What Have You Fettled Today?

[Rusty Nails]

I bought a used Specialized Myka Sport mtb for a friend's granddaughter and have spent the day sorting it out. It only needed new cables. The fork, a basic RST Capa with lockout, was pretty tatty so I decided to give it a service. I decided to remove the two bolts at the bottom of the dropouts to get the legs off it. The one on the left leg came off easily but the one on the right just turns but doesn't come out.

So annoyed as I hoped to finish it today.

 

[alicat]

Swopped a rim over on the rear wheel of my Pearson audax bike. A minor miracle - I finished it within the day. And it only cost £32 plus the cost of a new adjustable spanner to get the old cassette off.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Added bars, brake levers, interrupter levers, and brake cables with straddle wires to my Schwinn Passage. I had to get everything perfect first time, because the brakes are cantilevers, but are narrow cantilevers (Dia Compe), hence a lot of faffing about. The interrupter levers added another dimension to the fettling, but makes it easy to stop from the tops in a safe and reliable way. Provided every thing is just so. I was very lucky the fellow who sold me the frame had also kept the straddle wires for the cantilever brakes.

 

[Vantage]

Finished the bike... sort of.
Waiting for some self extracting crank bolts and a fender flute from Spa but otherwise its running.
Took it for a test ride today and decided I need a longer stem. 80mm should do it. Ordered.
The brakes suck. BB7 discs. Bedding them in is taking forever. Couple more rides should do it I think.

 

[Reynard]

I need to tinker with the mower.

The cutting deck cuts on all three blades now. Yay!!!

However, the belt that takes the drive off the engine is fouling against something, so a bit of investigation will be required. If any of you saw clouds of rubber smoke earlier, then that was me. Or rather, the mower... Am hoping it's not the bearings on the spindle.

Bike-related tinkering, I gave Wiggy #1, the Rouen, a bit of a once over.

 

[Dogtrousers]

OK at the weekend I cleaned my bike and did a couple of small jobs, including fitting a new chain, as the one in place was quite worn. Simple enough job.

Thread the chain through. Bring the ends together. Fit the "quick" link. Ping! the chain separates and throws half the quick link across the garage and unthreads itself from the derailleur. After a long search I discover it actually bounced and landed outside the garage. Eventually re-threaded it and joined the chain. But wait. What's that noise? YET AGAIN for the zillionth time I've threaded it incorrectly through the derailleur. Why do I never learn?

Intersperse this with all my tools doing the usual trick of scuttling away and hiding as soon as my back is turned (I think I live in a Toy Story style animated movie featuring cunning tools), and getting oil all over my good-ish shoes (Wife: Haven't you got enough pairs of old trainers for doing stuff like that?)

I won't tell you how long the damn job took in the end.

 

[Vantage]

Brilliant post @Dogtrousers

 

[Vantage]

My Fender flute and new stem arrived this afternoon.
The stem swap was done first and went smoothly.
The flute went on less smoothly but its done now and is moocho tidier than the previous mudguard bodge.
I was getting around to fitting some self extracting crank bolts when my glucose levels plummeted. I'm now sat on the couch nursing a hypo.

I've also washed the wheels and frame&fork of the steel Touring ready for sticking in the for sale section. Gotta take pics first.

 

[Reynard]

Hmmm... After an incident involving a dented can and a jet of tomato juice right in the eye, I now do messy jobs or jobs that involve small parts with a propensity for escaping inside a plastic bag...

Anyways, I removed the cutting deck from the mower, properly realigned the belt that takes the drive off the engine (rather than in its original botched position), rehung the cutting deck and adjusted the belt tension.

I now have a fully working mower.

Un-botching the botches was the hardest part, and now the whole cutting deck and drive assembly now looks exactly like it does in the manual. All because the cutting deck belt hadn't been fed around both tensioner pulleys rather than just the one, due to a stuck bolt... I mean, all it took was a glug of WD40 and leaving it while I had my lunch to free it. Actually, it's amazing that the botches worked at all (not my workwomanship), but at least it's now working as it *SHOULD*

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Somewhat later than hoped, the replacement bladed spoke for @gavgav's carbon road bike has arrived, been fitted and the wheel has been trued.

