Took the dreadful stock brake pads off my Cannondale Synapse and replaced with Shimano shoes and Koolstop Salmons. Also replaced the plastic pedals with DMR V8s and mounted a Topeak Morph Mini to the second bottle cage space. I'm now feeling ready to go further afield.
What Have You Fettled Today?
- Thread starter threebikesmcginty
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
My fettle today was to fit a pug ugly - but functional - adjustable stem to my Pinnacle push bike.
I like the handlebars fairly high, so needed a rise.
The observant among you will notice I'm one steerer spacer short of a picnic.
Not sure what happened there, there was no gap with the previous rigid stem which I suppose must have been deeper, unless I've managed to lose a spacer on the kitchen floor.
It's all gone together OK and should be safe enough to use until I get another spacer - unless someone wants to tell me differently.
Tempting to think the bike is a bit small for me, but it's a large size, marked for height range 5ft 10ins to 6ft 1ins.
I'm a shade under 6ft, and I reckon an XL would be too big.
At least the relatively low cross bar makes it nice and easy for me to get on and off with my arthritic hip.
The bike is rapidly becoming far from 'proper', it also has a cheapo saddle cover and equally cheap folding pedals.
I like the handlebars fairly high, so needed a rise.
The observant among you will notice I'm one steerer spacer short of a picnic.
Not sure what happened there, there was no gap with the previous rigid stem which I suppose must have been deeper, unless I've managed to lose a spacer on the kitchen floor.
It's all gone together OK and should be safe enough to use until I get another spacer - unless someone wants to tell me differently.
Tempting to think the bike is a bit small for me, but it's a large size, marked for height range 5ft 10ins to 6ft 1ins.
I'm a shade under 6ft, and I reckon an XL would be too big.
At least the relatively low cross bar makes it nice and easy for me to get on and off with my arthritic hip.
The bike is rapidly becoming far from 'proper', it also has a cheapo saddle cover and equally cheap folding pedals.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
I'd get another spacer pronto.
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
Will do.
I think I'm on a fettling roll.
I've just fitted a rear carrier I had in stock.
It's gone on level no bother at all.
No more squashed comestibles on my next shopping trip.
Time to quit fettling now while I'm ahead.
Something's bound to mess up if I try any more.
Will Spin
Über Member
Major, major fettling of wheels and tyres. Somehow I've ended up with winterish wheels and tyres on my summerish bikes and vice versa, so all sorted out now apart from being left with one summer bike with odd wheels, oh the ignominy, how can I turn up to a club run with this!
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
Would you like to borrow my gel saddle cover and folding pedals?
That would get you blackballed for sure.
Tin Pot
Guru
Put the tri bike in to the Lbs to get the rear brake sorted. Cycled over there gingerly, so it was nice to be on the road for the first time. That's put it out of action at least until Thursday. 
So sorted out one of my roadies:
1 Tightened and realigned brakes
2 Raised the headset
3 Brought the seat in
4 Rewrapped the tape much tighter losing about a third of the tape
Hopefully I won't lose sensation in my little fingers any more
So sorted out one of my roadies:
1 Tightened and realigned brakes
2 Raised the headset
3 Brought the seat in
4 Rewrapped the tape much tighter losing about a third of the tape
Hopefully I won't lose sensation in my little fingers any more
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Lol, its forecast strong winds tomorrow so I swapped my deep section front wheel for a Fulcrum quattro. I did put a new tyre on the deep section last night but lol I'm not sure if you'd class that fettling either 
Well I swapped my 'winter' wheels over to my summer ones which involved swapping a cassette over as the ones not on the bike I use on my turbo trainer.
Also, refitted my bar tape as some of it had slipped down and was loose.
Ended up giving the bike a good clean and lube as well.
My friend crashed and damaged his bike this week and has some parts on order so he wasn't able to ride but I've lent him my fully fettled bike so that he can do the Tour de Yorkshire Sportive tomorrow
Also, refitted my bar tape as some of it had slipped down and was loose.
