What Have You Fettled Today?

[sevenfourate]

Machined a Stainless steel linkage axle, end bolt, and the corresponding washers for both sides - for a full suspension MTB for the good guys at my LBS: and because it was Fubar’d and unobtainable……

 

[rogerzilla]

A fork turned up to suit the Gillott frame (I hope). Extended the fork threads, recut the crown race seat, and realigned the blades. The fork has a crazy short offset of about 28mm (43mm being normal for a road bike) but the head angle of the frame is equally crazy steep at 76° or 77°, so they should work together. Ron Cooper must have made it for a trackie who wanted a road bike. I anticipate monstrous toe overlap but I'm used to that as I do ride track bikes on the road.

It will actually have a SA hub but these track wheels (tubs!) are the right spacing to see how it sits. The fork gives an exactly level top tube when allowing for the headset bottom race.

 

[sevenfourate]

Pre Dunwich Dynamo check, tighten, lube, inflate, dry-fit underseat bag, charge lights. **Remember I’ve done 2000 miles on this bike this year - all without a spare-link in my tool kit 🤦‍♂️ (Now sorted).

Alot of you guys regularly ride 100+ miles. Bit of a milestone here. I’m super excited and can’t wait for Gun the tomorrow night……👌

 

[rogerzilla]

In 2012 I took my filthy 26" wheeled commuting bike and just pumped up the tyres ( Marathon Plus!).

I've never actually had a mechanical on the DD, even the time I rode with latex tubes and put 185psi in the rear tyre (because they lose about 5psi/hr)

 

[C R]

Installed a new hollowtech bottom bracket in my road bike. Happy to report that I didn't need to use a chisel.

 

[ColinJ]

I worked on 2 neglected cheapo folding bikes off eBay for my niece and her boyfriend.

One tube wouldn't hold air. It turned out that it was so badly split that my attempts at a repair didn't hold so I replaced it with one of the 2 spares that I had bought.

The bikes had been left outdoors so there was a fair amount of rust. The chain on one looked completely wrecked but to my amazement there was only one stiff link. I lubed both chains, left the oil to soak in, and later wiped them down to mop up the surplus. I managed to free the stiff link and the chain moved freely.

I adjusted all 4 v-brakes. They are pretty good now.

I checked the gears, which once again surprised me by working pretty well.

The cups in all the hubs are pitted so I made do with just cleaning and regreasing the hubs. The wheels are true and spin okay, but they rumble.

A few other bits and pieces too...

The owners understand that the bikes are pretty low quality but they will do for shortish slow rides on the local bike paths. If they get the taste for cycling I said that I would be happy to advise them if/when they choose to upgrade!

 

[Punkawallah]

Sort of a ‘gateway drug dealer’, then?

 

[DCLane]

New Hutchinson Fusion 5 tyres on the Parcours wheels for the NeilPryde, because they're the only tyres we've found that fit OK. Also, new Bontrager R1 Hard Case Lite tyres on the Raleigh SP 653.

I've started dismantling the 1948 Claud Butler I picked up last week, but that'll be a longer and slower job over the next few weeks (probably months).

 

[sevenfourate]

Pre Dunwich Dynamo check, tighten, lube, inflate, dry-fit underseat bag, charge lights. **Remember I’ve done 2000 miles on this bike this year - all without a spare-link in my tool kit 🤦‍♂️ (Now sorted).

Alot of you guys regularly ride 100+ miles. Bit of a milestone here. I’m super excited and can’t wait for Gun the tomorrow night……👌

View attachment 816064

More than one person ‘questioned’ me taking this bike on the Dynamo last night. I’m not entirely sure if they were questioning the quality overall; or the flat-bar style ? But to report back - it was flat out, faultless awesome.

While around me we had: one puncture on a bald’ish tyre, one old chain which broke (And a user who had no 10s spare links 🤦‍♂️), one BB which was squeaky as f%#k - and sounded like it wanted to let go at any minute. And one bent / squeaky pedal that my riding buddy from the LBS fixed.

It’s terrifying you’d let yourself turn up for an unsupported 112 mile overnight ride with machine(s) in this state 🤦‍♂️

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

The purple Ribble Hybrid stopped grinding with the recent pedal fettling, but it was still clunking on each pedal revolution. So I did a nut and bolt check. Looks like the crank bolt was slightly loose, so that's been re-torqued. Here's hoping that's resolved the problem. If not, will be back here for round 3.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

More than one person ‘questioned’ me taking this bike on the Dynamo last night. I’m not entirely sure if they were questioning the quality overall; or the flat-bar style ? But to report back - it was flat out, faultless awesome.

While around me we had: one puncture on a bald’ish tyre, one old chain which broke (And a user who had no 10s spare links 🤦‍♂️), one BB which was squeaky as f%#k - and sounded like it wanted to let go at any minute. And one bent / squeaky pedal that my riding buddy from the LBS fixed.

It’s terrifying you’d let yourself turn up for an unsupported 112 mile overnight ride with machine(s) in this state 🤦‍♂️

I never had any doubts in your bike or your ability. I keep my bikes maintained regardless of whether I am using that bike at the moment or not, no doubt most are the same. Of course there will be those who leave everything to the last moment. A few years back we sold my wife`s bike, as it was`nt being used. I used it a few times over the winter, as it had mudguards. Anyway, we advertised it and had someone come to look at it, virtually right away. They bought it, paid the asking price, it was like new, despite being about 10 years old. The reason they wanted a bike in a hurry, the girlfriend was riding some event in Cambridge the next day, a 50 miler I believe. In my mind that bike was sound and had no doubt about the ability. How the girlfriend got on, I have no idea but to leave everything to the last moment, honestly !!

 

[Drago]

First proper ride on the Wibble today. Its a stretch even for me with my orangutan DNA, so flipped the stem for now (an inch higher, a third of an inch further back) but may go slightly shorter if that isn't enough.

The lustrous paint was looking a bit dusty so gave it a wipe with a rag moistened in WD40 (other maintenance sprays are available, but I picked up 10 cans in Tesco when they were 99p each.)

 

[fossyant]

Minor fettle on the commuter. I was getting a tick coming from the BB/pedal area, which cleared when I squirted water on my pedal.

So thorough clean and GT85'ed the SPD's, and for good measure popped the square taper cranks off, loosened and tightened the UN300 (just in case), deep cleaned the chain rings, and re-assembled. I suspect everything had got a bit dry with the dust bowl conditions on the tracks these last few weeks.

No hammers or chisels were used here either.

 

[geocycle]

Cleaned the bike after the Scottish mini tour. Yesterday had been quite sandy so very satisfying cleaning the drive chain and taking the cassette apart.