What Have You Fettled Today?

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sevenfourate

Devotee of OCD
Making a “Bicycle Jetwash Stand” this Morning. So I can get the bike upright; and get all around it. Sick of laying them on the floor / up against a wall and then trying to fall over when you’re blasting them………🙄

I’m making it from some incredibly heavy / hard wood I got from a Cargo ship - where it was used for bearers. Doesn’t look like Green or Purple-heart. But it’s literally like Granite 😳 Should be super sturdy 👌

So - fattest tyre I’ve got - on the MTB - is 2.3 inches. Or 58.5mm in theory. I checked with a vernier and currently mounted; and at the right pressure that tyre is 58mm at its widest point.

I therefore made up 60mm worth of spacers:

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And started drilling some pilot holes. And then coach screwing the thing together (Pictured upside down here):

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Looks like it’s been treated. But I’ll likely slap something on to help prolong its life; bearing in mind it will live outside and get wet in use…….
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Jet wash and bike, oh nooooo. I have a wash station on the side of the garage - it's an old wall mounted bike hanger - two arms fold down so can pop the bike on it - usually only used for the filthy MTB.

That's a nice heavy bit of wood, so the bikes won't go anywhere.
 

sevenfourate

Devotee of OCD
Jet wash and bike, oh nooooo. I have a wash station on the side of the garage - it's an old wall mounted bike hanger - two arms fold down so can pop the bike on it - usually only used for the filthy MTB.

That's a nice heavy bit of wood, so the bikes won't go anywhere.

Yours sounds good 😁 *Not sure why Ive never mounted a flexi water lead, power point etc where it would be ideal……🤨

I’m an Engineer by day. So bearings, headset, crank…. and forcing water into those important little crevices is a big fat NO ! But equally really handy for getting thick mud off tyres, out of gears, front mech etc.

Should just make the ‘de-brief’ afterwards a bit easier 👌
 

Big John

Guru
Strictly speaking I'm a day late - I fettled this yesterday. I'm the wheel man for a local bike charity (truing, spoke replacements, building, hub problems, etc) and yesterday I was asked to build a wheel for a customer who'd been knocked off his bike by a car. His wheel was the perfect 'pringle' shape but the hub/spokes were still usable so I used one of our endless pile of scrap rims and built it up in my garage at home. Took a couple of hours. I just hope the customer's happy with it. He wasn't injured, by the way. Seemed his bike wheel was the only casualty 👍
 
Cleaned the chain on the Brompton and my goodness I should have done that a lot sooner: I have the 6 gear version which has a two-speed derailleur system, and it took a bit of work with a screwdriver to get the crud out. Suddenly the gears change when asked, instead of taking this as a suggestion.

After this, I did what I was supposed to do and looked at the customers bikes. First was this one:


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This belonged to a student from the frozen flatlands of north Germany, so having three gears isn't a drawback. Such bikes aren't as common here because we have things called hills.

On the card, it said the tyres and tubes needed replacing, as did the front brake. The enclosed chain guard and chain tensioner caused a fair bit of faffing about, as they usually do because the various parts all seem to want to occupy the same position; I have a similar bike, so after a fair bit of time and swearing I was able to get it to work.

As I finished the brake off, a colleague came into work. He looked at the bike in horror and said; "The customer cancelled the order; she said it was too expensive."

Apparently the mechanic had called the customer because we have to charge more for bikes with enclosed chain guards. On hearing that the total would be somewhere in the region of 160€ she cancelled the repair. Unfortunately, this wasn't written on the card...
 
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cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Changed the saddle on the winter bike and the summer bike from the charge spoon i have got on with for ages to another brand to see if it helps with my discomfort .I then decided to change the brake pads on the winter bike as they were a bit past it but the rear pad i had to drill out as the bolt head was seized and i rounded it off trying to get it out , luckily the remains of the pad stopped the drill going into anything nasty as the bolt let go .
 
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