What Have You Fettled Today?

[Gunk]

Mines a Brick garage

Single skin?

 

[sevenfourate]

Single skin?

It partly touches / is part of the house. So it’s mostly double skinned. But the parts where doesn’t touch / sticks out from the house (40% ?) are single skin……

 

[Gunk]

We are really lucky ours is all double skin and attached to the house, behind it is the kitchen so I have direct access from the house to the garage which means that the far end works as a utility room.

At our previous house it was a single skin 1920’s garage and it was riddled with condensation, in the end I put in a dehumidifier on a timer and plumbed in the waste outlet

 

[Tom B]

Winterised the bike today, well tonight.

We've had a snifter of snow overnight on Sunday-Monday which is showing no sign of disappearing and every sign of turning into sheet ice for tomorrows 6am commute.
Having been to Cornwall for a week i had a few things to do in the day so ended up fettling the bike in the dark / late evening.

I dug out the spare wheels normally fitted with winter tyres for quick swapping out, only to find and remember one of the winter wheels is on the bike fitted with a normal tyre and what should be the every day wheel has a marathon tyre, a puncture and a broken spoke. Luckily I'd repaired the freehub prior to breaking the spoke and getting the puncture.

The broken spoke is on the drive side, so that can wait, I've cut it off!

Tyre taken off and after a battle I found a spare tube, winter tyre located and found to be missing lots of spikes after I'd used it for a week or two in the summer while desperate for anything with gears beyond 24 neutrals. With the tyre fitted i put the front wheel to the bike and found that the mudguard mount was knackered and catching on tyre so mudguard removed too. (They're always a bit tight on the winter tyres).

Mrs B called it a night and went to bed which allowed me to enter the forbidden land of the sewing box where I know she keeps a collection of small needle nosed pliers. Suitably equipped I set about replacing the studs in the rear tyre. I also found a spoke key in the sewing box, presumably from the last time I raided it for the pliers, win-win. :-)

Rear wheel fitted, new brake pads fitted, rear guard adjusted and chain oiled.

Bed time.

It'll probably be 15ºC and sunny tomorrow!

 

[VinSumRox]

Put GP All Season tyres on the road bike for the rest of winter.

 

[Elybazza61]

All Road is mostly back together as today I put on the new Hope rotors. refitted the cranks, cassette and new chain and shifting well (nice thing about Di2 is not usually needing to re-adjust).
Finished the other small bits and pieces like front mudguard, bottle cages etc; just need to get the pedals on and wait for some ok weather for a shake down ride.
Have left rear GRX calliper on at the moment but still may swap it out for the Ultegra one.

 

[ColinJ]

I was down in my cellar earlier today and spotted an old saddle in a box of bits. It is a Selle Italia model which I used years ago but started to find uncomfortable when I put on nearly 30 kg in weight.

I have lost most of that weight now so I wondered whether the Selle Italia might be more comfortable than the saddle on my turbo trainer bike, which has been causing me numbing problems this winter. I use Planet X saddles on all of my bikes and have no problems with them except on the turbo trainer. I think it is because a saddle moves under me much more on a bike outdoors than it does attached to a bike held rigidly by the turbo trainer.

The saddle was a bit grubby from being stored with odds and sods in a slightly damp environment, but it has cleaned up well. I just put it on the turbo bike and did a very brief spin to get a feel for it; I think that it could be a significant improvement.

The Planet X saddle has a rough texture which grips my shorts and tends to pull on them, which is not a comfortable feeling. The Selle Italia has a smooth surface which my shorts will just slide over.

There are also subtle differences in size and shape between the two saddles. Those differences could feel better or worse on a 60-90 minute turbo session.

I will do a proper test ride on the turbo tomorrow and see how I get on.

 

[Andy in Germany]

On the way home yesterday I glanced at the back light to check all was well, and found that it wasn't.

Tried swearing at it. No change.

So this morning at work I hoiked the bike up in the stand fitted a new light quickly.

Also cleaned it a bit and oiled the chain. For some reason the rear hub is sticking, again so I'll have to take it to bits at some point and rebuild it: this seems to heppen every six months or so and there also seems to be no reason.

 

[ColinJ]

For some reason the rear hub is sticking, again so I'll have to take it to bits at some point and rebuild it: this seems to heppen every six months or so and there also seems to be no reason.

I had that happen when I was overtightening the quick release.

When too tight the wheel would stop rotating in about one revolution if I lifted the back of the bike and gave the wheel a flick.

Using a lower QR tension fixed the problem without the wheel ever slipping in the dropouts.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I had that happen when I was overtightening the quick release.

When too tight the wheel would stop rotating in about one revolution if I lifted the back of the bike and gave the wheel a flick.

Using a lower QR tension fixed the problem without the wheel ever slipping in the dropouts.

The Brompton freehub is very sensitive: if you tighten it enough that the freehub doesnt have any play, then it is effectively a singlespeed fixed gear bike. Even when "correctly" tightened the freewheel will occasionally just go tight and/or loose: I've had to rebuild it about three times so far.

 

[Gunk]

Gave my Brompton a good clean this afternoon, I use it right through the winter so regularly washing the salt off is essential, they can deteriorate really badly if neglected.

 

[geocycle]

Fettled the front v brake on the Thorn. It was sticking on and not releasing properly. Both pillars were seized and were deep cleaned and greased. The cable was also sticky so-replaced that. I found a plastic sleeve had split that I think has come out of the noodle. I tried to salvage bits of it but not all was possible. I’m hoping it’s not that important.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Replaced the chainrings on the tandem.

Took forever; first trying to remove the sleeve insert on the old big chainring behind the crank as I'd completely forgotten I needed to order one and second, setting up the derailleur which seems to need very precise height and angle to work properly.

A test ride once the ice has melted is required next.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Gave my Brompton a good clean this afternoon, I use it right through the winter so regularly washing the salt off is essential, they can deteriorate really badly if neglected.

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I've noticed that too: I've been cleaning mine in the shower for the last few nights. I washed it down with the sprayer at work today, to get all the bits I miss when it's half folded.

 

[ColinJ]

Gave my Brompton a good clean this afternoon, I use it right through the winter so regularly washing the salt off is essential, they can deteriorate really badly if neglected.

True for ANY type of bike...!

I did a pre-Christmas dinner ride once and had to rush back to get washed and changed for the meal so I put cleaning the bike off until Boxing Day. When I looked at the chain the next day, I discovered that it was already heavily rusted. That had taken less than 22 hours due to the amount of salty crap that I had left on the chain overnight!