What Have You Fettled Today?

[Ming the Merciless]

Fitted new chain to recumbent. I was going to do it after servicing wheel hubs yesterday, but decided to quit whilst ahead. I have a 50m reel of 9 speed chain I bought in a sale. The recumbent chain is about 3m. I unreel thst amount and thread it big to big through all derailleurs and idlers. Then join the ends temporarily with a hooked bit of wire. The aim is to have the rear derailleur at 45 degrees in this setup. Then I can use my chain tool to pick the two inner plates I want to join with a quick link. Then remove hook and put force on chain to pull chain link into place. Went smoothly. Test ride after cup of tea, and then out for a longer ride.

 

[cyberknight]

cleaned the carbon and commuter then swapped the carbon tyres for some new 28 s as they seem to be the go to size now , the 25s i took off went on the old superstar components wheels i have as spares as they are 14 mm wide rims and the old tyres on them although they had plenty of wear left in them they had hardened and were starting to show signs of the rubber micro splitting so i binned them.

 

[Lostcause]

Today I have mostly been making my rear disc match my front one. I assumed it was centre lock and needed a centre lock disc but it has an adapter so I was able to use a disc I already had, yay 🥳 with that money saving discovery I did buy a Hope lock ring, pointless but it looks proper lol

 

[sevenfourate]

Machined up some Aluminium washers for the Titanium bolts on the female front axle of the BMX………

 

[Binky]

Squirt applied to chain.
Front wheel out and cleaned tiny particles of aluminium from brake pads. I've got Hunt rim brake wheels on(a much cheaper albeit nowhere near good replacement set for the original DT Swiss wheels).
Anyway, find regularly having to do this as get the horrendous screeching when braking which indicates needs doing. Don't know if others with Hunt wheels get this? Brake pads are genuine Shimano.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Today I have mostly been making my rear disc match my front one. I assumed it was centre lock and needed a centre lock disc but it has an adapter so I was able to use a disc I already had, yay 🥳 with that money saving discovery I did buy a Hope lock ring, pointless but it looks proper lol

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Is that a hub geared bike?

 

[All uphill]

A couple of weeks ago I pulled the rd out of the spokes of a bike belonging to a couple of lads. It seemed to work OK, amazingly.

Today they came back with the rd in the spokes again. They said the bike had fallen over while one of them was riding. I told them I could fix it but I'd need to speak with a parent first.

They went up the road and ten minutes later they were cycling again; another neighbour had pulled it roughly straight for them. Apparently I'm rubbish.

 

[Lostcause]

Is that a hub geared bike?

Hi Mr. Merciless, it is a hub geared bike. It’s got a Shimano alfine 8 speed. It’s my first experience of a modernish hub gear and it’s great 👍

 

[ColinJ]

I started wondering whether the pedals themselves might be contributing to the noises? So, I have just cleaned and lubed the (disgracefully mucky!) pedals. I also increased the release tensions a bit. I don't want my feet trapped on the pedals, but I reckon the tensions should still be ok.

I won't respray the shoes until after I ride again because I would like to see if the pedal work helped quieten the squeaks.

I have done a couple of squeak-free rides since then so it seems that pedal neglect was the main issue!

I will go and hunt around in my spares store (boxes of used bike bits!) and see if I can find usable 14 and 15 tooth sprockets. [PS Done. I found a pair that looked marginally better and fitted them. Test ride tomorrow.]

The replacement sprockets did the trick, at least for today's ride which included the climbs that the chain had slipped on before.

I was quite surprised at the improvement because the extra wear on the older sprockets didn't look particularly obvious.

Since then I have found 15 and 16 tooth sprockets in even better condition. The 16 will suit me better than the 14 so I will swap in these sprockets if/when the chain ever slips again.

It is really nice to ride the bike with quiet pedals and chain!

 

[ColinJ]

My 6-speed bike is a DIY effort based on a singlespeed that I put together a few years back. It only has one chainring.

I have been having problems with the chain falling off when riding on bumpy roads and shifting quickly to harder gears. There was nothing to keep the chain on the single ring...

I could have tried using a narrow-wide chainring but the current standard one has plenty of life left in it. I will go narrow-wide next time. Meanwhile, a different solution was needed...

I had an unused Ultegra front derailleur and have just fitted that to act as a chain guide. No cable needed, just an adjustment to one endstop to hold the cage as close to the chain as possible without rubbing when the smallest sprocket is in use

I tested the setup with the bike on my workshop stand. Very sudden gear changes did not cause any problems. I will go for a test ride later to see if it can now cope with Yorkshire's rough road surfaces !

 

[sevenfourate]

Fit an Odyssey Evo 2.5 rear brake they said. Best brake money can buy; and perfect for modern fat tyred riders they said……

New UK made / CNC’d seat clamp went on first. Very happy 🤩

And means a bit more Black gone. And a bit more Silver / Polished / Aluminium added 👍

Polished Evo 2.5 rear brake arrived in today’s post:

BUT: not only was it ridiculously close to my 2.4” wide S&M Speedballs:

Possibly even more worrying: The two halves of the Caliper didn’t even clear themselves. WTF 🤷‍♂️ Man I spaced one off, played about with it, tried some shims. None of it looked right. I decided to carefully remove material off the underside of one arm where it touched……

***Wahoooo ! Some clearance (1).

And then set about changing the tyres. As luckily I had some narrower 2.25 Speedballs ‘In Stock’ 🤣

***Wahoooo ! Some clearance (2).

After faffing with the brake: and going to work to make a nice job of modifying the arm; and then changing the tyres - this has taken quite some time. And patience. Now gonna treat myself to Fish and Chips for not exploding at any point 😁

 

[DCLane]

@sevenfourate - is now not the time to suggest Velo Orange make better brakes?

I've got a pair of their Gran Cru long drop calipers in silver on my audax bike and they are definitely bling.

 

[Gwylan]

@sevenfourate - is now not the time to suggest Velo Orange make better brakes?

I've got a pair of their Gran Cru long drop calipers in silver on my audax bike and they are definitely bling.

Brake envy! Totally off my radar.

 

[HLaB]

I was going to wait until after tomorrow's group ride but I decided today was warm enough to stop my hands from going numb and put the summer Wheels on. It needed me to fill the summer wheels with tubeless sealant and seat them, switch the brake pads (to carbon specific), switch the cassette (I took the opportunity to totally clean it), and clean and wax the chain. Before I did that I cleaned the bike and chain.

 

[EckyH]

The rear inner tube on the Brother Allday still lost air after I applied two patches on two holes caused by a pinch.
Put a new tube in to have the Allday ready to start and tried to figure out where the air leaves the tube. Perhaps I muddled the patches.
Turns out: "All good things are three" - there is a third hole in the tube. Applied the next patch and finally it's airtight again.

E.