What Have You Fettled Today?

[Shearwater Missile]

Fixed the same puncture twice.
Had a piece of flint put a large cut through the tyre making the hole in the tube easy to find and fix. The first self adhesive patch used (last one from an otherwise empty strip) must have been in the kit for a long while as it lasted for all of a few hundred yards before the glue stopped sticking and the tube went down and needed re-patching using the first from another strip.

The most annoying thing is that the tyre looks like it will need to be replaced - it's only done 75 miles from new as a replacement for one that had almost exactly the same sort of cut. The bulge at the bottom of the cut is where the tube is poking through the carcase so I've deflated it and will have a proper look later tomorrow, but I don't think a tyre boot will help.
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That looks a pretty bad cut. Around here, they are putting a lot of stone chips down, redressing if you like. It makes me uneasy, as 1, all the loose stuff makes it dangerous and 2, some of the sharp bits are liable to go into a tyre. Years ago, on one of my commutes to Felixstowe Rd in Ipswich, Derby Rd had just been dressed. Lunchtime, I always made it a habit of checking my tyres. Sure enough, one tyre was down. It was a small piece from the redressing. Glad I checked it then and not found out when I was about to leave off.
I think you are right, that looks like a new tyre job !

 

[Bristolian]

I've been trying to locate a creak on the non-drive side of the bike for the past few days, which I finally tracked it down to the pedal which had quite a bit of play. Never having serviced an SPD pedal before I went straight to the Park Tool YouTube channel and good old Calvin came to my rescue.

The first task was removing the pedal from the crank and that proved a little tough, resulting on me having to remove the crank are from the bike and applying rather more effort than I felt comfortable with. Anyway, nothing broke or bent so onwards to removing the spindle and bearing. Sure enough, there was quite a bit of play in the bearing and lots of very watery grease in the pedal housing that needed cleaning out. Adjusting the bearings was simple enough and I took Calvin's tip to fill the bottom portion of the housing with fresh grease and let that push the old stuff out.

Once the pedal and crank arm was refitted I gave it a test flight up the road and hey-presto ... silence. Jobs a good 'un

 

[Jenkins]

That looks a pretty bad cut. Around here, they are putting a lot of stone chips down, redressing if you like. It makes me uneasy, as 1, all the loose stuff makes it dangerous and 2, some of the sharp bits are liable to go into a tyre. Years ago, on one of my commutes to Felixstowe Rd in Ipswich, Derby Rd had just been dressed. Lunchtime, I always made it a habit of checking my tyres. Sure enough, one tyre was down. It was a small piece from the redressing. Glad I checked it then and not found out when I was about to leave off.
I think you are right, that looks like a new tyre job !

This was caused by a badly positioned water cannon that was soaking the road and dragging debris off the verge, in this case a thin, flat and sharp flint chip. And as per above it was a new (used) tyre.

Edit - and having just typed that there has just been a popping sound and the tyre has gone flat! Hopefully it's just the patch giving way (that's what you get for keeping stuff unused for years) and at least it waited until I'd got home from a longish test ride.

Further edit - it was the patch giving way so a new tube has been fitted.

 

[Elybazza61]

I think the cut tyre from yesterday is junk if I can get a 5mm Allen key through the hole easily. It's been replaced by an old & worn but undamaged GP4000 I found in bike shed 2.
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While the wheel was out I noticed that the brake pads were more worn than I thought so they've also been replaced.

Tyre boot and loads of rubber glue on the outside and you'll be reeet!

 

[Elybazza61]

Replaced a failing high-voltage power supply on my left Quad ESL.

View attachment 816536

Old one in beeswax to prevent miniature lightning storms!
View attachment 816538

View attachment 816539
New one installed.
View attachment 816537

My brother did the soldering, so I had faith enough to put the back grille back on before testing it.
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Success! We have music again.

Now I feel like a REAL Quad owner, proud to be keeping the faith!

Is the dog checking it's in phase ?

Oh and the amp with the VU meters - Accuphase? Marantz? Luxman? or some other classic Japanese amp.

 

[Drago]

View attachment 816540
Success! We have music again.

Songs From the Wood is a great albun on vinyl. Believe it or not the cover photo is adtually a painting.

 

[Fredo76]

Songs From the Wood is a great albun on vinyl. Believe it or not the cover photo is adtually a painting.

