What have you fettled today?

[Paul]

Bloody shower. A-bloody-gain. I'm part way through another strip out of the sliding door and sealant, to stop yet another leak. I'm seriously thinking of showering prison-style (hose, yard).

 

[quixoticgeek]

Put my own bike up on the work stand in the shop. It needed a new chain, which is simple enough. Decided while at it to check the rear mech alignment. It was off. Fortunately it's a steel frame, and so easy to just bend it slightly. Took the opportunity to remove all the hair and other detritus from around the rear mech and wipe down the drive train.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee-7PxOWoAAsqAe?format=jpg

There's a rear mech under here somewhere...

J

[ElyDave]

^^^ did the same with my guttering last week, need to wait for this week's rain to check

Today's fettling was to wash both bikes and swap a few pairs of pedals.  New Looks onto the Airnimal, pedals from that onto the Cruzbike, and those will go onto the turbo trainer bike.  At some point I'll get round to sorting out the original pedals from the turbo trainer bike so I'll have a spare pair.

I was quite surprised to find no spanner flats on the Looks, can only be installed by an allen key which is my least favourite method of doing it.

And I found a bolt for the rack on the Cruzbike, no spacers, but it'll hold for now.

[Mrs Pingu]

Destroyed some more hedge, but it's still not finished. My back hurts now.

[Bolt]

First attempt at sewing and making a frame bag.  I used a waterproof cordura type fabric which stitched together very nicely. Total cost of materials about £3.00

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Some ‘ultra strong’ ‘power hold’ hair spray arrived, which let me fit new grips and refit the bar ends to my Brompton.

The seatpost still slips while riding and I am loathe to further tighten the QR for fear of distorting the frame. I may eventually break down and get the reamer and fit another frame sleeve. Other than that and a couple of cosmetic touches (might build a replacement front wheel around an aftermarket sealed bearing hub), my Brommie refurb is functionally complete and better than new.

[Canardly]

First attempt at sewing and making a frame bag.  I used a waterproof cordura type fabric which stitched together very nicely. Total cost of materials about £3.00


That's impressive.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Looks very neat. I continue to be jealous of people with sewing machines and the skills to use them.

[Mrs Pingu]

That looks v. professional, Bolt.

[Gattopardo]

Cleaned the walls of the bathroom with st marc lesive, french sugar soap equivalent to clean the black mould and dirt on the walls.  Cleaned two sink ubends and one bath ubend.  Which is such fun, but needs to be done on a regular basis so the sinks don't get blocked.

Still haven't got round to sorting out the possible leak, looks like it will involve cutting a few pipes to get to the possible leaking pipes. So out comes the angle grinder and the fun begins. 

Also look it to making a new connection to a hand basin, but that should be easier.....

[hatler]

Last night I was delivered a bike with a failed rear shifter, trigger style.

Never dared take one of these apart before. Still, with nothing to lose, and it not being my bike, and the worst outcome was to return an already non-working bike in non-working order (perhaps with the loss of a few pingfuckits), I dived in.

Bloody hell. Took me about an hour to work out how it should be assembled, and then another hour to work out how to get all the pingfuckits installed in the right place.

Fiddliest job in ages.

It was delivered already part disassembled, so it's hard to be sure exactly why it failed, but I suspect that the lock tabs had eased enough to allow the nut to unwind just enough to allow the bigger trigger to get far enough out of line that it wasn't engaging with its pawl.

ETA  Confirmed. Owner says that when he removed the cover the securing nut was nearly off the stud.

[Kim]

Replaced this with another worn clicky M520 from my collection.  Really not sure how it happened 

[hatler]

I've had that happen two or three times now. Don't throw it away. When it next happens you can cannibalise them and get a good pedal out of two wrecks.

[ElyDave]

Replaced this with another worn clicky M520 from my collection.  Really not sure how it happened 

That reminds me, I need to tighten the cleat mechanism on mine.  One was floating around free as a bird when I was trying to get all of my mediocre power through it today

[Kim]

I've had that happen two or three times now. Don't throw it away. When it next happens you can cannibalise them and get a good pedal out of two wrecks.

