What Have You Fettled Today?

[GeekDadZoid]

Fitted new front pads on the Super Galaxy they had been on for about 700-800 km but that was mostly commutes in all weathers and I am fairly sure I have not cleaned it in that time.

 

[fossyant]

He never said he'd done it right though

With a hole in it

 

[GeekDadZoid]

Just in addition I have worked out so far on my Super Galaxy I have replace the Bottom Bracket, the brake pads a twice now and an inner tube. And the bar tape. That is not too bad thats about £250 or 15p per KM including the cost of the bike.

 

[buzz22]

I've got two almost identical bikes, both of them being 1996 Giant CFR3's with lugged carbon fibre frames.

One was built as a climber as the frame was good but driveline poor. This one got Mavic Aksium wheels, Shimano exage rear derailleur and a single 105 chainring with downtube shifter.

The other one was kept original with a full Shimano RSX 3 x 7 groupset (including combined brake/shift levers), and Rigida wheels. I've had this bike on a couple of longer rides and it's comfortable for the longer distances.

I'm doing a charity ride in the Alpine region of NSW next month, the day I'm participating in is a King of the Mounain challenge against an ultra marathon runner with a handicap start.
The ride is 81km with almost 1800m of altitude change, one climb extending for 14km.
I realised that with a simple wheel swap between the two bikes I'll end up with an even better climbing bike.
The lighter Aksium wheels with an
11-28 cassette were swapped onto the RSX equipped bike to replace the 12-24 cassette on there currently.
I now have a low gear of 26/28, the compact 26/36/46 crankset giving me a good choice of gears for most situations.

Tomorrow morning will be the first ride with the new combination, it will be good to see how it goes.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

The rear derailleur on the knockabout bike has had a hard winter with all the salt on the roads and has been playing up intermittantly on the last couple of rides, so it needed looking at. The pivots have been oiled and the barrel adjuster was very stiff so was removed and lubricated. New inner and outer cables were fitted and I had intended to just change the cable for the rear until I noticed that the outer for the front derailleur was quite badly chafed so I thought I'd better do the set. Finally, I dribbled some light oil inside the RH thumb shifter as the ratchet was a bit cranky - that seems to have helped.

 

[DCLane]

I had a look at the Avanti Circa cross / winter commuter as it wasn't shifting properly. Now it's had quite a few commutes in dirty weather plus some unusual more off-road roads but ... when I couldn't properly see the jockey wheels I guessed it needed cleaning.

So ... a thorough clean of the rear derailleur with rear wheel out, also cleaned, revealed a loose hanger. Ah, that'd have been the post I hit. Hanger tightened.

New chain as it was at 0.75, wheels cleaned at least enough to show the decals, cassette off and cleaned and it's all OK. I think. No before/after photo as I should look after my bikes better than this particularly as it's probably going into full-time commuter duty because my Raleigh SP Race's going onto the smart turbo.

The Thompson Capella came back from the LBS with a new LH shifter internal, cables, chain and bar tape as I've been far too busy with work and family stuff. I then added a nice Fizik R1 stem I'd picked up and it's all done. Current weight with son no. 2's Mavic Exalith wheels is sub-7kg:

Not bad for a self-purchase Christmas present on Christmas morning via an eBay auction because only son no. 2 bought me a Christmas present.

I'm not convinced by the celeste bar tape but it'll do for a start. The KMC DLC black/blue chain will also go on at some point along with carbon wheels once the tyres on the Mavic wheels have been used up.

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

Anyone who read last year's C2C write up may remember I ended the tour with no brakes. Bike has been sat in the shed since then but today's the day it got repaired.

New brakeset front and back as the pistons in the calipers had totally seized at the front, are 9 years old and frankly I wouldn't know if they were repairable, plus the added cost of buying bits I may need to achive this. The levers are pretty tatty anyway so why not! Ebay to the rescue and I won some new M200's for a reasonable price, nothing exciting but will do the job for what I need.

New rotors as they are well warped from being overheated and foolishly cooled down quickly with water. Unbranded oil slick design wouldn't have been my first choice but were donated by a mate and I can't say no to a freebie, will see how they hold up this year.

Also took the opportunity to replace the prime bottom bracket for a 'proper' Sram dub one I bought over winter. The prime one only had around 600 miles on it but already gashed itself and I'm not sure I'd used the correct spacers when originally fitting it, all a learning curve eh.

Awaiting a new post mount adapter for the front coming this afternoon as I noticed a crack in the old one then job done. Will see how it goes on tomorrow's planned 25 miler to the coast.

 

[Rusty Nails]

Have had the dreaded carbon frame press-fit BB creak recently. About three years ago I swapped the original Shimano BB for a screw-in Wheels Mfg BB. It did start creaking a bit about 18 months ago and I stopped that by loosening it and tightening it up again. I've done that again and I'll find out on my ride tomorrow if it has worked. Fingers crossed.

Edit: Bugger! Didn't work so I'm now going to take the BB out, clean and regrease it and fit it again tightly so hopefully I can have another year or so creak-free (the bike, not me).
It's not a huge problem and I like the bike so much that I'll put up with the occasional return of the creaking.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Fitted a new top tube bag that can hold a power bank, phone and snacks. Waterproof. It’s on my recumbent , thus on the boom in front of stem rather than top tube. Should be able to keep gps and phone charged at all times when out on audax and long outings. Plus have snacks I can get to when stopped without getting off bike.

 

[DCLane]

My track bike has gained a new Token T55 front wheel and tub, which I glued on Wednesday plus the rear disc has had the lockring thread repaired by my LBS.

All put together and I'm testing them out at Manchester velodrome in the track league this evening:

 

[sevenfourate]

…….spent some more time messing with the new MTB:

Lubricated everything properly ((Do they not have grease at assembly factories 🤷‍♂️), fitted pedals, aligned brake calipers, roughly set up forks, set tyre pressures, swapped out what bolts I could to Stainless Steel. Then fully cleaned it - and have now just prepped and Ceramic coated the paintwork. The idea being after a dirty ride: I can clean easier / faster; and long term it will pretty much stay looking as it does now….

 

[Deleted member 1258]

…….spent some more time messing with the new MTB:

Lubricated everything properly ((Do they not have grease at assembly factories 🤷‍♂️), fitted pedals, aligned brake calipers, roughly set up forks, set tyre pressures, swapped out what bolts I could to Stainless Steel, them fully cleaned it - and have now just prepped and Ceramic coated the paintwork. The idea being after a dirty ride: I can clean easier / faster; and long term it will pretty much stay looking as it does now….

Blimey, how tall are you? I'd need a ladder to climb onboard that.

 

[sevenfourate]

Blimey, how tall are you?

Twenty four foot six 🤣

**Haven’t set seat height yet. Will lower as needed later today when taking it out for maiden voyage 😎

 

[GeekDadZoid]

The Super Galaxy needed a little TLC so I took the opportunity of a rare sunny day / no plan combo and spent a couple of hours giving it a end of winter wash, replaced the chain as it was at 0.75 and replaced the rear brake pads and cable as that was starting to fray at the pinch bolt.

Removed the rack I used on Fridays commute. Going to look for something a bit nicer to keep installed.

I also noticed last week the spoke guard had started to warp and was rubbing the back of the cassette so that came off too.

Also removed verve light as am not going to subscribe to the service anymore.

Need to stock up on some supplies now.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Fixed middle son's bike. He'd managed to snap the gear hanger. Fortunately I had one in stock at work.
I still can't understand how he did it although he says alcohol may have been involved...