Indeed. It is playing now.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

I've been trying to locate a creak on the non-drive side of the bike for the past few days, which I finally tracked it down to the pedal which had quite a bit of play. Never having serviced an SPD pedal before I went straight to the Park Tool YouTube channel and good old Calvin came to my rescue.

The first task was removing the pedal from the crank and that proved a little tough, resulting on me having to remove the crank are from the bike and applying rather more effort than I felt comfortable with. Anyway, nothing broke or bent so onwards to removing the spindle and bearing. Sure enough, there was quite a bit of play in the bearing and lots of very watery grease in the pedal housing that needed cleaning out. Adjusting the bearings was simple enough and I took Calvin's tip to fill the bottom portion of the housing with fresh grease and let that push the old stuff out.

Once the pedal and crank arm was refitted I gave it a test flight up the road and hey-presto ... silence. Jobs a good 'un

Silence is golden. I think there is a song there somewhere !

 

[pippy]

Songs From the Wood is a great album on vinyl. Believe it or not the cover photo is actually a painting.

Lovely thought I admit, Drago, but alas somewhat of a 'massaging of the facts' which, it seems, was instigated by the puckish humour of the very wonderful Mr. Anderson.

Whilst artwork credits do, indeed, say; "Front cover painting by Jay L. Lee" the reality is that;

"...(The front cover) is a photo on which outlines, lines and contours have simply been drawn with a pen......with paint only occasionally added over the photo (as in the fire). The fact that this is a photo and not a painting is backed up by several other similar photos from the same photo session, some of which were used in the programme for the British tour in 1977..."

I've been a bit of a fan of Tull since their 'Thick as a Brick' days and agree, wholeheartedly, that SFtW is a great album! I must dig it out tomorrow and give it a spin. Unfortunately my own ancient Quad set-up - 33 / 303 / FM3 - is (fittingly; considering this thread) in the 'To Be Fettled' list but the back-up 31-y-o Pioneer amp will still be able to give the old Spendor BC-1's something half-decent to work with!

Philip.

 

[KuroSan]

Drilling holes in Alu tubing for the trailer build and mocking up the axle and wheel layout. All going well i'll be ready for a first road test this weekend!

 

[Elybazza61]

Gave the Stayer OG and the bh's Kona a quick fettle yesterday as we were going to go out today but we overslept a bit this morning so will probably go Sunday now.

 

[All uphill]

A neighbour asked me to give a kids bike a quick once over before it goes to a car boot sale.

The bike looked almost new, probably because the child is growing at an alarming rate.

Anyway there were a couple of minor things and one major problem. The quill stem was loose and wouldn't tighten. Taking it out revealed it to be totally dry with some superficial rust, and wedge rotating with the Allen bolt. A tap with a hammer and a slathering of grease and all was good.

That's a new one on me.

 

[DCLane]

Took the Peugeot 653 out for a short ride to drop off a parcel and lunch. That revealed a few adjustments needed now the build's been done; saddle adjusted, headset tightened a bit, rear wheel trued as it was slightly catching, left-hand shifter raised a few mm.

 

[sevenfourate]

Eventually found some time to get the new Pedals (And pre-swapped out Stainless Steel pins) onto the Skyway 24” Cruiser. The weakest link is no more…….😁

 

[ColinJ]

Not exactly 'fettling', but I use my phone on my bike rides so I will mention the weird problem I just fixed!

My phone battery charge had been getting very low and I couldn't understand why.

At home I charge the phone wirelessly. I noticed that the charge was low so I put it on the charging platform and walked away, hearing the usual charging chiming sound as I did so.

I went back and picked up the phone about 30 minutes later, then went to the shops. Half an hour later I got home and noticed that the charge level was a couple of percent lower than when I had started charging it. Strange!

I did the same thing again, but this time I checked the charge when I took it off the charger. 1 percent lower!

It took me another attempt to notice that although the phone was chiming to indicate a connection to the charger, the charger's charging led was not coming on.

I was thinking that the charger must be broken, but then I noticed that the USB plug on the lead to the charger was about 1 mm short of being fully inserted.

I pushed the plug fully in and tried again. The charger started working!

Either one or more pins in the plug were not making contact at all, or they were making a poor contact which didn't allow enough current in to charge the phone.

So now I will able to stop mid-ride and see if anything has been added to the internet since I set off!