So, this might have happened... NBD - 2016 Fuji Touring workhorse

[Jameshow]

lol - thankfully I have no need of such things!


Was necessary tbh!


A bit of a spot-the-difference below; the state of the bike in the same place in the same grotty "summer" weather but around 1yr apart.

Doesn't look like a lot for a year's graft although much has changed!

View attachment 702458

View attachment 702457

Brooks to a charge spoon?! Nooo!!!

 

[All uphill]

lol - thankfully I have no need of such things!


Was necessary tbh!


A bit of a spot-the-difference below; the state of the bike in the same place in the same grotty "summer" weather but around 1yr apart.

Doesn't look like a lot for a year's graft although much has changed!

View attachment 702458

View attachment 702457

The weeds have grown well.

And the bike looks much better.

 

[wafter]

Brooks to a charge spoon?! Nooo!!!

Actually it's a Genesis saddle (although I suspect they're the same Velo-made item under the skin).

It's comfy, accommodating and not falling to bits.. not things that the Brookes could lay claim to and I was very happy to flog it for more than the Genesis cost me

The weeds have grown well.

And the bike looks much better.

Thanks and indeed - that's after I yanked a load out a while ago too!

I can't help thinking that the bike looks a bit bare now tbh; I do still have the front pannier racks and am keeping an eye out for some sensibly-priced sport-roller bag is Asphalt to match the rear... not that I've yet encountered the limits of the bike's capacity for what I use it for.

 

[wafter]

Earlier the Fuji took me to the shops to post some stuff; then onward to the farm in the next village to sort some eggs.

Mission accomplished my faithful Chinese companion was dumped on the recently-"tidied" patio; affording a nice earth-tones-themed photo op

 

[wafter]

As probably previously mentioned, some time ago I made an effort to get some touch-up paint for the numerous dings the Fuji's endured throughout its lifetime.

While the staff at the automotive paint place couldn't get an exact match since their gear required a relatively large, flat panel, they did spend a commendable time bothering my frame with an LED light and mind-boggling array of colour swatches. Of course I was never far away and concurred with their best - if-inevitably-not-perfect - match.

Several months and a tenner for a fairly generous pot of paint later I found myself pressed to get the job done before the cold, damp seasonal misery took hold.

To begin the bike was thrown in my newly-acquired Park workstand, wheels removed and washed as best as possible. Affected areas were treated as nec. with phosphoric acid to kill any rust then degreased with isopropanol before paint was applied... given the paint's unsurprising propensity to yield to the demands of gravity, I tried to treat "upper" surfaces, then leave them to flash off for 20 minutes before rotating the frame in the stand and touching up the next set of horizontal surfaces.

Once I'd done all that was viable in the stand, the frame assy was laid flat on the kitchen table, damage treated on one side, left for a bit then flipped and repeated.

Predictably neither the colour match, nor the physical execution of the paint were perfect; however I went into this venture eyes-open - aware that the primary goal was to protect the underlying steel; that secondary being to make the bike look less like it'd suffered an hour in a tumble drier full of nuts and bolts..


My intention was to take before and after shots of the affected areas; however sadly the reality fell somewhat short.... so here's a half-arsed mix of what I managed to document. Apologies for the lack of consistency but I was concentrating more on just getting the job done.

Wear at the chanstay from where the rear wheel had apparently repeatedly come loose and rubbed the paint through to bare metal.. I was keen to get this treated as I suspect this area's fairly highly stressed and a rusty hole wouldn't help!

By far the worst bit of damage was on the underside of the chainstays where some ham-fisted bellend had lashed on an ill-fitting stand in the past

I'd protected this area with wax before, so got that off with a hair dryer and rag, before the usual prep treatment. I'd planned to use primer but in the end figured this might be too messy / too high-build so the paint just went straight onto the bare metal..

This bit was pretty easy to do with the fat integral brush that came with the pot, given its size and while far from perfect that wasn't really an expectation. The colour match is reasonable and it appears well-sealed.. if I could really be bothered I could build it higher and flat it back, but I think that's probably unlikely.

