What Have You Fettled Today?

[Andy in Germany]

This:

More importantly, I was away from the workshop today and took the opportunity to suggest my new client try his first solo repair. This was waiting when I got back:

We'll work on the details tomorow, but he's clearly capable of learning this pretty quickly.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Tandem approaching its full touring setup with its first front rack.

 

[ColinJ]

Apart from "Oh no, it's raining and I don't want to get my nicely fettled bike dirty" I have run out of excuses not to ride it!

A friend texted me early today to say that she had decided not to do her club run, and asked if she could join me for my MTB test ride. Yes indeed!

We managed to catch some sun and the forecast rain didn't arrive until long after we got back.

Well, I know that the more important FRONT brake works well!

Both brakes are working well on the 'shove bike forward on tiled kitchen floor, with brakes applied' test, but yes - that isn't really the equivalent of doing 40+ km/hr down a steep, offroad Pennine descent!

I did some brake testing BEFORE going up onto the hills, and there were no problems.

With the brakes that is... As soon as I applied the front brake the suspension fork bottomed out - oops! I had to nurse the bike on all the rough stuff and have now ordered a shock pump which is due to arrive tomorrow.

I had cocked up the release tensions on my new SPD pedals. I think I had backed off a little from MAXIMUM tension rather than MINIMUM! I realised almost immediately after setting off and soon sorted that out. It was a good job that I did because I had to do 2 emergency dismounts later and might not have been able to unclip in time with high release tensions.

Everything else on the heavily-fettled bike was very good.

PS You can see the marker that I put on the suspension fork. That black line on the stanchion is a cable tie that I use to show how far the fork has compressed.

 

[ColinJ]

Don't old-skool 26" MTB wheels look small compared to modern 29-ers! (That is actually quite a big bike.)

 

[HLaB]

Well technically yesterday and only 10 mins of today. My rear derailleur cable snapped last night on the TT bike. I replaced it but I only remembered at 10.30pm. No problem, a 30mins job at most to replace a cable! Wrong, I had forgotten how much of a faff the internally route cables on the TT bike were!

Initial success saw the cable inserted down though the TT poles and the down tube. Then it refused to go any further. There's a bottom bracket guide and sometimes a replacement cable follows it but this one wasn't. To get to the cable outer that feeds into the guide you have to make enough slack in the rear brake and front derailleur cables which also go through it. The brake is no problem to do that, you just need to close the brakes and get something to hold them closed. However to get enough slack in the front derailleur cable is more of a proble. At first I tried shifting up, holding the cage and shifting down. That created a bit of slack but not enough to get to the stuck cable. I then lowered the front mech, which also created more slack, but again not enough. I realised I had to do what I wasn't wanting to do unship the front derailleur's. Almost there but the cable now free of the cable guide was jamming on the cable end. What I decided to do was insert the snapped cable into the end of the cable cap and push it out with the new cable which would hopefully follow it. Thankfully instant success there 👍 After getting the cable around the BB it's just a case of retightening the cables though the bb cable guide and reindexing. Fortunately that was pretty fast too. 👍👍

 

[buzz22]

Some last minute changes to my bikes for the charity ride I'm doing next week.
It's an 80km ride in the Alpine region of NSW so lots of climbing.
I'll be riding my Giant CFR3 (purple) with a triple on the front so I have some low gearing options and taking my Giant CFR Pro series (blue/black) as a spare bike.
I swapped wheels between the two bikes, this means I'll have light wheels (Mavic Open 4 CD's on Shimano 600 Tricolour hubs) with Continental GP5000's on the first choice bike, the purple one.
The lower spec Aksium wheels with Maxxis Refuse go on the spare bike.
I also changed out the god awful riser stem on the spare bike for a nice old forged stem that gives me a better riding position and some adjustability.

Before:

After:

One more change to go, I'll pop an 11-32 cassette on the rear of the spare bike so if I end up riding it for any reason my lowest gear will be 39/32, hopefully low enough for the climbs.
I'm liking the change- the tan wall tyres and more traditional wheels suit the purple bike and the darker wheels seem to suit the Pro series.
A quick ride of both confirms the swap is a good thing.

 

[Sallar55]

A rebuild,the joys of flying. Everything looks ok, chain will be binned as its stretched.

 

[DCLane]

@Sallar55 - that's a proper strip-down.

I've put a new chain onto the recently-arrived Raleigh U6X and mended any damage from the attempted theft of my Avanti Circa cross-commuter yesterday; I'd left it outside a shop whilst I'd picked up my lunch. In the 3-4 minute gap it looks like someone's come along, pulled at the Avanti and when the lock didn't give way they simply dropped it. Loose shifter, missing bar end plug and a big paint chip

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Does lining the lugs count as fettling?

 

[sevenfourate]

Today I fettled one of the fleet into the work van and took here;

https://samsbicycles.co.uk/

….for some expert Fettling.

**Previous fettling of said machines brakes by a supposed well-renowned cycle mechanic in my home town was a joke at best. And from the ‘completed job’ that was handed back to me by aforementioned mechanic; he appears to possess little spannering ability, less communication skills and no customer service 🤦‍♂️** I don’t think it shows that I’m slightly bitter though hey 🤣🤣

Fingers crossed I’ve now found ‘The one’.

 

[ColinJ]

As soon as I applied the front brake the suspension fork bottomed out - oops! I had to nurse the bike on all the rough stuff and have now ordered a shock pump which is due to arrive tomorrow.

The pump arrived and I used it to re-pressurise the suspension fork. It is fiddly to get the pressure in each side right because I can hear some air leaking out when I unscrew the pump connector. In the end I put an extra 10 psi in each side and whipped the connector off as quickly as I could after pumping. The fork feels pretty firm now. In fact, it may be a bit too firm? I'll do another test ride tomorrow to see. If it feels uncomfortably firm I will dab the Shraeder valves to let a pfft of air out of each side and try again.

 

[ColinJ]

PS I paid £8.90 for a Marzocchi shock pump adapter only to discover that my old Bomber fork doesn't need it!

 

[Fredo76]

Today I made a handle extension for my new bottom bracket lock ring tool:

Hopefully it will be enough!

P.S. - Success !!!

 

[HLaB]

I finally took the TT bike out today and found the rear v brake wasn't quite springing back. So I took it off tonight, cleaned it and re-greased it. I also did a bodge of wrapping the top of the spring arm with electrical tape to make it a couple of mm thicker. It seems to be working well now but it probably needs a new brake spring which probably necessitates buying a new bike. Actually, it wold be a good excuse for a new bike

 

[Andy in Germany]

Does lining the lugs count as fettling?
View attachment 682782

View attachment 682783

View attachment 682784

Oooo. Have you a picture of the whole bike?