What have you fettled today?

[woollypigs]

Fettled Betty the Brompton today and yesterday. Installed a new hinge a bit of a faff when you don't have a bike stand. I think we can declare it a success as the rider came back from a test ride proclaiming that she got a new bike.

[mark]

Not really today, but over the last week or so I've cleaned, re-greased and adjusted the headset bearings (old school 1" threaded version), cleaned out the bottom bracket threads, replaced the chain, cleaned off the cogs and chainrings, eliminated the play in the pedal bearings, and reset the stop screws on the rear derailer/mech. So nice to have a quiet, smoothly shifting bike.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Brassoed both my Lion bells. Think I might leave one or the other or both to patina in future though, as not only does Brasso stink horridly (and according to the label is not really that safe), it also turns black plastics white.

[Andrij]

Finally fitted a new sensor/mount for my (wired) cycle computer on the tourer.  It's only taken me a year or two.  In my defense, I hardly used the tourer last year (nor did I record journeys), it was easy to pop the Garmin on the bars, and I can sometimes be a lazy git.

[Wombat]

Made an unpond.  i.e. removed water and muck from pond, removed silly moulded plastic liner from ground, and filled the resultant 'ole with rocks from the now redundant rockery bit.  Now definitely removed all traces of the marker stone for where Possum the late puss is buried.  She's about a metre down, so hopefully they won't accidentally dig her up (new residents).  As I think I buried her in 1992, I'd hope she was just a skeleton by now.

[Polar Bear]

I've been eeking extra miles out of a worn drivetrain but today set to and replaced all three chainrings, the cassette, jockey wheels and chain.   

All nice and shiny and working.   

[Cudzoziemiec]

Replaced the worn out Vittoria Rubino on the Chrina at the back of S. Pacer with a GP 4 Seasons. I can recommend the final 45 degrees of this as good aerobic exercise.

[Si S]

The mountain bike, the only clue to the crash was the chain unshipped between the jockey wheels, guess I'll have to mark it down to rider error  Looking at the pedal and cleat, I have a suspicion that the pedal didn't let go, hence all the knee damage. Thinking about fitting flats, but I've been banned from mountain biking for a while. Mrs S says playing in rush hour is safer.

A teeny tiny Ortlieb micro saddlebag to the Sabbath, my word that bike is light without the guards, rack, dynamo and Carradice.

Some frame protection to the Planet X.

[ElyDave]

non-bike fettling, actually more of a hack job.  Bought some glyphosate concentrate with a fiendishly stupid child-proof dispensing system - it's not as if I was actually going to drink the stuff.  I ended up hacksawing the top off it and pouring into the dregs of the old bottle.

[rogerzilla]

Knocked off a fork crown race.  An unusually tight one.

[Kim]

non-bike fettling, actually more of a hack job.  Bought some glyphosate concentrate with a fiendishly stupid child-proof dispensing system - it's not as if I was actually going to drink the stuff.  I ended up hacksawing the top off it and pouring into the dregs of the old bottle.

Couldn't you find a child to open it for you?

[fuzzy]

Washed down the metal bike boxes.

I presume that's something along these lines?
https://www.trimetals.co.uk/product/metal-bike-storage/

What are your opinions/impressions/thoughts/experiences?

Have a look at Asgard stuff. I have one and it is solid.
http://www.asgardsss.co.uk/bike-cycle-storage/bike-storage-x3-police-approved

[robgul]

A customer had bought two electric bikes direct from China and asked us if we would unpack, assemble and check over in the shop - the bikes were absolute monstrosities BUT in fairness were remarkably light for their size and whizzed along at the legal max of 15mph.

I couldn't resist getting a picture of myself on board one of them



We rang the customer as soon as we had finished to get him to take them away, didn't want to lower the tone of what is quite a smart LBS with Bianchi, Scott etc stock!

Rob

[fuzzy]

Gods but they are fugly things aren't they?

[robgul]

Gods but they are fugly things aren't they?

I trust that you are referring to the bike and not the rider 

Rob

[Kim]

Fatbike with a kickstand?  *boggle*

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Yesterday on the Col du Telegraphe, rejoined an 11sp chain and readjusted the mech to avoid it going into the spokes. Monday night, set up an Ultegra Di2 rear mech so that it would hold in bottom gear and properly index. I wasn't set up to realign a mildly bent hanger on the road.

[fuzzy]

Gods but they are fugly things aren't they?

I trust that you are referring to the bike and not the rider 

Rob

But of course Rob 

[Wowbagger]

I seem to have converted my Rohloff to 13 speed. This is a monumental pain in the arse.

