What Have You Fettled Today?

[HLaB]

I swapped the cassette from my spare 28cc tubed wheel to my tubeless summer wheel that the lbs repaired. At the same time I went to pump up the matching front. I decided that its tubeless tyre I was keeping an eye on was a little threadbare so I put the new one I've had sitting for over a month. Seated it dry at first and it seated first time, so I injected sealant and again it seated first time with no leakage. I've prepped the winter wheel just in case but its stayed up for over an hour 🤞

Oh and I pumped up my tubeless gravel tyre to 30psi. I must have p'tured on the way to the group ride this morning as there was only 15psi in it but it was good for 50miles like that.

 

[Elybazza61]

Swapped the tyres and rotors from the Stayer wheels to the newly-built Halo Vapours (with SP/Hope hubs)and fitted on the All-City.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Spent ages degunging (technical term) chain on the commuter, and faffing around (technical term) trying to get the gears operating smoothly; very annoying delay on changing up presumably due to friction eventually improved with application of wd40 and working the cable back and forth.

Then youngest's gear cable broke on the way to his footie; frigged (technical term) half way down the cassette by screwing in the limit stop. Then managed to replace gear cable in the warm up and half time breaks.

Why do Shimano have such a PITA little screw to access the STI innards for nipple (actually the technical term, not a euphemism) removal? Most multitools don't have such a screwdriver. Ridiculous design.

 

[CXRAndy]

I made a keyway slide for my feather board on my new table rip saw. I used a piece of polypropylene. Router the depth and used the new saw to create the width and let shape.

 

[GuyBoden]

Sanding all the paint from a 1980's Look carbon tube frame with alloy lugs. I'm checking that the epoxy joint are still intact before painting.

 

[Jenkins]

The On One flat bar arrived from PlanetX this morning and was fitted to the Ribble this afternoon instead of the riser bars supplied. Also an additional rear light was fitted to the rack with a bodged fixing originally intended for the front reflector.

 

[fossyant]

Finally got round to re-greasing the two main pivot bearings on the FS MTB down by the BB - good job I did, as both weren't spinning freely - the others had been done a week or so ago. I've not ridden it for ages though. It's 'hopefully' getting some serious use this weekend, so best check eh ! Both were full of grit ! I'll get them replaced soon.

I no doubt picked most of it up last year on some incredibly wet rides, various bearings were serviced, but I didn't do the frame bearings at the time as the bike hasn't really had much use this calendar year.

 

[Gunk]

Scored a Charge Spoon off eBay for a tenner and fitted it to my Van Nic.

 

[avecReynolds531]

Yesterday I gambled on two bridleway sections - should've known better & stuck to the roads after all the rain - result was both mudguards clogged up in a swamp.
Some muppet spent today shifting out a ton of mud and debris, reshaping the mudguards & spars, plus cleaning & waxing the bike.

p.s. would like to try 40mm tyres one day (in place of the current 35mm): plenty of clearance at the seat & chain stays but the unicrown fork might be too much of a problem for clearance with mudguards.

 

[Oldhippy]

Derailleur adjusted today.

 

[ColinJ]

I think that @Sea of vapours will be interested in today's fettling...

I went on a hilly North/West Yorkshire ride with him at the start of August. I was on my best bike, a 20 year old Cannondale CAAD 5. It is still a great bike, but it started making some annoying noises on the ride which I was determined to eliminate after recovering from the ride.

I did some fettling in the weeks that followed. I replaced the chain, cassette, bottom bracket, and chainrings. None of them turned out to be worn so badly that they had actually needed replacing at the time but I had bought the spares so I thought I might as well put them on. It's nice to have new bits on the bike. The semi-used parts are now in my spares box. It is nice to have semi-used bits in the spares box - you never know when they might come in handy...

I did manage to find a noisy component... one of my SPD pedals was clicking. New pedals time! The old pedals have gone in the spares box to be fettled at a later date. The new pedals eliminated some of the noises that I had been hearing.

BUT... there was still a clicky, ticky noise every now and then. It seemed to come and go. I couldn't quite figure it out. Then a pal noticed that there was a little play in the freehub!

I whipped the freehub off. EUREKA!

Take a look at its outer sealed bearing... Or should that be an UNsealed bearing!!!!

With apologies to the Monty Python team...

This bearing is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! ... It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-BEARING!!

A wise man once said...

It is also nice to have semi-used bits in the spares box - you never know when they might come in handy...

Well, I remembered that I had a semi-used freehub in my spares box! This is what the other sealed bearing should have looked like in situ...

I have stopped mid-fettle to have something to eat but I am pretty confident that the fettling will be completed later, and that a test ride tomorrow will confirm that the problem has been fixed. I will report back after that!

PS

One of the things that confused me was that the noise kept coming and going. WHY?!

I think now that when I was using a high gear (the chain on the small sprockets) my pedalling forces were acting mainly on the smashed outer freehub bearing, which naturally did not sound good. In fact, I think it is amazing that it did not sound even worse!

When in a low gear (the chain on the big, inner sprockets) my pedalling forces were acting mainly on the intact inner freehub bearing, which coped with the load and left me in peace.

 

[Sea of vapours]

it started making some annoying noises on the ride

I confirm that the noises were indeed pretty annoying, though in the context of being half way through a long ride, they were more alarming really. We did diagnose 'a bearing' at the time, but that was not the obvious one. That is a thoroughly plausible deduction about the reason it was intermittent ! I'm sure, with all those new bits, things will be greatly improved when you're next able to get out on it :-)

 

[ColinJ]

I confirm that the noises were indeed pretty annoying, though in the context of being half way through a long ride, they were more alarming really. We did diagnose 'a bearing' at the time, but that was not the obvious one. That is a thoroughly plausible deduction about the reason it was intermittent ! I'm sure, with all those new bits, things will be greatly improved when you're next able to get out on it :-)

I have been mainly riding my singlespeed bike since our ride, and the bike that I have in Devon, but I am going to be using the Cannondale on Saturday for my local hilly forum ride and I had been worried that it might pack up mid-ride!

 

[ColinJ]

Hmm - I think that a spacer was missing from the old freehub. There is one on the replacement freehub which I can't find in the pile of bits from the old one... That wouldn't have done the bearing a lot of good because the spacer would have been fixing the centre of the bearing in place if it had been there!

 

[DCBassman]

A jump-starter pack. Did the Portable Appliance Testing at a garage near Exeter last Saturday, and the owner passed it across as dead, due to a heavy-handed mechanic mangling the charger and input socket. And he wasn't kidding! Have, for the moment, wired a replacement power unit direct to the destroyed socket wiring, and it's charging up nicely. If I can make a better job of it eventually, it may even be saleable. Still well over £200 new.