What Have You Fettled Today?

[ktmbiker58]

Fettling Mr Evil the MTB today - I use a Garmin Montana 700i GPS unit which not only has 1:25000 OS mapping but also has Garmin InReach functionality. I always ride alone and in a lot of my off-road places there is no mobile signal so being able to message and, in an emergency, action International Rescue to come and collect whats left of me is reassuring for the manageress.

The handlebar mount was always a bit of a nuisance since the U bolt is intended for 31.8mm bars and Mr Evil has 35mm bars so I always had to have the mount off to one side near the levers, however, in a lightbulb moment this morning I found the slotted cutouts in the mount were wide enough for me to bolt it to a pair of the front mounts on the stem, so after locating some longer bolts and a pair of spacers I now have a perfect mounting position.

 

[HLaB]

A bit of an annoying fettle today. I went round one of the blind S bends on the Stevenage cycle path network going slowly and sticking to the left hand side of the path. However, some muppet came round at straight lining through the bends at speed. We avoided each other but he was immediately followed by his mate (also straight lining at speed) and whilst I avoided him also, I was near stationary at that point, and I kicked my front mudguard in keeping balance. The mudguard which has been fine for 5years needed balancing tonight to stop it rubbing.

 

[Webbo2]

On our Wednesday club ride, one rider was walking their bike to meeting place. It turned out their chain had come off and jammed between the cassette and frame. I was able to suggest a remedy to this by taking the wheel and replacing it. The rider then mentioned she couldn’t get bottom gear, clicking up the sprockets this indeed was the case. I then gave the barrel adjuster on the rear mech a couple of twists somehow twisting it the right way on my first attempt. Low and behold all sprockets could accessed.
My fellow club member was very grateful and much impressed as was I because when I do this on my own bikes it usually goes tits up.

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

For the princely sum of £7 (£5 charge + £2 tip”) they fettled the derailleur clutch; removed the derailleur - straightened the hanger, re-fitted hanger and indexed the gears.

That seems incredibly cheap.

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

The Trek District 4's rear dynamo light stopped working, again.
One of the connections had sheared, again.

Cable is run along the underside of the rear mudguard, and then through said mudguard just underneath the light which is fitted to the rear rack.

Sure, this cable routing looks neat and inconspicuous, but mudguards flex.

I had "bodged" it once already and reinforced/supported the cable with a generous length of electrical tape, which seemed to be holding up okay. But when the bike was repaired after it's unfortunate rear-ending by a motorist, my bodge was undone.

This time, I've slightly improved upon the bodge by using a sturdy piece of insulation cut from some RG58 cable which I've sleeved over the dynamo wire. Hopefully that will last more than a couple of months. Dare say I will end up re-running the dynamo cable at some point so it does not circumnavigate the mudguard.

Whilst I was there, I loosened all the cockpit bolts, adjusted the preload on the headset and re-torqued all the cockpit bolts to spec. Hoping that cures an occasional but definite clicking sound that could be heard riding over bumps. My test ride didn't re-produce it, so fingers crossed that's got it.

 

[HLaB]

A bit of train fettling. My headset since a 3.5h drenching the other week has been right juttery. Packed it with grease and put it exactly to torque and it was still juttery. I'm suspecting as the bike was built pre torque wrench, the headset bolt was overtightened at that point and just needed a few more lbs 🤞