What have you fettled today?

[perpetual dan]

Yesterday I swapped marathon winters for commuter tyres on the mtb.
Technically, yes, I swapped the tyres. Getting the rear one to stay inflated hasn't happened yet. Its rather tight, broke a tyre lever and after three flats yesterday I gave up, with hands too sore to post in the rant thread (and filthy to boot). I've been out today so haven't tried again.

[MattH]

and make a routesheet holder (my current audax bike has one custom moulded from Polymorph to fit the stem, with a bulldog clip lined with rubber embedded in it to hold the laminated sheets).

Ooh. Pics please. How is the polymorph block held onto the stem?

The block is made by making a ball shaping lump, pressing it into the stem and then pushing one of the metal arms of the bulldog clip into the polymorph (and smoothing the polymorph over the top of it).


A cable tie or two hold it in place - it won't rotate or move up and down the stem as it is moulded to sit there perfectly. This clip isn't quite finished - it needs a small piece of old inner tube gluing inside the jaws to grip the routesheet better.

My older one (on my Audax Mk3, as used for the last two or three years) has the clip mounted directly over the handlebars, with the piece that runs down the stem a little longer and using two cable ties to secure. On that bike the GPS and computer sit on the tribars, so there is more handlebar space. Here I had to move the clip down the stem a bit to clear the GPS - I'm running without tribars on this bike as I want to get used to that for PBP.

[GruB]

I finally installed the front mech hanger onto the TCR and put a new cable in at the same time. Then washed both the TCR and the Etape. Both are now fit to ride at a moments notice depending upon the weather to determine which is the better option.

[jezzasnr]

The winter/work/utility fixie was in need of some drive chain attention.
I'd been using a 1/8" sprocket & chain with a std big ring from a mtb in the middle ring space on the chainset. It had had it's day with teeth close to shark fin shape!
So, new goldtec 34t 1/8" chainring & 13t sprocket for the back.





All looks & feels nice solid.

Out for a spin later, providing the sink fitting / plumbing all goes to plan.

[Polar Bear]

I'm sooooooo close to turning Margaret Hilda into scrap metal.   Before Chirsitmas I swapped over the tyres for some of a smaller profile.   Not much, 35's to 32's whcih makes the difference between catching the frame and not catching the frame for the rear.

The wheels with new tyres have been sitting separate to the bike since the swap over - the bike resting on the stand.  

I need to fettle tourers today so I thought 'I'll just put those wheels on, move her out of the way and get on with the job.

1/2 an hour later and I'm almost beside myself with frustration and rage.  The bloody back wheel will not go back between the dropouts.  It seems to have grown by about 5mm and I just don't seem able to force the dropouts apart enough for it to drop back in.

I have to leave it before I do lose control and do some permanent damage to her.  

[Polar Bear]

Well, I went back to the workshop equipped with a long lever.   She surrendered without struggling  

I'm going to have to look closely at that back end in a couple of weeks though.  I don't want to be stuck on the road miles form home and unable to get my back wheel back in.   Maybe a tad of cold-setting might be in order...

[corshamjim]

I replaced the rusty chain on my Dahon folder.  I was quite shocked how much the old one had stretched in comparison, but then again it wouldn't surprise me if the previous owner hadn't changed it from new.

I also cleaned the original chain from the Pashley by scrubbing it thoroughly in the sink in hot water and muc-off.  I was amazed at how well it scrubbed up.  I'll save it as a special treat for when I do the Toggle Chain Tour in June.

I'm not very experienced with the chain tool so I'll have a play with some of the spare bits of chain now.   

[tiermat]

Fixed a mute Wii, cable must have got damaged when we swapped TVs just after Xmas, and it hasn't been played since, until TLD and her mate wanted to play Just Dance, which is a bit tricky with no sound!

[perpetual dan]

Ditched the inner tube and the tyre changed fine. Then fitted bike seat to Mrs Dan's bike. Stopped short of cleaning the bikes.

[rower40]

Plied my brother with coffee, soup, biscuits while between us we bled the hydraulic brakes of the Grasshopper.  This made exactly NO difference to the braking performance - i.e. the wheels would not do more than 1/4 of a turn when spun with the brakes (nominally) off.  Much faffing with Q-tip and hydraulic oil, and a cone spanner to rotate the sticking calipers, and suddenly they're working splendidly.

Next tuit-pending task; to de-winterise the Windcheetah.  Remove rear wheel cable ties, re-attach head cushion velcro, re-attach parking brake, possibly a new chain.

[Jurek]

Cassette and brand new goldie lookin' chain went into the ultrasonic tank using Teh New Chemicalz (foul stinking ammonia based stuff - these really have come out of satan's bum).

With disappointing results   requiring deployment of Fairy Liquid and a small brush to mechanically remove the remains of greasy residue.

Tomorrow I shall look for a citrus based de-greaser with which to replenish the ultrasonic tank.

[simonp]

I'm about to fettle my Pompino ahead of tomorrow's riding.

Time to give her a clean up and replace the chain. Adjust the brakes and true the rear wheel.

[Chris S]

I'm about to fettle my Pompino ahead of tomorrow's riding.