The other major bit of damage was a long rub along the outside of the LH chainstay..

I went in fairly intricately at first, just covering the bare metal..

.. then slapped on a wider, longer second coat to ensure it was all sealed and encompass the bit to the rear I'd missed..

Again no oil painting but it should prevent any further rust and looks tidier than it did from a few feet.


I also touched up many other smaller areas on cable adjustor and bottle mount bosses, plus lots of other random chips and the area where the failed gear cable had abraded the paint on the downtube. For some areas I used a sharpened matchstick to apply the paint and the quality of application varies significantly; with some large blobs in some areas, while in others the paint has sunk beneath the level of the existing stuff.

Amonst other niggly little things I had to remove one washer from between the rear mudguard and chainstay bridge to allow comfortable removal and refitment of the wheel, now that the tyre actually has an appropriate amount of air in it. The washers were originally fitted to give clearance between the FD and guard, so I couldn't go too mad removing them..


I also found that my pannier bags have been heavily rubbing the rack and taking it right the way through the powder coat in places. While a bit irratating it's not the end of the world as the rack's a bit tatty anyway.

I do need to sort out some means of protecting it however; would be a prime candidate for some brass plates as per the Brompton, however I don't think I have the patience and resolve to commit the necessary time given the amount I'd need; although since it's round I wonder if I could knock some up by slitting some thin-wall 10mm ID brass tube..?


Finally as per my other thread I checked the chain for wear against a new one; coming in at 1.9mm elongation over 55 link pairs for around 0.14% wear at 1390 miles covered and giving a projected life to 0.5% wear of c. 5500 miles..

That's all for now - the bike is currently still sans-wheels, up-ended on the dining room floor to give the paint the best chance to harden fully in the warm and dry.

Will re-assess later in the week as to whether I want to try and improve the paint, while really it could probably do with another wash (I did a crap job) and wax since it's been degreased in places and winter's on the way..

 

[AndyRM]

Good work! Lovely bike too.

 

[Jameshow]

As probably previously mentioned, some time ago I made an effort to get some touch-up paint for the numerous dings the Fuji's endured throughout its lifetime.

While the staff at the automotive paint place couldn't get an exact match since their gear required a relatively large, flat panel, they did spend a commentable time bothering my frame with an LED light and mind-boggling array of colour swatches. Of course I was never far away and concurred with their best - if-inevitably-not-perfect - match.

Several months and a tenner for a fairly generous pot of paint later I found myself pressed to get the job done before the cold, damp seasonal misery took hold.

To begin the bike was thrown in my newly-acquired Park workstand, wheels removed and washed as best as possible. Affected areas were treated as nec. with phosphoric acid to kill any rust then degreased with isopropanol before paint was applied... given the paint's unsurprisingly propensity to yield to the demands of gravity, I tried to treat "upper" surfaces, then leave them to flash off for 20 minutes before rotating the frame in the stand and touching up the next set of horizontal surfaces.

View attachment 709413


Once I'd done all that was viable in the stand, the frame assy was laid flat on the kitchen table, damage treated on one side, left for a bit then flipped and repeated.

Predictably neither the colour match, nor the physical execution of the paint were perfect; however I went into this venture eyes-open - aware that the primary goal was to protect the underlying steel; that secondary being to make the bike look less like it'd suffered an hour in a tumble drier full of nuts and bolts..


My intention was to take before and after shots of the affected areas; however sadly the reality fell somewhat short.... so here's a half-arsed mix of what I managed to document. Apologies for the lack of consistency but I was concentrating more on just getting the job done.

Wear at the chanstay from where the rear wheel had apparently repeatedly come loose and rubbed the paint through to bare metal.. I was keen to get this treated as I suspect this area's fairly highly stressed and a rusty hole wouldn't help!

