What have you fettled today?

[interzen]

decided that Campag Xenon is cheese that isn't supposed to do more than decorate low end bikes. Broke the shift lever and now the rear mech is somewhat ambiguous about gear changes. Time to search out a decent upgrade.

Maybe that's why they named it after the noble gas: it's heavy, largely useless and only does anything under extreme conditions ...

[Paul]

Fitted a Cateye wireless computer to the tandem.
 It worked only intermittently

Ah, so it is stoker-specific?
 

[Paul]

Over the last two weekends I have fettled Bob (a second hand Thorn me n u2) quite a lot:

- new rear BB (at some point in his past someone fitted a BB too small, making the granny unusable because the chain would inevitably jam between it and the chain stay)
- replaced the triple rings
- fettled (with a hack saw) the rear rack struts so they do not now impede the operation of the rear v brake (which will be replaced with hyraulics too soon)
- fitted toe clips and straps to the stokers'* pedals (Suzy was not impressed by the chain ring teeth holes in dydlan's shoes )
- replaced the drive chain, front and rear mechs

Bob now has all the go and stop he was designed to have!

(*rare, but accurate use of an apostrophe in this word)

[Kim]

In no particular order, today I have:

- Installed some extra RAM in my desktop computer.

- Installed an antistatic mat at my electronics bench (which involved sorting out the earthing, and finding lots of heavy objects to weigh down the edges until it stops curling the wrong way).

- Mucked about with NTP a bit more.

- Replaced the gear cable on the Streetmachine, which I discovered yesterday was in a state of impending doom.

[David Martin]

Got the stepper motor part of the turntable project working. Decided I need to be more careful about speccing components - bog standard 1/4 watt resistors don't like having 3W through them - they get a bit toasty.
Anyhow, after cursing and swearing I managed to sort out programming the Arduino Mini Pro. Just the camera trigger part to finish and it should all be done with the prototype and on to the fully soldered version.

[Kim]

I ohled a 12V air mattress inflation pump earlier, and have just molished a cable for putting the 50mumbleVDC from barakta's trike battery across the pins of its mains adaptor.

This post brought to you by a homage to rower40, ye shedde and the general forgivingness of SMPSUs

[Vince]

Cleaned Boy Wunja's old bike and inflated its tyres before taking it to the school's sale, hoping it will get 40 euros.

Two fettling attempts to fix a pannier rack to the CdF. Not entirely happy with the result. The rack mountings on the drop outs are 6.5 cm/2.5 inches/0.037 smoots higher than the axle leaving the rack much higher than optimal. So its now sharing the mudguard eyes. outboard of the mudguard stays because of an interaction with the seat stays.

[Kim]

So its now sharing the mudguard eyes. outboard of the mudguard stays because of an interaction with the seat stays.

My experience is that this looks like it should be a problem, but several years of heavy shopping and comedy off-roading have proved otherwise.

[Feline]

Simon had some new mudguards delivered today for his Van Nick fixie to replace a broken rear one ready for the Cheltenham Flyer 200 tomorrow. He didn't really have time to fit them and also get his gpx track ready for the morning.

So I kindly fettled his new mudguards onto his bike for him. It's one of my least favourite jobs although I am getting better at it these days. His guards are pretty straight and as concentric as they can be and still adjust the chain length and get the rear wheel out so I am smugly happy 

[mr magnolia]

I've fettled nothing, but I have realised that some fettling is needed!
http://pbckt.com/pu.29ZL6E

[Jurek]

Replaced the $h!tty-gritty Aztec brake blocks on the front of the Pomp with KoolStop Salmons, of which I had a consignment delivered from the USofA earlier in the week.
Soft, silent braking once again 
Introduced a little tension into the chain on the same bike, so that it's not a bit slack.
Oh, and fettled a foot-stool cover and flowerbed at Mother's.
Both of which were less satisfying than the former two.

[bumper]

Just fitted new brooks honey bar tape. One section had THREE visible joins in it!  For the cost of this stuff it should be bloody perfect!!

[Canardly]

Swopped out questionable Shimano canti pads for Kool stop dual compound, a 5 min job that took half an hour    Oh and cleaned the bike which was Sustrans off road dirty from a fortnight ago.

[citoyen]

Weekend off after consecutive audax weekends, so a good opportunity for some tinkering with the audax bike setup, including stopping the rattling bits from rattling, and lowering the saddle a few mm.

My Garmin measured both rides nearly 10% under distance, though this seemed to correct itself when I uploaded the rides to Strava. A bit of googling suggested this was to do with how the Edge 510 behaves when following tracks.

However, I thought I'd better also check the wheel calibration, which I'd lazily set to automatic...

Computer says: 1925mm
Tape measure says: 2100mm

ie "nearly 10%" under...

I expect next weekend's audax to measure somewhat closer to 200km.

PS Nixie bike computer for my hipster fixie? Yes please!

[jogler]

Fitted cleats to my stoker's  new carbon soled road shoes.Next step(is there a pun there?) is to fit proper* spd pedals to the stoker's cranks on the tandem.

*atm she is using trainers & the flat side of combination pedals.
We had a short trial ride with the  cleated road shoes & the heavier spd side of the pedals always falls to the underside & trying to clip-in & also flip the pedal is a frustration too far.

[Tim Hall]

Made my first bullroarer out of a bit of tree and a length of cord. Whittled to a suitable shape then got whirling. V pleased

[David Martin]

Note to self. Remember to finish the job. just taking up the slack on the stem with a "I'll sort that later" and then forgetting led to a rather unexpected walk home from town. Good job it wasn't from the other end of town (Nnewells) as I had gone into town at a sufficiently tasty speed to have made an off somewhat unpleasant.

[zigzag]

swapped out drop handlebars with the flat ones on my folding bike. replaced front brake cable while i was at it.

[Polar Bear]

A chainset.   It had been bodged to a single ring, now restored to double status.     

[CAMRAMan]

I should add that it was my chainset the PB fettled, very generously. Top man, thanks Mike.

I hope once I left PB was not tempted to get his mole grips on the other item left in his care!!!

[Polar Bear]

No, just the lump hammer.

Interested 'dappled' finish on the chainstay...   

[Mrs Pingu]

Made my first bullroarer out of a bit of tree and a length of cord. Whittled to a suitable shape then got whirling. V pleased

What's a bullroarer?

[Mrs Pingu]

Washed the weekend bike - it was still covered in the crap I brought back from last summer's holiday.
Decided the rear brake wasn't working, took it off and wire brushed the spring. Still not working so replaced the cable. Still not working so order a new one
My paintwork is covered in chips as well 

[Tim Hall]

One of those whirl round the head ancient communications things. As seen in crocodile dundee.

[Marco Stefano]

Parsnips, carrots, tomatoes, basil, coriander, mint, chives, peppers, dwarf french beans, mixed lettuces, strawberries, raspberries, apples & pears in various pots & plots. Warm digging in the back garden in T-shirt & shorts. Lovely.