What have you fettled today?

[Wowbagger]

I have just built a wheel. It's the old hub (Schmidt) but new spokes and nipples and a lovely new Rigida Andra Carbide rim. It's for my Thorn.

Edit: and I've just been out for a test ride. After the initial "ping-ping-ping-ping-ping" in the first couple of revolutions, it revolved gracefully. I didn't really try out the Swissstop Blue brake blocks because when they are new they are always a bit anti-social, especially at 1 o'clock in the morning.

Hopefully that wheel will last a good long time.

[Feline]

I did a spot of tandem fettling ready for it's first Audax on Saturday.

Swapped both QR seatpost clamps for Hope non-QR ones. We felt these are better for security plus are less likely to slip and I can use a torque wrench to get them tight enough but not too tight.

Fitted a Garmin bracket to the front for Simon's etrex.

Put some bar gel underneath the hood rubbers of my stoker bars because they were a bit hard in a thin rubber-on-plastic way.

Put some 3M spoke reflectors on.

I needed a water solution because the orbit has 3 bottle cages, 2 of which Simon needs, and I really can't physically reach any of them while riding. So as an experiment I ordered the new 3 litre insulated Camelbak pack, an extension tube and a bendy wire sucky-end that can hold itself in any position. This Camelbak looked suitable for rack mounting because it is not a bag with shoulder straps, but has 2 loops on each side. It seems to fit very well zip-tied upside down on the rack so the tube exit is at the lowest point. It has a QR tube attachment and a big zip so you can easily remove the bladder for cleaning and filling leaving the rest on the bike. It seems to work extremely well!

[Oscar's dad]

Feline, which model Orbit do you have?

[jogler]

with Feline & Simonp riding it,it will be the ICBM version

[tiermat]

Whilst out on the InBred yesterday I noticed that 1) I couldn't change up to the big ring and 2) if I pedalled backwards it wouldn't go, the top side of the chain just went slack.

So this morning I got it out of the garage and looked.

tonnes of sticky gunk all over the chain and middle chainring were the cause (and a small amount on the jockey wheels).

A good clean of drive train has produced a bike than can do what it couldn't do yesterday \o/

[Feline]

Feline, which model Orbit do you have?

It is the Pegasus Sport 700 one, the only mods so far are the drop stoker bars, Brooks B17's and a SON front hub

[Oscar's dad]

Feline, which model Orbit do you have?

It is the Pegasus Sport 700 one, the only mods so far are the drop stoker bars, Brooks B17's and a SON front hub

Very nice.  We have an Orbit Routier which I think is the same frame.  Have you only just got yours?

[Feline]

Feline, which model Orbit do you have?

It is the Pegasus Sport 700 one, the only mods so far are the drop stoker bars, Brooks B17's and a SON front hub

Very nice.  We have an Orbit Routier which I think is the same frame.  Have you only just got yours?

Yes, we have had it 3 weeks but only actually ridden it 3 times because Simon has only been here one weekend since it's delivery. We are hoping the Gospel Pass on Saturday won't be beyond us as tandem n00bs! I am also hoping I can get it on the roof of the car, I haven't even installed the roof bars yet. Riding 40 miles to the start I suspect would be a step too far at this stage.

[Oscar's dad]

Feline, which model Orbit do you have?

It is the Pegasus Sport 700 one, the only mods so far are the drop stoker bars, Brooks B17's and a SON front hub

Very nice.  We have an Orbit Routier which I think is the same frame.  Have you only just got yours?

Yes, we have had it 3 weeks but only actually ridden it 3 times because Simon has only been here one weekend since it's delivery. We are hoping the Gospel Pass on Saturday won't be beyond us as tandem n00bs! I am also hoping I can get it on the roof of the car, I haven't even installed the roof bars yet. Riding 40 miles to the start I suspect would be a step too far at this stage.

We have a Pendale tandem carrier which makes transporting it by car very easy, once you've got it up there which is a two person job.  I'm afraid our Routier (Tina the Tandem) doesn't get as much use as I'd like given both my stokers are increasingly less keen on cycling.  Which is a shame as tandeming is the best form of cycling in my humble opinion.

[Tim Hall]

We have a Pendale tandem carrier which makes transporting it by car very easy, once you've got it up there which is a two person job.

Depends on the height of the car I guess. All of the tandems I've put on the roof of our car (inc. tandem trike) have been a single person lift. Get the balance right and have all the ties ready.  Neville Frost used to have a Mercedes camper van with custom made rack on the top. It was quite a long way up. He'd grab the tandem, balance a foot on the worktop in the van and Spoing!,the tandem was in the rack.

