What have you fettled today?

[Frere]

Admiring Adrian's handiwork.

Frere

[interzen]

A list of the bits I'll need to move the Alfine hub off my soon-to-be-retired Marin Point Reyes and onto OrangeGina the Genesis.

Turns out that a new set of non-turn washers was only the beginning - need to find a tidy way of mounting a Rapidfire shifter onto a set of drops, for a start. Flat bars are good, but I really want to keep the shallow drops already on the Genesis.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Built a couple of wheels to replace the Frezoni's current set. Shimano dynohub and Ultegra rear hub, Sapim DB spokes and DRC rims. Built up OK, we'll see how they are in use.

[CrinklyLion]

Fettled by proxy at the LBS - new cassette and chain (with discount) fitted, indexing adjusted, disk rotors trued and brakes adjusted.

Apparently that took them 1/4 of an hour.  Either they are really rather quick, or a cake discount was applied to the labour charge.

[CAMRAMan]

Wrapped a 20" wheel to post off to a buyer. Feck, what a palaver! It was certainly not the tidiest bit of packaging I've ever seen, but it should get there intact.

[spesh]

Minor tweaks on a Rockhopper I'm borrowing for a few weeks - evening up spring tension on the v-brakes, and setting the front mech low limit so that the chain will drop on to the granny ring. Can't do much about what I think is insufficient fork travel - it's probably a full strip down and spring swap job.

I miss my old custom S-Works...

[GruB]

I am about to install my new Syrius Specialites TA outer ring onto the Etape.
It was looking lovely on the kitchen table, all resplendent in black and silver and Son2 even commented on how nice it looked.    For him to acknowledge bike stuff as cool is an achievement. 
There is still time.

[Feline]

I fettled the Carradice Super C panniers onto my Fuji ready to do some load carrying practice. I am planning on going to the Sem Fed Le village fédéral et la permanence - 73ème Semaine Fédérale Internationale de Cyclotourisme - Flers 2011 in August with panniers full of tent and stuff for a week of riding with CTC friends and stuffing my face. I am considering riding to Weston-super-Mare tomorrow to visit a large supermarket then ride back with stuffed panniers as an experiment. It is only about 10 miles each way but the mild lumpiness may prove a challenge fully loaded. I'm planning to ride to Portsmouth to catch the ferry for the Sem Fed so I need to know I can manage the 180k fully loaded in a day!

[GruB]

Gutted.  I've just found out they come in blue.

[BrianI]

Cobbles. Lots of Cobbles.  Laying cobbles. Lifting cobbles. Selecting the right shape cobble to fit . Selecting the right height of cobble. Bedding the cobbles into sand so they don't wobble about.  Getting the right level of the cobbles so they will tie in with the level at the wall.     

[gerwinium]

Cobbles. Lots of Cobbles.  Laying cobbles. Lifting cobbles. Selecting the right shape cobble to fit . Selecting the right height of cobble. Bedding the cobbles into sand so they don't wobble about.  Getting the right level of the cobbles so they will tie in with the level at the wall.     

Are you trying to re-create Paris-Roubaix at home?

[jogler]

I've fettled the garden by curing the grass of the disease known as cyclist-lawn.It could almost have qualified as a SSSI.It has made thousands homeless.

[jogler]

I've fettled the Longstaff into readiness for tomorrow night's ride to Tan Hill.

[BrianI]

Cobbles. Lots of Cobbles.  Laying cobbles. Lifting cobbles. Selecting the right shape cobble to fit . Selecting the right height of cobble. Bedding the cobbles into sand so they don't wobble about.  Getting the right level of the cobbles so they will tie in with the level at the wall.     

Are you trying to re-create Paris-Roubaix at home?

heh, no. Just a bit of voluntary work at a local nature reserve, relaying the wonky cobbbled courtyard into a nice flat cobbled courtyard for a nice picnic area for the punters.   

[BrianI]

A few lengths of Dacron B50 into a nice Flemish Twist Bowstring:

 

[interzen]

The mind-buggeringly expensive JTek bar-end shifter arrived today, so that's now been fitted to the Genesis in preparation for its Alfine-isation. The shifter is a nice enough bit of kit, but I'm not sure if its '£80 nice' ... that said, I much prefer the method of fitting (it slides over the end of the handlebars and is clamped in place) to that of Shimano bar-ends.

Unfortunately, progress was somewhat hampered by the fact that I'm currently lacking a) an appropriate set of anti-turn washers (on order from the LBS) and b) appropriate inner and outer cables for the shifter, which is odd as I generally try to keep a couple of spare cables in the bits box.

Still need to source some orange bar-tape, too

[rower40]

I've fettled the Longstaff into readiness for tomorrow night's ride to Tan Hill.

Ditto but replace "Longstaff" with "Genesis".  Rear wheel now turns without the disk brake making scraping noises.  Tightened the brake cables.  And huge amounts of sticky-back reflective plastic cut into strips and wound/laid around/along the frame tubes to try to a) tone down the ORANGE and b) to be instantly recognisable in night-time flash photography.

