What Have You Fettled Today?

[Andy in Germany]

I noticed yesterday that the small wheel on the rear cassette was giving more friction than the others, so I fixed the adjuster screws. Of course with a 50% chance of getting it right I went and "fixed" the wrong one and then had to sort that out too, and then overtightened the other one so it wouldn't change up to top gear when riding even though it did while fixing it, but I sorted it out eventually.

I think...

You know that clicking I couldn't diagnose earlier? I just happened to look at the bike from the side, instead of from above or behind...

Moral of the story: if you look at things from a different angle, you may see things you'd miss otherwise...

Unfortunately if predictably, I don't have my chain breaker tool here...

 

[ColinJ]

I got as much life out of the front brake blocks on my singlespeed bike as I could. In practice, that was probably more than I should! I just took a look and they were only one or two descents away from shredding the wheel rim...

I've just put some new blocks in!

ColinJ's Tip for the Day for Novice Bike Mechanics:

This really should be obvious, but I know at least one mechanically unskilled person who got it wrong, and it could be a disastrous mistake to make, so here you go...

If you have rim brakes on your bike and they are the sort that have rubber brake blocks which slide into metal shoes... WARNING - THE LEFT AND RIGHT SHOES ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE!! If you get them the right way round, the action of braking forces the blocks hard into the shoes and keeps them there. If you mix up the left and right shoes, when you brake the rims will try to drag the blocks out. That would not be a good thing to happen...

Moral of the story: if you look at things from a different angle, you may see things you'd miss otherwise...

Unfortunately if predictably, I don't have my chain breaker tool here...

What have you done, not taken enough links out of a new chain?

 

[Spiderweb]

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours sorting out the £50 Allez ready for sale. Managed with zero costs. I replaced the horrible mis-matched brake callipers with a set of Ultegras which I had left over from another project.

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the frame was really nasty, but soap, water and fine wire wool sorted it out, everything else was spot on, indexing all good, no play in the headset or BB, so 2 hours of elbow grease and it’s now ready for a new owner, it would make a perfect turbo bike. Not sure about the white seat, blue cables and brown bar tape, the previous owner certainly had strange taste!

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A 2010 Specialized Allez for £50, that’s a great buy.
Could I ask what you would use fine wire wool on the frame for?

 

[Saluki]

Fixed my weird clicking brake.

 

[ColinJ]

Fixed my weird clicking brake.

What was causing the clicking?

 

[Gunk]

A 2010 Specialized Allez for £50, that’s a great buy.
Could I ask what you would use fine wire wool on the frame for?

It’s a matt silver finish and the black grime just wouldn’t shift, a mixture of oil and brake dust. I tried soap and water with a spray of Muc off, then brake cleaner, degreaser. In the end soap and water with fine wire wool bought it back to life. I was super careful and didn't rub to hard.

 

[Spiderweb]

It’s a matt silver finish and the black grime just wouldn’t shift, a mixture of oil and brake dust. I tried soap and water with a spray of Muc off, then brake cleaner, degreaser. In the end soap and water with fine wire wool bought it back to life. I was super careful and didn't rub to hard.

Ahh, I was just wondering, I have a Matt finish frame with some very fine scratches on the top tube, I have tried T-Cut and they are better, I think more T-Cut and more rubbing will get them out, the problem is that that area is now shiny, just wondering if the finest steel wool would bring back the Matt finish?

 

[Oldbikefan]

Stripped the Moonrun to bare frame because there were no buyers and I need the room. Bolted the Suntour XC-E triple chainset, cranks, pedal and Venture brake levers to the Pioneer.
I now have 15 gears and a lighter bike. (The original steel and plastic chainset weighed a ton.)

 

[Gunk]

Ahh, I was just wondering, I have a Matt finish frame with some very fine scratches on the top tube, I have tried T-Cut and they are better, I think more T-Cut and more rubbing will get them out, the problem is that that area is now shiny, just wondering if the finest steel wool would bring back the Matt finish?

Or try a Scotchpad

 

[Andy in Germany]

What have you done, not taken enough links out of a new chain?

Basically, yes, and I haven't noticed the extra friction for over a year (!), possibly because this bike is lighter than my usual longtail so it felt much easier to ride.

 

[DCLane]

Bits today:

• New rear mech hanger on my son's Cervelo S3 after a crash ended his Irish race on Saturday prematurely
• His hillclimb bike was set up with a 40T chainring ready for a practice climb up Winnat's Pass tomorrow, where the national hillclimb will be this year: https://www.facebook.com/WinNats21/
• His BeOne Raw required a couple of minor adjustments and a clean, after we'd taken it with us to Ireland
• My Fuji Track which I've used for grasstrack racing has had a bent left crank for a while. I didn't do it, honest . So tonight I've swapped it for a new LH one, and it's all OK now.

 

[Andy in Germany]

These:

Now I need to find someone to teach me how to braze bits on a bike...

 

[HLaB]

Well it was actually yesterday now, given is not long past midnight. But I had tubeless ready disk wheels and tubeless ready 40mm tyres. So I converted them to tubeless. I was originally intending to do just the front tonight but it took about 15mins. How much harder can the rear be It actually came off easy and converted easy too but then I came to refit it. I wondered at first why the derailleur didn't move. Then I realised quickly it has a clutch. What was more time consuming however was getting the rear through axle to line up. There must be a technique

 

[keithmac]

Winterising my ebike, back mudguard sorted.

Fitted cover to NCX seatpost (what a great idea!).

Measured wheel rims for Tannus Tyres.

Used my new tyre tool, great bit of kit and will still get used on the other bikes!.

 

[keithmac]

Patio needs re-grouting, I just can't get the motivation to do it..