What have you fettled today?

[Gattopardo]

Deciding what to do with a puch 531 frame....its badly painted so thinking of attacking it with a wire brush attachment on a drill and then rattle can matt black.

[Greenbank]

Thanks to the myriad of advice elsewhere on here, managed to reduce a 6 metre conifer to around 1m³ (bagable). Now I've just got to figure out how to get rid.

Check if your council will take away garden waste. Wandsworth does (within certain limits) if its bagged up in normal sized rubbish bags (ideally green).

A small bin type incinerator can be good if you don't have much space:
       http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-tools-equipment/compost-bins-incinerators/Sankey-Galvanised-Incinerator-1204-9218301

I reduced several very spiky/scratchy/stabby bushes and trees in my garden to about 10m³.

Luckily the in-laws had left their car with us when they went on holiday so over the last couple of weekends we've made 4 trips to the tip (taking one 'Midi Hippo' bag - about 1m³ - with us each time).

Still have about 2m³ to get rid of (and no car now) but the local council will take 3 bags of garden waste away per week with the usual garbage collection (it gets incinerated) so I just have to spend a few hours chopping up the 2m³ of stuff into 8" long bits to fill up green garden sacks. They'll then go out with the normal rubbish and disappear over the next few weeks.

Most of it can be done with secateurs, anything else requires a few seconds with a "heavy duty wood saw".

Garden is almost clear of nasty sharp/spiky/stabby plants which makes it a much nice place for a 3 year old to play in.

I'm on call next weekend and I have to be within 30 mins of my laptop (and a decent network connection) the entire time, so the garden is perfect. I should even be able to have time to dig out the majority of the main roots of those trees/bushes too.

[LindaG]

Sewed a couple of buttons on a couple of things.

[mcshroom]

Last night rather than today (I fell asleep after going upstairs to get some bits)

Flipped the stem on the new Trek, reset the bars, loosened the rear brake (Evans had left it binding), lowered the seat a little, added light brackets and removed the front and rear reflectors to allow the lights to fit.

Tonight (if I don't fall asleep again) I will switch the flats for some SPDs and add a rear rack. May even get to mudguards if I can work out how they fit with recessed bolts (I've never had new style caliper bolts on a bike before)

[jogler]

 The "Bar Tape" thread has reminded me that on the last occassion I rode the Trek I decided the tape needed some TLC so that my palms & wrists subsequently had some TLC.

So I have fettled bar tape .....
one layer of tape
Specialised Bar Phat gel pads strategically placed on the tops
one layer Specialised Roubaix bar tape

Feels proper comfy & it's not too shabby in appearance.


I've also fettled some lights onto the Longstaff 'cause I'm expecting to be riding in the dark tonight.

[CAMRAMan]

Today I discovered that the leaf blower I was given does not have a built-in shredder. I discovered this in rather dramatic fashion.

[Kim]

The GPX and routesheet for the Rollright Stones ride, to avoid Pride-related road closures, updated instructions regarding the crossing of Dogpoo Lane, and various minor tweaks (eg. the routesheet now folds properly on both sides).

[Gattopardo]

Removed the drive side crank of the cannondale finally.  It involved attacking it with heat, a ball joint splitter and a hammer.  Have found that the bottom bracket is rough.  Think it was the abuse with a hammer. 

Oh well  after I ordered a few 110mm bb for a few rebuilds I'm not looking for another.  Grrr

[Gattopardo]

Has removed the BB from the cannondale, using the steam cleaner well heated the area with the steam cleaner then hit it a few times with a hammer.  Once free it doesn't run as smooth as I would like so  Square taper BB thing un53 as searching for the un7 does not have any hits.

Also cleaned my oven, it was a displacement activity.  Now having a coffee break.

[jogler]

I've pumped the tubes/tyres up to pressure on the Trek.Does that count?

[Chris S]

Completely and utterly ungrateful computers 

[Feline]

I fettled 2 wheelbarrows full of mortar and continued setting the coping stones around my new pond. Nearly finished now, it's taken me about a month because I was a bit knackered post-Audax x2 to get on with it.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Fettle fail

Tried to fit my B17 onto the Genesis. The Genesis seatpost (OEM) has a very wierd clamp. Two bolts passing under the 'arch' of the post. Tightening them pulls the bottom end of two 'hooks' in. These hooks are over the saddle rails and pull the rails down onto another bit of Al that rests on the arch.

I tightened the bolts until there was serious risk of stripping threads. No dice, the whole assembly would slide back and forth on the arch. Put the Genesis saddle back on and it was solid with 2/3rds the force.

I don't think the seatpost is compatible with the B17. Should have just used the manky dirty one from my Mercian.

