What Have You Fettled Today?

[Gwylan]

You know how it is. "I'll just....., then go for a ride.

1030, I'll just go and check the connections to the ebike motor. And clean the motor bearing
Next, bike in stand, rear wheel off. Big clean.
Whilst the wheel is off I'll check the brake pads.
They've been squeaky.
Examination reveals that they are very thin
Have spares, of course I do. I'm that sort of OCD. But not anal, do don't know where they are
Search begins.
Eventually find them under a scrap phone on the bench.
Install brake pads. Might as well bleed the brakes then.

Bad move.

Bleedin' kit? Is that in the Everyday bike bits box, the must take on Tour bike box or the Forever bike bit box"? Or did I lend it to Dave?
Eventually locate and bleed the brakes.

But the design of the bike requires me to remove the brake cylinder to get at the gizmo to add fluid.
Who dreamed that one up?
Restore cylinder etc. Start to replace wheel. Realise I've left the funny yellow bit if plastic in the brakes and not the shiny new pads.
Remedy error, proceed.

How many different Allen keys and Torx keys should you need on a bike?

Replace wheel and reconnect.

But the Gates belt tensioning is a farce. Twang the belt to the app on the phone to get the right note. Unbelievable and unpossible.

Notice, one of the plugs has a gap in the insulation. Think that was where I'd started.
So a quick bit of shrink on sleeving will fix that.

Now it's lunch time, the bike is still on the stand but the end is in sight.

Well finally done the back wheel, suppose the front pads need replacing
So they were replaced.

That brought me to tea time and re tensioning the Gates belt. Another great udea, in principle.

 

[Gwylan]

You know how it is. "I'll just....., then go for a ride.

1030, I'll just go and check the connections to the ebike motor. And clean the motor bearing
Next, bike in stand, rear wheel off. Big clean.
Whilst the wheel is off I'll check the brake pads.
They've been squeaky.
Examination reveals that they are very thin
Have spares, of course I do. I'm that sort of OCD. But not anal, do don't know where they are
Search begins.
Eventually find them under a scrap phone on the bench.
Install brake pads. Might as well bleed the brakes then.

Bad move.

Bleedin' kit? Is that in the Everyday bike bits box, the must take on Tour bike box or the Forever bike bit box"? Or did I lend it to Dave?
Eventually locate and bleed the brakes.

But the design of the bike requires me to remove the brake cylinder to get at the gizmo to add fluid.
Who dreamed that one up?
Restore cylinder etc. Start to replace wheel. Realise I've left the funny yellow bit if plastic in the brakes and not the shiny new pads.
Remedy error, proceed.

How many different Allen keys and Torx keys should you need on a bike?

Replace wheel and reconnect.

But the Gates belt tensioning is a farce. Twang the belt to the app on the phone to get the right note. Unbelievable and unpossible.

Notice, one of the plugs has a gap in the insulation. Think that was where I'd started.
So a quick bit of shrink on sleeving will fix that.

Now it's lunch time, the bike is still on the stand but the end is in sight.

Well finally done the back wheel, suppose the front pads need replacing
So they were replaced.

That brought me to tea time and re tensioning the Gates belt. Another great udea, in principle.

It's cleaning the swamp and coping with the alligators

 

[sevenfourate]

About to fettle my free hub. Which sounds like a graunchy thing 😪

 

[Gwylan]

About to fettle my free hub. Which sounds like a graunchy thing 😪

View attachment 763662

The wife out then? Or do you live alone?

 

[sevenfourate]

The wife out then? Or do you live alone?

Wife’s in. She loves it. Infact she’s treating me to fish and chips as we speak for bringing yet another one inside 🤣

 

[Gwylan]

Wife’s in. She loves it. Infact she’s treating me to fish and chips as we speak for bringing yet another one inside 🤣

That's a keeper then ☺️

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Post winter service for commuter.

Jet wash. Took off old chain. Went to fit spare I always keep, realised I didn't have one. Or a cassette. Got summer bike out to ride to LBS for those. Front tyre flat. Swapped commuter wheel in, rode to LBS, now sorted for parts.

Went to parts box for hollowtech bottom bracket I bought a few weeks back as the old one was knackered. Only one bearing in the box. Went and searched the depths of the parts box, thankfully fallen out there in the bottom amongst the spiders and rattlesnakes.

Fitted BB, cassette, chain, brake blocks and new rear gear inner.

Bike rides like new, gear change a revelation.

Fixed puncture on summer bike.

Any advice: Hollowtech BBs, the plastic tightening nut which is supposed to be hand tight. I can only get it to pull the axle through all the way of I use pliers on it, far too stiff for hand pressure.

Everything was thoroughly greased, am I doing something wrong or is that fairly normal?

