What Have You Fettled Today?

[Richard A Thackeray]

They Say Trouble Comes In Three's
(so the expression goes)

Number 1; My collapsing 'Flite' saddle

Number 2; Replacement Bottom-Bracket bearings


And, Number 3 follows;
SWMBO arrived home on her Boardman hybrid, about 16:30

After closing the gate behind her, I noticed the front tyre seemed slightly soft before she got off
Had a look...………... a thorn

It's on '35' section Schwalbe Citizen, seemingly, looking at the tread-pattern, a less protected Marathon???

It took some getting out, & it was a little toughie, I couldn't break it, holding it between thumb & first finger, with both hands!
Tube now patched, & in compression, in the vice, till it cures

Another thing, they come off the rim better than Marathons, with only fingers

 

[CXRAndy]

SWMBO arrived home on her Boardman hybrid, about 16:30

After closing the gate behind her, I noticed the front tyre seemed slightly soft before she got off
Had a look...………... a thorn

It's on '35' section Schwalbe Citizen, seemingly, looking at the tread-pattern, a less protected Marathon???

It took some getting out, & it was a little toughie, I couldn't break it, holding it between thumb & first finger, with both hands!
Tube now patched, & in compression, in the vice, till it cures

Another thing, they come off the rim better than Marathons, with only fingers

Put 70-80 mill of Orange endurance sealant. It will put pay to those thorn flint punctures

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Put 70-80 mill of Orange endurance sealant. It will put pay to those thorn flint punctures

I'd have thought they'd be okay

I have Schwalbe Durano DD on my CGR & have had one puncture in 2 & 1/2 years
(granted that was a thorn too, but one I couldn't even see!)

 

[JhnBssll]

A day of fettling yesterday on a very tatty 1948 Raleigh.

View attachment 484631
This is one of a matched pair that my Aunt has, which were inherited from her late husband. I know for certain that they have been stored in a stable since the mid 1980s and given that I've only ever known them in a rather neglected condition it's probable they haven't actually been used for ten or possibly even twenty years before that.

My Aunt has decided that she would like to keep this one and take it to vintage shows so after asking me to give it a good look over, authorized the purchase of some new parts to make it useable.

New wheels were a must as the rims are scrap and unfortunately it doesn't appear to be possible to get rod-brake (Westwood) rims in anything other than 36 hole which scuppered any hope of reusing the 32/40 hole original hubs. (I'll dismantle the old wheels and put those aside for some future project) I found the replacements at Freemans Cycles who I haven't used before now. Other required parts came from SJS or Spa.

It looked really daunting when I brought the rusty remains of a bicycle home to work on it. The first thing was to give it all a good clean which made it look better. I haven't worked on anything rod-braked before so had to work out how to get the wheels out before I could do anything.

It was all very slow going as I didn't want to get things wrong but the bike now has new wheels, tyres, tubes, brake blocks and saddle (it might be possible to revive the original but as it has tears/rot round some of the rivets I don't think it would be trustworthy). Brakes are adjusted (oddly the rear brake rod was too long and bottoming out in the adjuster - the blocks would only just touch the rim until I cut a small bit off the rod.)

The old chain seems to have a longer pitch than the usual 1/2 inch which caused some aggro as I'd counted links to try and get the length right - I don't know if it was intended for another application and since it was so corroded will never know how well it worked. The new one is clearly right as it meshes perfectly and runs smoothly.

There were a few adjustments needed to mudguards and chainguard which were bent and/or loose.

There is more that needs doing but at the end of the day it was rideable for the first time in many years:

View attachment 484641

That looks fabulous, I'm quite jealous of that fettle

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

That looks fabulous, I'm quite jealous of that fettle

Thanks. I was quite chuffed at being able to get it done.

I was amazed to find that despite the condition, none of the fixings I undid were siezed. Looks like Raleigh used quality materials back then.

