Author Topic: What have you fettled today?  (Read 2134739 times)

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15475 on: 30 December, 2020, 04:26:04 pm »
Fixed a flat.

The presta valve widget broke somehow, maybe when I disconnected the pump.  All was ok until I needed to put more air in and then the valve seized its chance and let all the air out again very fast.

So I just had to ditch an otherwise good inner tube and replace.

I am going to look at going tubeless.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15476 on: 30 December, 2020, 04:45:58 pm »
Or get tubes where the valve has a replaceable core - I believe Conti tubes do. FWIW I run tubeless, and have managed to bend the threaded part of the core on one or two occasions, probably as a result of using too short a valve, and having too little engagement for the pump head to grip without bending to one side. As those wheels are on the winter / utility bike I’ll change them out for longer valves in spring.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15477 on: 30 December, 2020, 06:06:32 pm »
Finished fettling my new compost heap. Some fettling of carved elements of a couple of bonsai.

Bike-wise, fettled a new read light mount for the recumbent to mount on the headrest, using a P-clip and length of punched steel strip, fortunately with holes that meet the line-up of the B&M Toplight.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15478 on: 31 December, 2020, 03:50:05 am »
Or get tubes where the valve has a replaceable core - I believe Conti tubes do. FWIW I run tubeless, and have managed to bend the threaded part of the core on one or two occasions, probably as a result of using too short a valve, and having too little engagement for the pump head to grip without bending to one side. As those wheels are on the winter / utility bike I’ll change them out for longer valves in spring.

Thanks, I shall see what the LBS has.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15479 on: 31 December, 2020, 01:21:17 pm »
To be honest, I've found replaceable cores to be far more trouble than they are worth. The cores can come loose and leak, or more than once I've had the eject themselves under pressure when unscrewing the dust cap to top up the tyre. That results in having to find the core in the garage or undergrowth - or putting a new tube in. Specialized tubes (which where what my LBS stocked) had a nasty habit of this a few years ago.

If you do have them, make sure they are tight and check regularly.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15480 on: 31 December, 2020, 01:46:11 pm »
Trimmed the rest of next door's (moribund) cherry tree where it overhangs my garden.  The whole thing needs taking down really - it was leafless by July this year - but as the house is rented I can't just go round and ask if they want it removed.  I don't mind doing the work for free firewood.  Cherry is mediocre, being very wet when first cut and not the easiest to light, but it does chuck out  a lot of heat when it's dry and you load it into an already-hot stove.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15481 on: 01 January, 2021, 09:32:53 am »
Ceremonial burning of the Christmas pot-pourri, one of my more obscure new year traditions.  East Swindon now smells of incense.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15482 on: 01 January, 2021, 03:20:47 pm »
I am stunned you buy such a thing as Christmas pot pourri...
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15483 on: 01 January, 2021, 03:37:40 pm »
I am stunned you buy such a thing as Christmas pot pourri...
Masks the smell of turkey trumps.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
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Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15484 on: 01 January, 2021, 04:27:15 pm »
Lol!  ;D
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15485 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:05:48 pm »
To be honest, I've found replaceable cores to be far more trouble than they are worth. The cores can come loose and leak, or more than once I've had the eject themselves under pressure when unscrewing the dust cap to top up the tyre. That results in having to find the core in the garage or undergrowth - or putting a new tube in. Specialized tubes (which where what my LBS stocked) had a nasty habit of this a few years ago.

If you do have them, make sure they are tight and check regularly.

It's a utility bike. I wonder if schrader would be better.
Move Faster and Bake Things

zigzag

  • unfuckwithable
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15486 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:56:51 pm »
rebuilt the old veloce 10sp shifters and did some testing with a 4700 rear mech. after some playing around, found that it shifts perfectly on a shimano/sram 9sp cassette with the (six) spacers from 10sp shimano cassette. why? just out of curiosity.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15487 on: 02 January, 2021, 10:20:15 am »
Spent the last couple of days rebuilding the transmission of ex-MrsC's winter bike (a Ridley X-Bow) after the rear mech exploded and the front mech seized. Took the opportunity to upgrade to an R7000 Shadow rear mech (replacing a 5800 short-cage) and an 11-32 cassette that I happened to have lying around. The front mech was just gunged up.

Somewhat surprisingly, the bike was very recently given a service by an LBS who she uses frequently - this bike does 8-10,000 miles a year commuting in all weathers. They claimed to have changed both gear cables (they hadn't) and replaced the cassette (28), chain and big ring (they had). They also, without being asked or getting clearance, fitted a new BB, which is a little odd. I know the guys quite well and know they don't rip people off, so I guess it's an indication of how manic things have been in the business. Frankly, given that the bike is only cleaned properly when I fettle it, I'm surprised they touched it at all!

