What Have You Fettled Today?

[Rickshaw Phil]

A little bit more fettling on behalf of @gavgav's nephew. Checked over the headset - it has cartridge bearings so not much I could do other than inspect them and adjust. They seem okay (smooth and with just enough stickyness to suggest they are well greased) and the steering now turns freely after readjustment.

The (mismatched) pedals were next and as with the bottom bracket there was no grease in them but lots of dirt. I suspect the bike has been kept clean by regular pressure washing.Although in a bit of a state they have cleaned up reasonably well and now turn freely and fairly smoothly with fresh grease and adjustment. Being cheap and quite battered I don't think it's worth doing more than this.

Still more to do but it's started to rain so that may be it for today.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

After having to wait for the rain to stop I spent this afternoon on the learning curve. Car body repairs, my old car is now 13 years old and under attack from the tin worm. I've never done rust repairs before but this afternoon I filled a small hole in a sill, dealt with a couple of patches of surface rust and applied primer. Just got to apply top coat and I'm done.

 

[rugby bloke]

A new set of Shimano SPD's and learnt how to use them ... only 2 falls during practice, proper training ride to come on Wednesday.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A bit more on the childs bike I'm currently fettling: Rear wheel bearings cleaned out, regreased and rebuilt. Unlike the bottom bracket, these did have grease in them but it was the consistency of fudge so not much help.

For some reason the bike had the wrong rear derailleur fitted. A rummage through the spares box turned up one of the correct type in dirty but otherwise good condition so I've cleaned that up and done a swap The cable was too frayed to reuse but I found one that was just long enough once trimmed to work on this bike and also a bit of outer cable to replace the bit that loops round to the derailleur which was badly kinked. It now indexes.

It's coming together but still a few more jobs to do before the final set up.

 

[Felix79]

I set up my cleats and put my SPD-SL pedals on my bike. I then spent 15 minuets sat on the bike practicing clipping in and out again.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Last bit on the childs bike. Yesterday I started with the front wheel which is clearly new but old stock as there no wear on the rim or bearings but dust and a bit of surface rust on the hub. As with most cheap wheels the bearings have been well overtightened so I stripped and regreased anyway before adjusting and they are very smooth.

I then turned my attention to the rear wheel again which was badly out of true. The rim has been bent sideways at some point and two siezed nipples plus a third that rounded off didn't help matters at all. It all took longer than expected so I had to leave it.

Coming back to the wheel today, a bit more time spent in a fresh frame of mind have helped make it usable if still rather wobbly.

That done, it was down to final setting up. The rear derailleur set up easily as expected. The front was more tricky as it is heavily worn and causes the chain to snag. Lots of tinkering has made that work fairly well.

Brake blocks were all over the place but are nicely lined up now and the oil I put on the cables the other day has worked its way in so I don't need to replace them as I thought I'd have to.

All done for a grand total of £0 on parts. Personally I think £20 spent on a new back wheel would be worthwhile but some persuasion may be required.

 

[gavgav]

Last bit on the childs bike. Yesterday I started with the front wheel which is clearly new but old stock as there no wear on the rim or bearings but dust and a bit of surface rust on the hub. As with most cheap wheels the bearings have been well overtightened so I stripped and regreased anyway before adjusting and they are very smooth.

I then turned my attention to the rear wheel again which was badly out of true. The rim has been bent sideways at some point and two siezed nipples plus a third that rounded off didn't help matters at all. It all took longer than expected so I had to leave it.

Coming back to the wheel today, a bit more time spent in a fresh frame of mind have helped make it usable if still rather wobbly.

That done, it was down to final setting up. The rear derailleur set up easily as expected. The front was more tricky as it is well worn and causes the chain to snag. Lots of tinkering has made that work fairly well.

Brake blocks were all over the place but are nicely lined up now and the oil I put on the cables the other day has worked its way in well so I don't need to replace them as I thought I'd have to.

All done for a grand total of £0 on parts. Personally I think £20 spent on a new back wheel would be worthwhile but some persuasion may be required.

