What Have You Fettled Today?

[battered]

. I took the handle and lock apart, discovering what had broken was a small lever-type piece of plastic. Lots of heavy, solid steel door handle/lock and it's controlled by a cheap piece of plastic.

There's a good reason for the lock being operated by a plastic lever, it's to stop force attacks. Some locks are steel all the way through, the thief puts a lever (say a metal tube) over the handle and swings on it. Bang go the lock internals, the thief is in. If the handle is sacrificial, this can't happen because the handle simply breaks off before the internals can be damaged. Cue the crappy plastic lever.

 

[DCLane]

There's a good reason for the lock being operated by a plastic lever, it's to stop force attacks. Some locks are steel all the way through, the thief puts a lever (say a metal tube) over the handle and swings on it. Bang go the lock internals, the thief is in. If the handle is sacrificial, this can't happen because the handle simply breaks off before the internals can be damaged. Cue the crappy plastic lever.

Worth knowing that - thanks; this is one of three locks with two top/bottom ones plus an additional locked conservatory door, so should be OK.

Also, it was the internal one that snapped in this case.

 

[Low Gear Guy]

I have installed a pair of Marathon Plus (26 inch) tyres. This was much easier than expected and certainly not as difficult as other tyres I have fitted. Is their reputation undeserved?

 

[DCLane]

Earlier today I nearly damaged my son's Cervelo S3: I was tired from a long work day and his chain, rear mech and hanger had been clipped in last night's 2/3/4 race. The first thing was to change the chain for a new one as it was needed anyway and then tried to re-align the hanger - which turned out to be bent in several directions . Having done that the rear mech wouldn't go in, but with his help and patience we got there. It's now all working fine and ready for this Sunday's Junior CiCLE Classic which he's riding.

After a ride out this evening I finished swapping the rear sprockets on the two grasstrack bikes so they're back as intended. All ready for next Monday's Yorkshire grasstrack championship.

Finally some tyre swaps this evening; two new Pirelli P Zero Velo red tyres on the Veltec Speed wheels which are currently on my Raleigh SP race bike. In a childish way I like the wheels as they've got 'SPEED' printed on them all over

A used GP4000 tyre off the front of the Veltec's went onto the rear of the Dawes Galaxy I'm working on, plus a Rubino onto the front - both replacing Marathon tyres. Also a Selle Italia saddle added to replace the slightly damaged Dawes saddle it had.

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

After transporting yesterday, reattached the front wheel, seat post and handlebars to the Pashley trike.

Swapped saddles from my wife’s former MTB (which is now my son’s) and replaced with a Charge Spoon.
Put the Charge Ladle on my wife’s bike - next job is to convert from drop to flat bar (I now have all the parts).

Replaced the black handlebar grips on my daughter’s MTB with purple ones to match the bottle cage. I want to source some purple flat pedals for her next. Clean the grips I’d removed and set them aside to be used on my wife’s flat bar conversion.

Next job, the conversion check over daughters CX bike for tomorrow night’s race. Then the next job, the conversion of my wife’s bike.

 

[DCLane]

More work on the Dawes Galaxy AL; new RH gear cable inner and outer, plus LH outer. That confirmed what I thought - the LH Claris shifter's broken, despite heavy cleaning, so a Wanted post was put on CC.

Continued cleaning the Raleigh Strada I picked up on Sunday. Now ... what to do next?

Finally, we set up my son's hillclimb bike for a hillclimb up Cragg Vale next Tuesday. It was last used in last October's national hillclimb with a 38T chainring. Cragg Vale doesn't need that so we tried a 44T, but have settled on a 46T with 11-28 cassette - it'll still weigh 5.4kg. A TT bike will work on Cragg Vale but he's decided to go for lightness over aerodynamics, having tried it with a TT bike and his race bike previously.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Some fettling from a few days ago. As has been mentioned elsewhere, @gavgav had a gear cable break recently which made his request for me to do a service rather more urgent.

First job was to get the broken end out which was easier said than done. After trying and failing I came back to it fresh the next day and with the use of a thin screwdriver and my special cable end recovery tool (a small hook made from a paperclip) it came out, which I was quite relieved about as the alternative according to the dealer manual would have involved unwrapping the bar tape then removing and partly dismantling the shifter.

The rest of the service was more straightforward. The rear pads will want replacing before the next service and fortunately it seems that the Shimano pads that Gav already has some spares of are compatible with the TRP Spyre brakes.

Servicing the hubs I found that the front one looked like new but my heart sank on seeing the discoloured grease in the rear. It turned out not to be as bad as it looked though with nicely run in bearing tracks and only needed new balls and fresh grease.

The chain was stretched so I've put on a new one but a test ride showed that it slips very occasionally under heavy load on the smallest sprocket, which is a little disappointing after only 1400 miles. Being so occasional, Gav is going to try it for a bit and see how it goes once the new chain has bedded in. I think there is a good chance it will be alright but I now have a cassette in stock in case I'm wrong.

 

[rogerzilla]

Rebuilt a pair of PD-7810 SPD-SL pedals, probably Shimano's best ever. They are incredibly difficult to adjust as the cone is quite coarsely-threaded. It takes 5 minutes to load the 26 balls and the needle cage bearing, and 20 minutes of faffing to get the preload just right.

 

[cyberknight]

Took the crank arm off to install wavy preload washer the lbs had forgotten and found they had also missed the bearing seal on the drive side

 

[neil_merseyside]

Took the crank arm off to install wavy preload washer the lbs had forgotten and found they had also missed the bearing seal on the drive side

Name and shame, perhaps just the town as they need avoiding.

 

[cyberknight]

Name and shame, perhaps just the town as they need avoiding.

unfortunately i am friends with the owner , its a family member who runs it day to day .

Trouble is i am having trouble actually finding a 30 mm PF30 dust seal

 

[neil_merseyside]

unfortunately i am friends with the owner , its a family member who runs it day to day .

Trouble is i am having trouble actually finding a 30 mm PF30 dust seal

So if they treat a knowledgeable person in a cavalier way then newbies will be lambs to the slaughter, let's hope they only overcharge whilst servicing things badly, rather than doing stuff wrong that's dangerous (or not doing stuff and leaving stuff dangerous).

 

[Punkawallah]

So, replaced brake blocks and cables after the coast to coast (blocks were wrecked) and cleaned the Galaxy down. Tomorrows job is to replace the broken rear spoke (sacken-fracken-Dick-Dastardly).

 

[Chris S]

I dismantled a Sturmey Archer twistgrip shifter. The 'pawl' was a plastic clip that performed an interference fit with two other pieces of plastic. I reckon a sharp shift would break it.

 

[neil_merseyside]

I dismantled a Sturmey Archer twistgrip shifter. The 'pawl' was a plastic clip that performed an interference fit with two other pieces of plastic. I reckon a sharp shift would break it.

Self regulating then? Sharp shift and twist grip not being common bedfellows methinks.