What Have You Fettled Today?

[bpsmith]

The Aeronova bars are new - it's the Ergonova bars in the photo from this season that came with the bike. We've got a pair of the stealth version, which aren't covered, and offset the bike well.

Very nice! Lucky lad, good for him!

I have the Stealth Ltd versions on mine. The tops are just so nice looking and very comfortable, so would have been a shame to cover them up.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Not fettled to my usual standard but an emergency, after a frame snap yesterday, transplanted all my gear (less the disc brakes and disc-only front wheel) onto this Giant frame that I picked up for £20 as a "decent but in need of a full service and new headset"

Guess turning my house into a bike shop has its advantages. Though stripping 2 bikes down and a rebuild made for a busy night. It's now most definitely Trigger's Bike as it started out as a Claud Butler but with upgrades from a crashed EBC tourer and butterfly bars, and now a frame transplant. No matter - does the job, and I'll get to see how that £5 headset from eBay fares

It looks very weird from the other side where the mudguard stays are bent out around disc calipers that don't exist on this frameset

 

[si_c]

Not fettled to my usual standard but an emergency, after a frame snap yesterday,

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Not fettled to my usual standard but an emergency, after a frame snap yesterday, transplanted all my gear (less the disc brakes and disc-only front wheel) onto this Giant frame that I picked up for £20 as a "decent but in need of a full service and new headset"

Guess turning my house into a bike shop has its advantages. Though stripping 2 bikes down and a rebuild made for a busy night. It's now most definitely Trigger's Bike as it started out as a Claud Butler but with upgrades from a crashed EBC tourer and butterfly bars, and now a frame transplant. No matter - does the job, and I'll get to see how that £5 headset from eBay fares

It looks very weird from the other side where the mudguard stays are bent out around disc calipers that don't exist on this frameset

View attachment 382246

Thats a lovely looking bitsa.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Thats a lovely looking bitsa.

I'm pleased with it. It actually rides better than the previous incarnation.

Although the geometry is different, the butterfly bars that were ideal on the claud butler frame push me back too far - but I might dig out the drops - it feels that it would take drops nicely

(and open up a world of pain of cantis or trying to combine mini-V's with mudguards)

 

[BalkanExpress]

The standard front chain ring combination of the time, as you say, how did we manage the lumpy bits

We all had bigger legs, or at least bigger muscles. To give the extreme example, When you look at old photos of the pros, yes they are thin but their legs are chunkier than modern riders

 

[bpsmith]

We all had bigger legs, or at least bigger muscles. To give the extreme example, When you look at old photos of the pros, yes they are thin but their legs are chunkier than modern riders

But then they didn’t hit the same level of gradient that the current grand tours expect them to. Time change I guess, according to some of the interviews of recent retirees at least.

 

[carlton88]

My 1988 Shimano AX 600 pedals are still serviceable, but need attention. I fancied a pair of MKS Sylvan and found these adapters which reduce the AX crank thread from 1" to the required 9/16".

A good clean and some fresh grease later.

 

[HLaB]

I finished off cabling the new bars on the tt bike. Im undecided about the brakes it internally routes better treating it as American style (brakes reversed) but will I be OK with that for handling

 

[Deleted member 1258]

A bit of an adventure for me this afternoon, I changed the radiator in the bathroom. The old one was rusty and the paint was lifting so a replacement was on the cards. I'd never changed one before so it was all new to me, the tails confused me at first but once I'd worked out I needed a big allen key to fit internally all was well, I also discovered that PTFE tape is fiddly flaming stuff, the only fly in the ointment was the wall brackets were different, I hadn't planned on changing them but had to as the old ones didn't fit the new radiator. But its done now, its water tight, and has no air in it.

 

[si_c]

A bit of an adventure for me this afternoon, I changed the radiator in the bathroom. The old one was rusty and the paint was lifting so a replacement was on the cards. I'd never changed one before so it was all new to me, the tails confused me at first but once I'd worked out I needed a big allen key to fit internally all was well, I also discovered that PTFE tape is fiddly flaming stuff, the only fly in the ointment was the wall brackets were different, I hadn't planned on changing them but had to as the old ones didn't fit the new radiator. But its done now, its water tight, and has no air in it.

Good on ya, changing old radiators can be a bit of a minefield, it gets particularly bad when swapping an old imperial sized radiator with a new metric sized one. DAMHIKT.

 

[swee'pea99]

We all had bigger legs, or at least bigger muscles. To give the extreme example, When you look at old photos of the pros, yes they are thin but their legs are chunkier than modern riders

 

[swee'pea99]

My 1988 Shimano AX 600 pedals are still serviceable, but need attention. I fancied a pair of MKS Sylvan and found these adapters which reduce the AX crank thread from 1" to the required 9/16".

View attachment 382636

A good clean and some fresh grease later.

View attachment 382638

My God, what an astonishingly immaculate machine...it's like a piece of sculpture!

In fettling news, I fixed an exploded tyre and a rattle on my daughter's friend's bike, and fitted the new u bolt lock I bought to my daughter's. (Does that count as fettling?)

 

[Pale Rider]

My fettle today was an oil change on my Rohloff hub ebike.

I've done a Shimano Alfine hub before, but Herr Rohloff makes things a bit more complicated because you need to put flushing oil in, ride the bike, suck out the oil, then refill with oil from a different plastic pot.

Removing and refitting the drain plug was easy enough, which is just as well since I had to do it several times.

Unlike Shimano, there's no O-ring to perish, I suspect the plug may be slightly tapered.

it's certainly easier to start the thread than on the Shimano, a dab of bike grease held the plug nicely on the end of my allen key.

Strict instructions from the Germans not to overtighten it, the plug needs to stand a bit proud of the hub casing.

The flushed oil I sucked out was suitably gunky, and was about the same volume as I put in.

That's as it should be, the Rohloff is designed to sweat oil over time, and the instructions say it will work fine with no liquid oil inside.

In other words, the oil coats the internals so there isn't meant to be a sump of it sloshing around at the bottom of the casing.

There's also stuff in the instructions about air pressure, and sucking some air out after the final fill.

I did draw the syringe back a bit, but there are limits - the pressure will sort itself out over time even if it hasn't already.

Rohloff specify annual/5,000km oil changes.

I think the first change is worth doing, but I won't worry if I go a bit over time/mileage next time.

As a fellow Rohloff owner, @Littgull may be interested in this post, although I know he's more interested in riding bikes than fettling them.

 

[Littgull]

Many thanks @Pale Rider, that is really helpful. I've done just a shade under 2k miles on my Rohloff geared Thorn since I bought it in June so getting nearer to the first oil change timeline.

You are spot on about my preference for riding rather than fettling but I need to keep a mental note to make sure I get the oil changes done on time. I got the oil and kit at the time of bike purchase so it should be 'all systems go'!