Ended up giving the bike a good clean and lube as well.
My friend crashed and damaged his bike this week and has some parts on order so he wasn't able to ride but I've lent him my fully fettled bike so that he can do the Tour de Yorkshire Sportive tomorrow
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
I set up my new Aldi bike stand. My fettling is about to take off to hitherto unknown realms of convenience and exactness. I'm also struggling with removing a steel seatpost from a steel frame.
Shut Up Legs
Down Under Member
Cleaned the commuter bike, adjusted the brake cables, and removed and regreased the pedals. I noticed that the gear and brake cables and brake pads will all need replacing soon, so major fettling coming up. I'll replace the handlebar tape at the same time.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Finally finished operation replace cables and brake blocks. As usual it was dogged by not being able to to get the bits, faffing round with multiple websites. Then as usual there were problems with everything being harder than it should be, and taking longer. And as usual I did at least two incredibly stupid things which involved undoing everything and starting over again.
Coming soon, operation replace chain and cassette. Will I have learned my lesson, and get the LBS to do it, or will I embark on another frustrating bodgathon ... ?
Coming soon, operation replace chain and cassette. Will I have learned my lesson, and get the LBS to do it, or will I embark on another frustrating bodgathon ... ?
redvision95
Proffesional Biskit Eater Upper
- Location
- The Biscuit Tin
New freewheel was slipping for some reason. So I swapped some old wheels and cheap tyres onto the bike.
Perfect work hack now.
Perfect work hack now.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Finished fettling my Saracen. Its a 96 Tufftrax frame I bought on Retrobikes years ago and then promptly lost interest in, built almost entire of bits from my Box O' Crap (tm).
Tufftrax frame, powder coated in gloss black to a very high standard by a local chap. SLC headset. Giant 6061 bars and stem on quill adaptor of U/K make. Front cantis set up beautifully. Rear cantis are those Suntour XC jobs that use the braking action to cam themselves tighter against the rim. Miche rear hub. With 7 speed cassette. Rigida rims. Shimano dyno hub. Modernish Acera mech with NoS finger shifters (tough, and if the indexing fails will still work friction). Acera chainset from c.96 with 22t granny ring and outer ring removed (a speed machine it js not) Racks. Charge bum perch on U/K brand alloy seat post. Sturmey Archer brake levers. Random mismatched Kenda tyres with Slime choobs. Busch and Muller lights. Rebuilt M-520s.
The only bits I bought was a new SRAM chain, cables, and eBay chinas finest grips.
Just needs mudguards to finish, then its my all weather, all terrain tourer. Will also be fitting Schwalbe Landcruisers.
Light it is not, but very comfortable, and that 531 frame gives a buttery smooth ride. A machine for gentle all day bimbling wherever I fancy.
Tufftrax frame, powder coated in gloss black to a very high standard by a local chap. SLC headset. Giant 6061 bars and stem on quill adaptor of U/K make. Front cantis set up beautifully. Rear cantis are those Suntour XC jobs that use the braking action to cam themselves tighter against the rim. Miche rear hub. With 7 speed cassette. Rigida rims. Shimano dyno hub. Modernish Acera mech with NoS finger shifters (tough, and if the indexing fails will still work friction). Acera chainset from c.96 with 22t granny ring and outer ring removed (a speed machine it js not) Racks. Charge bum perch on U/K brand alloy seat post. Sturmey Archer brake levers. Random mismatched Kenda tyres with Slime choobs. Busch and Muller lights. Rebuilt M-520s.
The only bits I bought was a new SRAM chain, cables, and eBay chinas finest grips.
Just needs mudguards to finish, then its my all weather, all terrain tourer. Will also be fitting Schwalbe Landcruisers.
Light it is not, but very comfortable, and that 531 frame gives a buttery smooth ride. A machine for gentle all day bimbling wherever I fancy.
Last edited:
