What Have You Fettled Today?

[ColinJ]

The new gearing on my CAADX took some tweaking to get it to index. I was struggling to get it to work properly up and down the whole cassette on both rings. I finally got it right yesterday by doing the following ...

• I shortened the length of gear cable outer going to the new 'Shadow' rear mech. These mechs have a different action to the older conventional design and they do not need a big loop of cable.
• I took a pair of links out of the chain. I had erred on the side of caution when fitting the new chain, preferring to shorten it if I got it too long, rather than having to try and lengthen it if I made it too short! Once I had the bike on the stand and changed through all the different gears, it became obvious that the chain was slightly long.
• I lightly lubed the gear cable where it went through the 2 lengths of outer.
• I adjusted the b-screw to get the mech as close as possible to the big sprocket, without causing any rumbling.
• I had to finely tweak the inline cable tension adjuster to find a position which worked going up and down the cassette.

The whole business seemed far more tricky than it normally is. I think that I will probably have to adjust the indexing fairly frequently to keep it working properly.

If it makes @I like Skol and @doughnut feel better, I absentmindely adjusted the low-gear endstop when I meant to adjust the b-screw. The result was inevitable ... I overshifted and dumped the chain down the back of the cassette. Fortunately, I was only turning the pedals slowly by hand with the bike on the stand, so I was able to stop the wheel immediately before any damage was done. (Hopefully! I have had spokes break weeks after such an incident in the past, because they had been damaged and I had not spotted that damage.)

 

[andytheflyer]

Yesterday:

Fitted an 11-36 MTB cassette to my CAADX and replaced the little ring with a 34. My bottom gear is now a much more ultra-steep-Calderdale-climbs-friendly 34/36 rather than the old 36/30 - about 27% lower. That required fitting a MTB rear mech (I used a 9-speed medium cage XT mech which is moved just the right distance per click by 10 speed Shimano STI shifters) and a new chain.

View attachment 97560

Spooky. Don't recognise the wall but that looks just like my Defy rear end! Just done almost exactly the same mods. 12-36 9 spd cassette, XT Shadow 9spd mech - but left the triple rings alone (50/38/30). Mech works a treat and there is more take-up yet in the cage - could easily go down to a 28 on the front I reckon.

That gives me a 22" bottom gear. Can't quite climb the side of the house, but it sure feels like it. It may be slow at that gear but at least my knees are not complaining.

Should be able to get up the Old Horseshoe Pass now.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Rubbing compound and polish on the paintwork of the Raleigh Sports and the Schwinn Impact, followed by wash and wax. Different saddle for the Raleigh while its original Brooks B-72 is in rehab.

 

[Tin Pot]

Read chapter 7 of Zinns Art of Road Bike Maintenance yesterday.

"Centre-pivot side pull caliper" is no longer an incantation to me.

Today I adjusted my front brake tension.

 

[ColinJ]

The tweaked gears on my CAADX worked really well on the test ride.

The new front disk brake also works much better than the one it replaced. Unfortunately, the brake causes juddering when braking hard. I'm going to try to reduce or eliminate that because it is really annoying. Things to check for:

• Headset not tight enough?
• Pads not bedded in properly yet? (I think I did enough hard braking to achieve that, but maybe not.)
• Rotor bolts not tight enough? (A mate bolted it on while I was doing something else, so I should check.)
• Contamination of the rotor or pads. (They are new so they should be ok, but you never know.)
• Calliper alignment.

I put a new Veloce bottom bracket on my Basso. Surprisingly, this one went in fine after greasing the threads. I could not get a lighter, more expensive Centaur BB to go in straight without side-loading the bearings and causing them to bind. The Veloce BB is a heavy-duty sealed unit which seems to be able to cope with the misaligned threads in the BB shell.

Having replaced the BB, I put the old chain back on which I then cleaned and lubed.

I think the chain, cassette and middle ring are sufficiently worn that I might as well now ride them to the point of failure (or annoying sloppiness) since they will all need replacing. Ideally, they would last me through to next spring because this is my main winter bike and I'd rather not expose a new drivetrain to winter road salt and grit.

I put a Planet X saddle on the Basso. It is hard to replicate position between bikes when they have different types of saddle, and this one felt a bit out so I have now tweaked the setup. I have raised the saddle by about 7 mm and brought it forward by about the same distance. I discovered that it wasn't quite on straight so I realigned it to point at the stem.

I will be taking the Crud Road Racer mudguards off my CAAD5 and putting them back on the Basso where they belong. After that, I will put a new cassette and chain on the CAAD5. I'm hoping that the current worn chain has not done too much damage to the chainrings since the chainset was new only about a year ago. I'll have to see if the new chain slips.

Once the mudguards have been removed, I will take the 23C Lithion 2 tyres off and keep them as spares for the Basso. I have some 25C Rubinos which I want to try on the Cannondale but they wouldn't fit under the Cruds.

The Rubinos are red and black so they might look nice with the bike's red paintjob. I want to see how they tyres ride compared to the Lithions. The Rubinos are even cheaper so if they grip and roll well, then they are a real bargain. If not, I will wear them out and never buy them again. I also want to see if I can notice any improvement in comfort. (Not a scientific experiment though, because I will be changing two variables at once - tyre size AND tyre type.)

The freehub problem on the CAAD5 seems lessened since I replaced the pawls spring, but the pawls have failed to engage once or twice since then. I might take another look inside while the cassette is being changed.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Put proper bolts in Raleigh Sports' fender, and replaced the old rear tire, which had a two inch tear in it. I thought for sure I had a broken spoke! Tried to find a rear rack for it, but none have legs long enough. I also put a better rear rack on the Schwinn Impact, and cleaned and relubed the chain and adjusted the brakes. After a long search, I found an Eagle Oiler from the 1960's which oiled the hubs of my fathers Raleigh as well as the Raleigh Sports of mine in these times.

 

[fatjel]

Fitted a new seatpost to the Kaffenback.. I've been using the one off my MTB so needed one.
Is an "Exotic matrix 11" carbon post . Took it for a 20 mile test and felt surprisingly comfortable

 

[Tin Pot]

The tweaked gears on my CAADX worked really well on the test ride.

The new front disk brake also works much better than the one it replaced. Unfortunately, the brake causes juddering when braking hard. I'm going to try to reduce or eliminate that because it is really annoying. Things to check for:

• Headset not tight enough?
• Pads not bedded in properly yet? (I think I did enough hard braking to achieve that, but maybe not.)
• Rotor bolts not tight enough? (A mate bolted it on while I was doing something else, so I should check.)
• Contamination of the rotor or pads. (They are new so they should be ok, but you never know.)
• Calliper alignment.

I put a new Veloce bottom bracket on my Basso. Surprisingly, this one went in fine after greasing the threads. I could not get a lighter, more expensive Centaur BB to go in straight without side-loading the bearings and causing them to bind. The Veloce BB is a heavy-duty sealed unit which seems to be able to cope with the misaligned threads in the BB shell.

Having replaced the BB, I put the old chain back on which I then cleaned and lubed.

I think the chain, cassette and middle ring are sufficiently worn that I might as well now ride them to the point of failure (or annoying sloppiness) since they will all need replacing. Ideally, they would last me through to next spring because this is my main winter bike and I'd rather not expose a new drivetrain to winter road salt and grit.

I put a Planet X saddle on the Basso. It is hard to replicate position between bikes when they have different types of saddle, and this one felt a bit out so I have now tweaked the setup. I have raised the saddle by about 7 mm and brought it forward by about the same distance. I discovered that it wasn't quite on straight so I realigned it to point at the stem.

I will be taking the Crud Road Racer mudguards off my CAAD5 and putting them back on the Basso where they belong. After that, I will put a new cassette and chain on the CAAD5. I'm hoping that the current worn chain has not done too much damage to the chainrings since the chainset was new only about a year ago. I'll have to see if the new chain slips.

Once the mudguards have been removed, I will take the 23C Lithion 2 tyres off and keep them as spares for the Basso. I have some 25C Rubinos which I want to try on the Cannondale but they wouldn't fit under the Cruds.

The Rubinos are red and black so they might look nice with the bike's red paintjob. I want to see how they tyres ride compared to the Lithions. The Rubinos are even cheaper so if they grip and roll well, then they are a real bargain. If not, I will wear them out and never buy them again. I also want to see if I can notice any improvement in comfort. (Not a scientific experiment though, because I will be changing two variables at once - tyre size AND tyre type.)

The freehub problem on the CAAD5 seems lessened since I replaced the pawls spring, but the pawls have failed to engage once or twice since then. I might take another look inside while the cassette is being changed.

