What Have You Fettled Today?

[Nigelnightmare]

I've got a confession to make; there was an outbreak of weight weenyism earlier today at SkipdiverTowers.
A few months back, I acquired a fairly light road saddle and alloy seatpost as part of one of my bargain bucket used bike purchases. When I measured it in an idle moment, I was surprised to find it was a 25.4 mm, the size normally found on the less exotic variety of Raleighs, but chromed steel. That got me thinking, my 501 framed Pioneer has a 25.4 seatpost, so why not swap the steel one for this lightweight alloy one?.
The very good comfortable Selle San Marco saddle that came with the Pioneer weighs 0.82 lbs, and the steel seatpost weighs 0.7 lbs. So I weighed the alloy one before fitting it-0.61lbs. It's a good seatpost with fine angle adjustment increments, but the weight saving for all the faffing around was a massive 1 1/2 ounces!
Moral of the story; don't always assume fitting an alloy part in place of a steel one will give you a huge weight saving - often the difference will be pretty small.

View attachment 521390

Then, during my 17 mile morning ride the gearchanges started to get rough and noisy. I tweaked the barrel adjuster en route, but the respite was only temporary, so I eventually gave up on it and returned to base. Nothing was obviously amiss so I was rather confused about the cause of the racket - until I grabbed the freewheel cluster and discovered I could move it sideways along the axis of the axle! Oddly it is still transmitting drive and freewheeling OK even in that condition. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much as the wheelset came off a 99p eBay special and I've had getting on for a thousand miles out of it, plus the chain is still the one the bike came with and could be the original 1995 one for all I know!. Looks like a new 14-28 freewheel and 6 speed chain is on the cards, glad I don't run 11 speed stuff....

Loving the colour aswell.
Make sure to regularly move the seat post or it might seize up (Alloy-Steel)!
Did you lube it before fitting?

 

[Racing roadkill]

I’ve been on a bit of a fettle fest of late. Today’s effort was a new rear brake for my winter hack. It’s a hydraulic disc set up, and the original failed with a loud pop when I was on a ride on Saturday, one of the piston seals failed, and left me with no rear brake.

it went on without a fight, I’ve just got to finish centering it up, but I’ll need to do that tomorrow. I think I’ll need to use the folded business card trick to get the clearance I need.

 

[Bad Machine]

The intention today was to clean, lube and replace the existing FSA bottom bracket.
Removing the bearing seal on the drive-side revealed a dark brown gunge, very different to that seen on the non-drive side.
Decision made to replace the whole BB, with a 68mm Shimano UN55 127mm. Much easier to fit than the FSA.
Cranks cleaned, pedals lubed, chain tube cleaned and remounted. The plan is to install the chain tomorrow.

 

[Gunk]

I’ve been on a bit of a fettle fest of late. Today’s effort was a new rear brake for my winter hack. It’s a hydraulic disc set up, and the original failed with a loud pop when I was on a ride on Saturday, one of the piston seals failed, and left me with no rear brake.
View attachment 521547


View attachment 521545
View attachment 521546
it went on without a fight, I’ve just got to finish centering it up, but I’ll need to do that tomorrow. I think I’ll need to use the folded business card trick to get the clearance I need.

good choice, I have Level TLM brakes on mine and my sons MTB’s. They’re very good

 

[Racing roadkill]

good choice, I have Level TLM brakes on mine and my sons MTB’s. They’re very good

It was the price that piqued my interest initially, when it turned up I was amazed at the quality of fit and finish.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Did you lube it before fitting?

Inside of the seat tube was liberally smeared with oil, and the seatpost itself was dipped in oil before fitting. I'm well aware of the corrosion issue with alloy seatposts in steel frames, as I've currently got a stuck one to remove from a lugged Reynolds 500 Dawes frame that would make a nice SS project to play around with.

