What Have You Fettled Today?

[cyberknight]

Long time rider from various clubs who lives in the same village bought his bike around as the shifter plate had fell off on his last ride and hes not mechanically minded so i put it on which was literally a 5 min job but also noticed his brakes which are cable discs didnt have barrel adjusters on so the only way to adjust cable tension was to use the bolt . He did buy it second hand and is a decent bike but its not something i would have missed .

 

[Chief Broom]

Havent fettled much for some time, just basic maintenance but decided today to clean the winter grot off the derailleur Im not a fan of 'if it aint broke' but sometimes its right, I once cleaned a derailleur and managed to shift some grit into the mechanism....so i had a dirty derailleur working perfectly and now i had a shiny clean one that didnt.
Anyhow i was rusty in what goes where but it came back to me pretty quick and soon had a squeaky clean functioning derailleur even after replacing the cable wire after discovering a broken strand.
Made a bit of a mountain out of a mole hill though! im short sighted and have to keep taking my specs of for the fiddly bits so while splashing white spirit in my eye ouch! rummaging and squinting into my drawers of miscellaineous gubbins trying to find a wire crimp thingy but its sorted and i can sleep the sleep of the righteous only cyclists with immaculate derailleurs can!

 

[ColinJ]

I spent the whole 2.5 hours of yesterday's ride and an hour of today's listening to an annoying ticking noise from the right-hand side of the bike.

I was trying to diagnose the noise as I rode along... Chain? Crank? Bottom bracket? Cleat? Pedal?

I was determined to try to sort it out when I got back. Then I looked down and spotted the middle strap of the 3 on my right shoe... It wasn't properly tightened so its loose tab was clipping against the crank as I pedalled! I reached down and tidied the end of it; the noise stopped!!

Another annoying noise from the bike: The glass on my rearview mirror was constantly rattling against its plastic frame. I took the glass out when I got back to ride HQ and squeezed a fold of bread bag plastic into the space behind it, then replaced the glass. Hopefully, that will stop the glass moving on my next ride. If it doesn't, a bit more plastic squeezed in behind it should do the trick.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

Replaced the rear brake cable on my summer bike. I suddenly realised that it was the original that came with the bike and is now coming up for 16 years old. The bike has travelled over 16000 miles in that time. It was an easy job even with internal routing in the top tube. The old cable looked fine but better safe than sorry. I did had a cable break many years ago whilst on the London to Brighton. When you pull the lever and there is nothing there it is no joke. You just pray that the other brake does`nt follow suit until you can get a replacement. I did however, en-route at one of the repair stations. The thought of coming down from Ditchling beacon with one brake filled me with horror. The second time i did the ride I took a spare cable with me in case fate happened again.

 

[Jamieyorky]

Fitted a rear rack to my commuter 👍

 

[TheDoctor]

Pumped up the tyres on three of our e-bikes. Yay me. We then had to undertake Epic Quest of a ride to check my work. This may have involved a 10 mile ride to the pub at the end of my road.

 

[Punkawallah]

Somewhat quirky one. Found my Brooks B17 ‘sagging’, so dug out the spanner to tension. Turns out the bolt had sheared (£9 delivered for a replacement), necessitating a ‘saddle conga’ as the spare had no rails for the under-saddle-bag, and the Selle Royale on the hack did!
Awaiting the replacement end of the week.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

Just fitted a new screen protector on my Lumix camera. Perfect fit. Ordered and delivered from Germany in 8 days. I`ve waited longer for things being delivered within England. I have a theory that sometimes the further the item has to come by post the quicker it arrives. A bit like those that live closer to work, often arrive after those who have travelled the furthest.

 

[ColinJ]

It hadn't occurred to me that the loose rattling mirror that I fixed yesterday was not just irritating because of the noise; I had been putting up with juddering reflections too! I did a rapid descent this afternoon and was actually able to see cars chasing me down the hill. Much better!

My Wahoo Elemnt Bolt bar mount was loose. I tightened that up when I got back from today's ride. (The cable ties that I had used needed pulling tighter but I had trimmed them too short to grip with my fingers. A pair of pliers made the job simple.)

 

[HLaB]

As normal after today's bike ride I cleaned the good bike but the last few rides I've just gave the chain a wipe down and relube with drip wax. I almost could have got away with that again but the chain was making a bit of a skiffing noise towards the end of the ride so I gave the chain and jockeys a bit of a deeper clean to get rid of wax build up. It cleans up well IMO.

Then tonight I examined my commuting rim (Prime) before my next commute, and the wear marker has finally appeared.

I had ordered a new Shimano WH300 with all the talk about the old rim, but it's not arrived yet. So I swapped the Prime wheel out for my old BTwin front wheel. I got away with simply pumping it up. I had thought I might need to downsize the tyre fom 25mm to 23mm to clear the guard but the Decathlon tyre seems OK. The BTwin wheel weighs twice as much but at least I won't be face planting whilst I'm awaiting the shimano rim.

 

[TheDoctor]

The MOT peeps fettled my car, if that counts? Also did the service I forgot to book it in for last year...

 

[DCLane]

The MOT peeps fettled my car, if that counts? Also did the service I forgot to book it in for last year...

Nope - that goes in here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/m-o-t-roulette-place-your-bets.294256/

I've been starting work re-assembling the Peugeot 653 that arrived from @Jameshow at the end of last year. Prior progress has been dismantling and removal of a stuck and obstinate FAG bottom bracket.

The core decision has been around paintwork; there's a load of red oxide zinc paint splodged on the frame all over and I'd need to have the whole frame shot-blasted, then re-painted with new chrome. Sadly it's not worth doing imo but instead I'm going to turn it into a commuter bike for when I don't want to use my Merida Cyclo-Cross. Some of the paint / missing paint will be touched up but it's a full re-paint and chrome needed to do enough and the cost isn't justifiable to me.

And anyway, I commute through the streets of south Leeds: something that looks bad, but isn't, is probably less attractive to a thief / mugger.

So ... I've sourced a better crankset to match the Shimano 600 groupset. That's installed with a new Shimano UN300 bottom bracket, as it was the only one I had which would fit. The most-of-a-bike arrived with only one brake, so I've found a better Shimano 600 pair and they're fitted.

The original Cinelli stem and a pair of Cinelli handlebars I sourced have been metal polished, along with the crankset.

Next up is cleaning and re-installation of the Shimano 600 derailleurs plus wheels / cables / etc.

However, I need to find a 26.8mm seatpost which is my next job before anything else gets done ...