What Have You Fettled Today?

[Ming the Merciless]

Yesterday: A service of the hubs on the Raleigh as I realised I'd not done a service yet on these wheels since fitting them at the end of 2021. All is good though.

Unfortunately, during the service I noticed that the rear tyre has a cut in it which extends into the sidewall - bin fodder after only 140 miles, which I'm not happy about. Today's job therefore was to swap that pair of tyres for some Vittoria Voyager Hypers I still had lurking about. I'm thinking that I'll run those until they are worn out then get a new tyre to replace the damaged Goodyear.

Reminds me I ought to replace rear hub bearings and grease.

 

[bruce1530]

Today I put the winter bike away until later in the year, and got the summer bike out. Checked it over, gave it a bit of a service, marvelled at how fast and light it seemed compared to the clunky old winter bike.

Actually, they're the same bike, I just took the mudguards off.....

 

[screenman]

Converted the hack road bike to tubeless fitting inserts at the same time, it was not that easy if I am being honest.

 

[chriswoody]

Decided to do the 50 hour lower leg service on my RockShox forks. As always the cleaned foam rings were a pain to reinstall, but we got there in the end.

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Today I was meant to replace the hardware on the elderly parental unit's driveway gates so that she can in the future easily open them to access a soon to be erected mobility scooter garage. The bad news on the front was a picking mistake result in the wrong parts arriving on Friday.

So instead of doing that, I've managed to fix up the entire fleet of bikes.

• Ribble CGR: The only bike in the fleet not broken. Gave it a good clean and popped a fresh chain on it. The wax on the current chain was still doing it's job @ 200 km but it was surprisingly grubby. I have four chains so I figure I'll rotate them every ~200-~250 km and that will give me 8,000 to 1,000 km before the slow cooker comes out.
• Trek District: I only picked this up on Saturday. Saturday night I ... for some reason ... attempted to fit a DuoTrap S speed/cadence sensor to it. I had some store credit to spend and nothing else I could see in the shop I fancied. Anyway, fitting that to a hub geared bike was a pain in the proverbial and it looks like I didn't re-position the wheel the same spot spot despite getting the belt tension just so. So today I've learned how to adjust the 'cassette joint' on a Nexus/Alfine hub - which is easy when you know how but not so much when you don't. It transpires that thing has to be bang on for the shifting to work well.
• Specialized Hard Rock: Finally replaced the left shifter so now the front mech can be shifted onto the big ring again! It got a good clean up, degrease and re-lube.
• Ridgeback Adventure 503 CS aka Gas Pipe Hybrid: This has waited 6 weeks for me to have the time to replace the broken spoke and true up the rear wheel. I have to say that was a harder to do than I was expecting. It seems I had a choice between 'true' and 'round' but not both. It didn't help that I rounded out my cheap/old spoke key on one of the spokes that didn't want to budge and it was one of the main culprits letting the side down. So In the end I've 'adjusted' all the other spokes to get something approximating a true round wheel. I may have changed the off-set by a couple of milimetres doing this, so that resulted in re-adjusting the canti brakes again. To finish off, the bike was washed, degreased and relubed.

Subject to giving the Gas Pipe Hybrid a few test rides to see whether that wheel remains serviceable, that's the entire fleet in perfect working order. Save for the B'twin Riverside 120 which is sitting under a cover outside. I think I might have to face facts that it's too far gone and only fit to provide a handful of spares before the rest is consigned to the bin. I'll be thinking on that the next few days and if I do find some time, having a look to see what all the parts I think I need are likely to set me back.

 

[DCLane]

This evening I swapped back the cassettes from my spare TT wheels after today's TT.

Also, having pulled the grasstrack bike out for tomorrow's grasstrack racing the rear on the Fuji Track was moving. Pulling the hub apart the cones were a bit damaged so I've replaced the cones and re-greased the axle with new bearings. It's all a lot better and I hope is OK tomorrow evening.

 

[ColinJ]

I hit a ridiculously huge pothole hidden in a flooded Devon lane on Friday and got an instant front wheel puncture. That is 2 years on the trot that I have made the mistake of thinking that riding slowly through a brown swamp makes it safe. Not when the holes are 15 cm deep and have sharp edges!

I flagged down all the drivers approaching while I was putting my spare tube in. Some diverted when I told them how deep the holes on both sides of the road were. Others thanked me and drove through very slowly. Even so, the vehicles were juddering and clunking. One local said that he witnessed another driver try to go through at full speed that morning and wreck a front wheel! Apparently, the road has been like that for weeks due to a blocked drain.

A young female cyclist came along and I warned her that there was only a very narrow strip of tarmac in the centre of the road, with big holes either side. She aimed for the middle but did exactly what I'd done - slipped off into the depths, came to a dead stop, and toppled sideways. At least she didn't get a flat tyre and she wasn't hurt.

Anyway... fettling! When I got back I repaired the original tube. It had a vicious snakebite puncture. I wasn't happy with how long the 'bites' were but gave the repair a go anyway. I let the glue dry and then swapped the repaired tube back onto the wheel. I wanted to be sure that the repair would hold, rather than keeping the tube as a spare and discovering later that it didn't. And, sure enough, it did NOT hold! The tyre went flat very quickly. The patch had been stuck down adequately but one of the 'bites' had continued to rip open under pressure and had torn the patch too. Not worth messing about further, so the tube was scrapped after only 6 hours of use. I ordered 2 more spares which came today!

