What Have You Fettled Today?

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An empty drinks can comes in handy for making shims - easy to cut with decent pair of scissors :okay:
 

Punkawallah

Über Member
Shimano hub rs400 needed a new spindle (quick release rusted in), transpires the collection of parts did not conform to t’Interweb exploded diagram. Sooooo, a lovely time had cobbling from provided parts and spares to get the bugger back together.

Also replaced rear brake cable on a trike, who knew they had ‘tandem’ length cables?
 

chriswoody

Legendary Member
Location
Northern Germany
The back brake lever on the Kona has always been a bit on the soft side and travels back too far before biting. Despite several bleeds it's never got better. Witness marks on the reservoir cover suggest that there may be a small leak from the breather hole and it's not uncommon to also find the bladder has been incorrectly installed from new. At only €11 for a new one, it made sense to just swap it out and see what difference it would make.

So today I finally got around to swapping the old reservoir cover for a new one. I first tipped the bike up on the stand to bring the cover horizontal and then unscrewed the old cover.

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Comparing old to new it's clear something isn't right, the old one is crumpled up.

With the cover replaced I completed a bleed of the whole system. As you can see from the reservoir syringe, there was a lot of air in there!

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So after a clean down, I took it for a spin down the road and everything felt much better, so I'll call that a win.
 
I volunteer at a community bike workshop and when I went in yesterday they had a nice looking Orbea that had been started the day before by another volunteer who had completed the check sheet and started putting the kit on it.

We decided to do a good job of it with DT Swiss wheels and Ultegra gears, brakes and shifters. Great, I thought, as I often get rubbish to work on, so I put it all together with everything working sweetly and a good test ride.

After the ride I was just attaching the worksheet to it when I noticed something odd about the non drive side chainstay. There was a very shallow dent in it, but looking at it carefully I could see that the chainstay was curved so that the middle of it was almost a cm lower than the drive side.

We have a policy of not selling on a bike that has any frame damage so I had to completely strip it again.

That will teach me not to rely on someone else's pre-work checksheet. :cursing:
 

rogerzilla

Legendary Member
A chap on the CTC forum kindly let me have an old 6-speed Brompton wheel for the price of postage, and most Sachs/SRAM IGH parts are now unobtanium so I wanted a spare mechanism, or at least parts like the fragile axle key. It looked minging on the outside, rusty shell and seized spoke nipples, but the insides are perfect. They're currently marinating in degreaser.
 

Mark Grant

Acting Captain of The St Annes Jombulance.
Location
Hanworth, Middx.
New 10sp chain on my Van Nic Euros.
 

TheDoctor

Noble and true, with a heart of steel
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
Fettled a new Microshift M26 rear mech onto the 8-speed Ribble, and went for a ride.
Got back and took it off again. It shifted like a bag of spanners. It's impossible to make it index properly - there's just too much play everywhere, Utter garbage.
I've already got onto Wiggle about it. Sadly, I bought two. I wanted one for the 9-speed 531ST, but there's no way on Earth it'll index.
What with a couple of fake Shimano Acera rear mechs from Ebay, I'm done with cheap kit. Legit Shimano or nothing.
On a happier note, I've cleaned up some old brakes for the 531. Quick polish with WD40 and they look fine. Deep-drop RX100 nut-fitting at the front, and a deep-drop Tektro Allen-fit front brake with a nyloc nut swapped on for the back. The wonder of a large spares heap :okay:
 
Three night's of fettling for me as I search for watts/speed (tbh there's more to be gained by having the guts to stay on the TT extensions longer.
Firstly I put new elbow pads on the bike hopefully that will help with the confidence, it certainly feels better.
Secondly I changed the two spacers below the stem for the aero spacer that came with the bike.
Tonight I put new rubber on. A TT specific tyre and a latex inner tube on the front (the rear is a tubeless disc). I was surprised how easy it was, YouTube is full of horror stories.
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DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
With a new LH shifter arriving I worked on the Dawes Galaxy AL today:
  • New LH Claris triple shifter
  • New outer and inner front gear cable
  • New inner brake cable
  • Front/rear derailleurs adjusted
It's now all ready to go on sale later today.

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Non-Shimano replacement white hoods onto the Shimano Exage shifters I bought just for the hoods so they could go onto the Raleigh Strada I have for sale. These might get used on the Olagnero I bought, providing I can remove the stuck seatpost: the seller wasn't totally honest with me and I should have checked. They're not quite a perfect fit, but good enough.

Also, removed the tub from my son's hillclimb bike's front wheel - it'll need a specialist spoke nipple that I'll need to source :sad:
 
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ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Do shorts count...? :whistle:

I have an old pair of baggy shorts that I bought when I was much lardier than I am now so they are too loose on me now. They don't have loops for fitting a belt, and belts are not that comfy on residual belly flab anyway. There are Velcro straps on either side to take up some slack but I needed another few cms taking in beyond what the Velcro offered me.

I remembered yesterday that I have a press-stud kit so I checked where I needed the straps to be pulled to and fitted studs to suit. The shorts feel more comfortable now and don't keep sliding down. I won't bother doing it again once I have lost even more weight, but this will give me another season from the shorts and money won't be so tight next year (state pension time - yay!) so I will treat myself to new kit then.
 

battered

Guru
Do shorts count...? :whistle:

I have an old pair of baggy shorts that I bought when I was much lardier than I am now so they are too loose on me now. They don't have loops for fitting a belt, and belts are not that comfy on residual belly flab anyway. There are Velcro straps on either side to take up some slack but I needed another few cms taking in beyond what the Velcro offered me.

I remembered yesterday that I have a press-stud kit so I checked where I needed the straps to be pulled to and fitted studs to suit. The shorts feel more comfortable now and don't keep sliding down. I won't bother doing it again once I have lost even more weight, but this will give me another season from the shorts and money won't be so tight next year (state pension time - yay!) so I will treat myself to new kit then.
Aldi have baggy shorts with a lycra liner for £5.99 reduced from £7.99 this week if they have any left. I have bagged a set, they are good enough for the money.
 
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