What Have You Fettled Today?

[ColinJ]

Go for it, Colin! Sounds like 'Man v Tyre'

Apparently, I was already playing that game, only I hadn't realised it!

I switched my bikes to 25C tyres a couple of years ago but still had the lightly worn 23Cs that I had been using up to that point. I put one of those on the singlespeed to replace the dodgy 25C. I'll work my way through the remaining stock and then buy more 25Cs.

 

[shirokazan]

Apparently, I was already playing that game, only I hadn't realised it!

It was the use of the phrasal verb "finish off" that made it sound like mortal combat between you and the tyre. :-)

Anyhow, beware of using the term "xxC" with reference to tyre sizes: elsewhere on this forum someone did (correctly) point out that it should be 25mm not 25C as the latter refers to a defunct wheel sizing system. I'm not overly concerned but wouldn't wish you to get flack from other quarters.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Currently fettling my computer, I've upgraded my Lubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04 via a clean install. Now installing software, restoring data from back ups, updating and generally fettling the appearance and settings. One thing to do is get rid of the gnome desktop, its every bit as orrible as I remember it from last time I used it.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

He he, the bane of every cyclist's life. I've had to resort to a new set of pedals to kill off the annoying click from the right pedal - the interaction between the cleat and the pedal being the source of the intractable issue.

Best of luck!

Despite fettling my Eastway to within an inch of its life I haven't completely killed off my creak, I've reduced it almost to silence but not quite, I only hear it when I'm standing on the pedals and honking and it comes and goes.

 

[C R]

Currently fettling my computer, I've upgraded my Lubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04 via a clean install. Now installing software, restoring data from back ups, updating and generally fettling the appearance and settings. One thing to do is get rid of the gnome desktop, its every bit as orrible as I remember it from last time I used it.

There is a special place in hell reserved for gnome and windows developers.

 

[User10119]

There was much barking and laughing out on the street earlier, so I stuck my head out the door to see the cockapoo puppy from a few doors down and the soppy retriever from over the road muppeting about in the road - the puppy had pinched the 'treats bag' from the retriever's owner and was gleefully bouncing around like Tigger - whilst a several of the kids from the neighbourhood were watching, stood around with their bikes. One of them spotted me and was _delighted_ to show off his new-to-him mtb, and his younger brother was equally pleased with his new-to-him hand-me-down. As I was saying hello to puppy and hound there was a slightly plaintive cry for my help from the kid with the new bike as he was upturning his new pride and joy - he'd managed to unship the chain quite spectacularly, and couldn't get it back on. I went to investigate and 5 minutes or so of patience and persistence paid off when I eventually got the bizarre knot he'd somehow introduced, when trying to sort it out, out and got it back on properly.

Then I went and pretend-chased the toddler (who belongs to the same household as the puppy) with my spectacularly gunky oily hands.

And, once I'd washed said hands, texted the mum of the two brothers to suggest that when the EldestCub is home and available next, on a nice sunny day, we need to set up a bit of a bike workshop on the pavement in front of ours and introduce them all to the joys of cleaning your bike and mickle-ing your chain, and get the EC (who is reasonably handy with the spanners when he puts his mind to it, especially since his fortnight of work experience in the LBS) to check over the brakes and the indexing.

 

[Tom B]

Fettling this week

On the hybrid

Finally got around to changing my 50p shaped wheel over. Checked the old tyre over and it seemed okay so I put it on the new wheel. Inflated it and noticed big gash down through the tread and greenguard. Swapped the tyre for a new one.

Changed the chain, cassette and chainrings at the same time as the wheel.

Two days later puncture!

Whiz the bike upside down to take the wheel off without digging out the bikestand, distracted by feeding the baby (and beer) and only get the bike the right way up a couple of hours later. Put it away and get it out for the morning commute 10hours later. End of the street I find I've no brakes as while the bike is upside down the fluid Drains back and they need pumping to get them back! Luckily the street is on an incline and I was only at walking pace.

