What Have You Fettled Today?

[Hugh Manatee]

Annual wash day today. The fantastic weather has also made today the day the mudguards come off. I also need to look at (find!) the jockey wheels as the chain seems to be unshipping itself again.

I also have to get the Garmin cadence thing working again. Here are some before pictures:

 

[raleighnut]

Annual wash day today. The fantastic weather has also made today the day the mudguards come off. I also need to look at (find!) the jockey wheels as the chain seems to be unshipping itself again.

I also have to get the Garmin cadence thing working again. Here are some before pictures:

View attachment 346460 View attachment 346461 View attachment 346462

That's proper mucky,

 

[NorthernDave]

Washed and lubed both road bikes, including chain mickling.

Got to say how much easier it is now I've put an outdoor tap in and can use a hosepipe (apologies to our friends in the southeast who are apparently already facing a hosepipe ban after just two sunny days...)

 

[Dogtrousers]

Just a little clean but noticed that the rear gear cable has started to fray under the BB. Hmph. The cables have been there since the bike was new 12,000 km ago.

So I guess I'd better repkace both inners and outers. And that will mean retaping the bars. So I might as well do the brake cables too.

I've also read that apex shifters are very awkward to thread.

 

[gbb]

To try to understand what's happening to me or the bike and stop shimmying everytime I pick up speed on downhills, took the regretful decision to take off my GP4000II front tyre and fit a Schwalbe Blizzard I picked up brand new a couple years ago at a car boot.
It's like taking 3 steps backwards but tyres are the one thing I have changed just before acquiring the seemingly obligatory shimmy every time I ride, so just trying beaded tyres again...just to eliminate possible causes.

 

[stumpy66]

Fitted my warranty replacement PowerTap c1 power meter.

 

[si_c]

Spent a bit of time yesterday in the sun with the Felt trying to get a couple of annoying niggles out of the way. Ended up that all that was needed was a quarter turn of the H screw on the front derailleur.

Spent some time putting the remaining commuter bits on, so pump, saddlebag etc. Seems OK on the ride in this morning, although might need some final adjustments with the saddle as I had to move it back about a half cm to get the bracket in.

 

[redvision95]

Helped a friend out by repairing the front bumper on his MK3 Transit. He had a wall jump out on him from nowhere apparently resulting in a lovely 2 and a half inch crack on the passenger side of the bumper. Removed the hole bumper, Drilled the crack at the end, Got the soldering iron out (only a £7 ebay one!) and stitch welded the back. Filled in the crack on the front of the bumper using cable ties as filling material and left it for a while to cool down, Did the same to the rear of the bumper and refitted the bumper to the van. Nice and sturdy again and only cost £1 to do

Also finally got around to adjusting the rear derailleur on the BSO. It shifts a hell of a lot better now, No more clunking into gear.

 

[simon.r]

Finally got around to cutting the steerer down on my carbon fork, having bought a cheap saw guide some time ago.

One of those jobs I've been putting off for ages in case it went wrong. In the event it took 5 minutes and worked well.

 

[redvision95]

Just quickly fixed a puncture for my clueless neighbor.
Also noticed that his seat was rather low for his height, Adjusted it to him and told him to go around the block.
"I'm loads faster now!"

Decided that I'm going to remove the mudguards and pannier rack off of the BSO tomorrow and store them for my next bike. The BSO doesn't need them really.

 

[redvision95]

Removed the Mudguards and pannier rack. Put them into storage for my next "build".

 

[Vantage]

Again, not strictly fettled today, but it has been fettled this week leading to its finish today...so I think it counts.
I sanded back the paint to the bare metal on my Dawes Vantage forks, primed, 3 coats of black paint and a further coat of clear laquer. I'll probably do a better more labour intensive job of it when I've more time and the wind outside isn't blowing the contents of the spraypaint into my face. Any worse and I could have been Scharzeneggers potbellied double in "Commando".
Fitted the bottom bearing cup with a screwdriver, hammer and 'gentle' persuasion. Swapped over the cantilevers and their Tektro Power Hanger (anyone who has one of these will know what an absolute barsteward they are) and all the other bits and took her for a test ride today.
My theory was that because the Dawes forks have a listed 50mm rake then they should tame the handling of my bike and make it less willing to try fold itself into an origami puzzle when taking bends and corners. T'was only a short ride but it seems to have done the trick!

 

[ColinJ]

I built a singlespeed bike last year, mainly from old parts of mine and a frame/fork donated to me by a pal. I needed a few extra parts and wanted to build the bike for the smallest amount of money possible so I searched eBay and found a no-name headset for it for about £8. That turned out to be a false economy! The cups went in far too easily and it turned out to be impossible to get the headset tight enough and free-turning at the same time. Either it was loose and free-turning, or it was tight and barely turned at all.

I rode the bike through the winter and the tight steering was starting to bug me so that headset had to be taken out.

In the end I bought a Ritchey headset for £15.99 and replaced il cheapo with that today. I don't have a press to put the cups in so I decided to very carefully tap them in. I read what I thought was a useful tip - put the cups in a freezer for an hour before fitting them. The idea is that they shrink ever so slightly and are easier to fit if you can get it done before they warm up again. The cold cups were still a reasonably tight fit but I was able to get them in without having to wallop them. I used a piece of timber to protect them and tapped the back of the timber with a hammer, being careful to knock the cups in straight.

The cups looked like they were fully in but I shone a bright torch at the back of them and could see just a sliver of light beneath them. A firmer tap with the precision fitting tool (hammer!) removed those gaps.

I reassembled the bike and rode it down to my local Lidl to test it. It felt pretty good. It was only a short ride so I will have to do some longer test rides - I want to use that bike on nickyboy's 100 mile ride from Manchester to Llandudno next month and I don't want to risk it letting me down.

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

Getting my CAADX ready for LEJOG next month.

New chain.
Changed the 105 5800 gear cables for a set of the Jagwire sealed jobbies.
Replaced the creaking headset bearings.
Fitted new disc brake pads.
Stripped and regreased the hub bearings.
Trued the wheels.

Got a few weeks to make sure all is well, then good to go.

Graham

 

[Illaveago]

I went out and bought a new chain and a 27.2 mm seat post for my Woodrup

which is a tight fit but went in with some grease and a wiggle. I took the idler/ jockey wheels off of the Campag Gran Sport gave them a clean, greased and refitted.
I fitted my Brooks B17 narrow saddle to the post and fitted it in the frame along with a pair of drop handlebars and tried them out for size. I had to reposition the saddle so that the nose pointed down, but once that was done the bike felt fine. I'll have to try it with pedals and chain another day.