What Have You Fettled Today?

[DCLane]

Progress on the 1955/6 Carlton Franco-Italia I've been working on since last November. Yesterday evening I got the headset and forks working properly; a couple of bearings plus some excess paint from the paint shop were stopping everything fitting into place. All adjusted and fine. Brake / front derailleur tightened and I swapped the replacement Wrights saddle back to the original Olympic after I'd fed them both: it looked better and will do even more once I've fed them again today.

Then this morning I've added the replacement decals from H Lloyd; they're as close as I can get without having a better paint job and bespoke decals. I'm happy enough with them.

I'm still to source a front GB Coureur brake, plus cables, chain and bar tape to do. The saddle's set for me as it's a way too big frame, but I want to see how it rides at the end.

 

[Gillstay]

Fitted a new rear derailleur and just checked before it went on. Tiniest trace of grease on the surfaces. No wonder they don't last.

 

[EckyH]

Repaired the front mudguard and replaced the brake pads on a city bike of a neighbour.
Despite the new pads are fairly cheap ones from Jagwire and there is a brake force limiter installed, the braking action was remarkably good - to say the least.

E.

 

[Gunk]

I took the wheel to my son’s commuter bike to the workshop where I volunteer, made a spoke to replace the broken one, trued it, fitted new rim tape and put it in the parts cleaner. Now good as new!

 

[buzz22]

I recently bought a Shimano tricolor groupset, a set of spd pedals were included so they went onto my touring bike today.
New Shimano shoes to suit them arrived yesterday so cleats on and a quick test ride- success.

 

[Gunk]

I recently bought a Shimano tricolor groupset, a set of spd pedals were included so they went onto my touring bike today.
New Shimano shoes to suit them arrived yesterday so cleats on and a quick test ride- success.

View attachment 742392

View attachment 742393

Great pedals, used them for years

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

New bar tape on the CGR Ti. Supercaz this time instead of Lizard Skins. Much easier to wrap, feels better on the hands and in silver sets the bike off a bit nicer.

The right hand side of the bar, I could have done a bit better apparently because the left hand side looks perfect. Still, even that right side is a lot better than it was so I'm pleased with that.

 

[chriswoody]

The tires on the gravel bike are worn down and not holding air very well, so it's finally time to change them. I'm using Teravail Rutland tires and I'd love to make a like for like swap, but they've increased in price to €60 a tire. There's no way I'm spending that, so I've resorted to my second favourite tire, the 44mm wide WTB Radler. So the old ones came off easy enough and the Radler's went on without no stress. A quick blast with the Airshot popped onto the bead with a reassuringly loud crack. Once I'd confirmed they were seated properly I'd popped some sealant in and then pumped them up to 35 psi. Annoyingly the front one started to leak air around the base of the spokes, so it looks like the rim tape has given up the ghost, luckily I still have some from when I converted to Tubeless four years ago, I've just no time left so that's tomorrows job.

My Kona also has IS brake mounts, with IS to Post Mount adapters, rather than the horrible flat mount standard, as a result I was able to easily convert the front brake to 180mm last year. Frustratingly though, the caliper never properly sat over the disc and I've fiddled with it on and off over the last year with no real success. Finally I've done what I should have done last year and bought a SRAM 180mm post mount adapter. Given the fact that the current one on the bike and the new one are both 180mm post mount adapters, they should be the same, but it quickly became apart that the SRAM one is very different.

Fitting it, the caliper now sits perfectly on the disc, just like it should have done with the other adapter. At least at €12 it wasn't an horrendously expensive lesson!

So tomorrow, investigate the rim tape tape problem in the front wheel and continue to do some fettling work on the brakes.

 

[Gunk]

Picked up yet another scruffy Brompton today. Looked much worse that it actually is. It’s a SWB 2001 3 speed with the Sachs rear hub. Brakes have been sensibly updated to the later dual pivots. Main priority was just to make sure it rode and stopped. So I pumped up the tyres, replaced the snapped gear cable, The Torpedo shifter used very slim nipple so I ground down a standard gear cable using a Dremel and it fitted perfectly.

After a bit of fiddling all three gears are working and it rides surprisingly well, just need to fully service, deep clean it, source a chain guard and replace the front tyre (which I already have in the garage) I’m also going to swap over the seat as I have a later Brompton saddle which I took of another bike, so should be small profit, quick return.

 

[buzz22]

Great pedals, used them for years

Great to hear. I've only used the SL versions so being able to actually walk in the shoes is a revelation.
They feel solid when clipped in too.

