tick' from the cranks had become a noticeable clunk every revolution.   A quick grab and wriggle shows the bottom bracket to have expired.   Bloody crapoctalink!     First XT bottom bracket that I've managed to expire since I've been fitting them in 1998.   Worth mentioning that this is octalink and that the square taper jobbies from 1998 seem to be going as strongly and reliably as ever.

[andrewc]

I've just dismantled* a perfectly good front wheel that's carried me for many thousands of miles of happy riding.  I feel rather guilty...

The Rigida CSS rim will be rebuilt next week with a shiny new SON hub.

*Mr Thorn's wheelbuilder appears to be a fan of Threadlock or something similar. The nipples were gungy....

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Yesterday, regreased a Campag hub and glued a Vittoria Corsa CX Seta and a Clemont Criterium to carbon rims. Removed a leaky Sonderklasse, what a pity.

I need to get a Campag spoke key (square?) for Bora internal nipples to sort out another wheel, along with some tub tape.