What Have You Fettled Today?

[HLaB]

Doh, I must have ripped off the nose of my left cleat on Thursday night's TT. So the 20.1mph to the cafe could have been faster if it hadn't got interrupted by accidental unclips on bumpy surfaces. I was quite glad we met some mates on gravel bikes, so the cafe to the pub was very sedate. Anyway this afternoon's fettling was changing that cleat.

 

[HLaB]

Oh and another piece of quick fettling. My front tyre was a little soft on the ride, so I quickly pumped it up with the USB pump. I just remembered and put some more sealant in. For a half minute stop on the ride I'll put up with this mess!

Im a bit dubious of Peaty's (I had wanted to buy British, so I tried it) when I use it up I'll put Orange Seal regular in like I have in the rear. It seems to be better.

 

[DCLane]

The Raleigh 653 Special Products somehow had got a damaged rear gear cable, inner and outer, so they were done this afternoon.

I also repaired a damaged and loose lawnmower cable.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Front derailleur high limit screw on wife's bike

 

[EckyH]

Gave the Genesis Volare a bit of a cleansing, waxed it's chain and noticed that the wheels have 36 round spokes and not 32 as I had assumed. No doubt, the drag of the eight additional spokes is the reason why I missed the 43min target for 20km by 13 seconds few weeks ago.

E.

 

[sevenfourate]

Left the bike outside after today’s ride…. and after a change: cleaned and lubricated the drivetrain fully - out in the sun. And cleaned the bike to perfection.

In amongst that and when turning the front wheel I came across a VERY loose spoke. Which of course I then duly tightened.

I also got rid of the wretched Camelbak bottle. That had a ‘Twist lock’ on the spout to open it up - and pretty much meant if you wanted a drink on the go; you either needed to wobble around like an iriot trying to contort yourself. Or take both hands off the bars - one to hold bottle and one to turn the lock. So I decided to go back to a ‘standard’ pull up plunger type bottle - that you operate with your teeth. And more importantly: with only one hand.

*Decision helped by a friend writing off his bike and breaking his shoulder a while ago when he too took both hands off the bars in order to fuel, and promptly hit a large pothole……

Ready for the commute tomorrow 👍

 

[chriswoody]

A friend from work popped round yesterday, the 3 speed hub on his folding bike wasn't working properly and he couldn't change out of first gear. It was a SRAM i motion3 hub, which was the subject of a recall a few years back, essentially someone at SRAM had put the wrong grease in the hub and over time it would go sticky and gum up the internals, especially the coaster brake. There was no guarantee that it was this issue, but we decided to take a look.

We ended up stripping it completely down in order to access the gear selector mechanism at the end of the gear change cable which was completely gummed up and not moving. A quick spritz with degreaser and new grease applied and all was working again as SRAM intended. I love stripping stuff like this apart and seeing the engineering involved.

 

[cyberknight]

fiddling with saddle fit atm as i always feel like i have a nagging pain on the saddle edge and having read that saddle angle could be an issue as i have a charge spoon that is curved your supposed to get the bit in the middle level that you sit on rather than worry about overall as i have been levelling nose to tail for as long as i can remember.
I also moved the saddle forward 5 mm as i always seem to be wanting to sit a bit further forward so we shall see,

 

[ColinJ]

I love stripping stuff like this apart and seeing the engineering involved.

Whenever I try, I somehow end up with a spring, 2 washers, and a strange little metal plate that I forgot to put back in!

 

[cyberknight]

fiddling with saddle fit atm as i always feel like i have a nagging pain on the saddle edge and having read that saddle angle could be an issue as i have a charge spoon that is curved your supposed to get the bit in the middle level that you sit on rather than worry about overall as i have been levelling nose to tail for as long as i can remember.
I also moved the saddle forward 5 mm as i always seem to be wanting to sit a bit further forward so we shall see,

Felt worse tbh

 

[EckyH]

Changed gear on the All City Nature Boy from CX (39:21) to road (42:19), swapped tyres, patched an inner tube and adjusted the rear brake.

E.

 

[EckyH]

Gave the Tokyo Fixed a cleansing, waxed it's chain and wondered.

Wondered about a mystery: The patched inner tube (TPU) from yesterday was lightly inflated and held the pressure for roughly 20 hours. Today I put it on a wheel, inflated it to roughly 500 kPa and after one hour there were only 300kPa or so left.
Out with the inner tube, checked it carefully - including the valve - for leaks under water and found... nothing.
The extensive inspections of the rim and the tyre revealed... nothing.

Now the inner tube (again lightly inflated, but slightly more than yesterday) is under close monitoring beside me for two hours now and doesn't dare to lose air. Yet...

E.

 

[Gunk]

Did some more work on my 1992 Brompton L3, upgraded the grips, levers and shifter with new old stock items. Inner cables were different so fitted a nice set of stainless brake cables. The single pivot calipers are now working perfectly after some careful fiddling and adjustment.

A proper, longer test ride is planned tomorrow afternoon.