 

[chriswoody]

So picking up today where I left off yesterday, I needed to replace the rim tape on the front wheel.Frustratingly despite all my experience of tubeless, I'd made the rookie error of popping the sealant in before verifying the tire really was holding air. So after cracking the bead open I used the injector syringe to drain all of the sealant out before taking off the tire. With that done I cleaned up the inside of the rim, took out all of the old rim tape and replaced it with new. This time I waited to check the tire was truly holding air before replacing the sealant.

With that done I turned my attention to the back brake, in addition to needing new pads I'd noticed a problem when inspecting it yesterday. For some strange reason the backing plate of the outboard pad was fouling the mounting bracket and wasn't actually actuating properly. Instead the other pad was compensating and the pistons were really far out.

So after cleaning with Isopropyl I pushed all four pistons back in, then replaced the pads with new. I then popped a washer under the forward caliper mounting bolt to lift the caliper up and the brake pad clear of the bracket. Looking closely this seemed to do the trick and with the wheel back in the caliper was still properly centred over the disc so I'll call that a win.

 

[Gunk]

Finished off the tatty Brompton today. it was a bit of chore, in the end I stripped most of as mud was in every crevice, virtually every fastener needed to be cleaned with a Dremel. I changed the front tyre (found out it had a slow puncture so had to do it twice) went right through it and serviced it, and touched up quite a bit of paintwork especially on the rear triangle, but it’s come out quite well. I might still swap the shifter for a ”Rabbits Ears” shifter I have in my box of bits as the old Torpedo shifter is a bit crap, but all three gears work and it is unbelievably smooth to ride.

Strange to have one without the frame clip, I can’t get used to it and had to use a cable tie to put it on the stand.

And some “after” pictures.

 

[biggs682]

Swapped tyres on the new to me Roberts

 

[Donger]

Finally got rid of a "ker-clunk-tick" sound! No.1 bike was already overdue for a service and showing signs of wear and tear when I recently knackered it through riding over massive Belgian cobbles. I had a new bottom bracket, a new spoke on the front wheel, a whole new rear wheel, a new front derailleur and a new jockey wheel fitted, as well as a new chain and cassette. All much needed but not, it seems, the cause of my annoying regular "ker-clunk-tick" that kicked in whenever I accelerated or went uphill.

I was able to establish that it was not the crank set as it happened on all three rings and it happened whether I was seated or out of the saddle so it wasn't the seat post. It is difficult to get a bike to make a noise on the work stand that it only makes under stress on the road, but by a process of elimination it just had to be the bearings in one of the pedals. So today I removed the pedals from both bikes and fitted the ones from No.2 onto No.1 and took it for a test ride. Perfect! Silent running and felt like a brand new bike (which most of it now is). Ready for my next holiday.

 

[Fredo76]

My brother and I modified Papa's old Romana 300, the bike I borrowed from him to race on in the early '70s as a thirteen-year-old Intermediate. I'd change out the 27" training wheels, and put on the sew-ups it came with, adjusting the brake pads each time, and then change the wheels back after my race. Originally with a Nervar Star crankset, Campy derailleurs, Fiamme stem and Universal 68 side-pull brakes, it had already been mongrelized considerably.

Before:

Now to geezerize, by raising the bars to saddle level, and replacing the DT shifters with (gasp!) stem shifters (the horror!). We replaced the bars, stems, and brake levers as a unit, partly because neither one of us wanted to sacrifice nicely wrapped bars to change just stems. Brake levers became Campy but with black Dia-Compe hoods, calipers new Tektro 559 dual pivots, mainly to be able to brake from the hoods more effectively. Suntour stem shifters, same ones as Fredo's, and surprise, a red Silca pump with a Campy head that actually works well still, from my brother's old junk box.

The last step was wrestling a Rene Hearse Orondo Grade 31mm tire onto the rear Mavic MA-2 rim. It took both of us working together with three tire irons to get each side over the rim, and we managed to do it without ruining the TPU tube, but it was really difficult. After we were finished, I noticed the 'Pro Tip' from the Rene Hearse page for the Orondo Grade, as follows:

"On older, narrow, non-tubeless rims (Mavic MA-2 or similar), the rim well is not deep enough to mount tires without stretching the bead—but the innovative bead of the Orondo Grades does not stretch, so they can be very hard to mount on these rims."

Duh... or Doh! - take your pick. ;-)

Result is a much more rideable bike for us, we both agreed. But now we're not sure what to do with the front tire.