What have you fettled today?

[clarion]

Reflective guylines are a boon.

[Jurek]

Last Friday (Yeah, I know... ) the Van Nic had some c/f forks with a carbon steerer, cut down and fitted.

[Kim]

Reflective guylines are a boon.

Indeed.  My tent was conspicuously lacking them this weekend.

Fortunately, I had some sew-on Scotchlite left over from a previous project...

[interzen]

Just replaced the stock Shimano chainring bolts on the 29er with Truvativ allen-key bolts.

Not only does their colour match the bash-guard (black) but they can be removed using a pair of allen keys (5mm and 6mm) rather than a 5mm allen key and a weird-ass spanner-type device. This is a definite win.

I think I spent more time looking for the weird-ass spanner so I could remove the existing bolts than I did actually fitting the new ones 

[Kim]

Truvativ allen-key bolts.

Excellent things those.  I keep meaning to obtain a set for the tourer...

[iddu]

Fettling some painting in the oven(*) - I love the smell of VOC's in the evening, cough cough, just steppng outside...

(*) Good job SWMBO is 5,000 miles away

[phantasmagoriana]

Replaced the cassette on the hybrid, in the hope that the gears will finally stop slipping. The new cassette (a HG20) is much uglier than the one it replaced (HG50, I think). It's quite possibly the ugliest cassette I've seen. But it was cheaper, and they all end up looking the same once they're coated in grime anyway.

[Kim]

Just molished a server.  In the screwdriver sense.

Basic Debian install just finished, I'm going to leave it running overnight to sort its RAID out and bring any cooling issues to light (it's a slightly awkward case) before getting round to the clever stuff.

[Chris S]

Between audaxes now so stripped drive train off the Longstaff, ready for some new components and a proper deep clean.

[vorsprung]

After the Brevet Cymru, cleaned the best bike.  When I checked the chain discovered it was at the lower end of the "replace now" range - so it could limp on for a bit.  But as the next outing is the Bryan Chapman, I just changed it.  And while I was at it I took the cassette to bits and cleaned it too.

Also the rear wheel now has new 3M spoke reflectors on it.  The old ones had got very oily and black.

[Juan Martín]

Light fettling of back brake on Phoenix. Weinmann 730 calipers and spring fitted to late model pivot bolt from a spare 500. This makes it a little easier to adjust providing you have a 4mm socket driver and three hands. Anyway...it's a bit better.

[andrewc]

A few tweaks to the Nomad before next weeks tour. Adjusted the EBB to tighten the chain, refitted the front rack and adjusted the front mudguard.

I also managed to snap one of the wires connecting my dynohub to the light, so had to fix this as well 

[zigzag]

(yesterday) cut the steerer tube on the new forks, still left a tad longer just in case - the handlebars sit 1cm higher than i'm used to on my audax bike

[mmmmartin]

(The day before yesterday)
Took wheels off Thorn Audax and gave it a through clean because there was sand all over it after riding through Dunkirk. Cleaned chain thoroughly, washed bike, cleaned brake pads. Tried and failed to remove rear cassette lockring using IceToolz chainwhip and Large Spanner. Sprayed rear cassette lockring (hereafter to be known as RCLR) with GT85.

(Yesterday)
Used Black & Decker workmate with vice attached to hold the Shimano thingy for removing RCLR, and put chainwhip handle into four feet long old roofbar from an earlier car. Put foot on workmate, push end of long bar. Break chain end off the chainwhip. Repair chainwhip. Take wheel in car to nice chap at LBS. Hand it over, he confidently puts Shimano RCLR remover into Huge Vice and yanks very firmly on chainwhip tool. Chain breaks. I go to another LBS with Huge Workshop employing three people. Hand over wheel. Nice chap produces Hugest Spanner Ever Seen and Massive Professional Chainwhip Tool. Bends over wheel and grunts. Attaches Huge Metal Bar to handle of Hugest Spanner Ever Seen. Bends over wheel and grunts. Hands it back to me. I go home and fettle a small container full of GT85 and sit RCLR in a bath of GT85 overnight.

(Today)
Am about to go and see what we shall see. Am out of ideas, frankly. Will have another go then take it to LBS with Huge Tools. If this not worky, What Does The Team Think?

I think I must have done it up too tightly and not put any Copperslip on it when I did a through clean a year or so ago.

[Jurek]

How long a lever do you have attached to the spanner you refer to?
When Nicknack and myself attacked his freewheel (yes, freewheel and not a cassette) his spanner had at least four feet, maybe five, of lever attached to it.

[mmmmartin]

About four feet, it is an old metal bar that fitted across the roof of a Rover Montego, so about the width of a car. And the bike shop chappie had a big spanner and put a long metal pipe on it, about three feet long. Am at wit's end, TBH.

[zigzag]

if it's steel lockring and steel freehub body, try soaking it with plusgas rather than gt85, and give it a day or two to work in

[mmmmartin]

Aha - Plusgas, I hadn't thought of that, thanks for the tip. However, a chum who used to be an engineer in a huge factory with massive paper-making machinery told me yesterday that if they had metal that would not budge they gave it some heat, so everything expanded and that seemed to work. So after a night of soaking in GT85 and another unsuccessful trip to LBS, I brought it home and gave it full welly with a camping gas stove, to the point that the oil and grease particles in the cassette were in flames and I had to blow them out. Gave it five minutes. Bunged it in the vice to hold the removal tool, wrapped the chain whip round and gave a light tug. Came off a treat. Couldn't believe it. Am now waiting for it all to cool down, and the feeling of euphoria to pass. But Plusgas goes on the shopping list.

[marcusjb]

All cables and outers replaced on the audax bike.

New fancy Dura Ace down tube stops installed (with spinny knob/lever that work, unlike the frankly nasty ones Condor fit). 

The only trouble is that this means new bar tape - not a favourite job of mine!

[loadsabikes]

We have just changed over to a metered water supply and given Mrs Miggs love of her garden and the need to irrigate the same, I have installed a system to store and re-use the grey water.
Basically, all water waste from the bathroom now empties into a water butt with an overflow into the normal drainage system.
The butt is fitted with a submersible pump connected to a hose reel. This can either be used to water the garden, or,if not required, can transfer grey water to a secondary 1000 litre holding tank for later use.
Should also be good for washing the car or running the jet washer.

[Chris S]

I spent an hour cleaning the tandem.

Degreasing the cassette.

Getting up close and personal with a toothbrush and some white spirit.

Getting inside the mudguards with a brush and lots of soap and water. Stripping and regreasing the Temperamental Hub from Hell.

I just LOVE cleaning bikes. 

[CrinklyLion]

Feel free to enjoy _any_ of the CrinklyBikes next time you're here, Chris....

[Vince]

Should also be good for washing the car or running the jet washer.

I would suggest a filter on the inlet to the pump. Hair and scum will block jet washers really quickly!

[phantasmagoriana]

Got the Tifosi out of the shed, where it's been lying neglected since I last rode it (in, er, March ). The chain is all rusty and stiff. I'm not sure tomorrow's audax is going to be much fun...

[MattH]

The "super"drive in my 2009 macbook pro has been getting more and more temperamental, reading some disks and not others - and getting far less likely to read a disk than to read it now. Reading around, they are well known for failing, and spares are a bit rocking horse. So with a bit of time on my hands this afternoon and a CD I wanted to rip I stripped it all down and manually cleaned the lens.

It's now working perfectly