Oh well, adjusted position of Genesis saddle - nose-down, saddle further back. Not as uncomfortable as it was previously.

[Chris N]

IME, Brooks saddle rails are (sometimes) narrower in diameter than the standard 7mm, which means they can slip in some seatpost clamps that bottom out before they're fully tight.

[mrcharly-YHT]

That might be the problem. I think the genesis clamp only works if the saddle rails are *exactly* the right diameter and spacing. Really crap system that doesn't give me much confidence, tbh. It's only virtue is lightness and a shallow height.

[TimC]

Fettled my old Kinesis Racelight completely to bits to prep it for a respray, prolly by Argos I guess (anyone any thought on that?).

[Feanor]

Just been fettling various things for a 300k on Sat, and I was setting up the GPS.
The maps looked odd, lacking detail.
Some problem with the zoom level?
<fiddle fiddle frob frob>

Doh!

I've left the USA maps loaded.
It only had useless basemap data for Europe!
Put the proper micro-SD card back in, and order is restored!

[Chris S]

Tandem disc brakes.

(sucks teeth)

"Dear oh dear, they'll need replacing. Gonna cost you..."

Wet weather eats brakes  .

[Feline]

I popped round to Cudzo's place and helped him retape his bars. I also ate his cake while I was there 

[JJ]

Up late re-gluing a tub, and unlocking a mifi router.  The first made my eyes tired, the second made them crossed.

[loadsabikes]

I popped round to Cudzo's place and helped him retape his bars. I also ate his cake while I was there 

What are friends for!!

[jogler]

I popped round to Cudzo's place and helped him retape his bars. I also ate his cake while I was there 

What are friends for!!

their primary role is that of cake-tester

[Wowbagger]

Martha's Rothan.

It has been largely neglected since we bought it for her last birthday but an interest in the bicycles at Nursery has given it a new lease of life. Both tyres were ftattish and I had a devil of a job getting an HP pump between the spokes of the small wheels. One tube wouldn't inflate at all so I thought it was duff and then, when in the bike shop, a senior moment allowed the word "Schraeder" to pass my lips when it should have been "Presta". However, the bike is fine now, Martha is the owner of a fetching pink and grey Bell helmet, which was carefully fitted by the chap in the shop, and she showed a conrsiderable interest in a Hamax child seat of the sort that would look especially good on the back of the tandem.

I think that Larkfield Cycles makes a pretty good LBS for the Maidstone area.

[fuzzy]

Martha's Rothan.

It has been largely neglected since we bought it for her last birthday but an interest in the bicycles at Nursery has given it a new lease of life. Both tyres were ftattish and I had a devil of a job getting an HP pump between the spokes of the small wheels. One tube wouldn't inflate at all so I thought it was duff and then, when in the bike shop, a senior moment allowed the word "Schraeder" to pass my lips when it should have been "Presta". However, the bike is fine now, Martha is the owner of a fetching pink and grey Bell helmet, which was carefully fitted by the chap in the shop, and she showed a conrsiderable interest in a Hamax child seat of the sort that would look especially good on the back of the tandem.

I think that Larkfield Cycles makes a pretty good LBS for the Maidstone area.

Before it was Larkfield Cycles, this shop had an incarnation as a toy shop (with a sister shop at the Mid Kent Shopping Centre- hang a left just after the Sir Thomas Wyatt, off of the A20 when heading back to Maidstone). Ma fuzzy was Manageress of this shop and a fledgeling fuzzy did stints as a Saturday boy.

A fledgeling fuzzy also got sacked as a paperboy at the Martins Newsagent a few doors down from Larkfield Cycles.

Martin Square, the road upon which Larkfield Cycles stands was part of the local 'speedway'. A fledgeling fuzzy and his mates used it as part of their criterium route.

The grassed area the other side of the car park at Martin Square was where a fledgling fuzzy and his mates morped into Evel Knievel on their Choppers and modded Raleigh Jeeps.

The benches outside the shops adjacent to the car park was where a fledgling fuzzy experienced a) his first proper tongues and all snog and b) his first beer.

My old stomping ground.

Happy Days  

[Cudzoziemiec]

I popped round to Cudzo's place and helped him retape his bars. I also ate his cake while I was there 

That wasn't cake, that was tea bread! I have no idea what makes it bread rather than cake but it does contain tea.

Today, having taken my newly taped bars for a short test ride - tape feels good, bars also good (drops now a reality), levers mostly good but might need fine tuning - I tuned my gears, washed my bike and worked out why the cadence sensor wasn't registering. It was nothing to do with the sensor/magnet position and it wasn't a broken cable, it was that the contacts on the compo itself weren't connecting properly with the body it clicks into. This was followed by red wine and choc ice!