What have you fettled today?

[alancragg]

I fitted new (old) mudguards, a dynamo, LED lights and a ready use bag to my trike ready for my tour to Amsterdam in August.

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[TimO]

I had to fettle the mudguards and drive chain off of the Viking commuter.  This did have the benefit that I didn't need to clean those, and could just throw them in the bin.

I've cleaned the bike off and started to refit the replacement parts, but found that one of the p-clips holding the rack on had broken.

So, a few p-clips are on order via eBay, and I'll have to wait a few days for those to appear, whilst not rushing to complete everything else.

[rogerzilla]

Set up some cantilever brakes on a 26-year old Kona Fire Mountain and unstuck the rear Rapidfire shifter by pumping it full of GT85.  Bearings* and wheel truing next.  Will almost certainly sell it (I found a Kilauea frame instead) but it's a very cool bike.

*the BB is a cup and cone unit...bet it's pitted

[Ham]

Back, as good as it has never been away. Superb welding courtesy of Fisher & Stitt, them of Shand cycles.



Mudguards not yet re-fitted. Sharp eyed people who knew the bike before might notice that the seatpost is now SHINY too, and wonder why the seat collar isn't. See above.

Gears fettled better than before, although I've swapped noise in top 3 gears (on big front) for noise in big/big, and unhappy shifting in bottom gear from little to big front (obv connected)

Aren't 11 speed fussy?

What had to be welded and why?

One pannier lug weld failed while I was in Spain, Genesis lifetime warranty preferred to replace the frame rather than repair, they sent the old frame back alongside a new titanium frameset, with the top tube sawn  in half. The Stainless has thusly been resurrected. Said titanium frameset is undergoing substantial fettleage at present, in order to become Something Interesting.

[David Martin]

I have been making a D20 to teach amino acids to students. It is starting to come together quite nicely.



The pieces were designed using joinery and then assembled using temporary wire twists to hold it together. It is currently having the glue set before I remove the tags and then add more glue, then sand and fill and sand and paint.

[Si S]

Buckyball next?

[Kim]

Applied some ACME Instant Hole™ to my friend's kitchen worktop so that they can install one of those little tabletop dishwasher things.



(The dot in front is where I spilt a drop.)

I also did the washing-up.

[rogerzilla]

Serviced the graunchy front hub on the Fire Mountain, which turned out to be ok inside.  Also did the headset, which is still a bit graunchy but at least it's clean and not loose any more.  When reassembling, swapped the slightly crappy Matrix stem for a pukka Joe Murray Velocity stem with the brake cable routing underneath.  Then set up the brakes all over again.  They are awesome now - the straddle wire is half an inch off the tyre 

Also trued the wheels, which I was expecting to be impossible due to the age of, and general patina on, the wheels but turned out to be trivial.

The BB is still on the list.  if it's really bad I might spring for a cartridge unit.

It's a great bike to ride - I'd forgotten how much better MTBs are without suspension forks, assuming you're not actually going to ride down a boulder-strewn slope (I have done that, on Dartmoor, without suspension and it was punishing!).  Easier to lift the front end up kerbs and things, easier to do SPD hops, a lower front end, and the thing actually goes where you point it.

[ElyDave]

Whilst waiting for punters at st Ives, VonBroad, OTP gave a masterclass on wheel truing, using my wobbly rear wheel as an example. Rode home much better than it got there.

[Mrs Pingu]

Applied some ACME Instant Hole™ to my friend's kitchen worktop so that they can install one of those little tabletop dishwasher things.



(The dot in front is where I spilt a drop.)

I also did the washing-up.

What was that then, H2SO4?

[Kim]

Applied some ACME Instant Hole™ to my friend's kitchen worktop so that they can install one of those little tabletop dishwasher things.



(The dot in front is where I spilt a drop.)

I also did the washing-up.

What was that then, H2SO4?

(4mm drill bit)

(click to show/hide)

*Someone* was an idiot and assumed that there wasn't a huge void between the back of the cupboard and the wall.  Having carefully measured so as to just avoid hitting anything structural with the hole saw, I drilled a pilot hole  upwards from the inside and discovered it emerged there.   

At least there will be a dishwasher on top of it.  And the whole kitchen's getting ripped out in a year or two when budget permits.

[rogerzilla]

I stopped half a mile into my commute to adjust a stem that wasn't quite in line with the front wheel.  It's hard to tell unless you're actually riding it.

[rogerzilla]

Overhauled the BB on the Fire Mountain.  Cup and cone job with a plastic bellows to try to keep crud out.  These are impossible to clean, so I junked it.  Spindle slightly pitted but not too bad.  Ball cages a bit crappy, so rebuilt it with loose 1/4" balls and a lot of Phil grease.  Will be good for years - it's reasonably well sealed and has lasted 26 years so far- until I (or someone else) can be arsed to put a UN55 in there.