  Which is a shame as tandeming is the best form of cycling in my humble opinion.

This man speaks da troof.

[Oscar's dad]

I confess I haven't tried getting it up singlehanded    I have got it down by myself (stop sniggering at the back  )  There is always help at hand which I have gratefully accepted rather than risk my back, the bike and the car's paintwork.

[Feline]

I confess I haven't tried getting it up singlehanded    I have got it down by myself (stop sniggering at the back  )  There is always help at hand which I have gratefully accepted rather than risk my back, the bike and the car's paintwork.

My car is a Zafira so the roof is rather high up, I was thinking of sticking a couple of plastic garden chairs inside to stand on during the manoeuvre!

[Oscar's dad]

I confess I haven't tried getting it up singlehanded    I have got it down by myself (stop sniggering at the back  )  There is always help at hand which I have gratefully accepted rather than risk my back, the bike and the car's paintwork.

My car is a Zafira so the roof is rather high up, I was thinking of sticking a couple of plastic garden chairs inside to stand on during the manoeuvre!

Good thinking Batwoman!

[jogler]

All of the tandems I've put on the roof of our car (inc. tandem trike) have been a single person lift. Get the balance right and have all the ties ready.

same here on both points.We used to have a Fiat Ulyssese which was a high line roof but the current Volvo AWD is a little lower.
I do carry a caravan step in the car to avoid the need to step on the door cill of the car.

[Chris S]

We use a Helton Carrier which makes life simple (though I must say, watching the video again now - he does make a meal of it in the demo - I can get ours on in about 3 minutes flat!).

It's important not to be complacent just because the bike lies down though - it wouldn't have gone under the entrance to the car park at the start of the South Bucks Winter Warmer - lucky we remembered it was there in time!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/8qlMTlbLyFo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/8qlMTlbLyFo&rel=1</a>

[jogler]

I've patched two inner tubes.

[JT]

Not today but late last night I stripped everything but the bottom bracket from my Roubaix. It's surprising how heavy a mid-range groupset is.

I could not free my pedals from their cranks, however. I wish they were fitted with a spanner as my Park pedal spanner makes removal a doddle, but they're fitted with allen bolts and I'm struggling to get enough leverage without knacking my hand (I am aware which way around the threads are - it's not that)

[CommuteTooFar]

Last night I attempted to spoke a new wheel.  I did one side then discovered my spokes were too short when I started on the other side.  I do not have the required size in my spoke collection so something expensive is likely to happen today.

[Tim Hall]

Not today but late last night I stripped everything but the bottom bracket from my Roubaix. It's surprising how heavy a mid-range groupset is.

I could not free my pedals from their cranks, however. I wish they were fitted with a spanner as my Park pedal spanner makes removal a doddle, but they're fitted with allen bolts and I'm struggling to get enough leverage without knacking my hand (I am aware which way around the threads are - it's not that)

Can you not slide a suitable bit of pipe onto the allen key for added leverage?  Or harness Ted the Celebrity Dog to them and get him to pull?

[Kim]

Allen bit and appropriate set of adaptors from a socket set to enable it to fit a sturdy 1/2" drive automotive torque wrench...

[JT]

These are carbon cranks so I don't want to risk anything that might damage them at the moment of free'ing.

Think I'll just have to MTFU.

[Feanor]

Using hex bits on a decent 1/4" square drive bar will give you much more controlled torque than trying to horse on a short allen key ( which will likely just bend ).

Holding the crank in place will be the hardest thing now that it's off the bike.
When it's on the bike, you can arrange things so it's held in place by careful positioning, geometry, and the chain.

You'll need to clamp it in a vice, but protected in some way so as not to damage it.
Or arrange to have the allen key clamped in the vice with a stub pointing up, and then fit the crank onto it, and apply force to the end of the crank, but the crank will be a bit short for the kind of torque you will need.

[JT]

A 6mm allen key is never going to bend! I tried removing the pedals before I removed the chainset.

At the moment the plan is to fit new pedals to the new cranks. 

[Feanor]

A 6mm allen key is never going to bend!

It will, once you get a cheater-bar on it to apply higher torque!
I've twisted one till it looked like a bit of kid's candy!

[MattH]

Possibly a silly question - but have you tried using plusgas or WD40 and leaving them for a while? Worked for me on some very stubborn pedals - a couple of days of giving them a copious spray with WD40 whenever I passed the garage and the next time I tried to free them they came straight out.