Looks good on the stand - I hope it stays as true once refitted to the bike which should be at the end of the week.

 

[Hicky]

Fitted Genetic “perfect” bartape bought off the bay from a relatively lbs. It had been on the shelf too long imo and perished after one commute home in my hands so on the way home I got fwe gel bar tape which is three times the price but far superior. I eventually bought some new shoes(spd-sl) and they feel vastly different to my old shoes, I’m just waiting for the pedals to arrive to fit them.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Extra Lumens added

The near-side seat-stay light (25 Lumen) was on the off-side (1)

The new light on the off-side seat-stay is a 50 Lumen
(ie; very bright, when fully charged!)
It's the same as the lower seat-pin light, which was there previously

The top seat-pin light is, I think, a 'Smart'? (& about 10 years old)

The location?
Leaning against the side, to the left of shot; https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1401303
What can be seen, over that side; https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/509903



1. Yes, I know they're Halfords lights, but I knew what I wanted, no need to ask the staff
Plus, I got 10% discount with my 'Blue Light Card'
(I didn't use my British Cycling, because I didn't have the voucher, due to my printer playing up)

 

[tom73]

Fitted a Fizik Arione CX saddle on the Ribble current one was trying to eat my bibs .
Thought I try a Spoon but thanks to the bay for this one for not much more.
Been a quick test spin at least I managed to set it up right. Now need a real ride out to prove it.
Then gave the frame a quick wipe down the rain run off puddles from the fields last ride out made it look a mess
The splash back on my bibs in the warm weather felt nice though

 

[stumpy66]

Extra Lumens added
View attachment 477975



The near-side seat-stay light (25 Lumen) was on the off-side (1)

The new light on the off-side seat-stay is a 50 Lumen
(ie; very bright, when fully charged!)
It's the same as the lower seat-pin light, which was there previously

The top seat-pin light is, I think, a 'Smart'? (& about 10 years old)

The location?
Leaning against the side, to the left of shot; https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1401303
What can be seen, over that side; https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/509903



1. Yes, I know they're Halfords lights, but I knew what I wanted, no need to ask the staff
Plus, I got 10% discount with my 'Blue Light Card'
(I didn't use my British Cycling, because I didn't have the voucher, due to my printer playing up)

You don’t need to print the voucher, I’ve just shown them it from my phone

 

[si_c]

Fitted the Kinesis mudguards to the Racelight, I needed to get a M6 button head bolt (12mm) to mount the bridge as the kit doesn't come with the small parts - they (rightly or wrongly) say there are too many frames with differing parts to provide standard ones. This means that the mudguards come with only the bolts to fix the stays to the guards themselves.

I had most of the bolts I needed - I didn't require a fork crown bolt as I'm using disc brakes and I mounted the E3 triple to the fork so I was sorted there - so all neat and tidy now.

I've also mounted the Supernova E3 front and rear lights - I used helicopter tape and the mudguards to secure the routing to the front hub but to run the rear light I used internal routing for the rear rim brake. It's an odd frame in that it has mounting points for both discs and rim brakes and as I'm using the latter that left routing space internally. The E3 rear is mounted to the seat post so it means that there is limited exposed cabling the only slightly unsatisfactory part is the routing from the light to the cable port, which has been done with a little bit of helicopter tape and judicious bending. You can see the cable to the front light, but I was never going to have it completely hidden, and I can't see if from the saddle.

Since the helicopter tape was out I've added some in the most likely places of run and onto the drive side chainstay.

Aside from a new saddle and new bar tape being needed (the saddle nose is disintegrating and the bar tape is scuffed) and possibly a new groupset at some point the build is basically done.

I want to bleed the front brake and replace the pads but I'm waiting on the bleed kit to arrive.