What Have You Fettled Today?

[GrumpyGregry]

Forecast for tomorrow looks "changeable" so I've put mudguards on the sunday best (shocking I know) fitted a new mudguard mounted light on the rear one in the process, put some ego boosting top tube decals on it, complete with cross of st. george, and used some cherry blossom restoration creme on the black brooks bar tape which is looking rather grey.

and I found some saddle tensioning instructions on the brooks website so have tweaked my saddle a touch too.

 

[ufkacbln]

Tightened the remaining button on the Schlupmf HSD and lubed it.

Ordered a replacement for the one that fell off last week!

 

[DCLane]

Spent today finishing off the donated Raleigh Magnum from @CarlP :

• Frame cleaned and de-rusted
• Replacement wheels bought via eBay with replacement tyres (£17 in total) after I realised the originals were too far gone for my skills
• New Clarks anti-rust chain
• New gear and brake cable outers and inners in white (Jagwire £9)
• New Deda bar tape and ends (free from Halfords earlier this year)

Everything else tightened, lubricated, greased, adjusted etc.

Given to the neighbours son and only afterwards did I realise I hadn't taken a photo

Also, I got the Benotto finally working; rear wheel sorted and gave it a first test ride. The carbon seatpost is still stuck and the brakes are on the very downward part of the handlebars European style = confused & scared

 

[cosmicbike]

Replaced the stock Tektro front caliper on my Trek 1.2 with a nice shiny 105 item.
And gave the bike a wipe over and mickle.
And put the new barbeque together with the kids.

 

[EltonFrog]

Spent today finishing off the donated Raleigh Magnum from @CarlP :

• Frame cleaned and de-rusted
• Replacement wheels bought via eBay with replacement tyres (£17 in total) after I realised the originals were too far gone for my skills
• New gear and brake cable outers and inners in white (Jagwire £9)
• New Deda bar tape and ends (free from Halfords earlier this year)

Everything else tightened, lubricated, greased, adjusted etc.

Given to the neighbours son and only afterwards did I realise I hadn't taken a photo

Also, I got the Benotto finally working; rear wheel sorted and gave it a first test ride. The carbon seatpost is still stuck and the brakes are on the very downward part of the handlebars European style =

Im pleased it went to a good home, shame you didn't take a photo.

 

[DCLane]

Im pleased it went to a good home, shame you didn't take a photo.

Don't worry - it's gone next door for him to test-ride it * and they'll be some fettling needed yet. I'll get a photo at some point then.

* note: he's 6' 4" and it fits him perfectly as is. I can't even get close to the pedals so it's got a 'bike stand only' setup.

 

[danielstucke]

Brakes and gears on my road bike, Mrs S's bike and the converted Orange MTB / toddler carrying commuter, all on the lovely new Elite Workstand that Mrs S bought me for my birthday and all in prep for next weekend's big getaway to the Pyrenees

 

[ColinJ]

My rear tyre went soft when I was 3 miles from home on Thursday's ride. I tried limping back on it after pumping it up but it went down again so I stopped to top it up a second time. The tube's valve core then blew out! I don't know if that was the cause of the original problem, but I couldn't find any sharp objects in the tyre. Damn lucky that the valve didn't fail on a fast descent ...

Anyway, when I went to put a spare tube in, I noticed that the tyre had worn out. Not only was there a flat area all round the tyre, but the threads were starting to break through what was left of the rubber. It got me home, but I was not going to ride that tyre again.

I ordered some replacement Michelin Lithion 2s from Planet X on Thursday night and they arrived this morning. [I think the Lithions are a good general purpose 'training' tyre. I haven't had many punctures or cuts on mine, the rolling resistance seemed ok, I've had no problems in the wet, they were fairly comfortable, and fairly hard-wearing. Planet X are doing them at the bargain price of £11.99 at the moment so it is worth picking up a few.]

I replaced the worn out tyre today and cleaned the wheel rim and cassette while the wheel was off the bike.

I cut a 6 inch length out of the scrap tyre to carry as an emergency 'tyre boot' on rides. (A get-me-home measure in case I ever get a bad cut in a tyre.) I have cut the beading out of either side. I always have a length of gaffa tape with me, so if the worst comes to the worst, I will tape the 'boot' inside the damaged part of my tyre.

Oh, and I had been keeping an eye on my front brake blocks and decided that it was time to replace them. I might have got one or two more rides out of them but I wrecked a rim doing that once when the blocks wore out half way down a steep descent in the wet! You can't stop braking on a 25% hill with a tight bend coming up ... It is a false economy to destroy a £75 wheel for the sake of £5 worth of brake blocks!

 

[slowmotion]

The Sealey AK623 torque wrench turned up in the post. 27-108 Nm for a bargain £25 inc postage. I tightened up the crank bolt to 45 Nm. Oh I love that clicking sound!

 

[Roscoe]

Charge Spoon fitted to road bike.

3 punctures on this mornings ride! May be due to not putting enough pressure in the back tyre. Have been feeling lots of bumps/ stones when riding. Now pumped up as much as I can, no pressure gauge so fingers crossed.

 

[cosmicbike]

Put the new Vax vacuum cleaner together. Whilst not cycling related it did earn me some much needed brownie points

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I was given three old bikes by @gavgav's dad a little while ago as he was having a clearout, so I had a go at fettling the first of them today.

The bike in question is a low-end Raleigh all terrain bike, probably early to mid 1980s vintage. It's a smaller size than I usually take but fortunately has a longish top tube and there is enough adjustment in the seat post and stem to make it fit me without exposing the limit marks.

I've cold-set the rear triangle to take a set of wheels and tyres I had lying around (replacing the heavy chromed steel rims and perished tyres), cleaned and regreased the bottom bracket (Ashtabula type - horrible and on its last legs), adjusted the rear derailleur to take 7 speeds instead of 5, set up the brakes and gone round it liberally with an oil can.

It would benefit from some new parts but it lives and will be suitable as a town runabout :

 

[cyberknight]

Greased seatpost and wheelbearings on Vanquish , installed m530 pedals on subway .

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Anyone have tips on how to remove a firmly-stuck rear cassette? I overdid the tightening of it when installing, and now it really, really doesn't want to come off.

 

[ColinJ]

Anyone have tips on how to remove a firmly-stuck rear cassette? I overdid the tightening of it when installing, and now it really, really doesn't want to come off.

Use the QR to hold the cassette tool in place (if it is like one of these), and use something long and strong (length of scaffold pipe! ) to get plenty of leverage on the spanner?