What Have You Fettled Today?

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ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
My 'new' singlespeed bike!

Singlespeed Specialized Allez.jpg


Yes, there is some slack in the chain! I backed off the chain tensioner to quieten the bike. Once the chain starts to wear I will get the tensioner to take up any increased slack. It runs fine like this.

Singlespeed chainline spacers doofer chain tensioner.jpg


This view shows the excellent chainline that I achieved. I used a 19-tooth sprocket from an old cassette and spacers from 2 old cassettes to fill the rest of the freehub. You can see the On-one 'Doofer' chain tensioner, modded by me to pull the chain up and wrap it round more of the sprocket. It normally pulls down and tends to peel the chain away from the sprocket, which I did not like.

Stripped down Ergopower lever for brake only.jpg


One of the 2 old Campagnolo Ergopower controls used on the bike. The gear shifters were getting very worn so I stripped them out, converting the controls to simple brake levers. I have some newer Ergopower 'brifters' to replace them on the other bike.

On-one doofer chain tensioner modded to push chain up.jpg


Doofer pushing chain up (slightly). It gets noisy if I set it to push harder.

It has been an interesting project and a bargain at only £60 for the new parts. I am looking forward to riding it up and down the local valleys, and one or two of the gentler climbs. I'll see what I can get up on the 52/19 gear without breaking the bike or myself!

A few last jobs to be done ...
  • I have a temporary 9-speed quick link on the 10-speed chain. It would probably be ok to leave it but I would rather play safe and replace it with a permanent 10-speed link.
  • I'll possibly put mudguards on the bike. I intend to put guards on my cyclocross bike for bad weather rides, so I might not bother.
  • Buy a d-lock for shopping trips on the bike. I'd like one with a mounting bracket that I could bolt on to where the second bottle cage normally goes.
 
D

Deleted member 1258

Guest
My 'new' singlespeed bike!

View attachment 152529

Yes, there is some slack in the chain! I backed off the chain tensioner to quieten the bike. Once the chain starts to wear I will get the tensioner to take up any increased slack. It runs fine like this.

View attachment 152526

This view shows the excellent chainline that I achieved. I used a 19-tooth sprocket from an old cassette and spacers from 2 old cassettes to fill the rest of the freehub. You can see the On-one 'Doofer' chain tensioner, modded by me to pull the chain up and wrap it round more of the sprocket. It normally pulls down and tends to peel the chain away from the sprocket, which I did not like.

View attachment 152527

One of the 2 old Campagnolo Ergopower controls used on the bike. The gear shifters were getting very worn so I stripped them out, converting the controls to simple brake levers. I have some newer Ergopower 'brifters' to replace them on the other bike.

View attachment 152528

Doofer pushing chain up (slightly). It gets noisy if I set it to push harder.

It has been an interesting project and a bargain at only £60 for the new parts. I am looking forward to riding it up and down the local valleys, and one or two of the gentler climbs. I'll see what I can get up on the 52/19 gear without breaking the bike or myself!

A few last jobs to be done ...
  • I have a temporary 9-speed quick link on the 10-speed chain. It would probably be ok to leave it but I would rather play safe and replace it with a permanent 10-speed link.
  • I'll possibly put mudguards on the bike. I intend to put guards on my cyclocross bike for bad weather rides, so I might not bother.
  • Buy a d-lock for shopping trips on the bike. I'd like one with a mounting bracket that I could bolt on to where the second bottle cage normally goes.

Looks good to me, nice job!
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Looks really good. One thought though, would removing a link or so from the chain not remove the slack, allowing you to tension the chain manually?
The frame has short semi-vertical dropouts so I can't move the wheel (much) to tension the chain. With a 53-tooth chainring, I couldn't even get the chain on. I dropped down 1 tooth to a 52-tooth ring and the chain does go on now but has that small amount of sag. If I took a pair of links out then the chain would be too short again. I suppose it might work if I took a pair of links out and put a half-link in, but I will be happy with this setup as long as the chain doesn't start to fall off. There might be problems when the chain wears but I don't think it would stretch enough to be able to take a pair of links out.
 

greekonabike

President of the 'Democratic Republic' of GOAB
Location
Kent
I was attempting to fit some cheap mud guards when I snagged the front derailleur cable and promptly cocked up all the gears.

After watching several tutorials on how to fix this I made an attempt at it and somehow made it worse.

I then phoned the local bike shop and walked the bike in there earlier this morning.... Defeated.

