What have you fettled today?

[hatler]

Two weekends of fettling heaven.

Last weekend I swapped all the bits of my road bike over fron one frame to another.

Then this weekend the target was to take the chunky Tubus rack from the road bike (replaced with a svelte new Tubus Fly) and fit it to my old Orange MTB. Both existing screws holding the current rack on sheared off. Bugger.

Centre punch and drill out old screws. Managed this with so little damage to existing threads that the new screws still tighten up. (Phew !)

Then had to bend existing Tubus rack stay so that it could bolt into the seat stay bridge. (Used a mallet, a piece of heavy cloth and a gate hinge as a former for this.) Bingo. Rack fitment now is significantly more robust than previous alloy job with two bust welds which were held together with cable ties.

Then on to service a neighbour's unused for six years Scott mountain bike. Amazingly little needed doing. New rim tape, new rear derailleur cable (inner and outer) and new rear brake cable (inner and outer). Lube the rear mech shifter to get it working, pump the tyres, oil the chain and mechs and hey presto, job done.

[GruB]

New chain onto the Etape in prep for the next couple of days.

[rogerzilla]

Re-rimmed the front wheel of the Inbred.  Same spokes, new nipples, ceramic rim.

Tomorrow I need to fit a new front brake cable*, clean and re-grease the frame bosses and fit "ceramic" pad inserts.


*it froze solid at -10 deg C, so there is water in there

[GruB]

Fitted Schwalbe Durano Plus to the Etape for my forthcoming events.
Packed Nelson.
Washed bike.

[rogerzilla]

I woke up early and I have a day off so I cleaned the Inbred (currently drying in the sun) and also washed my cotton caps.

[alecstilleyedye]

put a better bodge of a seat pin clamp onto steel bike (part proper allen key bolt and nut instead of hex head nut and bolt).

[rogerzilla]

Er...how fast do ceramic rims wear brake pads?  I think I used a quarter of the pads on a 1 mile test ride (admittedly, part of that was coming down a 1 in 6 hill with the brakes on, to bed them in).  They're proper Kool-Stop Z-Chromium green pads for ceramic rims.

[rdaviesb]

Ceramics will eat the first set of pads. Once the rims are bedded in they are a lot kinder to your brakes.

[rogerzilla]

It's lucky I bought three sets of pads and I only have one brake, then 

[hatler]

Blimey !   I managed over 3000 miles on my first set of ceramic pads on ceramic rims.

I must be a wuss on the braking front. There again there are no big hills on my commute that I need to brake for on the way down.

(And thinking about it, after 1500 miles I had to put a new rim on the back.)

[rogerzilla]

This is a DT rim and it feels like fine sandpaper.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Brooks bar tape on the Bob Jackson: very smart indeed  I didn't bother with the cork end plugs though.

[Tewdric]

Brooks bar tape on the Bob Jackson: very smart indeed  I didn't bother with the cork end plugs though.

Lets have a piccie then!

[alecstilleyedye]

like this?

[Sergeant Pluck]

I'll do one tomorrow   in daylight.

The only odd thing about the Brooks tape: both lengths have tapering cuts at the ends, which is good, but the directions of the cuts only suit one side of the bars... did you notice that? Not noticeable in the end result. I do like that cloth tape they give you to finish off the tops, a bit like cloth bar tape in fact.

like this?

Yeah, I think those plugs look good on a bike with tan bar tape and a honey Brooks saddle a la Tewdric but I'm not so sure that they go so well with black. Look good with the green tho'.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Brooks bar tape on the Bob Jackson: very smart indeed   I didn't bother with the cork end plugs though.

Lets have a piccie then!

2 quick shots:

[perpetual dan]

Gave the horizon a good clean and check over. Then swapped the handlebars to FSA Omega compacts and some Specialized Bar Phat tape.
Found I can't fit all three of computer, map trap and GPS at the same time without buying a different mounting for the computer and I'm not sure where the front light will go. Ah well.

[rdaviesb]

Tried. Not finished anything though.

Roof of shed number one is leaking. Bought materials to re-roof and re-felt, then proceeded to remove ten years of ivy growth from it. Spys major holes in felt, and rot below. Heavy rain stops play, so went to recycling centre with a ton of stuff instead.

One coffee later, rain stops. Decide to wash tandem (mud caked from last weeks journey across fields), and the Enigma, which has had a mucky weeks commute.

Remember that outside pipework burst during the winter. Get blowtorch and various other bits of copper out of shed number one. Repair sorted, feel smug. Get pressure washer out, and connect up. One clean tandem follows. Get Enigma out. Pressure washer now dead. Check fuse. Nope. Power to shed. Yes. Light receding and mood darkening, so put the whole lot away.

Order new pressure washer from ChavGos. Karcher this time.

Now planning second assault on shed roof. Met office advice is to start work as soon as the sun rises. Pause at 1300 for heavy rain shower. Restart at 1600.

This could be a long weekend........................

[tiermat]

Stripped down the MTB hack yesterday, ready for a rattle-can respray.

Cleaned everything, degreased mechs and frame.  Started priming frame and forks.

I will hopefully finish the priming this morning, ready to rub down then apply several coats of shiny shiny red.

TOP TIP: If you need to do a rattle can paint job, go to Wilko's, their spray enamel is £3.29 per large can....

[Aidan]

New BB, new chainset, new rear mech, new chain, new cassette, new gear cables, new rear brake shoes. lots of dismantling , cleaning , oiling, greasing and rebuilding all on the Soma

And fixing the two punct*res I got yesterday,also on the Soma

[tiermat]

Several coats of primer later, and a couple more coats of red it is now looking SHINY

Realised, after seeing the first two coats of red going dull that it was too cold out in the garage, do fired up the oil filled radiator and now things are just groovy (apart from the red drive way!!!)

[PaulF]

Cleaned my commuter and treated it to a new chain

[Wowbagger]

I've put a new rear chain on the tandem. The one I took off was the original, almost 8000 miles old.

[Polar Bear]

Been through the fleet today making a shopping list:

One gurl's Specialzed Dolce saddle, three inner tubes of 700c presta variety, a new pair of 700c x 25 Gatorskins, two chains and some brake blocks.

Oh, and Stoker's Brevet has a broken spoke on the rear wheel.   Single butted, stainless on a Deore hub and CR18 rim on three cross.   Guess I need to find out how long the replacement needs to be.   

[toekneep]

Just spent a happy couple of hours stripping Mrs TKP's old Gary Fisher hybrid back to the frame (almost) to get it looking tickity boo for selling. At the rate she is acquiring new bikes something had definitely got to go and the GF is first on the list. The bike is now spotless and I am going out tonight with very grubby finger nails.