Went to work on the MTB yesterday as I had a bit of spare time and thought I'd have a 5am crack at one of the busy trails in peace hoping to smash in a good time on strava, but went the wrong way. On the way home I had another visit from the P fairy! Luckily it was quite slow so managed to get almost home before it suddenly went completely flat at some lights. Where a car driver stopped and asked me if I knew I had a puncture.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Rode my Marin to work..new seat needs a few mm tweak as the nose is a bit high,before I ride home

 

[Nyooome-nore]

Rode in to work, finally got the new derailleurs in a near-as-dammit identical position so I'm not aware of it so many teeny, tiny tweaks over the weekend

 

[palinurus]

Did a bit of fettling at the weekend. Some years ago I gave an old Marin MTB to a friend to ride to work, he brought it round because the gears weren't working. New cable and outers fixed it, also had to nip up the cassette as it was wobbling around, adjusted the rear wheel bearings, replaced a brake cable. Rode pretty sweet after but the BB has some play in it so that'll be next. Occurred to me that I need something similar so I can finally learn to wheelie.

Re-taped the bars on the Surly then noticed this morning that I hadn't wrapped around one of the levers very well- will be unravelling and re-ravelling later. Also put a new chain on the 'cross bike and threaded it over that little lug on the rear mech like a total amateur.

 

[Vantage]

Where to begin...

First off I decided that I wanted some padding for my backside as the Cityjets aren't quite as supple as the Voyager Hypers. The stupid indents in my suspension seatpost allow my saddle to be dead flat then straight to -4degree of nose up...waaaaaay too much. I need it at -2.2 degrees. I measured it finally.
Old post back on again as it allows finer adjustment.
Tried several different methods of raising the bars as I'm increasingly suffering from neck and back pain. Settled for my old 90mm stem with 7 degree rise. It's a bit longer than the usual stem but the Spa is shorter than the Vantage was so I might get away with it. I'll find out later.
I wanted to see how the Spa handled fully loaded so I set about moving the mudguard stays to the higher position that Spa supplied on their forks before fitting the front rack.
Having shortened and bent angles into the stays to get them to fit in their new position I set about fitting the rack. It doesn't fit. The p clips I have for it overlap the mounts by quite a bit. Maybe an idea will spring into my mind later but for now, it looks like I'll be saving for a new rack in the future.

 

[JhnBssll]

Bit of security fettling this evening - I've fitted 3 new anchors in addition to the 3 I already had. The original blue anchors are Sold Secure Bicycle Silver but the new bigger ones are Sold Secure Bicycle Gold. I guess by fitting both I've gone Platinum I've also had a friend round to upgrade my home alarm system, it's now all remote controlled via an app and links in to my CCTV, very swish! It's been extended to the garage now so the bikes are now covered by both alarm and CCTV This means my old home alarm panel, internal sounder and keypad are all available if anyone fancies buying some sensors and hooking it up in their garage, it was fully functional when removed 2 weeks ago It's a Pyronix Euro Mini panel.

Here are the anchors and chains for the Roubaix and Stumpjumper, all epoxied and bolted in to the blockwork:

And here's the other wall, empty at the moment since the Aria broke but soon to be filled by the Oltre XR3

And here are my current bicycles all lined up outside so they didn't get covered in brick dust while I was drilling the holes

That patio could do with a clean, might have to get the pressure washer out at the weekend

Here's the old alarm panel in case anyone wants it:

 

[ColinJ]

The outer and inner rings looked like they might have some significant use left in them so I cleaned them and am fairly sure that they will last the life of the new chain. The new big and little rings will go in my spares drawer for this year. The middle ring is the one that I use the most and that is well-worn, so that IS going to be replaced.

I have done a few rides on the bike since fettling its transmission. The old little ring did work ok, but I could hear a slight ticking from it which contrasted to the silence of the bike when on the middle or big rings. I decided to stop being so tight and scrapped it. The new little ring is as silent in operation as the other 2 rings. I've put the old ring in the recycling box to avoid the temptation to reuse it in the future. (I don't know if the council will recycle it. It is aluminium so they should do, but their machines might not cope.)

 

[J_H1026]

Refitted the shifter to junction box cables on my Di2. I hadn't left enough slack at the shifter (because I didn't read the instructions) which meant that for the final 5 miles on my commute to work I was stuck in a particularly unhelpful gear. I then made the same mistake again at work when I quickly reattached the wire which meant that for the last 10 miles of my commute home, I was similarly inconvenienced. I've also found out I'm rubbish at bar tape.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Fitted a new FWE bell (piddly little thing with a decent ding) but...no fitting instructions! What's the world coming to?