There is a small gubbins



which is essential to the gear-changing process. That costs well over £30. The parts to recondition the existing gubbins



costs £5. I opted for the latter.

Although I was very careful when fitting all the parts, I seem to have cut the cable marginally short on one side and although I can get all 14 gears when changing manually, I don't seem to be able to when the wheel is on the bike and ready to go. It's a really fiddly job involving wrapping 0.9mm cable around a worm-gear thingummy and requires a good deal of swearing to get right. I suspect I didn't have the bike in the right gear when measuring the cable, because I reckon another 5mm of cable length would work well.

I shall ride the bike around a bit and see if I miss the final gear, or whether once the components have bedded in I will find the gear turns up again.

This is the third time I have done this job. The recommended replacement is >10000 kilometres. My bike has done well over 50000 kilometres so I can't complain about the wear on the old parts.

[Jurek]

I think I can probably out-trump you on component cost.
Alaina, whom I think you have probably met, has re-taken custody of the CF Scott she originally gave to me or, more to the point, having built up the repaired frame into a bike, I gave it back to her as I was hardly using it.
In the process of swapping saddles, she mislaid one of the M4 barrel nuts which secures the saddle to the Easton CF seat post I'd fitted to the bike.
I emailed Easton in the US and their distributor over here in the hope that they'd pop an M4 barrel nut in the post to me.
But no. I've had to buy their bolt replacement kit costing £26.74 (inclusive of postage) containing 13 parts which I do not need, and 1 part which I do.
At 6g  it is probably the most expensive component I've paid for. Ever.
The alternative was to buy a new seat post, now reduced to £55.00 from the ~£90.00 I paid five years ago.
Grrrrrrrrr......

ETA - And yes, I did try extensively to source the barrel nut elsewhere, without a result which matched the spec. of the original.

[Wombat]

Got off lightly.

Mrs W's rarely used "sunday best" road bike had a visitation whilst in the shed, and needs to be moved around when we move house, so it needed fixing quickly. 

Bought a new tube in Avon Valley Cyclery today, and spent a total of ten minutes fitting it, including getting the track pump from the store outside.

Why is this worth mentioning here?  Well it was bloody dangerous going anywhere near AVC, and N+1 appears to be imminent!  Now to choose from numerous specification options on a Moulton TSR with a 11 speed Alfine hub...

Mrs W seems quite content that I'm going to blow the wrong end of £2k on a new bike, when I hardly ride the Dahon Jetstream, which is competent but well, uninspiring (and rattles over bumps).  My future life in rural Wales as a retired person will provide far more opportunities for gentle pootling,and the Moulton seems a pretty pleasant way to do that pootling.  Now is it going to be lurid Citrus Green, or McLaren orange?

[Wowbagger]

My earlier fettling as described above came to nought. I tried to "fine-tune" the gearing to achieve 14 gears and bollocksed it completely. I have now ordered the £35 "easyset" from SJS and will spend a bout 5 swear-free minutes when it arrives on either Saturday or Monday.

In other news, my rear tyre had deflated itself, which was a bit of a surprised since the Marathon tyre had not done many miles. Inspection revealed that an ancient patch on the inner tube was the guilty party. There were 4 patches in all on that tube, and I don't get many punctures, but I was quite keen not to chuck it out so I tried for several minutes to remove the offending patch, without success. I eventually chucked it out, but with a heavy heart. Well over 95% of that tube was in perfect condition!

[ElyDave]

Not so much fettling as testing my USB werk.  Now that I have a non-borked cable to connect to the Garmin and have un-borked the connection on the 800, I should be good to go.  Having been out earlier the USB Werk should have been full charged and delivering volts. Put the bike in the stand, spun the front wheel a few times, saw light, checked the voltage along the system and all seems good.

Now to try it out in anger tomorrow.

[rogerzilla]

Deburred the seat tube on the Bob Griffin, filed about half a millimetre from one front dropout to get the wheel to sit perfectly centred and test fitted the centre-pulls for reach.  Best to do all this stuff before paint.  Seatpost is a rather tight 26.8 as expected but the deburring will help with the tightness.

The brazing isn't the best I've seen - there's a bit of a gap under one of the points of the head lug which  I shall ask Argos to fill - but it is a reassuringly solid and not too heavy frame, with nice lugs.

[rogerzilla]

Fitted new pad inserts to a set of Mafac Racers.  Two of them were very tight but I got them on without tools in the end.  They're a bit shorter than the originals although they are the correct "Type M".  It looks as if the brakes have a lot of toe-in as standard so they *might* not squeal like pigs, as Mafacs are notorious for.