View attachment 709403


By far the worst bit of damage was on the underside of the chainstays where some ham-fisted bellend had lashed on an ill-fitting stand in the past

View attachment 709404

I'd protected this area with wax before, so got that off with a hair dryer and rag, before the usual prep treatment. I'd planned to use primer but in the end figured this might be too messy / too high-build so the paint just went straight onto the bare metal..

This bit was pretty easy to do with the fat integral brush that came with the pot, given its size and while far from perfect that wasn't really an expectation. The colour match is reasonable and it appears well-sealed.. if I could really be bothered I could build it higher and flat it back, but I think that's probably unlikely.

View attachment 709405


The other major bit of damage was long rub along the outside of one of the chainstays..

View attachment 709406


I went in fairly intricately at first, just covering the bare metal..

View attachment 709407


.. then slapped on a wider, longer second coat to ensure it was all sealed and encompass the bit to the rear I'd missed..

View attachment 709408


Again no oil painting but it should prevent any further rust and looks tidier than it did from a few feet.


I also touched up many other smaller areas on cable adjustor and bottle mount bosses, plus many other random chips and the area where the failed gear cable had abraded the paint on the downtube. For some areas I used a sharpened matchstick to apply the paint and the quality of application varies significantly; with some large blobs in some areas, while in others the paint has sink beneath the level of the existing stuff.

Amonst other niggly little things I had to remove one washer from between the rear mudguard and chainstay bridge to allow comfortable removal and refitment of the wheel, now that the tyre actually has an appropriate amount of air in it. The washers were originally fitted to give clearance between the FD and guard, so I couldn't go too mad removing them..


I also found that my pannier bags have been heavily rubbing the rack and taking it right the way through the powder coat in places. While a bit irratating it's not the end of the world as the rack's a bit tatty anyway.

View attachment 709409


I do need to sort out some means of protecting it however; would be a prime candidate for some brass plates as per the Brompton, however I don't think I have the patience and resolve to commit the necessary time given the amount I'd need; although since it's round I wonder if I could knock some up by slitting some thin-wall 10mm ID brass tube..?


Finally as per my other thread I checked the chain for wear against a new one; coming in at 1.9mm elongation over 55 link pairs for around 0.14% wear at 1390 miles covered and giving a projected life to 0.5% wear is c. 5500 miles..

That's all for now - the bike is currently still sans-wheels, up-ended on the dining room floor to give the paint the best chance to harden fully in the warm and dry.

Will re-assess later in the week as to whether I want to try and improve the paint, while really it could probably do with another wash (I did a crap job) and wax since it's been degreased in places and winter's on the way..

Let the paint dry, flatten off and apply some lacquer over?

 

[wafter]

Good work! Lovely bike too.

Thanks - I certainly don't regret buying it and am glad to have hopefully tackled these potential rot-spots prior to winter

Let the paint dry, flatten off and apply some lacquer over?

I could but don't think I can be arsed (and the original finish isn't lacquered ). It's a slightly tatty utility bike and will never be perfect; regardless of how long I spend poking the paint. Main thing is that the once-exposed steel is now protected.

Maybe I'll revisit the idea of further-tidying the paint next summer when the weather's more amenable and the stuff I've just applied has had a good while to fully harden..

 

[wafter]

The Fuji continues to steadly accrue mileage, if somewhat diminished by my exhaustion in the face of the now-regular commute on the Brompton, on top of the usual winter malaise.

This weekend it was pressed into action for the short bottle bank / egg run, since the usually-more-accessible Brompton was out of action. As always it was nice to get out on it, and today when coming to put it back down the shed I impulsively decided to tidy the most obviously touched-up areas on the paint.

Only the bits on the top tube were tackled as these are both the most visually obvious and the most clean (the rest of the bike being pretty mucky).

The touched-up chips were flatted down with 400, then 1200 grit wet and dry wrapped around a lolly stick, then finished off with some T-cut and a coat of wax; one example shown below:

As painted:

Post-400 grit:

Post 1200 grit:

Post T-cut:

Generally very happy with how it's turned out - the better finish lays bare the colour mismatch, but if not looking for them the damaged areas are far less obvious than before they were cut back.

