What Have You Fettled Today?

[roubaixtuesday]

New bottom bracket for the winter bike/ commuter.

Buggered it up in various different ways but got there eventually.

The diameter of the exterior was larger than the old one (why??? I mean, FFS, WHY???) so my BB spanner didn't effing fit. Happily, it came with a plastic thingumabob which fitted over and could be used to do it up by hand. Naturally, I only realised after finishing the whole job that it was actually an adapter that fitted into the original spanner. I'm far too lazy to take the whole thing apart, so let's hope finger tight is tight enough.

Next up, after fitting it all, realised I'd failed to put the chain round it. So needed to split the chain and rejoin. Doh!!

Finally, the plastic puller that brings the cranks together wouldn't, or at least not together enough with finger strength. So used mole grips on it for purchase. Was this wise? Who knows.

All seems good in the end but I do seem to be an incompetent sausage-fingered bodger.

 

[Juan Kog]

@cyberknight and @roubaixtuesday you sound like me , don’t buy new when you can carry out a totally unsatisfactory bodge . Not sure how to do something, look at a YouTube video. Nah just carry on and figure it out myself ..

 

[HLaB]

A failed fettle last night
My sti shifter has been jamming half way (moving freely either side). So its mainly been a one by 52t and shift the 36 have been limited (easy to shift to hard to shift back). I unhooked the cable, confirmed the mech was moving freely and the sti seemed to be moving freely too. I put a new cable in and it was the same problem. Which has me thinking its the internal cabled outers. I added in a lot of Grease to overcome what the issue was and the cable went in smoothly enough. Connected it back up then ditto, same problem. I then added in some GT85 to the shifter using a straw to get it in deep. Things seemed to improve, but weren't perfect, so I done it again etc, etc and every time it seemed to get better. Then 'bang', the whole thing seized and the trigger shifter no longer shifted down (just moved freely). I decided before I made things worse (if not already too late) to take it to a lbs

 

[ColinJ]

My DIY singlespeed bike was largely slung together from old spare parts. Ever since I built it I have been a bit irritated by the feel of the rear brake. It worked ok, but it felt a bit 'spongy'. If I applied the rear brake and then let go of the lever, the brake took about a second to fully release. I assumed that it was caused by cable friction due to me reusing very old brake inners/outers from an old bike. I decided to try and sort the problem out today...

As soon as I undid the rear brake cable it became obvious that most of the problem was NOT in the cable. The dual pivot calliper had an awful lot of friction in its pivots. I disassembled as much of the brake as I could and cleaned and lubed all the moving parts. It feels a lot better now. There is probably some excess friction in the old cable and I couldn't completely disassemble the brake because of corrosion and a worn hex bolt so that didn't get a full overhaul.

Still, I think that 2/3 of the sponginess has gone and I can put up with the rest until the spring. I will be an OAP by then and have more money to spend on my bikes. At that point I plan to put some new parts on the bike and will try to get the brake perfect then.

 

[LWeleven]

Cleaned it up ready for sale on the hunt for a used Checkpoint or similar

 

[Andy in Germany]

My DIY singlespeed bike was largely slung together from old spare parts. Ever since I built it I have been a bit irritated by the feel of the rear brake. It worked ok, but it felt a bit 'spongy'. If I applied the rear brake and then let go of the lever, the brake took about a second to fully release. I assumed that it was caused by cable friction due to me reusing very old brake inners/outers from an old bike. I decided to try and sort the problem out today...

As soon as I undid the rear brake cable it became obvious that most of the problem was NOT in the cable. The dual pivot calliper had an awful lot of friction in its pivots. I disassembled as much of the brake as I could and cleaned and lubed all the moving parts. It feels a lot better now. There is probably some excess friction in the old cable and I couldn't completely disassemble the brake because of corrosion and a worn hex bolt so that didn't get a full overhaul.

Still, I think that 2/3 of the sponginess has gone and I can put up with the rest until the spring. I will be an OAP by then and have more money to spend on my bikes. At that point I plan to put some new parts on the bike and will try to get the brake perfect then.

That reminds me, I need to tighten up the back brake on the commuter... (exits to do same).

 

[13 rider]

My rear tubeless tyre has been losing more pressure than normal of late . In the week I removed everything to reinstall in a fresh but found a split in the side wall were it wraps the bead so new tyre I think also a lot of sealant had got between the layers of rim tape . I decided to bite the bullet and start afresh . Visited the LBS this morning ,new tyre ,rim tape and valve purchase , left with the comment see you this afternoon when I cock it up . A bit of faffing later and all installed holding pressure and test riden 17 miles all good hoping to find a fully inflated tyre in the morning . Didn't seem as bad as feared first time I have changed from giant stock tyres which are designed for my rim to another brand , gone for a Pirrelli ( good enough for Lewis Hamilton not that he has a choice ) gone from a 25mm to a 28mm . Felt nice on the test ride

 

[ColinJ]

Didn't seem as bad as feared first time I have changed from giant stock tyres which are designed for my rim to another brand , gone for a Pirrelli ( good enough for Lewis Hamilton not that he has a choice ) gone from a 25mm to a 28mm . Felt nice on the test ride

I would like to put 28s on the road bikes I have up here but there isn't the clearance so I have to stick with 25s.

The bike that I have at my sister's house in Devon is a gravel bike with loads of clearance so I will be putting bigger tyres on that. At least 28s, but I may go to an even bigger size.

 

[13 rider]

I would like to put 28s on the road bikes I have up here but there isn't the clearance so I have to stick with 25s.

The bike that I have at my sister's house in Devon is a gravel bike with loads of clearance so I will be putting bigger tyres on that. At least 28s, but I may go to an even bigger size.

Another advantage of disc brakes bigger clearances

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Oiled the chain on my recumbent. It was about 500km overdue as I should have done it before a recent mini tour but forgot.

 

[Gunk]

Another advantage of disc brakes bigger clearances

Or cantis

 

[ColinJ]

I'd forgotten how much I dislike cantilever brakes!

I always found them fiddly to adjust properly, thought they looked ugly, and found that they didn't work as well as the dual pivots/v-brakes/disk brakes on my newer bikes.

 

[Gunk]

Everything you say is true @ColinJ but I just like quirkinesses of them, these are now set up perfectly and after many hours of fiddling and adjustment, plus decent swisstop pads, they work well.

 

[biggs682]

Fitted a front mudguard , stripped and cleaned a pr of old Courier centre pull calipers and cabled up a front mechanism

 

[Elybazza61]

Today I have been mostly swapping the horrid SRAM reverse shift set-up on the Tern folder for some Shimano Altus 9-speed(with Tern adapter bracket);