What Have You Fettled Today?

[Andy in Germany]

One of today's bikes:

"Hercules" is a maker of solid town bikes, a bit like "Gazelle" in the Netherlands, but being German it just had to be "Hercules". Sometimes I wonder if German companies hire consultants in how to be extremely stereotypical.

This only required a clean and check over before going on sale though, because n an equally stereotypical manner, these bikes are insanely solid. They are built like tanks, with similar weight restrictions.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Oiled chain of my Brommie after a squeaky ride at lunch. Need to tighten a bolt on chain tensioner. Will do that tomorrow

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

Oiled chain of my Brommie after a squeaky ride at lunch. Need to tighten a bolt on chain tensioner. Will do that tomorrow

Are you ever not fettling 😉

 

[ColinJ]

Need to tighten a bolt on chain tensioner. Will do that tomorrow

I did that on my singlespeed bike today. There wasn't any problem riding it but the chain was sagging quite a lot, which didn't seem like a great idea.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Oooo. Have you a picture of the whole bike?

1977 Japanese made Centurion. Salvaged from the scrap heap at a bicycle shop I worked at, its taken a bit to get it like this but it was well worth it, its a beautiful bike to ride. Fast silent and smooth. Makes you wonder why we fuss over the new stuff.

 

[Andy in Germany]

1977 Japanese made Centurion. Salvaged from the scrap heap at a bicycle shop I worked at, its taken a bit to get it like this but it was well worth it, its a beautiful bike to ride. Fast silent and smooth. Makes you wonder why we fuss over the new stuff.

View attachment 682953

My word that's lovely, well done for saving it.

 

[Reynard]

It *is* rather nice, isn't it? Have to admit, I do love 1970s Japanese design. They just seem to hit the right note, be it bikes or watches. Or anything else, for that matter.

 

[Andy in Germany]

It *is* rather nice, isn't it? Have to admit, I do love 1970s Japanese design. They just seem to hit the right note, be it bikes or watches. Or anything else, for that matter.

Agreed, but then my Beautiful Wife is 1970's Japanese design, so I'm biased.

 

[Reynard]

Agreed, but then my Beautiful Wife is 1970's Japanese design, so I'm biased.

Awh.

Remember the parentals having a couple of 1970s Japanese cars BITD (Datsun 180B, Toyota Celica), and they were a cut above the British-made offerings of the time. Everything just... worked.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Awh.

Remember the parentals having a couple of 1970s Japanese cars BITD (Datsun 180B, Toyota Celica), and they were a cut above the British-made offerings of the time. Everything just... worked.

Beautiful Wife's dad drove her mum to hospital in his much-loved Nissan Bluebird, and had a minor prang in the process. Since then he's commemorated her birthday as the day his Bluebird got damaged.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

I have a 66 Honda motorcycle in the garage and it is catastrophically ugly.

But, being a Honda, I know it will work perfectly when I finish painting the little bugger and reassemble it.

I had a 72 Datsun B110 back in college, everything worked really well, right up until it collapsed in the middle... darn roadsalt.

 

[All uphill]

Repaired a p*nct*re suffered by a neighbour despite his bike having Schwalbe Marathons.

The tyre didn't look very worn but came off the rim easily which made me suspicious. They also felt quite supple. Neighbour tells me they are 6 years and 18 000km old.

I've ordered replacements for him.

 

[geocycle]

The Thorn raven which is my do everything bike and as a result gets very messy needed a clean. Ended up stripping it down and deep cleaned everything. Needed a new rear sprocket and chain. I tend to replace as a combo or at least flip the sprocket. Fortunately the chain ring is fine. That should be fine for not her 5000 miles or so!

 

[Andy in Germany]

Bike #1 for today was Mr. Ugly:

After briefly considering scrapping this in the furtherance of aesthetics, I felt guilty and started fixing it. This was scuppered by a wrecked rear hub/axle, so it was still scrapped, but at least for a sensible reason.

Next in the queue was a Peugeot "Liberte". of course. A rather nice design including bosses on the front forks for luggage, and an absolutely ineffective dynamo.

I had an hour left so decided to take on this challenge:

This one didn't have a front wheel so I fidded one with a hub dynamo. Unfortunately it doesn't work; I'll change it on Monday.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Bike #1 for today was Mr. Ugly:

View attachment 683039

After briefly considering scrapping this in the furtherance of aesthetics, I felt guilty and started fixing it. This was scuppered by a wrecked rear hub/axle, so it was still scrapped, but at least for a sensible reason.

Regarding the first bike, what were they thinking wwhen they welded up that frame, I’ve never seen the like.

Nice Peugeot, we don’t get that stuff over here.