What Have You Fettled Today?

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Replaced mech hanger on a friends Carrera Vengeance today. Walked into Halfords, and was asked if I needed a hand. Told them I was looking for a Carrera Vengeance mech hanger, and they retrieved the correct product within seconds. Great service!

Refitted chain with a quick link to save the faff of re-linking the chain.
That reminds me, I have to put a new mech hanger on the kinesis but I had to order mine into a lbs ;)
And seeing as my bike won't be used for a while :-( I think I'll take the mudguards off and enjoy one last ride in the dry!
 

HovR

Über Member
Location
Plymouth
That reminds me, I have to put a new mech hanger on the kinesis but I had to order mine into a lbs ;)
And seeing as my bike won't be used for a while :-( I think I'll take the mudguards off and enjoy one last ride in the dry!

Where's this mythical "dry" you speak of? Just had solid rain here for the past few days. :sad:

Back on topic, today I put together a saddle lock out of some lightweight chain, a generic padlock, and heat shrink to cover the chain.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
I reset the saddle on my new tourer - it has a distinct tendency to readjust itself to a stargazy pie angle mid-ride. If it does it one more time I'm going to burn it.

Meanwhile, on t'other bike, regreased my rear wheel hub (must buy a couple of decent cone spanners) and tweaked my front dérailleur. Oh, and I took another link out of my chain because it was still a bit long.

And at a bike recycling event at a local primary school this afternoon, I spent rather more time than I would have wished putting saddles up and down for differently sized kids. Still, the school made £150 to spend on cycling, a few kids got newly-serviced 2nd hand bikes at knock down prices, and the sun came out. Here's a sobering thought - a parent told me that he'd bought a bike for £90 a year ago and his son had already outgrown it - we resold it for £15 so at least it's got a new lease of life - but 1 year really isn't a long usable lifetime for a bike.
 

potsy

Rambler
Location
My Armchair
Removed the Crud roadracers from the carbon bike as they rub just enough to really annoy me despite lots of fettling. Wet arse or raceblades for me on that bike in the future. :sad:
Has anybody tried the 'long' version of the Raceblades?
Don't know if it's the same issue as cruds with lack of clearance/rubbing etc, but look interesting.
RB long.jpg
 

biggs682

Itching to get back on my bike's
Location
Northamptonshire
have spent a couple of hours over the last 2 nights pulling apart and refitting along with cleaning , my latest purchase a Raleigh Granada , its coming along nicely another couple of hours and it will be ready for commuting duties .
 
Where's this mythical "dry" you speak of? Just had solid rain here for the past few days. :sad:

Back on topic, today I put together a saddle lock out of some lightweight chain, a generic padlock, and heat shrink to cover the chain.
We're getting it for a change tomorrow, then its back to the usual stuff ;) So I spent an hour and a half taking the mudguards off and fitting a new hanger and decided feic it, I'm getting the good bike out.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
New pads fitted last night. Rear brake cable cleaned and refitted. Got home tonight, got showered, went to put bike away, back tyre flat. I'll do that tomorrow.
 

potsy

Rambler
Location
My Armchair
I have new disc brake pads to fit tomorow, as well as 2 bikes to sort out after all this rain.
Look out for a 'how do I' thread in know how :scratch:
 

MrGrumpy

Huge Member
Location
Fly Fifer
I have to either fix up an old MTB (and I mean ancient ) for sons cycling proficiency next week or...... I have to fit the original brakes to his Haro as all the cool kids don`t use brakes right! :eek:
 
Finally gave my Defy 2 a good baby-wipe clean after a muddy ride on Weds evening, and fitted the Giant specific mudguards. It doesn't look too bad... but a 10mm spanner will be in my carry bag tomorrow in case they need further fettling...

Hi Arjimlad.

I've had 2 sets of the Giant 'guards for my Defy 2.5. Both rears split after a few hundred miles at the bracket that holds the mid (high point) stays - they split through the rivet holes where the guard is fixed to the stay bracket. The plastic can't stand the vibrations on our country lanes. My LBS said that it was a common problem. The first set I junked, but the second set I've repaired, and they've been fine now for several more hundred miles - and show no signs of breaking again.

I made up 2 doublers from 1mm thick plastic - I think it was the white plastic moulding you can get from B&Q in various sections 1m long. I cut 2 flat sections about 75mm and 100mm long and about 25mm wide, and trimmed them to fit inside the 'guard, the long one next to the guard plastic so that they both bridge over the metal bracket that fixes the stays, and the shorter one inside the longer one - both centred on the bracket. I used a hot air gun to get the doublers to curve to fit snugly against the guard section. The 2 different lengths should help to prevent a hard spot at the end of the doubled section, which might cause the guard to break again at the end of the doublers.

I then drilled out the rivets that hold the guard to the stainless steel stay bracket, and then drilled through the ex-rivet holes in the bracket, through the plastic doublers and bolted these together with 2 No. 4 x 10mm s/s bolts and nyloc nuts - nuts to the outside - there's not enough clearance for them to go next to the tyre. So, I now had a ~2mm thick strip of plastic sticking out either side of the stay bracket by about 45mm.

I then drilled through the 2 ends of the broken guard, trimmed square, and through the plastic doublers about 10mm from the edge of the bracket and fixed each half of the guard to the plastic doublers with 2 more of the same size bolts . Took me about an hour. Total success in beefing up a not very good guard - the design is OK, and they fit (just and after a lot of fettling to get the clearance on the brake bridge at the front), it's just the choice of plastic that's poor - too brittle.

It's not very pretty, but in stainless the nuts match the spokes and brackets. I can live with that.

Unless you have very smooth tarmac in S Gloucs you're going to need to repair those guards! Keep an eye out for cracking before they let you down miles from home.
 

Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
Fitted a new chain on the Raleigh. Despite checking the length carefully I cut it two links too short.:wacko: Dunno how I managed that. It's sorted with an extra quick link but now I need to top up my spares.
 
Not sure if this counts as 'Today'. It's taken me 2 months to work out why I'd had an increasingly noticeable knock on crank rotation - once per rotation. I couldn't find anything wrong with cranks or bottom bracket (cartridge type on Defy 2.5), I serviced the pedals, and the only time I felt the knock was when riding. And it was getting very frustrating. But now it's gone.

I fitted a new cassette and chain (both Shimano HG) and rear mech wheels about 300 miles ago - no problems, nice and quiet. But, over the winter I'd cleaned the chain a few times by removal (I have a quick link), soaking in FS1, brush off, wash in hot water, hang up to dry overnight in warm workshop, lube and refit - with Mickle method after every ride in between soakings.

In an effort to get rid of the knock, I applied more and more lube (FS Dry or Wet) each time I Mickled (is there a verb - To Mickle?). And eventually the knock's gone. The 50 miles yesterday and today have been like those honeymoon days when the bike was new - only the hiss of tyres on tarmac, and the wind in the hair, birds in the trees etc.

From which I conclude that I'd effectively removed all the original lube from the chain by soaking in FS1, and not put enough back afterwards, or even after Mickleing. The chain's still like new, no wear or stretch, clean shiny links and all that, and the cassette and chain rings are clean, but the drivetrain no longer creaks or indeed makes any sound at all. Perfect. And a lesson learned. Another one...... Don't clean by soaking unless you really put a lot of lube back afterwards, and not just a 'drop' per roller. Soak the bl**dy thing.
 
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