I have switched over to 32C tyres for my Devon bike. I had been running them at 4.5 bar F and 5.0 bar R for comfort but have now gone up to 5.2 bar F and 5.5 bar R for a bit more protection. The tyres are still pretty comfy and roll better. I may even add another 0.2-0.3 bar for tomorrow's ride to see how I get on.

More fettling... The bike has been making ticking noises which annoyed me. I decided that the cassette lock ring probably needed tightening. I also wanted to check and clean the cassette so I ordered a chain whip and cassette tool yesterday on overnight delivery which arrived this afternoon. I took the rear wheel into the garden and sorted it out in the sunshine. The cassette was filthy so I scrubbed that. The freehub too. I greased everywhere that looked like it needed it and put it all back together. The bike is now tick-free!

I also adjusted the rear derailleur and endstops. The 11-speed bike had become a 10-speed but has now regained its missing gear! The indexing is now spot on too.

 

[Yearofthegoat]

Gear indexing on a new-to-me old road bike. Tiagra 9 speed. Seems to work fine but I now know I need new chainrings. Just ordered some Stronglights thanks to @ColinJ 's post re his CAAD.

 

[raleighnut]

Ridgeback Adventure 503 CS aka Gas Pipe Hybrid: This has waited 6 weeks for me to have the time to replace the broken spoke and true up the rear wheel. I have to say that was a harder to do than I was expecting. It seems I had a choice between 'true' and 'round' but not both. It didn't help that I rounded out my cheap/old spoke key on one of the spokes that didn't want to budge and it was one of the main culprits letting the side down. So In the end I've 'adjusted' all the other spokes to get something approximating a true round wheel. I may have changed the off-set by a couple of milimetres doing this, so that resulted in re-adjusting the canti brakes again. To finish off, the bike was washed, degreased and relubed.

Funny that, my Ridgeback 'Adventure' hybrid has a Tange CrMo frame................Quality tubing.

An interesting fact, best quality gas specification tubing was originally used as a mark of excellence in advertisements.

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Funny that, my Ridgeback 'Adventure' hybrid has a Tange CrMo frame................Quality tubing.

An interesting fact, best quality gas specification tubing was originally used as a mark of excellence in advertisements.

It is a Tange CrMo but it's still bloomin heavy. It is at least as heavy as the modern Alu framed hybrid and that is hub geared and has a dynamo hub. But, the gear range makes its more useful and it is definitely more versatile. My first 'grown up' bike was a similar Raleigh hybrid with a CrMo frame and I don't recall that one being as heavy despite being similarly equipped.

It certainly rides a lot better now the rider has shed some weight and got some cycling fitness back!

 

[raleighnut]

It is a Tange CrMo but it's still bloomin heavy. It is at least as heavy as the modern Alu framed hybrid and that is hub geared and has a dynamo hub. But, the gear range makes its more useful and it is definitely more versatile. My first 'grown up' bike was a similar Raleigh hybrid with a CrMo frame and I don't recall that one being as heavy despite being similarly equipped.

It certainly rides a lot better now the rider has shed some weight and got some cycling fitness back!

If it has the same crank (Shimano) as mine had that's a real boat anchor with the rivetted on pressed steel sprockets, also the stem/handlebars/seatpost are steel. Mine went through a serious 'weight loss' program with aluminium replacing steel everywhere I could although a Brooks B17n (Narrow) redressed the balance a bit.
Made it into a fast 'flatbar' which I've used as a tourer (good for 100 mile days fully laden) and commuter

 

[raleighnut]

the tent

• raleighnut
• 12 Feb 2015

Here it is with my Topeak #Bikamper tent

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Looks similar:

 

[raleighnut]

Looks similar:

View attachment 731562

Smaller frame than mine but yep V similar, still with the 'boat anchor' crank

 

[DCLane]

Bits and pieces of frames/wheels I needed a vice for and have been waiting at my work until I could combine me having a bit of time and Leeds universities Bike Hub being open. Three successes, one failure:

Frame no. 1: the 1954/5 Carlton Franco-Suisse frameset I picked up from @Jfk262 . I've had this since November, dismantled over Christmas, but it's been at my work waiting for me to get the time to deal with stuck forks/bars. Lots of soaking, plus a big vice, and they came out nicely. I can now get the bike ready for a re-spray.

Wheel no. 1: a Fiamme tubular sprint wheel that had a seized skewer. Came with the Woodrup / Trek / parts load I bought recently. Came apart easily.

Wheel no. 2: a Campag Record freewheel that I use on the Raleigh Pioneer. Yes, I'm using a vintage wheelset on a hybrid but I don't care .The freewheel needed removing as it's wobbly and the hub needs new bearings. Removed, and I'll get a new freewheel plus tidy up the hub with new bearings and grease.

Frame no. 2: The 1956/7 Carlton Catalina (?) frameset that I picked up in December from @Ponterob. It's got a stuck driveside bottom bearing cup. This was the failure; neither use of a vice, nor a special cup removal tool - plus strong man (not me!) - could get it shifted. So it's staying stuck. Still not sure what I'm doing this anyway. Most of the parts that came with the frameset have gone onto the 1982 Raleigh Team I have, so this is spare.