What Have You Fettled Today?

[Garry A]

Re greased head set bearings as some water had got in, how much grease is enough?
Cleaned rear deraileur jockey wheels and had a look inside my forks to see how they worked.

 

[alicat]

Day 3 of bike rebuild

Worked out where most of the surplus gear cable bits go and the gears seem to change okay most of the time.

Spent most of the evening arguing with my cantilever brakes. Will get up early tomorrow again to sneak up on them unawares.

Next job will be to adjust the headset when I have some brakes to test against. That will be another first.

The bike is taking shape more slowly than I hoped but at least it is all going in the right direction most of the time.

 

[PeteXXX]

New SPD-SL cleats fitted to the clogs. Just as well they turned up today as the previous pair where only just hanging in there!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Finally fitted the new dynamo light to my OH's touring bike. He didn't need a new light, it was just that we have garmin's now and a few other bits that need charging via a 5v USB port and the new light has both a cache battery and a USB charging port on its handlebar mounted On/Off/Main beam switch and it was cheaper than a dedicated USB charging port that mounts into the headset... and resolved a few issues with spade adaptors at the dynamo...

All I need now is to get the bike down from upstairs (easier said than done due to spiral staircase etc) and set up the beam correctly because as you cycle faster, this light raises the beam higher...



Hopefully we will get to test the USB charging options this weekend on our mini-tour which is a shake down (for my OH mostly) for our holiday in a couple of weeks when this new toy should come in very useful

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Looks good SNSSO

I've got an ordinary front hub on my Nomad (Hope 32spokes) and wondered how much the dynohub slowed the bike down? I'm thinking of getting one but struggle to do more than about 40 miles fully loaded and wouldn't want to reduce my range? Do you notice it?

nope - the SON28's we have are exceptionally good (worth every penny) and there is little to no noticeable drag when something is turned on to run and I know my OH does not notice it at all.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Thanks - I may just get on the phone to SJS cycles then

Currently I use battery powered lights and a Powermonkey with a solar charger. The trouble is that it takes so long to charge the battery pack, that I struggle to keep the phone and the Garmin powered up.

yep - we bought both... went with the powermonkey extreme and currently thinking it takes a while to charge! SJSC may also mention the other device I have come across... now what was it called again... it is £160 verses the £90 I got the light for (from Germany)... ahhh can't remember what the headset thingy is called but it was expensive and I wasn't sure about it tbh though the battery cache is larger but you ran into issues with the adaptors off the dynamo hub for running 2 things at once - needing a spade doubler or manually switching things around...

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Is it this Terrain Tout? The Cache battery seems to be £65 and quite a bit cheaper. But I'm guessing that the £90 light does everything (acting as a light and a charging device).

yep - that's the doubry (first one - we don't have an e-werks device)... we went with the light because it seemed simpler and I know that the german engineering is good... B&M are excellent - really liking the light - even came with the battery cache charged so that you could flash the light on and off before you had even fitted it...

 

[wisdom]

yep that's the doubry (first one - we don't have an e-werks device)... we went with the light because it seemed simpler and I know that the german engineering is good... B&M are excellent - really liking the light - even came with the battery cache charged so that you could flash the light on and off before you had even fitted it...

This seems complicated to me.Does the light need a dynamo or can It be just charged.Sorry for sounding thick as i still use battery lights.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

This seems complicated to me.Does the light need a dynamo or can It be just charged.Sorry for sounding thick as i still use battery lights.

the light is specifically for bikes with a dynamo front hub. It then allows you in addition to using the light, to charge any USB devices whilst you are cycling which is useful on tour when you don't have access to electricity to charge said USB devices (iPods, smartphones & GPS devices). It has a backup battery cache so that when you stop, you don't loose all light from your front light and can still see and be seen. The same cache also allows for charging of USB devices which benefit from a constant supply of power rather than an on/off which stop/start cycling can give. (hope that helps)

 

[Leodis]

exposure tracer on order from Wiggle, needed something easy to move between bikes and powerful. Least if I have any problems I know Wiggle will refund without issue.

 

[fatjel]

New back mudguard on the carerra yesterday looks a bit crooked but oughta work.
bought a garmin 200 at the same time ...

 

[ColinJ]

I'll tease you with a big fettling job, nay - conversion, due when more parts arrive, either tomorrow or early next week ...

My 'best bike' is a Cannondale with a 53/39 chainset. That would be fine except that I seek out very steep hills - lots of them - and even though I am getting fitter and can heave my way up most short climbs on my 39/29 bottom gear, I would rather spin up them in lower gears.

My current top gear of 53/13 lets me pedal up to 35-40 mph but I only ever hit those speeds downhill, and I am happy to get my chin down on the bars and freewheel at those speeds and above.

The bike is overgeared for how I want to use it so I decided to put a triple chainset on it. I was considering various combinations of chainrings... 53, 52 or 50/42, 40 or 39/32 or 30, but have bitten the bullet and gone even lower - to 48/38/28. That means that I will use the big ring more often and stay on it longer. I will be able to climb more hills on the middle ring. I will be able to get up even steeper stuff on the, er, 'grandparent' ring. In fact, the only thing I will lose out on is top end speed that I can't really manage, and don't really need!

I found a very nice triple chainset at a good price at Spa Cycles, a Stronglight Impact triple, and they got it to me only 21 hours after I ordered it!

View attachment 48785

I have a new chain and bottom bracket on the way, and already have a new front mech which I hope will work ok with that choice of rings. (It's an Ultegra derailleur and it is designed for 52/39/30 so it might not. If it doesn't work properly it will go on eBay and I will find one that does work!)

I'll report back when I have done the conversion. If all goes well, I might test it on the fearsome local climb of Mytholm Steeps!

