What Have You Fettled Today?

[HLaB]

I topped up the sealant in my gravel bike tyres before going to bed. I don't know if its the larger volume tyres or better valves but every time I have done it its been quick and no mess, whereas sometimes the road bike tyres can occasionally be the opposite

 

[alicat]

The washing line. The hooks that I used to use are impractical now that my garden has grown so I putted new ones on the patio.

 

[buzz22]

To break up the enormous expanse of the head tube on my "Throwback" bike I had a decal made up for it which arrived yesterday.
Eventually the bike will get some colour but until then the BB (Buzz's Bike) sticker will do.

 

[buzz22]

The front wheel of my Europa got a polish, the first photo shows it next to the rear wheel and hopefully a bit of a difference:

When it was finished I popped on the 700 x 25 Michelin Dynamic Classic- love a gumwall on an older bike.

 

[buzz22]

The 1982 Europa that my mate gave me got some time and attention today- rear wheel polished, 6 speed cluster taken off and cleaned, new rear tyre fitted, new brake and gear cables, new chain and an overall clean.
It's not ready for the road yet as it's been sitting for 15 years so it will get a thorough service before it's first outing.
As soon as that's done I'll be out there!

 

[Willd]

Fitted a new chain and tweaked the high limit screw on the front derailleur, so far so good, no oily fingers over the weekend. Didn't really need the smaller chainring, but did a few test changes.

 

[si_c]

Swapped out the bar tape on the Kinesis. I'd been using Supercaz Galaxy which is aesthetically very pleasing and I could colour match with the frame, but unfortunately it appears they no longer do that particular style. The old tape had started to get a bit hardened after 2 years on the bike and wasn't as comfortable as it was, so swapped it for my preferred tape, plain black 1.8mm Lizard Skins DSP, which is lovely to the touch and great in all weather.

Was comparing to the BBB Flexribbon tape I've installed (it was cheap) on the Trek, which compares well in terms of comfort but doesn't quite match the DSP for visuals and tactile impact.

 

[Jenkins]

Time to renew parts of the drivetrain on the 'best' bike - it's been needed for a while and I've had the parts ready, but the chain finally started to skip on the outer chainring when under power yesterday making the change necessary. The bike's done about 7600 miles, mostly on the outer chainring, and only had one change of chain, cassette & bottom bracket in that time.

First thing done was to remove the chain and the old chainrings (left) and clean the rings up a bit for comparison against the new ones to be fitted (right)

The bottom bracket was going to be next, but when I removed the crank the beaings appeared to be still very smooth and free spinning (possibly due to dry weather running only) so this was left alone. Next up was the cassette and as usual this showed evidence of how much I use the 16 tooth ring compared to the rest of the cassette - shown below between the 17 tooth and 15 tooth rings.

The new chain was then fitted and a very slight tweek to the cable tension had everything running nice and smooth again.
New SwissStop brake blocks were also fitted front & rear and then the bars were rotated slightly and the brifters repositioned as I've not been entirely happy with the position since I fitted new bars a couple of years ago. I still need to give it a test ride to confirm the new position before replacing the tape.
Then on top of that three of my other bikes were treated to a clean & lube of the chains.

 

[Jenkins]

To show the difference the new chain & chainring make, here's the before and after shots showing the lack of engagement on the old parts...

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Put some air in the tyres

 

[si_c]

To show the difference the new chain & chainring make, here's the before and after shots showing the lack of engagement on the old parts...
View attachment 646026

View attachment 646027

Looks nicer to me with the silvered chainrings too.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Several days of fettling last week:

Firstly I had a go at the Kingpin. Shortly after getting it I discovered that the front hub had probably never been serviced. What little grease was in there was like glue and pretty much the whole bearing track on the cones was pitted. At the time I just regreased to keep them going but recently I took a punt on the cones from a hollow axle conversion kit being a decent enough match to work. The cones are ideal but unfortunately I hadn't banked on the original axles being a smaller diameter than the 9mm standard. I had a suitable axle and the fork dropouts needed some filing to make it fit. After an adjustment to the rear hub as well the bike felt smoother to ride on a short test and I look forward to trying something a bit longer in the near future.

Next up was @gavgav's Genesis which I had in for a service. As suspected, the chain was worn and a new cassette was also wanted as it had been marginal last service. Front brake pads were replaced last time and still have plenty of life left but the rears were nearly worn out so some new ones went in. The front hub looked almost as though it had only been serviced last week so I just rebuilt it with fresh grease. The rear hub though wasn't as good with the drive side being the colour of congealed blood. The winter has not been kind to it and there is damage from water ingress. Rebuilt with new balls and grease I'm confident it'll go to the next service at least, but in the slightly longer term I think it'll be needing a new hub not simply the cones.

I put in new gear cables and after adjustment everything worked beautifully on the stand, however on a road test there was an odd creaking noise that I traced back to the beginnings of chain-suck on the small chainring so it'll need a new one of those as well (on order).

With Gav's on hold I turned my attention to my brother's bike. This had a very small pit on the rear non-drive cone at the last service and I've been meaning to fit a replacement. I actually ordered an axle assembly which made for a very easy swap and it runs as smoothly as a brand new hub again. Hopefully I can get Doug out to do some test miles on it fairly soon.

For what it's worth; I couldn't find a complete axle or the drive-side cone in stock for this Shimano Deore T610 hub. After much research, the axle parts from the Deore M590 are a match even though they don't all appear on Shimano's interchangeability listing.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

To show the difference the new chain & chainring make, here's the before and after shots showing the lack of engagement on the old parts...
View attachment 646026

View attachment 646027

Now there’s a long valve stem

 

[Jenkins]

Looks nicer to me with the silvered chainrings too.

Spa Cycles own brand - now fitted to three of the bikes with a fourth one to be converted later in the year.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I became aware of some serious rattling in the way back from work. On arrival at the apart ment this was quickly isolated as a bolt coming loose on one of the mudguards. I tightened this and also gave all the others a twist, just to make sure...