I'm trying the Vittoria Rubino as well tomorrow on the rear for the same reasons.

 

[ColinJ]

The headset on the CAADX WAS a bit loose so I tightened that. I also tightened the brake caliper mounting bolts. The rotor bolts were already nice and tight. I did a quick test ride on the bike and there was about a 50% reduction in front brake judder when braking hard. I will see if it improves after the pads have bedded in a bit. At least the judder is bearable now, and the brake is quieter too,

Change of plan for the Basso ... I am buying some used 10 speed shifters from @oldgreyandslow and am going to convert the bike to 10 speed. The old 9 speed parts will be used on a bike for my nephew to use while he works out whether he likes cycling enough to merit a better bike.

The Basso was squeaking on this evening's ride. I previously thought it was the old bottom bracket but it is still happening with a new BB. I now suspect the jockey wheels. I'll take them off to clean and lube them tomorrow.

I put front and rear lights on 2 of my bikes. I don't really like riding in the dark, but they will allow me to go out in the evening while it is still light and just do a few minutes after sunset on the way home. I did that this evening.

 

[Kevoffthetee]

I set about finding a rattle on the front of the defy. I nipped a couple of spokes and checked alignment and all seemed fine. I also put 1/4 turn on the front derrailer as I'm not sure it was set, either that or I'm just not getting on with the ultegras 3/4 shift on the FD with 'a bit extra in case you need it" on the small ring

 

[Tojo]

As per usual I have over the past couple of days sorted out mates indexing problems as they decided to go a bit far in in cleaning their bikes and unbolting things then when they put them back on (haphazardly) , it doesn't work, oops......well it keeps me thinking......

 

[Neiltluck]

After a 30 miler in the sun this morning, I got back and made the obligatory brew.

Then I set to dismantling the bike, decreasing, cleaning, polishing, waxing, reassembling, re-lubing, re-torquing her. Ready for anything now she is.

With several brews/beers/ feeds this process took pretty much all day including the ride.

Absolute bike heaven

 

[Gravity Aided]

Bought a Univega Via Carisma yesterday, Did some cleaning, lubing, and adjusting and, with a different set of wheels the bike was ready to go. Rode it yesterday, and fitted mudguards and leveled the rear rack today. A very quick, practical bike is the Univega, well made and finished.

 

[ColinJ]

Me again ... I don't normally do this amount of bike fettling but I had all 3 of my bikes out of action and then bought another one which needed upgrading so I am in the middle of a bit of a fettle-fest!

Today, I took the Crud Road Racers off my CAAD5 and put them back on my Basso, where they belong. I put them on the Cannondale back in May for a horribly wet Tour de Yorkshire sportive, but my Basso was out of action for months with bottom bracket problems so the best bike became an all-weather bike. Unfortunately, it paid the price! The once pristine transmission got worn out.

Guards being transferred to the Basso meant that I now had clearance to put my new 25C tyres on the CAAD5. While I was at it I also cleaned the wheels and put new tubes in.

I cleaned the rest of the bike, and put a new cassette and chain on. The jockey wheels were gunged up so I took them off and cleaned and lubed them. I'm hoping that the chainrings will be ok with the new chain. I will go for a test ride once the evening traffic has died down a bit.

I finally remembered to put new front brake blocks in. I have been making the old ones last, but I was in danger of one wet ride wearing them out and endangering my front wheel rim. (I wrecked a wheel once when over-worn blocks failed on a long descent!)

I will be upgrading the Basso to 10-speed at a later date, but I'll stick with it as 9-speed for now since it seems to be working ok and I might as well wear out the chain and cassette before scrapping them.

Hopefully, that will be 3 of my 4 bikes back in decent working order.

The last bike on the list is my Rock Lobster MTB. The rear disk brake definitely needs sorting out. The front seems ok.

I can't remember what state the transmission is in, it having been a couple of years since I last rode it. It's possible that might need a good seeing to.

I suspect that the suspension forks will need repressurising since they haven't been pumped up for a long time. PS I just checked and they might be ok. They don't totally collapse when I press down on the bars, but it will take a test ride to be sure. I'll fix the brake first.

 

[Illaveago]

Polished the frame on my Raleigh with some G3 and a wrag.
Replaced 4 rusty chromed drinks bottle screws with some nice stainless ones.
Had a cup of tea.