Just the rear hub to go now, then the whole bike has had the once-over.  It's a few pounds too heavy to be truly great, and Rapidfire still sucks, but it is a fabulous thing to ride.  I even got air off the speed humps at work 

[Kim]

Having molished a directional light sensor by applying ultraviolence, black spray paint, sugru and a phototransistor to a PCB-mount BNC connector, I dug out the bodge-wire and completed the conversion of that £16 kit handheld oscilloscope into a lighting flicker-o-meter for barakta.

I also put into practice an idea I had the other day while riding my bike:  I finally managed to get the tappy bit off the crappy kitchen tap without breaking anything by cunning abuse of a ring spanner and bar clamp.  Which meant I could fit a new one that wasn't fucked.  We now have a hot tap that can be operated in the linear region without becoming unstable at higher temperatures.   

[mcshroom]

Yesterday - Graeme's Batbar tape which was unravelling from the drops end

I had to rebuild a pringled front wheel for a rider who rode into the school gatepost

Lots of other bits and pieces on bikes over the last few days, though the most common fix seemed to be to clean the gunk off the chains/jockey wheels after 1000km (including severe quantities of wet) and reindexing the gears a bit.

We did sell all the folding tyres we had, used all the spare gear cables and went through a lot of general spares at Thirsk LEL control. The hardest fixes were snapped gear cables inside a Dura Ace and then a 105-5800 shifter. Luckily we had a mechanic from Cowleys Cycles in NTR who managed to fix those (and show me how ), but not without a lot of fiddling in the case of the DA. It's now encouraged me to pull the gear cables out and check them on my bikes in future.

One I couldn't help was a rider who'd broken his carbon seat post.  Unfortunately I had no seat post and I'm not sure I could have got the stump out anyway. I don't think I'll be hanging a full Nelson Saddlebag (and Bagman) off of a carbon seatpost any time soon.

[Kim]

Yesterday - Graeme's Bat tape which was unravelling from the drops end

I hope that's not a typo.

[Torslanda]

The one, true, caped crusader . . . !

[Kim]

Taped crusader?

[robgul]

I fettled the web of skin between thumb and forefinger on my left hand with a stab from a screwdriver - it was a Park Tool screwdriver so that's OK.   At the moment it seems to just be bruised with no further internal damage.

Rob

[mcshroom]

Yesterday - Graeme's Bat tape which was unravelling from the drops end

I hope that's not a typo.

[Kim]

Yesterday - Graeme's Bat tape which was unravelling from the drops end

I hope that's not a typo.

I was hoping for yellow with little Batman symbols, but: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/160362993/handlebar-tape-batman-cotton-wrapped-gel

This hockey tape is more like it:

[rogerzilla]

Best typo since the equally beguiling "porn mat" a few years ago.

[MalRees]

Geared down the Moulton TSR 30 via the application of a bargain priced Campagnolo Athena Triple chainset from Merlin Cycles. Just about works... some old style bodgery needed to stop chain rub; the Q factor seems to be a little different to the rather nice Stronglight that the bike came with. I now have a tiny bottom gear; 30 x 29 on 20 inch wheels has to be small enough to get me up anything until I build more strength up.

[Jurek]

Replacement SPD cleats for the well worn (out) ones in my 2016 Sidi Dragon Carbon 3s (my commuting shoe which has probably done ~16,000 miles).
Unfortunately, following Shimano advice, I managed to shear the thread in the 4 hole threaded plate in the sole, which retains the cleat.
Note well: Ignore Shimano's advice of doing up the cleat bolts to 5 to 6 Nm. I wouldn't chance it over 4.5Nm.

I was going to throw away an otherwise good pair of shoes and replace them (I know spares are available, but their prices are a bit Maserati), then I realised that my worn out 2006 Sidis (I've never thrown away a pair of worn out cycling shoes, or any other cycling component, for that matter.... ) have exactly the same plate...

It took some seriously industrial cutting equipment and effort to extract the 4 hole plate from my (now destroyed) 2006 Sidi shoes.
They are seriously well constructed.

Thankfully, fitting the re-cycled plate to my 2016 shoes was less invasive.

I think I just may've saved myself a couple of hundred squids.

Weekends, this household is just so rock n' roll.

[andrewc]

Not fettling, but tidying up my spares & tools box.    How many sets of mudguard stays ?   4 bike computers, I've not used one  in years        What are these plastic brackets for ?    How many tubes that need patching      I can feel a large binbag being filled.