Perhaps I'll look to do similar elsewhere the next time the bike is in bits and clean; however tbh I'm just content in the knowledge the once-exposed bits of the frame are protected

 

[wafter]

As tight as I am I've finally admitted that the back brakes on the Fuji have had it. Today, in the face of more important matters to attend to the inattentiveness lottery chose the arse-end of the utilty hack as the main focus.

Pad carrier assys were removed from the V-brake arms, stripped and cleaned; then the worn-down-to-nearly-nowt pads replaced with spanky new items...

Pad assemblies post-clean - I've already had to re-orientate the retaining pins once to prevent them rubbing the rim; while there's maybe 1mm of rubber left separating the carrier from the rim at the top, and maybe a couple at the bottom. I could probably have squeezed a little more life out of them but had run out of adjustment on the barrel adjustors, while the pad angles of operation are getting increasingly silly relative to the rim. It did occour to me afterwards that a couple of washers between the carriers and arms would probably have prolonged the inevitable a bit more..

New budget Lifeline pads, courtesy of the great CRC corpse-picking of 2024:

Old and new pads; the latter have maybe 2mm more meat on them - not that this is obvious from this pic..

Carriers post-further-clean..

New pads fitted to carriers. This was a bit of a pig and had to be facilitated by some synthetic grease. The Lifeline pads don't seem up to the same quality (at least dimensionally) of the Tektros, but at less than 10% of the price I can't complain. I guess time will tell how they perform..

After a cursory clean these bits were fitted back to the bike; with a bit of copper grease on the threads. The LH one in particular seemed reluctant to align correctly; insisting on engaging the rim first at its rear end - which is a recipe for noise / judder. Hopefully a bit of use / were will sort this out.

While at it I added a bit of PVC tape to the top of the mudguard to prevent any further damage from the brake arm yolk when it's released to slacken the brakes off. I'd hoped that brake adjustment throughout the life of the pads could be taken care of using my spanky Avid barrel adjustors alone; however this isn't going to happen for two reasons...

Firstly the position of the pad changes relative to the rim with wear, meaning as they diminish the carriers have to be moved radially outboard relative to the rim, otherwise the contact patch migrates inward. Secondly there's simply not enough range in the barrel adjustors to take account of total pad wear throughout their lifetime. When the old pads were removed the adjustors were right at the end of their limit; when the new ones were fitted the adjustors were slackened off and I still had to give the brakes maybe 10mm more cable at the clamp to accommodate the new pads.

Not the end of the world but a bit of a pain. I thought I'd made friends with these mini-V-brakes, but they continue to be a bit of a ballache and while serviceable they're not as user-friendly to maintain as calipers or discs.

Anyway, so concludes another scintillating update - am half-tempted by a test ride but the grey outside and aching inside does little to promote this option..

 

[wafter]

Upon musing on this "fascinating" subject further it's become clear that as the pads wear the angle of the brake arms becomes increasingly sub-optimal.

Conceivibly to begin with the travel of the pads under braking is pretty much purely horizontal / perpendicular to the face of the rim. However as they wear the arms become increasingly angled inwards, meaning the arc the pads travel in gains a growing downward component.

This is crap because it increases the lever travel for a given amount of horizontal pad motion - something I already have precious little room to manouver with, while prior to pad replacement the rear brake lever was bottoming out on the bars during operation.

In addition this arc of movement also causes the pad to wear more at the top than the bottom. It's clear that I'll have nowhere near enough adjustment in the barrel adjustors to account for wear over the pads' lifetime, so I think I'll go as far as I can on the adjustors then back them right off, remove the pads and stick a washer between them and the brake arms.

Assuming I can find something of suitable thickness this should avoid the need to mess about with the cable position at the brake arms, as well as hopefully evening out the wear on the pads and increasing their service life.