 

[fossyant]

Not bike related... Was getting a clunk when I braked in 'reverse' from near side front wheel. Decided to pop the wheel off and check nothing was broken. Undid the Caliper and could feel slight play in the relatively new pads (fitted 6 months ago). Seems the tolerance is a bit 'loose' so it's one of the pads shifting upon change in braking direction. Popped the pads off, cleaned up, popped a little spacer under the 'acoustic wear' indicators, and popped the pads back in.

This morning, no clunk, but noticed I've pushed the acoustic wear indicator close to the pad as it 'hums' when moving slowly. Off goes the wheel again tonight to move them.

 

[fossyant]

Car issue was actually the disc back plate touching the disc - all sorted.

 

[betty swollocks]

Annoying creaking coming from somewhere on carbon frame. Took several rides to narrow the cause down. Tightened up cassette a few degrees: gone!

 

[Vantage]

Fettle fail.

Decided I'd fit the Rock Bros bell to my MTB (it's a copy of a very expensive one). Bike was still ground anchored, so couldn't move it) but the little metal 'band' is a bugger to get it to stay in place as you fit the bell. Gave up after the third time the band popped out as I had other stuff to do, and fitting a bell is a 30 second job (not on these).

Will do it tomorrow when I have time.

I got myself one of those bells after reading your fettle. Christ they're awkward little sh*ts to fit aren't they?!
It makes a nice ping noise though
The screw is unfortunately digging into the handlebar so I'm gonna need to grind it down a touch...I'll do that some other time. Busy sorting the panniers for a micro tour on Saturday

 

[fossyant]

I got myself one of those bells after reading your fettle. Christ they're awkward little sh*ts to fit aren't they?!
It makes a nice ping noise though
The screw is unfortunately digging into the handlebar so I'm gonna need to grind it down a touch...I'll do that some other time. Busy sorting the panniers for a micro tour on Saturday

They are awkward !! Sorry !!

 

[fossyant]

I got myself one of those bells after reading your fettle. Christ they're awkward little sh*ts to fit aren't they?!
It makes a nice ping noise though
The screw is unfortunately digging into the handlebar so I'm gonna need to grind it down a touch...I'll do that some other time. Busy sorting the panniers for a micro tour on Saturday

You did use the shorter strap ?

 

[JhnBssll]

I've spent a few hours looking at the rear light brackets I printed this week whilst I've been on the turbo in the garage and had decided I could do better. The angle wasn't quite right so they pointed down slightly. I measured it at around a 5 degree droop so modified my CAD model and printed out another batch this afternoon

Here's the new one (on the right) sat next to the old two which I had removed from the bikes...

And here is the new version fitted to the Bianchi...

The light now sits pretty much parallel with the ground which was my original goal You can see the difference here where the Bianchi has the new mount fitted and the Pilot has the previous version...

I've since replaced the Pilot mount so both are up to date, I don't intend to invest any more time in them now

 

[Vantage]

You did use the shorter strap ?

I did indeed. I shoved a different shorter bolt in instead. working fine

 

[Tom B]

Took the missus for a trip to see the doc for a jab.

In the way I snapped the rear mech cable so rode a 3 speed for the rest.

On the way back she snapped the pedal shaft. Luckily just around corner from a friendly lbs who supplied pedals on trust and a spanner to change them.

Much fun was had asking if she'd picked up all the ball bearings from the old pedals.

 

[DSK]

So new to cycling, need to learn some basic skills so I decided to do a bit of work this weekend.

Fitted cateye bike mirrors (piece of cake) and followed a GCN video on how to change tyres and fitted new Schwalbe inner tubes and upgraded to 25C Gatorskin Hardshell tyres.

(Took me 1 hr 30 mins to do the tyres and and had to refer to GCN's video on how to refit the damn rear wheel. Anyway, confidence +1 and both wheels spin spot on. Why do the pro's make it look like a 5 minute job!. I reckon I could easily repeat the process in about 30 mins next time.)