What Have You Fettled Today?

[Rickshaw Phil]

Retensioned, trued and dished the back wheel on the Raleigh after noticing odd noises on my last couple of rides on it.

All seems good but going straight off on a big ride without testing doesn't seem sensible so it's going to miss out on tomorrows plans and the knockabout bike will go instead.

 

[HLaB]

Changed my front tubeless tyre as it had p'tured 3 or 4 rides in a row and sometimes twice in a ride. First time I had changed a tubeless tyre and I expected a mess and it'd be a biatch to remove. Surprisingly it was clean and easy. Getting the new tyre on the rim was a bit of a biatch but it was pretty clean. I used the new Finish Line sealant which is claimed never to dry and once the tyre was on the rim it seems to have seated/sealed it OK. I pumped the sealed tyre up to 100psi and it seems fine

 

[JhnBssll]

Shifted the rear lights on the commuter due to new rack getting in the way of the old placement. Not 100% sure I'm happy with it yet as the two side mounted lights look a little prone but I'll ride it for a bit and decide

 

[Chris S]

I put a new pair of pedals on my 30-year-old Raleigh. They were only £3.47 of ebay (inc p+p) so I wasn't expecting much but they've completely transformed the bike. They don't look much different from Halfords basic pedals.
I didn't realize how bad the old ones were. One was actually bent and both flopped about so much they must have been sapping energy.

I take it all back about cheap pedals - don't buy them, they are worse than useless. The right one bent after about a dozen miles and came out taking some of the crank thread with it. I managed to get the old pedal back on using a combination of leg and arm muscles. It's now in so tight it will probably never come out again but the crank would have been scrap any way. The (new) left pedal was so loose it unscrewed by hand. I don't think the thread had been manufactured to the correct tolerances, in addition to the soft steel.

 

[Elysian_Roads]

I take it all back about cheap pedals - don't buy them, they are worse than useless. The right one bent after about a dozen miles and came out taking some of the crank thread with it. I managed to get the old pedal back on using a combination of leg and arm muscles. It's now in so tight it will probably never come out again but the crank would have been scrap any way. The (new) left pedal was so loose it unscrewed by hand. I don't think the thread had been manufactured to the correct tolerances, in addition to the soft steel.

Bought some Decathlon Btwin own brand for a tenner to see what having pins in MTB pedals would be like. Relatively early days, and it all depends on what your usage would be but I would consider their pedals again if I want a cheap alternative.

 

[Vantage]

Bought some Decathlon Btwin own brand for a tenner to see what having pins in MTB pedals would be like.

Bloody sore when they've slipped and buried themselves in your shins

 

[biggs682]

Fitted a recon ECU to a fiat

Engine now runs on all 4 cylinders

 

[JhnBssll]

I've got 20 year old scars in my shins from DMR extra long pins

 

[delb0y]

Took the cranks and chain-rings off the Tricross. The plan is to strip down, clean it up, build it back up as a learning experience. I'm sure there will be questions.

 

[Illaveago]

I would have a go at repairing an old watch by using another one for donor parts. The one I was repairing is an Ingersol with a 17 jewel Swiss movement . The watch I was using as a donor is a Cronel ,Swiss movement but with only one jewel.
The Ingersol wasn't working as it had a broken mainspring but the Cronel was working and had a similar mainspring, so I thought I would try swapping them over.
I have never done anything like this before but I thought I would give it a go anyway. After filing the ends of my watch screwdrivers so that they would fit the tiny screws I set about the transplant . With a bit of fiddling I managed to get both mainsprings out and swapped them over. The Ingersol was a bit reluctant to start at first but once it was fully wound and given a drop of oil it started working and it has been for an hour and a half so far.

 

[ColinJ]

@Oldfentiger met me in Todmorden to give me his old Garmin eTrex Legend HCx. In its day (8-10 years ago) that was a top GPS. This one is generally in very good condition but Oldfen had left it in a drawer for years with batteries in. The batteries had leaked and corrosive battery chemicals had damaged the battery compartment. It seemed a shame to chuck out the GPS but not worth paying a shop to fix it, so Phil donated it to me to see if I can revive it. I am using an even older and less powerful eTrex so if I can get this one working it would be a significant upgrade for me.

So, here you go ...

Garmin eTrex Legend HCx fettling, part #1

This is the device I am talking about:
View attachment 154340

I thought that I might be able to get away with cleaning the battery contacts, or maybe wedging in some folded up pieces of cooking foil to make a better contact. That didn't work ... It wasn't long before one of the battery contacts fell off. The corrosion had obviously trashed it. I needed to dismantle the device ...

View attachment 154343

You can see the disintegrated battery contact.

In this picture you can see that the contact is no longer there ...

View attachment 154342

When I had a look inside the case I discovered that one of the internal power wiper contacts had gone. You can see two metal pads on the printed circuit board, There are supposed to be flexible metal wipers feeding power from the batteries to those pads. Wiper #1 and pad #1 are fine. Wiper #2 has vanished and pad #2 was corroded.

View attachment 154341

I have cleaned up pad #2 and will solder a wire onto that to connect to a new spring battery contact. I'll have a think about what to use for the replacement contact. I could use part of the old contact but I think I might improvise one using something else.

I'll report back when I have replaced the contact. If it works then I will need to get some double-sided adhesive tape to seal the sides of the GPS and attach its rubber surround.

Watch this space ...

PS Thanks for the GPS, Oldfen!

I finally bought some double-sided tape and used it to seal the sides of the GPS and stick the rubber grip back on. I'm not convinced that the GPS is now watertight so I might have another go at it later, but it is working for now. Thanks, Phil!

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

Yesterday I took the 26” Schwalbe Landcruisers off my old bike and put them on the wife’s. the tyres only have about 180 miles on them. Less rolling resistance so she should have an easier time when she’s out on the bike. Also toed-in the brake blocks front and back to stop squeal.

 

[Illaveago]

Update on my watch. After losing a couple of minutes in the first hour it has stabilized over night and remained at 2 minutes slow.
I have now reset the time and rewound it so that I can see how it is performing.

 

[raleighnut]

Update on my watch. After losing a couple of minutes in the first hour it has stabilized over night and remained at 2 minutes slow.
I have now reset the time and rewound it so that I can see how it is performing.

Don't 'overwind' it and break the mainspring again.

 

[Vantage]

Tightened up the kickstand bolt. Oiled the cables and reindexed the gears. Mounted the front mudflap on the inside of the mudguard so there's less chance of the bolts ripping through it.
Washed the bike........ Again

Edit: A new problem is that as the brake pads have worn and the cable tightened to make up for it, the v brake arms on the front are closer together and causing the "problem solver" cable adaptor thingy to hit the B&M light bracket = less braking power.

The sooner the remaining bits for my 9 speed conversion arrive the better.