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15488 on: 02 January, 2021, 10:55:12 am »
Unblocked the cludge. :sick:
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15489 on: 02 January, 2021, 02:44:20 pm »
Installed mice traps

Cleared the paths of snow, including the one of the covidiot neighbours as their help has a bad hip.

Took the Xmas decorations down

Made some beef stock

Got the groceries in

These may, or may not be in chronological order.
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15490 on: 02 January, 2021, 03:43:56 pm »
This, with thanks to Jurek.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15491 on: 02 January, 2021, 03:49:31 pm »
To be honest, I've found replaceable cores to be far more trouble than they are worth. The cores can come loose and leak, or more than once I've had the eject themselves under pressure when unscrewing the dust cap to top up the tyre. That results in having to find the core in the garage or undergrowth - or putting a new tube in. Specialized tubes (which where what my LBS stocked) had a nasty habit of this a few years ago.

If you do have them, make sure they are tight and check regularly.

It's a utility bike. I wonder if schrader would be better.

Maybe, but in 5 years of using valves with removable cores I’ve not had an issue caused by the core. I use a tool to tighten them down when reinstalling (after tubeless sealant top-up). On tubes with removable cores (not bought because of that feature) I’ve never had a core related problem either.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15492 on: 03 January, 2021, 03:45:31 am »
We have activated the mousetraps.

The French cat brings them in occasionally (the mice not the traps). Usually in perfect running order so almost impossible to catch. We use French style live traps even though they are British mice.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15493 on: 03 January, 2021, 09:17:24 am »
..mouse caught, still in perfect working order having eaten cheese.  It's a field mouse so released in the nearest thing to a field we have.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15494 on: 09 January, 2021, 08:35:38 am »
Bodge and clean today.

There is nothing better than a silent bike - but the awesome Carradace rack pack has introduced a new noise; My tool bag drumming against the hard plastic bag bottom. We can't have that - nobody likes a noisy bottom.

So I found a cheap, bright orange yoga matt and chopped a bit off to cover the hard plastic - et voila: Silent rack pack.

Then I watched a comedy whilst cleaning the cassette in situ - I even used pipe cleaners through the little holes. It looks sparkly(-ish). To keep all the crud from flying, I made a paper bag large enough to hold the wheel - so all the bits zinged around in the bag, and collected at the bottom.



I didn't do that last time and found some idiot (me) appeared to have drawn indelible black marker random doodles on the floor <cough - grease on my shoe>

Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15495 on: 09 January, 2021, 12:33:55 pm »
That's one thing I miss from our old house - we did the entire ground floor in a very high quality plastic  flooring (of exactly the same the type used in big stores - ours actually came from the old YHA shop in Manchester as it had only been in for a few months before the shop moved across the road and the old one was demolished so a lot of staff houses ended up with identical flooring...) made up of individual "planks" with lots of slightly different woodgrain patterns so it looked real. Perfect for the kids playing with remote control toys etc., which never quite work properly on carpet.

And, when I built or maintained bikes in the warm in the living room, I could clean even the worst oily greasy mess off the floor by simply wiping it down with degreaser.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15496 on: 09 January, 2021, 03:33:52 pm »
Swapped the Eddy Merckx's STI levers from the mysterious Chinese "Micronew" to Sora.  The Micronew shifters don't have trim, which means only sprockets 1-4 or 4-7 are usable in respective rings.

The frameset is still at Argos and will look like this when finished:

https://www.speedbicycles.ch/velo/533/eddy_merckx_titane_team_telekom_olaf_ludwig_1995.html

Except it's a Strada OS (Columbus Brain), not a Titane.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15497 on: 09 January, 2021, 05:33:17 pm »
Installed a new charging port in barakta's old phone, which had suffered some sort of USB meltdown.  The unfashionable aspect ratio makes it her preferred device for reading in bed.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15498 on: 09 January, 2021, 05:51:11 pm »
Garden lights.

They are fed from a fused spur off a nearby ring main.
Which had blown. A replacement fuse blew instantly when the lights were switched on, so a proper fault.
Not having an infinite supply of spare fuses for fault-finding, I temporarily wired a 6A MCB in place of the fused spur, so I could re-set it each time it tripped.

So after a lot of disconnecting cables here and there, I have narrowed it down to the directly-buried 12v transformer.
This has now been exhumed with a lot of swearyness caused by iron-hard earth and lots of roots.
New one on order.

I'm glad it was just that: if the cable between the house and transformer were faulty, the replacement would need to go a rather long way round to avoid lifting the patio stonework, which isn't going to happen.



Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
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Re: What have you fettled today?
« Reply #15499 on: 09 January, 2021, 06:49:34 pm »
Painted the woodwork round the bedroom door (hopefully the last coat but the light wasn't good enough to know for sure).
Dug out some GBFO cable ties to use to strap our bed frame together such that we can move the bed by picking it up by the sides rather than dragging it by the ends, hopefully. In preparation for painting the final bits of skirting.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.