Time to give her a clean up and replace the chain. Adjust the brakes and true the rear wheel.

Nooooooo - don't clean it! It'll make mine look even worse than it is. And is is quite bad.

[Feline]

I am going absolutely nuts, I haven't yet been able to take my new Sabbath September on it's maiden ride as I spent 3 days away just as soon as it was built and now I am having to work long days friday saturday and sunday. I am now home from work and have had my dinner so I think I am going to fit it's Cateye computer, Garmin bracket and Cyo front light tonight so that when I get home from work tomorrow evening I can finally take it out for a spin 

[Canardly]

Can you carry luggage on that there September or does it bend?

[Feline]

Can you carry luggage on that there September or does it bend?

I can carry luggage
The bagman fits so I have a Barley on the back now, and it does have rack mounts at the back. I didn't buy this bike for touring though, I would use it for lightweight credit card touring only probably!

[Kim]

In the interests of completing tomorrow's trip to Coventry without  a) use of buses  or  b) bike theft  I gave the much-neglected folding BSO a once-over.  Wheels really need truing, and I couldn't be arsed with that, but I did make the brakes work properly and persuade the seatpost to stay put.  I'll put some air in the tyres in the morning.

[GruB]

At the end of the summer ( luckily ) my Hayter 480S mower's belt drive failed.
I took it apart and figured out which parts to order.
I finally got around to fixing it all back together today.
On the third attempt I figured out the parts that were replaced were because they part they all attached too is worn hence it all fell off in the first place. 
Back to the drawing board on Monday and I'll ring Hayter again and take some advice.

I had great fun though.

[LindaG]

New filters fitted to the hoover.  New ceramic coals placed on our new-second-hand gas fire.

Man my life sucks.

[Kim]

Hoover maintenance (and by extension, accessory and spares purchasing) counts as cleaning-by-proxy and is therefore virtuous.  Trufax.

[Tim Hall]

Sturmey-Archer toggle chains, plus assorted other bits of faffing around with canned gears.

As a result, my Dave Yates now has three properly functioning gears rather than 2 + 'floating neutral', and my Marin can now shift between 4th and 5th without making terrifying graunching noises (combination of slack cable and muck in the cassette joint)

I'm still having trouble with Mrs. Hall's Nexus 8 speed. I cleaned the cassette joint a week or so back, but the problem (delayed down shift, graunching noise) returned last night. Should there be any lubrication on the cassette joint?  The other thing that happens is the cable-outer ferrule will dislocate from the socket in the lever, throwing the indexing off until it's relocated.  Any ideas?

Meanwhile, fettling yesterday included cleaning the transmission on the pinkmagenta bike and fitting new gear cables. Cleaning a winter's worth of crud off the fixer. Can now see it has a Goldie Looking Chain. Pumping up the tyres on Mrs. Hall's no. 2 bike, looking at the chain and hoping no-one I know sees it. Stretched doesn't come close.

[jogler]

Fitted a replacement headlamp bulb in the Mondeo.A classic example of how not to design something.
Remove radiator grille
Remove complete light assembly from vehicle
Remove rear panel from light assembly

gives access to bulbs

reverse the process
in the rain
FFS Ford,get a grip

[tiermat]

Fitted a replacement headlamp bulb in the Mondeo.A classic example of how not to design something.
Remove radiator grille
Remove complete light assembly from vehicle
Remove rear panel from light assembly

gives access to bulbs

reverse the process
in the rain
FFS Ford,get a grip

Swap you, in our family we have a Megane CC and a Scenic.  You need 10' long arms with 5 elbows in each just to be able to get at the back of the light unit (that is without completely dismantling the front end of the car). Designed by Oran-utans me thinks

Anyway onto my fettling today:
Cleared garage
Took a load of useless tat to skips
threw once-a-mouse in the bin (Lord Dashworth had left it under a pile of wood that went to the skips)
removed old BB from a Raliegh frame I bought last year
Fitted 105 BB to same frame then realised I only had a compact chainset for that BB, so removed BB and fitted an ISIS BB and a Truvatic double chainset.
Fitted rack back onto Ridley
Found that Knog DryDog still not able to go far enough back so will have to resort to using Creak2Peak panniers and seperate neoprene laptop case.
Fitted childseat to the Giant awaiting pick up from CL's other half.
Now just need to find some flat pedals for Giant so I can reclam the spds on there...

[Jurek]

Citrus based degreaser was acquired from Halfwits / Bike Hut (Currently on buy one-get a second one at half price, offer).

Goldie lookin' chain had a 20 minute ultrasonic session, and has emerged as if it has been kissed by the sparklefest fairy  .

A massive improvement over yesterday's grease gala.

EDIT - fitted it all back onto a freshly cleaned bike, and adjusted the headset and brakes, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try it out to see whether I can get away without changing the cassette  

[Gattopardo]

Took apart two cotter pinned cranks with no problem, the third decided to  just round the threaded bits.  I used the proper vice method,
Arse

Now how to get the pins out?

Changed the fuel filter on the laguna as I hope that the filter was clogged and hence the noisy injectors but doubt it.  Think it need some injector cleaner and diesel straight in to the filter and that will probably be better, but I shall wait and see, another day.