What Have You Fettled Today?

[Ming the Merciless]

Fitted a new outer chain ring to my recumbent. The chainset is originally from my mtn bike where the outer chain ring would see much less use. So when I replaced the chain two weeks ago I was all set with spare middle and inner rings and a cassette. None of those needed replacing but the outer one did. This caught me off guard as it was only ring I didn’t have a spare of. Originally I tried reusing the chain ring bolts but the star outer bolt had rounded on one. So fitted new bolts as I have a bag of stainless steel spares from Spa anyway. The cranks are 11-12 years old, so doing well.

Spares box now also topped up with a spare outer ring ful for next time.

Going for a test ride after lunch. I’ve been spinning like a dervish in the middle ring. So looking forward to my more usual cadence on the flat / downhills.

 

[avecReynolds531]

Ongoing trouble with a rear wheel moving out of alignment (steel frame/ horizontal dropouts), & advice from forums, meant taking a hacksaw to shorten the fitted spindle ( to 120 mm OLN), filing & cleaning the Gipiemme driveside dropout, and fitting a serrated washer before the spindle spring & nut.
Tomorrow is due to be sunny, so I'll have the chance then to see if there's improvement. Not optimistic, reckoning a better QR spindle will probably be the way....

Seems to be a common problem

Reduced the spring tension on the pedals as a precaution: for the next time the rear wheel tries to move into the left chain stay.

 

[Elybazza61]

Part built gravel front wheel in downtime at work today;Hope RS-4 centre lock on to DT-Swiss GR 531 RIM

Still got to wait for the frame to be built and rear hub and other Hope stuff to arrive so no rush with this

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Ongoing trouble with a rear wheel moving out of alignment (steel frame/ horizontal dropouts), & advice from forums, meant taking a hacksaw to shorten the fitted spindle ( to 120 mm OLN), filing & cleaning the Gipiemme driveside dropout, and fitting a serrated washer before the spindle spring & nut.
Tomorrow is due to be sunny, so I'll have the chance then to see if there's improvement. Not optimistic, reckoning a better QR spindle will probably be the way....

Seems to be a common problem

Reduced the spring tension on the pedals as a precaution: for the next time the rear wheel tries to move into the left chain stay.

On a 1990s tandem the axle ends projected a little beyond the horizontal dropouts. The dropouts of that era being somewhat thinner than these days. I found adding some washers on inside of dropouts and using an internal cam QR sorted it out.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A couple of fettling sessions for me:

Yesterday I got the Raleigh out as I've decided to finally retire the rear tyre. It's a ten year old Marathon and has done somewhere north of 10,000 miles so I think I've had my moneys worth even if there is still a bit of life left. New one fitted on the front and swapped the old front to the back.

I popped a new chain on and with the old one not being excessively worn I hoped the cassette would be alright for a bit longer but unfortunately it was skipping on a short test ride (only on one gear frustratingly). Thankfully Dave Mellor's had the one I wanted in stock and I just had time to get over to them before they closed.

Today I headed over to @gavgav's to fit the new Marathons he's ordered and complete the fitting of the mudguards. The wheels on the new bike are tubeless ready so the tyres were a tighter fit than I'm used to. I don't like using tyre levers for fitting but they did the job. The mudguards work much better with these tyres and I didn't have any trouble getting the front on this time. Getting a satisfactory adjustment was a lot more time consuming though but we finally got there and my new toy (a bolt cropper) made short work of trimming the stays to length.

 

[gavgav]

A couple of fettling sessions for me:

Yesterday I got the Raleigh out as I've decided to finally retire the rear tyre. It's a ten year old Marathon and has done somewhere north of 10,000 miles so I think I've had my moneys worth even if there is still a bit of life left. New one fitted on the front and swapped the old front to the back.

I popped a new chain on and with the old one not being excessively worn I hoped the cassette would be alright for a bit longer but unfortunately it was skipping on a short test ride (only on one gear frustratingly). Thankfully Dave Mellor's had the one I wanted in stock and I just had time to get over to them before they closed.

Today I headed over to @gavgav's to fit the new Marathons he's ordered and complete the fitting of the mudguards. The wheels on the new bike are tubeless ready so the tyres were a tighter fit than I'm used to. I don't like using tyre levers for fitting but they did the job. The mudguards work much better with these tyres and I didn't have any trouble getting the front on this time. Getting a satisfactory adjustment was a lot more time consuming though but we finally got there and my new toy (a bolt cropper) made short work of trimming the stays to length.

Much appreciated work fettling up the new bike

 

[Gunk]

Not much fettling today, just sorting out parts and seeing what's missing for two builds coming up, an Ultegra upgrade for my son's road bike and a turbo trainer build.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Mudguards are back on

 

[fossyant]

New Minion on the rear as I'm doing some pukka off road rather than my lunchtime commute from home to home. The good news is I've doubled my time on the bike this year, hence the wear.

The old tyre can go back on for lunch rides.

Same tyre below, old and new.

 

[Gunk]

Which is which? 🤔

 

[JhnBssll]

Back from holiday this evening, and what better than a fettle after a 405 mile drive

I had a couple of bits turn up while I was away to continue to wrestle some nice full length mudguards on to the ti bike with no mounting points. I got the rear test fitted a few weeks back, which looked like this...

This evening it was time to have a play with the front. I'd ordered a 'mudhugger' model specifically for gravel bikes which straps to the fork leg and decided it warranted closer inspection. A quick test fit suggested it might make an ideal donor mount...

Next out came the hacksaw to chop the shiny metal guard in two... No going back now

I trimmed the plastic guard down so it was long enough for fixings each side of the forks then measured, drilled and riveted the bits together.

Still some trimming to be done but pretty succesful so far!! I've got a couple of stay mounts on the way which should arrive later in the week. Once they're here I'll do a final fit and take her for a test ride

 

[Gunk]

Lovely bit of home engineering there John 👍

 

[Gunk]

Are you going to fabricate a stay to to stop the end flapping Around?

 

[JhnBssll]

Are you going to fabricate a stay to to stop the end flapping Around?

Yes, I've got a few bits on order to experiment with fixing the stays to the fork legs. It won't be ridden with the guards on until the stays are properly attached

 

[JhnBssll]

I've got the turbo bike up on the stand at the moment 😊 It hasn't had a service for a while so figured I'd give it a going over now before I crack on with some winter training - I'm planning on giving Sufferfest a go

I check the chain fairly regularly but this time the 0.5% mark had been reached so I'll pop in to the lbs to pick up a new one in the morning. I didnt think it had been on long, but checking Strava it seems it's done 2000 miles and with almost zero freewheeling on a turbo I guess it isn't bad. I'm glad I checked it before I cleaned the old one, that's saved me a job I'll grab some new inner gear cables too, the shifting has been dodgy recently and I'm hoping fresh inners will cure it.

Next I flipped the stem upside down, hoping it will improve comfort. The SCR is quite a long and low bike which isn't ideal for stationary cycling so I had already fitted a slightly shorter stem which improved things a bit, this should be better still but I can easily flip it back if not.

Since there's going to be a new chain going on I figured I'd give the mechs and chainset a good degrease, they're now nice and shiny again 😄

The brake blocks have got plenty of wear left in them, in fact they're pretty much untouched. Weird

Finally I turned my attention to the Kickr and Climb units, they'd gathered plenty of grease and dust and needed a bit of TLC. All clean again now, and I've degreased the cassette ready for the new chain too 😊

I was careful to spray on to a rag and then wipe it down rather than spraying directly on to the expensive unsealed electronic device

Should be all back up and running tomorrow in time to try Sufferfest out in the evening. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not 🤔