I caught a bad cold soon after buying the chainset and felt too rough to work on the bike. When I started to feel better 3 weeks later, I wanted to catch up on my riding so I rode my other bike. The Cannondale revamp got put on hold until the last few days.

So ... I went to take the old bottom bracket out and discovered that the end cup had become loose enough to undo with my fingers, no spanner required. That would explain the occasional clunking sound the last time I rode the bike! I don't know how that happened with an English-threaded BB, with thread directions designed to prevent that.

I replaced the BB with a Shimano UN55. I needed a BB with Shimano (JIS) standard square taper, and that BB is a reliable workhorse which is really cheap. It might be a few grams heavier than an expensive one, but I'm not bothered about that. 115 mm axle (spindle?) length to suit the Stronglight triple chainset. The new chainset sits in the optimum position on the Cannondale on that BB. The BB needs running in - it is a bit sluggish to turn, but I'm sure that a couple of rides will soon loosen it up.

I did not even try using my new Ultegra triple front mech because I read that it needs >= 13 tooth step between middle and big rings to work properly, and my new chainset has only a 10 tooth step. I took a good look at the original Chorus double front mech and it looked like it should work. I tried it, and it did! The Ultegra mech will go on eBay in the near future.

I had been told that the left shifter would work fine because it can pull plenty of cable and has multiple ratchet points to allow trimming front mech position on the middle ring. It works fine, so that's another expense avoided!

The original medium cage rear mech has enough capacity to work with my new setup.

I checked the old chain and it only had 1/32 inch of stretch/wear so I decided to keep it. It should work ok with the new rings. I cleaned and lubed it and It certainly works fine with the bike on the workshop stand. The chain does not feel loose on the rings.

I finally found a problem with the new triple setup. I managed to get the shifting to work across all 30 gear combinations (including 'safety checks' on the undesirable cross-chained big-big and small-small combinations) but the rear mech rumbled badly on the biggest 2 sprockets when on the granny ring. My rear mech does not have a conventional 'B-screw' but it does have a grub screw to do the same job, located behind one of the jockey wheels. It did not have enough range to completely get rid of the rumbling. I was feeling a bit miffed until I read a suggestion to make a shim to put between the spring-loaded tab on the derailleur and the tab on the end of the dropout on the frame. I made a suitable shim by cutting a strip of metal out of the lid of a baked bean can and folding it enough times to make it the right thickness. After a couple of experiments. I managed to nudge the rear mech to a position which works efficiently and quietly in every gear - yay!

What else did I do? Oh yes ...

• I cleaned the bike
• I adjusted the endstops on both mechs
• Tweaked the indexing on the rear mech
• I adjusted the position of my Deda Dog Fang (chain catcher) to suit the new chainset. I can't get it quite low enough for the granny ring, but I think it will still make it very hard to drop the chain
• A mate has put new bar tape on for me
• Bent the bottle cages in slightly to stop oversize bottles rattling
• Put a rubber band round the case below the backplate of my Garmin GPS to stop that rattling
• I adjusted the position of one of the brake blocks which had been a bit low on the rim, and centred the brake which had been nearly rubbing on one side
• I took up some slack on the brake cables to allow me to get the slightly worn brake blocks nearer to the rims. (I was having to pull the levers through 50% of their travel before braking started.)
• I put my Look pedals back on the bike. Now that I have low enough gears on the bike to be able to avoid walking up steep climbs, I want to use my Look pedals and Sidi shoes on this, my best bike.

Still to do ...

• Pump the tyres up. I have latex tubes on that bike and they lose about 10 psi per day. They are almost flat now
• Once the tyres have the right pressure in them, take the bike off the stand and tighten the pedals on the cranks
• The rear wheel is slightly out of true so that needs correcting. I might have a go myself, or leave it to a more experienced mate who is less likely to make the wobble worse!
• Put new Look cleats on my Sidi shoes and double-check that they are set up properly
• Go for a test ride when I have a dry sunny day to suit my best bike!

 

[wisdom]

Been busy then.Hope all works out ok on the test ride.

 

[ColinJ]

Been busy then.Hope all works out ok on the test ride.

Cheers. The Cannondale used to be a summer only, no steep hills bike. Now I will use it on all rides except in bad weather.

 

[ColinJ]

I put the new cleats on my Sidis and went for a 5 minute test ride on the bike, including climbing a short stretch of 20%. I included my DIY shim under the left cleat which I made to partially compensate for my left leg being shorter than my right. I think it helped reduce the backache I experience on long rides, though probably 2/3 of it is due to lack of fitness, flexibility, and core strength.

My feet definitely felt more stable and supported on the Look Delta pedals, but they were also much harder to unclip than my loose SPDs had been. I felt nervous on the climb in case the gears slipped and I had to dismount in a hurry. In fact, the gears were fine but it will take me a ride or two to get used to the Looks again after well over 5 years of riding SPDs.

I have now put a small amount of grease on the surfaces on the front and back of the pedals which cause friction when trying to unclip. The cleat positions were slightly out so I have adjusted those. (I like a slightly heels-in foot position.)

I may have to raise the saddle slightly to compensate for the different shoes and pedals.

All in all, I feel very pleased so far with the new set-up, but I won't know for sure until I have done a decent length ride on the bike.

I would like to get hold of another GPS mount so I don't have to keep swapping the current one between bikes. Ditto for my stem-mounted phone bag - I like to have my phone handy on rides, not so much as a phone, more for its camera.

Speaking of the camera in the phone - I took a few pictures before the test ride ...

New chainset and pedals

New Cinelli bar tape

Shim to rotate rear mech

It is amazing how dirty everything looks close-up, considering that I had just cleaned the bike!