 

[ColinJ]

That's a keeper then ☺️

I have the opposite... My ex comes round, tells me off about bike repairs in progress in the kitchen, and tells me to tidy up!

 

[chriswoody]

It's been a tough winter on the folding bike, it's been feeling a little rough for a while now. So I decided to treat it to a new chain and sprocket, whilst I was there I noticed the bottom bracket was feeling a little rough, which given I'd only replaced it in September, I was a tad surprised at.

After taking the old one out, it was plainly obvious it had seen better days, but less than six months to get in this state. Can we start a petition to bring back the old UN55?

 

[ColinJ]

I have been getting annoyed by a ticking/clicking sound coming from my DIY 6-speed bike.

I suspected that the noise was coming from the cheap bottom bracket fitted in December. That has been exposed to a couple of months of salty winter grit and LOTS of water.

But then I remembered that I had a similar problem before the BB was changed...

I thought that the problem was probably in the freehub rather than the wheel bearings since the ticking noise didn't happen when freewheeling. I took the freehub off. A quick check of the wheel bearings anyway - yes, they felt fine. I took the cassette and freehub off. Quick check of the freehub bearings - ah, they felt fine too!

It was possible that the bearings only complained under pedalling load but maybe the noise came from something else? One thing that looked a bit iffy was the stack of spacers that I had used in my DIY 6-speed cassette. I reckoned that I needed another mm or two to give the lockring a bit more to bite onto. I replaced one spacer with a thicker one.

I cleaned and greased everything as I reassembled the cassette and freehub and then put them back onto the wheel. I put the wheel back in and went out for a ride...

(Immediately...) TICK TICK... (Damn!!)

(A couple of minutes later...) TICK TICK...

(Another couple of minutes later...) tick tick...

(And then...) tick tick...

(And finally!) Silence!

So... I just whipped the back wheel off and checked that.

The locknut on the non-drive side was not tight so I tightened it (and made sure that the wheel still span freely - it did).

Then I checked the lockring holding the cassette on. It wasn't exactly loose, but I managed to tighten it by a couple of clicks (from its serrations) without using a ridiculous amount of torque.

Oh, and I noticed that the wheel was using the QR from my old Tacx turbo trainer. I replaced it with the original QR so I can pass the Tacx on to a friend when my smart trainer arrives.

I have not tested the bike yet to see if the noise has gone. I may nip out on it for half an hour this evening. If not, I will find out on tomorrow's ride.

The noise is irritating, but there is always the worry with things like that something bad will happen on a long ride. I ignored a ticking bottom bracket for too long about 20 years ago and it eventually practically seized on me. Fortunately, I was nearly home when that happened!

 

[DCLane]

I was at son no. 1's this afternoon after a day helping at my father's house moving furniture and other stuff. His Carrera Subway needed work;

- It had gained a lot of dirt after a lot of use
- The rear brake disc caliper was loose, so I tightened that.
- New front & rear Kenda tyres as the old ones from 2018 were starting to crack
- The chain was dry and rusty so it got a new KMC chain and also a new cassette just in case
- The rear derailleur was out of line as the hanger was badly bent, so we picked up a couple from Halfords
- Finally, a rear cable adjustment so it all shifted smoothly

All done and working nicely for another year plus of use before being looked at again.

 

[Gunk]

I was at son no. 1's this afternoon after a day helping at my father's house moving furniture and other stuff. His Carrera Subway needed work;

- It had gained a lot of dirt after a lot of use
- The rear brake disc caliper was loose, so I tightened that.
- New front & rear Kenda tyres as the old ones from 2018 were starting to crack
- The chain was dry and rusty so it got a new KMC chain and also a new cassette just in case
- The rear derailleur was out of line as the hanger was badly bent, so we picked up a couple from Halfords
- Finally, a rear cable adjustment so it all shifted smoothly

All done and working nicely for another year plus of use before being looked at again.

You’d have been better off teaching him how to do it

 

[DCLane]

You’d have been better off teaching him how to do it

He was there with me whilst I did it and showed him how to change the derailleur hanger and fit the chain, together with an explanation why it was dry/rusted. He was also there whilst I did the cassette. He's got the other hanger in case he needs to do it next time.

 

[Gunk]

He was there with me whilst I did it and showed him how to change the derailleur hanger and fit the chain, together with an explanation why it was dry/rusted. He was also there whilst I did the cassette. He's got the other hanger in case he needs to do it next time.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll be doing it next time!

 

[DCLane]

Pulled the Merida Cyclo-Cross out for my second ride outdoors since December's hand accident and it'd got a flat rear tyre. Then I remembered a reminder that it needed changing over Christmas but life and an injury occurred. The rear tyre was slick rather than treaded: lots of commuting and other use.

So ... new rear tyre and new tube and all ready to go for a few more months.