 

[Jenkins]

A day of fettling. All 7 operative bikes were treated to a quick frame wipe down and the chains were properly cleaned and lubricated. The front inner tube on the best Van Nicholas was replaced as a previous patch had failed and I had a spare (unpatched) used tube lying around. Next the standard 50/34 SRAM chainrings on the Pickenflick were changed for 48/36 Spa Cycles ones as a better set-up for a flat bar and because they look better than the SRAM jobs...

I'd forgotten about the captive bolt behind the crank arm on the original rings, hence the odd positioning of the pin which would normally stop the chain getting trapped on overshifts, but I found a standard chainset bolt on my spares tub which fitted easily and I'll just have to be carefull on upshifts on the front.

Finally each bike was turned upside down and photographs taken of the frame numbers, then the complete bike was photographed (the right way up!) for identification purposes in the unlikely event of theft & recovery.

 

[ColinJ]

Next the standard 50/34 SRAM chainrings on the Pickenflick were changed for 48/36 Spa Cycles ones

I put a triple chainset from Spa Cycles on my best bike. I chose 48 teeth for the big ring and 36 for the middle ring which turn out to be ideal sizes for 90% of my riding, and I have a luxury 28 in reserve for anything steeper than 15% (or even for long stretches of 10%).

I'd forgotten about the captive bolt behind the crank arm on the original rings, hence the odd positioning of the pin which would normally stop the chain getting trapped on overshifts

I was once doing a ride with another CycleChat member. I glanced down at his chainset and I spotted that he had got the big ring rotated so that the pin wasn't in the right place. I asked if he had recently put a new big ring on and he replied that he had, and asked how I knew. I explained about the pin, and he told me that he didn't know what it was for. Literally just a few seconds later he overshifted and got the chain trapped between the crank and the ring...

"Er, it is to stop THAT happening!"

 

[Bad Machine]

1" threaded headset removed, cleaned, greased, replaced. Primax/Rudelli.
Twice - Front and rear. One where you'd expect it to be, the other under the seat for the steerer.
Don't know if they'd ever been done before, but once cleaned and lubed, they felt smooth - good for a while yet.

Chains (it has two), and bleeding Magura HS33 and Julie brake lines will have to wait until Thursday.

 

[Deafie]

Replaced the rear fender stay on the Raleigh. Couldn't get an original Raleigh one so modified a fender from a cruiser ( ballon tyre ). Bent it to shape to fit the mudguard with a hammer and block of wood then drilled a new hole and cut it down with the angle grinder.
It's a bit of a bodge but it does the job. I may paint it one day...

 

[Gunk]

Fitted a nice new saddle to my road bike. I’ve been wanting one of these for about a year and this one popped up brand new on eBay with about 40% off, so it was meant to be.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Fitted a nice new saddle to my road bike. I’ve been wanting one of these for about a year and this one popped up brand new on eBay with about 40% off, so it was meant to be.

View attachment 522255

View attachment 522254

View attachment 522253

Very nice, but I'm afraid you're going to need to get some tan bar tape now...

 

[Gunk]

Very nice, but I'm afraid you're going to need to get some tan bar tape now...

Naah, I’m keeping the black, I don’t want it looking too blingy.

 

[DSK]

Naah, I’m keeping the black, I don’t want it looking too blingy.

Nice looking seat, I was going mention the colour clash as well lol. I like the shiny paintwork!

 

[ColinJ]

I have just replaced the chain on my singlespeed bike.

I had just shortened the new chain and fitted it when I remembered that I had been thinking of replacing the fairly worn 52 tooth chainring with a relatively unused 54 tooth ring that I have sitting in my spares box. The 3.8% increase in gearing would have been handy for whizzing up and down the local valley roads, and on my long flat(tish) forum rides in Cheshire and the Vale of York, but would have made it a bit tougher to ride the bike up significant hills.

I want to go out on the bike before doing anything else to it, but I might put the new ring on and lengthen the chain this evening or tomorrow.

PS I now have been out for an hour on the bike. It is amazing how much quieter it is with a new chain, and I can also feel the difference when pedalling. I wouldn't claim that there is a big difference in the efficiency of the bike; it just sounds and feels nicer to ride!