What have you fettled today?

[rogerzilla]

Changed the ball valve in the loft - one of the easiest plumbing jobs.  The new one is a Portsmouth type, so we'll be able to hear it working    The newer Garston types are supposed to be better because the moving parts are protected from the water stream, but they don't last any longer in practice and I'm always concerned that the little plastic delivery spout will come unclipped, sending a high-pressure jet of water up to the roof.

[gordon taylor]

Sorted (again) a LH bottom bracket cup that keeps working loose. Some Loctite stuff and an enormous spanner might have fixed it for good.  I wish I didn't keep having to do jobs twice... today the trike has a flat tyre that I "repaired" last weekend. 

[GruB]

Just about to put my new Speedplay cleats onto my road shoes.

[robgul]

New brake blocks on the winter bike (one of them!) and re-positioned the computer magnet that was for some extraordinary reason recording at double speed on the club run this morning!

Rob

[spesh]

Took a file to my garden spade to remove the burrs caused by clearing the snow and ice the other week.

Ther'es now quite a sharp edge on the spade...

[TimO]

I just fettled a couple of hangers onto the wall, to store bikes on, but underestimated how tall a bike is (and consequently how far it sticks out when hanging vertically).  If you look at this image you can see why I've put the trailer nearer the door, rather than a second bike.



I may take both down, and put one at right angles to the current arrangement.

[GruB]

To be fair though TimO, you have quite a length of seat tube showing.

[Tewdric]

A quick release seat post might help there!

[oncemore]

....absolutely nowt. Pedalling!

[Adrian]

To be fair though TimO, you have quite a length of seat tube showing.

You have identified the basic problem, being too tall.

[citoyen]

Maybe this is a good excuse to get a recumbent.

d.

[TimO]

To be fair though TimO, you have quite a length of seat tube showing.

Yes, that frame is quite small, this unfortunately isn't the case with the other bikes, so a quick release won't really help there.  As Adrian said, the solution is clearly cosmetic surgery, to remove a few inches from my legs.

A recumbent doesn't work, since n+1 applies, I obviously won't get rid of the existing bicycles, so I still need to store the upwrongs!

[Jurek]

I just fettled a couple of hangers onto the wall........

Wherefrom did your wallhanger gizmos come, Tim?

[TimO]

They're Saris Bike Trac Racks.  You can get them from Wiggle, ChainReaction, and probably many other places.

I only paid around £20 for each, by ordering them at the right time, with the various deals which have been available.

They also do a version with a loop for locks, which I imagine is meant to be used outside, or in less secure locations.

[clarion]

I unfettled a couple of wheels with the help of Charlotte.

One was off the tandem this morning, and had a couple of broken spokes.  Though she had some spokes that were close, they were an ace too long, and would have protruded too far.

No matter - she showed me what to do and what size of spokes to get.

The other wheel was the one from my fixed.  We pronounced it dead.  She measured the wall thickness on the rim, and decided it was OK to rebuild.

The spokes were gone, so Superstoker wielded the boltcropper with glee.

Unfortunately, the hub would not give up its sprockets, despite some punishmwent from Mistress C.  So it was pronounced dead, and a Plan was formed for what was needed to get me rolling again

[andygates]

The after-the-freeze clean and fettle for the road bike here.  Ew.

[rower40]

New tyres (Schwalbe Marathon Racer on the front, Schwalbe Marathon Plus on the back), replacing the gripless wonder "Bontrager" brand-new-but-destined-for-the-bin sack-of-cack tyres that the bike was delivered with.

Old front mudguard.  By which I mean I fitted my previous bike's 5-point-fitting chromo-plastic mudguard (complete with full mudflap reaching to within 4" of the ground) in place of the rattly enameled tin thing (attached in only 3 places) that used to assist mud in its quest to splatter the frame and bottom bracket.

[hawkeye]

Soldered Mrs H's nurse's fob watch catch back on. Realised I had soldered the catch open as well. 
Redid it but the area around the work now looks like a ploughed field. How I hate silver solder.

[clarion]

Last night, I fitted my new RaceBlades to replace the old ones.  Took a couple of minutes

[Snowgoose]

Today I soldered a broken connection on a dinotte 140 rear light, now works a treat. And removed a map holder and computer from my Specialized S-Works before placing it on fleabay

[hawkeye]

Last night I replaced the weedy Schwalbe Road Cruiser tyres on my new Cannondale with meatier M+. Dismantling the chain case, taking the back wheel out and disconnecting the hub brakes and Nexus gears was much easier than I feared it might be.

[clarion]

Just fixed the Acor accessory bar to my barbag, which now means that I have some carbon fibre!

[TimO]

I just fettled a new saddle onto the Kaffenback.  It's a cheapo Selle Italia FK one, which cost me £10 and was in the pile to go on n+1.  I've ordered another cheapo Selle Italia X0 one, also for £10 to go on n+1 instead.

Since I've only tested the new saddle by sitting on it in the hallway, I forecast that I'll stop at least twice on the commute in tomorrow morning to adjust it!

The old On-One saddle that came with the Kaffenback had broken along the plastic on one side that supported the saddle.  If the other side broke, the saddle would probably end up in two bits.  Sods Law would have kicked in about halfway to Bognor tomorrow night, at the worst possible time, so I thought I'd try and beat it.

[Wowbagger]

I watched Auntie Helen mend a puncture. I even helped her squeeze some air into her tube.

[Kim]

Got the cunning super-efficient dynamo-powered thing-charger circuit I've been failing to get round to building to work on breadboard.  I can now successfully charge my phone by giving myself tyre burns repeatedly flicking the wheel, or power my eTrex by spinning the wheel at a much slower and less deadly rate. 

At least an hour was wasted looking for stupid mistakes or frazzled MOSFETs before I worked out that the oscilloscope earth was shorting half the rectifier out.   

These hub dynamos aren't short of volts, are they?  Might switch from a 16V to a 30V (or whatever the regulator/op-amp can cope with) reservoir capacitor / zener clamp, to make the most of those fast descents...


(click for more pics)