What Have You Fettled Today?

[Andy in Germany]

New bike on the stand, a heavy steel 26" clunker, with plastic brakes. This was in the "ready to sell" bay, which is why I'm checking it.

So far:

Tyres mismatched and one backwards
Rear brake tight on the wheel so wheel can't turn
Cables for F and R brakes rusty,
Rear brake cable frayed inside housing so the brakes can't move.
Lights not working.

 

[Andy in Germany]

You might want to consider something like Jagwire's Slicklube housing. It's essentially a full length run of housing that stops any dirt and debris getting into the cable housing and causing friction. Normally I'd consider it unneccesary but in this case it's probably worth the extra cost if you use the bike daily.

I'll have a look, thanks.

 

[bikingdad90]

Messed around with some crudcatchers mk3’s in an effort to try and get them to work with my wheels. Couldn’t get them to work after 45mins or so of faffing and took them off. Bit annoyed as they said fits up to 38c, so they heck, couldn’t even clear 30c tyres!

 

[HLaB]

A bit of a doh, when it came to fettling today and over the last while from me. My Wahoo TickR started to work intermittently a few weeks ago so I put a new battery all was good for a few rides. But it started to do it again until the last few days when it seemed to die all together. On fiddling with it I noticed that if I pressed its studs together by hand or pulled the studs tight it would work. I at first ordered a new strap but it was the same. So I tried bits of foil underneath and old inner tubes stretched over the top to hold the studs in position. Then doh, in struggling to get an old inner tube on I started pressing more towards the centre of the unit and the lights again came on. I then opened the battery compartment and added a tiny piece of the innertube behind the battery and it seems to have been the problem. When I pushed or pulled the straps it must have been just enough to make the battery compartment tight.

🤞 it stays working and I've not created to much of a gap around the battery compartment load that will let moisture in.

 

[DCBassman]

Another bit of fettling done after the work on the Pine Mountain yesterday was to see what could be done with the Alivio mech currently on the Scott. As I'd had such success overhauling the Sora mech to get the Pine Mountain going, I thought I'd give the Alivio the same treatment.
And it needed it, too. Plainly, I don't do enough of this! Test ride later today, and if still playing up, wil strip the Trek and put its Altus mech on which I know will work. That'll get a good clean too.
The Trek will be reduced to its frame and disposed of, three bikes is too much for what little storage I have.

 

[buzz22]

My latest purchase got a quick clean, new bar tape and new tubes.
I reused one of the tyres already on it (a Maxxis Re fuse 700 x23) and put on another one the same that I had from another bike.
Almost ready to go for it's first proper ride.

 

[avsd]

Fitted new aero bars to Cannondale along with new brake inner & outer cables.

 

[GeekDadZoid]

The Holdsworth got packed away into the folding camper for a trip to the lakes. Will hopefully get a few rides in although they will be short ones.

 

[CXRAndy]

We have a UTV, it has a tipper bed, but isn't kitted out for power lift. To manually lift it, takes a fair bit of strength -more than the wife could ever muster. I didn't want to spend the £1500 for the factory hydraulic lift kit. An alternative was needed, then the simple idea of a gas strut came to me

I needed to work out the lifting forces required to spec which has strut I could order. I'd forgotten the formulas for pivots and fulcrums- thank goodness for Google search.

I needed to find how much force was required to manually lift it. A simple set of weighing scales wedge under the tailgate, lifted with a car Jack gave me the force of 65kgf.

From there just inputting the length of the fulcrum and pivot point. Result I needed 385kgf to lift the tailgate.

I wanted the tailgate to be more than neutral effort, specced a 500kgf gas strut with adjustable pressure.

A few bits of modification, bronzed oil impregnated bushings, nuts n bolts and washers.
Now we have a tailgate that is easy to lift-better phrase rise under its own gas strut power.

500kgf gas strut and fittings
£140 😁

 

[CXRAndy]

Next job. Wiring up 2kW DC to AC inverter

 

[HLaB]

I deflated the tubeless disc wheel and removed the valve core to top it up with sealant. A little old sealant came out so I probably could have left it longer but its topped up now and seems to have re-seated fine with the air tank. I then topped it up to 120psi with the track pump and after a few reassuring pings and a few spins of the wheel to spread the sealant all seems good 🤞 it stays that way.

 

[buzz22]

My 80's Clamont moved into the 90's and got a set of Shimano 105 8 speed brifters that I had spare.

The only slightly challenging part was finding a front derailleur to work with the brifters.
I ended up using a spare Shimano RX100 derailleur from another project which had the shorter arm (between pivot and cable attachment point) and a slightly larger clamp.
I made up a shim from scrap metal which sorted that and it was right to go.

I still love my downtube shifters but as this is my quickest bike it seems fitting to make my gear changes that little bit quicker.

 

[T4tomo]

I arrived home form a weekend away to a set of compact flared gravel bars, brake levers & various cables and will be converting the OH's Gravel bike to dura ace bar end shifters and hopefully comfier bar set up (current ones are odd small diameter things and not very comfy). Hopefully the bar ends are easier to use with an slightly arthritic fingers, which object to changing chain rings. Cheaper than an upgrade to Di2!!

 

[geocycle]

Not directly bike related but discovered how good shaving foam is at cleaning marks out of cloth. Sofa had developed marks where heads were regularly placed and no off the shelf clean product touched it. We tried everything including things like vanish and bespoke fabric cleaners. Mrs G watched some chap on repair shop who cleaned a hat with shaving foam. Hey presto it actually worked! No idea what’s in it but figured it can’t be too bad given it’s main use. Now to search out my old cycling caps!

 

[bikingdad90]

Fitted a 9 speed chain to the kids bike. The new sram 9 speed was a doddle to fit once I worked out the rear mech routing, it’s an Altus mech but there is a metal guard top and bottom between the two jockey wheels with a gap big enough to fit a chain through, that I couldn’t work out for ages if it was through, or under… turned out it was neither it was over and round the outside!!

It was a bugger to break as it had no quick link and was a riveted chain. Had to use some brute force to get it to break open and my chain tool needed some assistance for extra leverage.