What Have You Fettled Today?

[Leaway2]

Tufftrax frame, powder coated in gloss black to a very high standard by a local chap.

Can I ask how much it cost to powder coat?

 

[Drago]

£50 notes for plain colours. Its an industrial coaters, but they do a lot of classic car parts etc so know how to take care and achieve a fine finish. You won't get ant fancy candy colours, but if you want white, black, red, blue etc then they're excellent.

I always have black, drop the frame off and tell them no hurry, just chuck it through with the next batch of black, and they turn them round in under a week.

 

[Leaway2]

£50 notes for plain colours. Its an industrial coaters, but they do a lot of classic car parts etc so know how to take care and achieve a fine finish. You won't get ant fancy candy colours, but if you want white, black, red, blue etc then they're excellent.

I always have black, drop the frame off and tell them no hurry, just chuck it through with the next batch of black, and they turn them round in under a week.

Thanks for that. I have an old Dawes that I am thinking of getting done.

 

[Drago]

No worries matey. If you get a good place its well worth the effort.

21 year old frame, cobbled together with bits that have come off of other bikes over the years as I've upgraded them, and it looks like a brand new machine. Thoroughly looking forward to my first spin.

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

Finally finished operation replace cables and brake blocks. As usual it was dogged by not being able to to get the bits, faffing round with multiple websites. Then as usual there were problems with everything being harder than it should be, and taking longer. And as usual I did at least two incredibly stupid things which involved undoing everything and starting over again.

Coming soon, operation replace chain and cassette. Will I have learned my lesson, and get the LBS to do it, or will I embark on another frustrating bodgathon ... ?

This is the technique I use as well. I console myself with the knowledge that the next time I do the job I'll be awesome!

Trouble is, by then I'll have forgotten the mistakes I made previously and make the same balls ups all over again.

It makes me feel better that it's not just me though.

Graham

P.S. When removing your cassette don't forget to wear a full suit of armour. Hopefully this will reduce the subsequent bleeding from your knuckles.

 

[3narf]

I went through my box of bits, and threw out a load of broken plastic pedals, light mounts, computers and bits of used outer cable. Does this count?

 

[Garry A]

Removed the drivetrain from my Defy, cleaned and re-greased/lubed things that needed it then reassembled it all. Cleaned out some crap from the headset.
Good to go for the rest of summer.
Why is it when you start something like this, the wife suddenly realises she has a hundred things to do in the same area?

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I was cleaning my bike this morning, planning to do only the cleaning, and replacing the 2 pairs of brake cables. In a few weeks time I'd planned to do a full brake and gear cable replacement, including replacing the handlebar tape, but it turns out I'll be doing it this weekend instead. I thought I might as well, considering that the bike's front tyre now looks like this:

I don't know how I avoided a puncture. Thank you, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres!
So as well as cleaning the bike and replacing the brake pads, I'll be replacing the brake cables, gear cables, handlebar tape, and now the tyres also. Major fettling!

One part of replacing the cables I always dread is the threading of the gear cables through the STI shifters, because it's almost always very difficult, and I tend to get frustrated, and use some very, very bad words. . I was astonished to find it only took a few minutes per cable, with the help of a pair of tweezers and a torch, and now the cables are threaded on both sides of the bike (here's the left side, below):

These Shimano STI shifters (or brifters, rather, since they're brake and shifter combined) are amazing. Apart from the frame and the handlebars, they're the only original part on this bike, on which I've done approximately 105,000km over 8.5 years. Somehow the brifters still work perfectly, through countless gear changes (I've done a great deal of hill-climbing over those years), and I've never oiled or cleaned them!


I also tested a new bicycle workstand for the first time. I saw this little beauty at a local bike store several months ago, priced at about $120, about half the cost of the one I had, a ParkTools workstand (the blue one in the photo background below) which weighs heaps, takes up too much floor space, and doesn't hold the bikes steady enough. The new one works really well, and weighs a lot less, so I'm happy with it:

Now, I just need to finish the maintenance, cutting new outer cables, threading the inners through them, and of course brake and gear cable, and brake pad, adjustments. I have accumulated a nice bicycle tool collection over the years:

Above, from left to right:

• the old outer cables labelled so I can cut new ones of the same length, because these lengths are perfect for this bicycle.
• new handlebar tape.
• my ParkTools toolbox with heaps of tools in it, some I got with the box, and others added over the years.
• the tools I'm using for this maintenance, such as the tweezers, torch, 4th-hand tool, cable cutters, pliers, multi-tool, Allen keys, and the old brake shoes and pads and new brake pads.

Happy fettling, all!

 

[Drago]

@Shut Up Legs are you not in the UK matey?

 

[Shut Up Legs]

@Shut Up Legs are you not in the UK matey?

The photo timestamps are a bit of a giveaway, aren't they? Yes, I live in Melbourne, Australia.

 

[Drago]

Blimey, all this time and I never twigged! Duh!

On a serious note, its genuinely quite nice how the CC community embraces and brings together riders from across the globe.

 

[Levo-Lon]

New boots and tubes for my girl...pair of mich race sport 3s and tubes from crc for 29quid!!

 

[si_c]

Wiped my chain. Nothing else needed doing.

 

[Drago]

Dug out my BoB trailer and cleaned it up. Gave the fabric carrying thingy a wash.

Can not for the life of me find the mounting Nutz [sic]. Theyre horrifically expensive, so I may make other arrangements.

 

[Vantage]

Made myself a headset removal tool from a seat post.. ..removed the Vantages old headset.
Time to start rebuilding it