First time it's ever happened to me.  Admittedly, I tend to retire them from my most-used bikes when they get clicky, so they probably haven't had the opportunity.

I'm currently experimenting with Time ATAC, which is disconcertingly weeble-wobbly (yet stiff to release) compared to SPD, but reassuringly click-free.  If it stays that way after a few thousand miles, I may migrate the whole fleet.

[Pingu]

Replaced this with another worn clicky M520 from my collection.  Really not sure how it happened 

Awesome climbing power, innit 

[citoyen]

First attempt at sewing and making a frame bag.  I used a waterproof cordura type fabric which stitched together very nicely. Total cost of materials about £3.00

Great work, that looks ace!

[citoyen]

Pending purchase of a new set of tubeless tyres, I replaced the worn-out front tyre yesterday evening with a spare Conti Grand Sport I happened to have lying around. I also have a set of unused Maxxis Padrone TR but thought it would be quicker and easier to just go for the bog standard clincher option as a short-term fix.

After knackering THREE inner tubes while trying to get the bastard on (two pinch punctures, one explosion), I gave up with that line of reasoning, and fitted the Padrone instead. Getting it to seat properly on the rim was a major PITA, but the lack of tube meant it was still quicker and less painful than trying to fit the Grand Sport. Whole job took far longer than it needed to. 

Maybe I'll just stick with the Padrones for now - only down side is they're 25mm rather than my preferred 28mm, but I'll see how I get on with them before deciding whether or not I need to spend the money...

[hatler]

New MTB just acquired for mini - a 2012 Orange Crush off the Bay which had only done (allegedly) 200 miles in the year of purchase. A quick inspection at the weekend substantiated the claim so we collected it last night. Fair price, partly because the brakes had seized on. But, aha ! I know how to fix that now, and have the kit.

Set about bleeding the brakes last night and it didn't go as sweetly as the one I did recently.

When applying vacuum at the lever for the rear brake it seemed to be drawing air in from somewhere, yet when it was all done it seemed to work perfectly. Very odd.

[T42]

Currently sweating & swearing while trying to match one of the top rails for my panelling to the bulges and hollows of our ancient walls.

[Mrs Pingu]

That sounds like type 2 DIY fun.

[chrisbainbridge]

Not actually today but I finally got around to installing the new BB for my Trek Domane and then cleaned and waxed the chain.

The joy of a silent drive chain!!

[MattH]

Gave MrsH's VW T5 a service. Pretty straighforward job, except for the usual engine-designed-by-someone-who-doesn't-service-them issue; you need to unscrew the oil filter holder using a 32mm (IIRC) socket, but there's not really room to get a ratchet onto it, or get a nice combination of extensions and UJs in there, as it is right up against the radiator, with suspension and engine mount bits in the way, and blocked by coolant and power steering hoses.

And the pollen filter, who thought it was a good idea to secure the little plastic door for it using self tapping type screws with a 5.5mm head? It's not space critical, it's not something that needs an odd head for anti-tamper, it's just two screws into plastic holding something with enough strength to stop it rattling open. Luckily I have a 5.5mm spanner, but only the one.

And I'd forgotten that VCDS mobile still doesn't let you easily reset the service indicator. OK, that's just hold the trip reset button and rotate the clock set button, but as VCDS was connected to do a scan to make sure everything was OK, it'd be nice to press a reset button in there to do it without dragging out a laptop.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Swapped out the Cambium on HK’s Brompton for a Ti Vitesse and did the Proofide thing. Flintmined and inflated both tyres.

Still need to swap out a worn derailleur pulley, chain and sprockets, some of the cables and the swingarm pivot. The only things I don’t have in stock are the 13/16t sprockets, so this shouldn’t be a big hassle, provided the swingarm bolts come out easily.

[L CC]

Built a power rack yesterday and today fitted the pulleys. The toughest part was translating the instructions- it's German.

Perhaps we should just rearrange the garage 3 times a week instead, everything in there is so so heavy..