What have you fettled today?

[Ruthie]

Bottom bracket?

[Canardly]

Can only be pawls or BB? Do you have chain adjustment?

[Ruthie]

Or a pedal bearing maybe?

[Ruthie]

Is there a liquorice torpedo trapped in your chainring?

[Deano]

Is it telling you to ride fixed again?

[Kim]

Or a stray rare-earth magnet attached to the chain (actually happened to me, took ages to track down)...

[Ruthie]

Is it possible you've got a bent tooth? 

[loadsabikes]

It's amazing that he has any teeth with all those liquorice torpedoes!!

[Ruthie]

Yeah, when they get caught in your teeth they can do all sorts of damage.  Specially the green ones.

[mcshroom]

It's a pawl in the freewheel I think. I rigged the bike up with the brakes locked on and I could get it to make the same noise. Just tried flushing the freewheel with chain lube but it's made no difference.

Looks like my luck with Dicta freewheels may have run out. Better look for a better 18t freewheel.

Oh and Deano - er NO. It's staying free for the foreseeable future. At least until the last injury is fully healed.

And another grumble, I managed to smack myself in the nose with the pannier rack while trying to release a rear wheel nut

[Vince]

I replaced a two pin plug with a 13 amp plug on a power drill. An auspicious moment as for the last 14 years I have been doing the opposite.

[zigzag]

It's a pawl in the freewheel I think. I rigged the bike up with the brakes locked on and I could get it to make the same noise. Just tried flushing the freewheel with chain lube but it's made no difference.

Looks like my luck with Dicta freewheels may have run out. Better look for a better 18t freewheel.

can it be serviced (provided it's not worn out)?

[interzen]

It's a pawl in the freewheel I think. I rigged the bike up with the brakes locked on and I could get it to make the same noise. Just tried flushing the freewheel with chain lube but it's made no difference.

Looks like my luck with Dicta freewheels may have run out. Better look for a better 18t freewheel.

White Industries.
Expensive, but worth it. Fully serviceable too.

[phantasmagoriana]

It's a pawl in the freewheel I think.

So it is telling you to ride fixed!

[fuzzy]

We got our ride on mower back from its service today complete with a new flashing orange beacon onna pole to keep the elf 'n safety Nazis at bay.

The pole is a foot too tall for the mower to be stored in the 'garage' so I have had to fettle a folding pole bodge- remove 3 of the 4 bolts at the bottom of the pole (vertical bracket fixing pole to chassis), loosening the 4th slightly. Transform  forward bolt hole into a slot with a bit of hacksawage then replace forward bolt with a bolt and wing nut. Feed all the excess in the power cable from the switch end to the pole mount end and the pole now pivots backwards. I am in the process of bodging a tether to stop it pivoting too far back. When in use, the pole is pivoted forward and secured by tightening the wing nut.

Photo's will follow in The Appropriate Thread

[mcshroom]

It's a pawl in the freewheel I think.

So it is telling you to ride fixed!

[Kim]

In an attempt to sort the gear ratios out, I swapped the chainset on the Brompton from a compact double to a triple.  [...]

So I'm reasonably happy with that.  Need to sort the chainline out by a millimetre or so, though, as currently the small ring fouls the fold.  Bash ring in the outer position seems like a good option, too...

Chainline now sorted with a simple spacer.  Bash ring in the outer position definitely a good idea.  Used a 42t Stronglight effort, as though the next size down would have fitted and avoided trouser issues, it wouldn't be wide enough to press against the front mudguard stay to secure the fold properly.

[TimO]

I just adjusted a pair of Ortlieb Panniers to fit the commuter, to replace the six year old DHB ones, which have reached the end of their usable life.

I'm fairly sure that the panniers are adequately clear of my heels, but I guess I won't find out for sure until I've cycled a few miles back home.

[Deano]

Midge bars and a shorter stem onto my green bike, and a quick test ride round the block.

A bit too flared and the drop's too shallow, I think, for longer rides, but they do the job.

[Mr Larrington]

I just adjusted a pair of Ortlieb Panniers to fit the commuter, to replace the six year old DHB ones, which have reached the end of their usable life.

I'm fairly sure that the panniers are adequately clear of my heels, but I guess I won't find out for sure until I've cycled a few miles back home.

• Chain's a bit lot slack
• I were right about that saddle

[TimO]

...

• Chain's a bit lot slack
• I were right about that saddle

In what way were you "right" about the saddle?  Whenever I post a picture of one of my bikes, someone always comments about the saddle angle, which apparently is always "wrong" on my bikes, regardless of the fact I've been cycling with them like that, for tens of thousands of miles with no problems.

It's single-speed, not fixed, so the chain can be as slack as I want.

[Ham]

I did a right good load of fartage yesterday. Hot scrape bottom renew an'all.

[interzen]

Fitted the Portland Design Works 'Bird' bottle cages to the orange Surly:





If describing them as a thing of beauty (which, in all fairness, they are) is wrong then I don't want to be right.

Maiden ride tomorrow providing the ice stays away.

[phantasmagoriana]

Swapped the temporary silver stem on the Genesis for a black one, and swapped the headset spacer for one with a bell attached. The bell doesn't sound as nice as the brass one on the not-Tifosi.

[vorsprung]

I used the ice bike to commute a couple of times last week.  It's my single speed with Marathon Winters on it.  Unfortunately, as my commute goes up a very steep hill and as I am not at the peak of fitness and as the ice tyres are heavy (these are the best excuses I can come up with) climbing the hill is not possible.

So I've just altered the sprocket on the single speed from a 14T to a 15T.  The most difficult bit was finding a 15T in the box of old cassettes.  The second most difficult bit was lengthening the chain. 

I live in hope that next time I will be able to romp up the hill