What have you fettled today?

[Mrs Pingu]

Put my hammerited tubus rack back on.
Will need to sort out my gear cables *properly* and while I'm at it sort my left lever so it's level with the right (something I've been meaning to do for over a year) but that'll have to wait til next week.

[BrianI]

A quick fettle on my nice Decathlon B'Twin Rockrider 5.3 mtb.

Gave the rear gear cable a tweak as the rear mech had been slow to change gear.   Fettled the brake levers so they are pointing down ~ 45 degrees, and gave the tektro IO cable disc brakes a quick tweak to tighten them up. 

 

Also fettled some bits of bike inner tube on the boot clips on the Saris Bones 2 rack - they fit a lot more secure now! 

Looking forward to heading towards Pitmedden forest tomorrow!   

[Bledlow]

I drilled (with a hot bit of metal) holes through the clips on two Cateye TL-LD170s so I could thread something through to tie them on to the little light loops on the back of my & Mrs B's rack bags, to stop the little buggers jumping off on bumps.

They're handy emergency back-up lights.

[Ian H]

Yesterday, but never mind. New rim on a rear wheel, as the old one had concave sides that comfortably fitted my thumb.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Tweaked the position of my left SPD cleat after it gave me some discomfort on Tuesday's ride. Not really sure whether it's better as today's ride didn't have the same long stretch without any stops or unclipping.

[Deano]

Just cleaned and re-fitted the chain to my Dave Yates for tomorrow's J38. I only had dry weather chain lube.

*checks forecast for the Dales*

*listens to clap of thunder*

Oh.

[IanDG]

I've been working on my friend's tandem. Added a drag brake, got rid of the v-brake on the front that wasn't working (because it was with aero levers  ) and fitted a cantilever and faffed about with the front seat clamp area as it wasn't locking the seat pin. Also added my saddle and pedals.


Tandem by windy_, on Flickr


IMG_9865 by windy_, on Flickr


Drag Brake On by windy_, on Flickr


Drag Brake Off by windy_, on Flickr


Drag Brake by windy_, on Flickr

[tiermat]

removed the tyre from the heavy fixie front wheel and fitted it to the lighter fixie front wheel, then fitted same back onto fixie.

Just need to do the rear now.

Planning on going to see my older brother this PM to see how the painting went, so I can clear some space in the garage (4 frames, including a tandem, need painting)

[Adrian]

Just the cat flap which a visitor had pushed out

[LindaG]

Trying to clean up a bedside lamp rescued from my Grandad's, before he could skip it.  It was made in a factory in Cobham apparently.  It's a beautiful marble and brass thing (though deeply unfashionable) and absolutely filthy.  Warm soapy water and a soft toothbrush has brought the marble up quite nicely, but I'll need something specialist for the brass bits.  I think they're lacquered which makes it harder. 

Also waiting for the cooker repair man.

And listening to music.  And the rain outside.  It's really quite a nice way to spend the day, though not at all what I had planned.

[hulver]

Door handles and lights.

I've swapped and changed almost every light in our house. The ones we inherited where either old and rusty, horrible or just plain broken. Almost every room now has a new light fitting and bulbs in it.

I've also been around removing, cleaning and greasing door handles and latches, and replacing outside door locks on our new house. There's nothing like taking something that is hard to use, squeeky and horrible. Fettling it with grease and turning it into a smooth silent joy to use. All the doors now open quietly and close without having to slam. A gentle click as the close.

Makes for a much nicer house when you don't have to fight with the door to go into a room.

[jogler]

I have refitted the bar tape that came undone during the course of last Saturday's Clum/Hum ride.

I also incurred a snakebite puncture on the off-road section & have just repaired it using a self adhesive patch.
I was given a slack handfull of these patches at CTC York Rally 2011 & due to a previous poor result with a different type of s.a. patch I've not had much faith in them & they have resided in the bottom of the bitsbox for 14 months.
Now that I can do the repair in the comfort of the gazeebo & am not pressed for time as I might be during the course of an audax ride,I decided to try one the s.a. patches.
It's worked a treat thus restoring faith sufficiently to put some in the seat pak

[Cudzoziemiec]

Chain was graunching in a horribly gritty way, so I - gasp! - cleaned it. Then I went a bit far and washed various other bits of the bike, using a - splish - watering can!

[Marco Stefano]

Kona Caldera being turned into a pedal-powered version of a BMW GS for the use of Mrs Marco, with the addition of 1.95" Schwalbe City Jets and a huge Tortec Transalp rack. Just mudguards to transfer from the old bike, with P-clips to attach to suspension forks; 700c guards, but I'll see how they look.

Also (following information gleaned from this wonderful parish) fitted new Ortlieb fixings to a 19-year old pair of enormous Karrimor panniers that Mrs Marco uses abuses on local shopping trips. Worked a treat, so another few years use out of those for £20.