Embargo on photos till tomorrow night.  Retain some mystery...

[interzen]

I've fettled the Longstaff into readiness for tomorrow night's ride to Tan Hill.

Ditto but replace "Longstaff" with "Genesis".  Rear wheel now turns without the disk brake making scraping noises.  Tightened the brake cables.  And huge amounts of sticky-back reflective plastic cut into strips and wound/laid around/along the frame tubes to try to a) tone down the ORANGE and b) to be instantly recognisable in night-time flash photography.

Embargo on photos till tomorrow night.  Retain some mystery...

Tone down the orange? Burn the blasphemer!

[Doosh]

Intended to change the front hub bearings, but on removal decided just to thoroughly clean, re-grease and re-assemble with the old ones. Runs pretty good even if it does need the cones replacing.

It's obvious to see what caused the notchy/noisy running and the damage to the cones, the cones were gorilla tight  WTF is it with people and bearings? do they think the tighter they are the better they run or what, nearly every bearing I've ever adjusted/cleaned/replaced has been over tight. Fecking numpties.

[Kim]

I've fettled the Longstaff into readiness for tomorrow night's ride to Tan Hill.

Ditto but replace "Longstaff" with "Genesis".

Ditto but replace "Genesis" with "Stupidly heavy recumbent".

Rear wheel now turns without the disk brake making scraping noises.  Tightened the brake cables.

This, and a fair amount of jibbling about with the calliper centreing to gain some more wear adjustment.  Disc brakes can be fiddly bastards at times.

And huge amounts of sticky-back reflective plastic cut into strips and wound/laid around/along the frame tubes to try to a) tone down the ORANGE and b) to be instantly recognisable in night-time flash photography.

But not that.  I've got more than enough comedy retroreflectives already.

Also, cleaned and lubed about 6 miles of chain.  And fitted it three times:  First time I accidentally made it möbius, and it jammed on the idler.  Then barakta came home at just the wrong moment while I was refitting it and I dropped the end and had to re-thread it all.

[Andrew Br]

In the spirit of bike fettling in preparation for a silly ride to Tan Hill, I fitted one of my dyno hub wheels to the light bike. It fits with loads of clearance despite the 35mm tyres compared to 25mm on the original wheel.
One disappointment is that the Philips dyno light (off the MTB where the wheel also came from) won't fit on the fork crown because of interference with the brake and gear cables. I've had to fit the Supernova E3 from the heavy bike.
It's surprising how much difference the heavier wheel/tyre makes to the bike when I pick it up and the front end looks higher than ever. I must resist the temptation to change the rear tyre to even it up..........

Tomorrow, I'll fit the beam rack to the bike to carry stuff (I'm probably going to take full waterproofs, just in case).

[Deano]

In the spirit of bike fettling in preparation for a silly ride to Tan Hill, I fitted one of my dyno hub wheels to the light bike. It fits with loads of clearance despite the 35mm tyres compared to 25mm on the original wheel.
One disappointment is that the Philips dyno light (off the MTB where the wheel also came from) won't fit on the fork crown because of interference with the brake and gear cables. I've had to fit the Supernova E3 from the heavy bike.
It's surprising how much difference the heavier wheel/tyre makes to the bike when I pick it up and the front end looks higher than ever. I must resist the temptation to change the rear tyre to even it up..........

Tomorrow, I'll fit the beam rack to the bike to carry stuff (I'm probably going to take full waterproofs, just in case).

You've been reading "Slow"Coach's doom-laden predictions about the climate at Tan Hill, haven't you?

I'll be carrying a hefty waterproof too, though.  I haven't looked at a weather forecast yet, it's just part of the kit

[simonp]

Have replaced the headset on my Pompino.  A brief test ride suggests the creaking may now be fixed.

Proper test will be commuting tomorrow.

[clarion]

Last night, as I picked up my bike to set off home, I noticed a bit of play.  I checked the headset, and it was fine, so I checked the front wheel (Nexus dynamo hub).  It was very wobbly.

I took it out, noting that the tyre didn't get past the brake blocks as easy as i expected, and tightened the cones by hand.  It's still rough, but not waggly (and it's replacement is ordered ).  Then I saw the reason why the brakes were tricky - the new blocks (fitted last week) were coming out of the channel in the holder.  So I took them out, refitted, and readjusted the cantis.  Lovely braking now, even without allowing for the fact that the front rim is a bit out of true and I can't adjust the spoke nipples (long story; not my build).

This morning, I have oiled two chains.

[CAMRAMan]

I fitted the Crank Brothers' Smarty pedals and the new Sturmey Archer thumb shifter to the Pompino. That meant I had to fit the cleats to the new Shimano shoes. All done smoothly and no more false neutrals with the SA hub now &  a nice positive shift too. All that remains is to learn how to use SPD pedals!

I also rotated the bars on the Dawes MTB to gain a bit of height and reach. It's a last throw of the dice for the Dawes. If it doesn't feel comfy after this, it's goodbye. If it does, a new front shifter is on the cards.