What Have You Fettled Today?

[All uphill]

The plan was to swap the drivetrain on my Spa from 46/30 and 40-11 to 42/26 and 36-11 as an experiment to get closer gears and to do 90% of my riding on the bigger wheel.

I had about 90 minutes before other things would take priority. No problem.

Chainrings changed, easy. Interesting that the old one is very worn after 2.5 years and maybe 5000 miles.
Cassette changed, easy.
Oh, the chain is 0.75% lengthened and as floppy as well-cooked spaghetti. Very strange as I keep it clean and it's only done a few hundred miles. No problem I have a spare.
Job done, except for the test ride which I will do later.

Take my old Marin off the wall hanger to find it has a flat. Fix the flat and quickly check the chain. 0.75% worn and floppy.
It's only done 500 miles!

A quick search of my email shows that both chains were bought online last summer and were "genuine Shimano". I don't think so.

So a couple more jobs for the morning.

 

[cyberknight]

recabled the RD on the winter steed as the shifting was off , somehow i managed to get the cable tension spot on without needing to adjust the barrel adjuster .

 

[Ian H]

Yesterday I put a new rim on the rear wheel of the black Hallett. I put new tubeless tape on, cleaned the beads of the tyre (I have new ones but there's plenty of life in the old one), fitted it and seated it with the shock pump. Interestingly, it sealed perfectly without adding more sealant, though I did put a small amount in before final inflation. Then I changed the cassette, fitted the new chain today, and also new blocks on the rear brakes. Road test tomorrow.

 

[cyberknight]

just done the same for the commuter, that did need some tweaking and the rear brake i can naver get to be perfect as its either not powerful enough or rubs ..... tbh i wish i had never bought the damn thing as cable discs suck

 

[Punkawallah]

Cable discs suck? Really? Send them to me, I’ll have them.

 

[ColinJ]

I am very familiar with riding in the original position so I reckon that I will know almost instantly whether the adjusted position feels better. I probably should have ridden the bike first with just the spacer moved rather than making 2 changes at one time but the weather is really bad so I am not riding today.

I will report back after I have ridden in the new position.

I did a 13 km 'singlespeed' ride on the bike today...

• Flat and gradual uphill drags on the hoods, sitting down
• Stiff climbs on the hoods, standing up
• Gradual downhills on the drops, (obviously!) sitting down

My position on the bike definitely felt better, especially on the drops.

I think I will try lowering the saddle slightly now and see what that feels like...

 

[All uphill]

Drivetrain maintenance and changes completed today on my Spa and Marin.

Spa now has 42/26 and 11 - 36, new chain, rear derailleur (Deore) and brake pads.

Marin now has new chain and a proper 9 speed derailleur (Sunrace). I've been using an 8 speed one for a couple of years.

Test rides tomorrow.

 

[ColinJ]

I think I will try lowering the saddle slightly now and see what that feels like...

I just checked its position relative to my CAAD5 (the red bike in my avatar picture) and found that it is already 1.2 cm lower!

The CAAD5's seatpost is corroded stuck so I can't lower that. I might still try lowering the saddle on this bike though. If I do and it doesn't feel better, I will try instead raising it halfway towards the CAAD5 saddle height. It could be that the current height is optimum.

 

[palinurus]

Second in a series of very slow front wheel punctures (I get few punctures, mostly rear). Right next to the last patch. The Schwalbe rim tape seemed to prefer being a bit off-centre so perhaps it was catching the edge of a spoke hole. Swapped it for some Shimano tape.

 

[Gunk]

Straightened the front wheel on my sons Gary Fisher pub bike, the front brakes were rubbing intermittently, also spent a pleasant hour cleaning my motorbike. It needed it!

 

[Punkawallah]

Started to re-build the Dawes frame into a flat bar hybrid, ready to (hopefully) sell. Swapped to the bars, added Weinmann levers and SIS shifters (oooh!), mounted the seat, headset, pedals, found the 26" wheels were too wide and will have to resort to 700's. Then connect cables and test.

 

[Jenkins]

After a bit of a muddy riide on Monday, I decided it was time to scrape the muck from the mudguards on my Spa Elan

 

[ColinJ]

After a bit of a muddy riide on Monday, I decided it was time to scrape the muck from the mudguards on my Spa Elan
View attachment 721517

I neglected to do that once and the muck wore through a tyre on one forum ride! (I had wondered why I was struggling to keep up with the other riders and it turned out to be the friction of tyre-eroding...)

 

[Gwylan]

Spent the evening trying to install the carrier for my new u lock.
The frame is an odd shape without anywhere to use the regular mount.
Used to fit on the rear wheel stay. The new lock is maybe 20mm longer.
But now cannot find a spot where it doesn't catch my foot
This new lock holder just won't fit.

Reduced to using a bungee on the rear pannier.

 

[Jenkins]

I neglected to do that once and the muck wore through a tyre on one forum ride! (I had wondered why I was struggling to keep up with the other riders and it turned out to be the friction of tyre-eroding...)

That lot was despite having run a stick between the tyre & mudguard AND riding through any puddles I could find on the day to try to get rid of the worst of it as it was rubbing.