Fabulous, thanks ever so much!! You will be rewarded suitably

It will be fine for riding around the caravan site and down the short half a mile to the beach, for Jake, which is the intention. I know what you are saying about the wheel, but dad doesn't want to spend that because he says he could have bought a cheap new bike if he was going to spend the money.

As a knockabout for very short distances it will be superb.

Thanks again.

 

[PeteXXX]

After a fairly mucky ride today, I hosed down, brushed and soapy sponged my full suss. After drying it, I leaned it against the bike shed to dry properly before wiping over with a GT85'y cloth.
Unfortunately, before that happened, it started precipitating it down, so I had to restart the process half way through again.
I now have a clean, dry and shiny bike.

 

[fossyant]

Put my N+1 Boardman FS Pro 650B together, and cleaned and polished it up after negotiating a big discount as the bike has sat in the Halfords store room for 2 years. One cracking bit of kit for £1k, discount of £600. The fork and shock are worth £700 alone. Touched up the little scratches it had.

 

[DCLane]

At lunchtime I popped to the Bike Hub we share with Leeds University with the Dawes Impact I picked up earlier this week to give it a check over.

All's very good; the chain appears new and everything worked perfectly. The seatpost moves fine. The whole bike just needed lube, cleaning the dust off and a wipe down.

Given that it's been stored for some years I'll need to fit replacement tyres and it'll need both new brake hoods and bar tape.

This evening I've prepped my youngest's Argon for the Under 12's race at Stockton tomorrow night - it's part of the National Championships but is a series of youth races.

 

[Elybazza61]

Clean and check over for the Helium before tomorrows club ride.

Plus a quick clean of the Planet X and chain off for a good clean;might put the 105 mech and 11-28 back on as I'm not using the biggest cogs on the big cassette now with the 44t chainwheel.

 

[Garry A]

Fitted my new Merlin hand built wheels to the Defy along with a new 11-30 cassette and new chain.

Cleaned up the mess I made doing the above

 

[Jimidh]

A busy afternoon doing some minor stuff

Changed 2 sets of tyres on both mine and my sons MTBs - Rocket Rons on the front and Racing Ralphs on the rear.

Fixed a puncture on my Carrera that I use on the turbo - God knows how that happened as it hasn't bee out the garage in a year!

Readjusted the mudguards on my Giant as they have been rattling and doing my head in.

Cleaned my CX after my mucky ride in Thursday night.

Cleaned down and prepared my Felt for club ride tomorrow morning.

Nothing complicated ( because I would make a mess of it) but still a satisfying afternoon.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

After a week of working on other people's bikes in the evenings I finally got round to starting on the new-to-me Dawes Galaxy. It's in good condition generally but had been converted to a flat bar with V-brake levers working the canilever brakes so needed that sorting for starters.

My plan is to convert back to drop bars with cross top levers plus bar end shifters and to make it 9 speed at the rear with 46-34-24 chainrings at the front to give a really broad spread of gearing. This will be my first drop bar bike since I was at school so is quite exciting for me.

I don't have all the parts to hand so today was just making a start. I swapped the bars first and they do look nice but it feels like a stretch to the hoods where I expect to do most of my riding. I think the 100mm stem is a bit too long so an 80mm one is now on order.

Next up I started to swap the chainrings. Unfortunately my used and abused crank puller chose this moment to strip its own threads so I couldn't do the inner ring but I have swapped the middle one for a 34t Spa Cycles zicral one which I was pleased to find a perfect fit.

My plans for the chainrings mentioned above and an 11-34 cassette unfortunately rather exceeds the capacity of the original Shimano STX rear derailleur so a Deore one has replaced it.

My starting point for the day......

..... and where I left off with toe clips removed, new handlebar etc.fitted plus middle ring, rear derailleur and cassette. The saddle is the B17 I used to have on the Raleigh and suspect may be more comfy with a racier riding position.

 

[bikingdad90]

This evening I've prepped my youngest's Argon for the Under 12's race at Stockton tomorrow night - it's part of the National Championships but is a series of youth races.

How did it go? Looked like a good line up.