And, and... After thinking about a Carradice rack pack and getting detailed info on size from here (thanks Biggsy) I bought a Barley.    How does that happen? Anyway, looks lovely (if slightly squiffy) on the Hewitt. 

[BrianI]

Since I'm waiting for a delivery from Parcel Faorce, I thought I'd fettle the dust bunnies out from under the bed, hoover the stairs and general house fettling.

Hopefully the above parcel will arrive promptly, so I can fettle the nice new Vittoria Rubino Pro 3 Tech Folding Tyre 700x28s onto the Dawes Horizon and get out for a spin!   

[hatler]

Re-wound bar tape on mine.
New gear cable outer on mini-hatler's road bike. Then the clamp on the stand started playing silly buggers (with mini's bike clamped in) so had to dismantle that and run a tap and die over the clamp threads.
Adjusted head set on mini's.

[mcshroom]

Switched the bars on my hybrid back to butterflies. Looks like it's going to be commuting again until I fix the rear wheel on the tourer.

[tiermat]

Replaced the bars on the Purple Bling so that Mrs T can join us on a run to the pub.

This involved:
Removing STIs and crosstops
taking bars and stem off bike (quill stem so easier to remove bars if all off bike)
remove old bars
fit new bars
fit STIs and crosstops
realise that new bars are same width as old ones, so repeat steps 1 thru 3 then fit wider bars and continue from step 6 (obviously omitting this step the second time around)
adjust everything
re-fit bar tape.
Stand back and enjoy.

During this I did find a use for a 20eurocent piece.  Couldn't find any 2p pieces to do the bolt and 2p bit trick on the stem, so a 20eurocent was used....

I then fitted front and rear lights.

[fuzzy]

During this I did find a use for a 20eurocent piece.  Couldn't find any 2p pieces to do the bolt and 2p bit trick on the stem, so a 20eurocent was used....

 

[tiermat]

During this I did find a use for a 20eurocent piece.  Couldn't find any 2p pieces to do the bolt and 2p bit trick on the stem, so a 20eurocent was used....

 

Quill stems, i.e. not front loading ones with caps, invariably are too small/tight to get the bars in without scratching them to hell.  So you use a bolt and a coin, usually put in the wrong way, but in my case I needed a nut too as the stem isn't threaded, to open out the stem clamp to get the bars in with damage.

ETA: Thusly:

http://janheine.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/inserting-a-handlebar-into-a-stem/

[citoyen]

Tried to replace the sealed bearing cartridges on my fixed wheel.

One of the cone nuts is stuck fast, but I managed to get the bearing out on that side by whacking the axle from the other end. The axle is now out with the cone nut and bearing cartridge still attached.

Once the axle was out, I tried to knock out the bearing cartridge on the other side but have only succeeded in removing the inner race and bearings. The outer race is still in the hub.

I am now sitting down with a cup of tea and crying.

I was alarmed at how much rust was inside the hub, given that it's supposed to be sealed.

d.

[mcshroom]

Fitted guards and a rack to the raleigh ready for tomorrows audax. The rack is now held on at the top using copper earthing clips as I couldn't find small enough normal p-clips anywhere.

I think it's sulking in the corner now as it looks more like a tourer than a road bike. Later I'll try to fit the fork-crown mount for the Ixon (if I can find it)

[fuzzy]

During this I did find a use for a 20eurocent piece.  Couldn't find any 2p pieces to do the bolt and 2p bit trick on the stem, so a 20eurocent was used....

 

Quill stems, i.e. not front loading ones with caps, invariably are too small/tight to get the bars in without scratching them to hell.  So you use a bolt and a coin, usually put in the wrong way, but in my case I needed a nut too as the stem isn't threaded, to open out the stem clamp to get the bars in with damage.

ETA: Thusly:

http://janheine.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/inserting-a-handlebar-into-a-stem/

fuzzy learns moar fettling skills

[marcusjb]

(couple of days ago now)

I have finally learnt why the lockrings on schraeder valves are so hated amongst cyclists.

I've never had a deflation on the tandem - but I was changing tyres, so wanted everything replacing.

Locknut - seized solid on there.

Took masses of WD40, 2 pairs of pliers and about 20 minutes to get the bugger off - I am just so glad I found the issue at home, to have to do that at the side of the road in a rain storm with limited tools - well, it would be game over!

Needless to say, lockrings have been removed from every wheel now (anything I have fettled over the past year or so had no lockrings as I have heard so many people say they are evil and unnecessary etc.).

[Kim]

ETA: Thusly:

That makes me feel so much better about inventing that method (nut and all) independently the other week, to botch a Thorn accessory bar onto an ICE derailleur post.