GOAB
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
I was attempting to fit some cheap mud guards when I snagged the front derailleur cable and promptly cocked up all the gears.

After watching several tutorials on how to fix this I made an attempt at it and somehow made it worse.

I then phoned the local bike shop and walked the bike in there earlier this morning.... Defeated.

GOAB

When you get the bike back, ask them what you did and how they fixed it. Learning opportunity.
 

greekonabike

President of the 'Democratic Republic' of GOAB
Location
Kent
I didn't get the opportunity to ask them as they were really busy, went through all the gears and they seem ok but may need a bit of adjustment once the cable has stretched.

GOAB
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
On Thursday I had a call from my mum asking if I could replace the inner tube on her bike due to a puncture. Popped round and had it done and tightened the rear light bracket in the time it took to have a cup of coffee.

Had another call from her this morning - turns out I'd made the usual mistake of having loosened the v-brakes to make wheel removal & replacement easier, I forgot to re-attach the cable. Thankfully she's a slow rider and there's nothing in the way of downhills on her route into town...

My sister wants me to give her bike a quick check over, but thankfully that's got discs.
 
Not bike fettling but repaired my old Castelli neoprene overshoes with a wet suit repair kit off the 'bay; hopefully will prolong the life of them.
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
Finally got round to replacing the front brake assembly on the Cube as the original item had developed a leaking seal at the oil reservoir. Also fully degreased & cleaned the rear rotor and replaced the pads with the old pads from the discarded front unit as they had become contaminated with something resulting in a nasty squeal and a lack of performance.
 

KneesUp

Guru
You may recall from earlier in the thread that I've been collecting parts for my 'how cheaply can I put together a bike' project, which weirdly has quite interested my kid.

Last night I fitted a rear guard salvaged from my dad's old bike (which now has fatter tyres, so the guards don't fit) I couldn't get the front one to go on as I don't have P clips large enough for the new forks, which being carbon are way fatter than any I've had before.

It's now rideable, and I had a brief window before a birthday party / swimming / visit to in-laws in which to ride it. I discovered that it feels a lot quicker than my other bike (26" fully rigid mountain bike converted to drop bar utility / touring thing) but that 23c tyres and badly dressed roads are literally a pain in the arse. I also discovered that the front brake blocks need cleaning and probably replacing as they sound like sandpaper, and that the slightly stiff link I though would probably be ok was not at all ok for most of the ride, resulting in it sounding like someone cocking a shotgun when it skipped almost every chain length, but it was hardly doing it at all in the end, so I'll keep an eye on that.

All I need now is to get bigger P-clips so I can attach the front guard - although I may go all out and buy some 'fender stay adaptors' I also need to get some slightly more modern down tube shifters. It seems that in the late 70s shifters had a smaller diameter,so pulling less cable per degree of movement than they do now - or at least the Simplex ones I've fitted do, so you have to pull them about 170 degrees to get from one end of the cassette to the other. Oh, and I need to wrap the bars once I'm certain I'm happy with them. And the saddle could do with being a tad higher and further back.

The ex-mountain bike has 1.5" tyres and a rather naff sounding, but actually quite comfortable 'Bodyfit Spring Classic' sprung saddle - which I bought with very, very slightly damaged packaging from Halfords for one whole pound, having spotted it when buying a car battery. A sprung saddle on a bike with tyres that fat seems a bit of a waste, so I might swap it onto the Rubble, at least until the local road repair backlog is cleared.

So - more fettling to do, but I can also ride it now, which is nice.
30902928630_9a32eb9ffe_z.jpg
 

Postmanhat

Senior Member
Location
Derby
Felt very slow today, which I put down to the manflu, then became aware of an increasingly significant, non lung-related, rattle. Turned out that three of the chainring bolts had come out and the remaining pair were very close to joining them. Luckily my multi-tool had the appropriate allen key size. Anyone else had this happen before? Or not realise till it was too late?

Something else to add to the ever-growing pre-ride checklist.
 

KneesUp

Guru
Felt very slow today, which I put down to the manflu, then became aware of an increasingly significant, non lung-related, rattle. Turned out that three of the chainring bolts had come out and the remaining pair were very close to joining them. Luckily my multi-tool had the appropriate allen key size. Anyone else had this happen before? Or not realise till it was too late?

Something else to add to the ever-growing pre-ride checklist.
I've taken them out of chainsets so I can mix and match chainrings, and then when I've gone to my bit box months later they have mysteriously disappeared, but I've not had them fall off the bike!
 
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