Because I can't leave the numbers alone.... Each new pad had a total thickness of around 7.4mm, while the ones that came out were a bit under 4mm at their top edges and 5mm at the bottom. So, that's around 4.5 and 3.5mm wear per side; suggesting a total increase in arm displacement of around 9mm as the pads wear from new to nowt.

The arms are around 30mm from their pivots to the pads, and 90mm to the cable clamp so around a 3:1 pull ratio. So, to accommodate the pad wear above there needs to be around 27mm of cable length adjustment - while I think the barrel adjustors I have top out at around 6-7mm...

The pad retaining bolts look like M5, and typical washers of this size are 1.0mm thick. So, one added to each side for 2mm reduced pad spacing once I've run out of adjustment on the barrel adjustor should just about return them to their original position; allowing me to back off the adjustor and start again.

Sounds like a plan, providing there's enough thread on the pads to accommodate the growing stack of washers

 

[wafter]

A further boring update..

Some time ago I tried to check / adjust the RD hanger with my new, discount CRC-death-sale-acquired alignment tool; suspecting that this might be the cause of the ghost shifting issue on the back.

The process ended up being neither particularly positive nor conclusive; thanks to a bit of slop in the tool and the fact that the RD, when screwed to the frame registers on the spring steel retaining clip for the retaining bolt; which only covers around half the circumference of the face around the bolt hole and has correspondingly destroyed the paint in this area only on the frame. Conversely the RD hanger tool engages the frame around the entirity of the hole's circumference - suggesting that due to the missing paint and correspondingly wonky register surface on the frame, when fitted the tool is likely to tip towards the front of the bike.

Best efforts suggested the hanger might have been out of line in each axis by what equates to about 2mm at the rim; however despite my best efforts it seems that this was also pretty much the limit of the tool's repeatability, so who's to say whether the hanger is any better aligned after a few tweaks than it was previously.

The rear gears still aren't 100%, however they're running non-indexed and as such it's likely that any occasional issue could just be down to my own sub-optimal alignment of the shifter. Further I'm pretty happy with the gears non-indexed so currently can't be arsed with the grief of setting them up to test the new hanger alignment; nor particularly keen on the prospect of, in doing so teeing myself up to another one of the disappointing kicks in the nuts as life seems intent on perpetually administering currently.


In more positive news, post-rear-brake-pad-replacement I found there to be a fair discrepency in pull weight between front and rear brake levers, so wound back the spring preload screws on each of the brake arms at each wheel to give both a balanced pull at each arm across the wheel and comparable, light pull at each lever..

 

[fossyant]

Got the same lifeline pads for my commuter and CX bike. Wore a set of rears out quite quick over winter. I have to adjust pad angle part way through use and generally re-centre. They work well, and the cheap lifeline pads are fine.

 

[wafter]

Got the same lifeline pads for my commuter and CX bike. Wore a set of rears out quite quick over winter. I have to adjust pad angle part way through use and generally re-centre. They work well, and the cheap lifeline pads are fine.

Cheers and yes; forgot to mention that the pads have been great so far, during the little use they've had. Glad yours have proven decent too.

Can't complain for the 68p or whatever it was I paid for the pair

 

[wafter]

A boring and slightly demoralising update..

Sunday's short utility ride began with an intermittant clicking on the downstroke of the DS pedal, which by the end had convincingly developed into a constant annoyance.

I took a proper look today; the pedal appearing tight so the next suspect was the bottom bracket. Chain and crankset off, both BB cups unscrewed - with some regrettable slippage marring my "wouldn't that be a shite choice of material for a tool" aluminum Park BB socket - with the DS cup noticeably less tight than the NDS..

Quickly cleaned up, reassembled with copper grease and torqued to 45Nm a swift, newly-silent ride confirmed that the BB was evidently to blame.


In other news the relatively new cheap-off-ebay Schwalbe Delta Cruiser on the front is showing significant cracks in the sidewalls at only 1400 miles, which is crap