What Have You Fettled Today?

[Gunk]

With so much time being absorbed on the Brompton project, other jobs had been put on the back burner. My motorcycle desperately needed a good clean and the chain degreased and re-waxed, so I put the sounds on in the garage (an old iPod nano docked into a 15 year old Sony midi hifi system, perfect for the garage) and set to it.

The problem with bikes is the dirt gets into every nook and cranny, but some G101 and plenty of elbow grease had it coming up like new.

I then degreased the chain and waxed it, it’s not immaculate, but for a 9 year old 30,000 mile bike, it’s pretty good (And this is just with detergent and water, I don‘t use any silicon dressing products, I’m not a fan)

 

[Gunk]

Last job of day now the Brompton project is nearly over was to sort out my cramped workshop. chucked a load of rubbish away and cleaned all my greasy tools, the bench and vice, all ready for the next project!

 

[Jenkins]

As we've not had the grotty weather of earlier in the year I've not needed to do any fettling for some time, so today was catch up time.
In order of work done...
Van Nicholas: chain cleaned & lubed, frame & wheels cleaned, cranks removed and bottom bracket checked for tightness (all good) as there's been a little bit of a creak in recent weeks.
Spa Elan: chain cleaned & lubed, frame & wheels cleaned
Ribble ebike: chain cleaned & lubed, frame & wheels cleaned
Bootzipper 29er: chain cleaned & lubed, frame & wheels cleaned
Giant flatbar: chain cleaned & lubed, frame & wheels cleaned. This bike had a major creak on Saturday's ride and the source became immediatly obvious when doing the chain - the crank arms had a couple of mm of movement despite being properly tightened. The bottom bracket was also correctly tightened, but the drive side showed signs of water ingress and was as rough as a dead SRAM GXP unit can be (NDS was fine) so the spare Praxis M24 was swapped in.
Pickenflick: chain cleaned & lubed, frame & wheels cleaned. The rear disk brake has been making strange noises & juddering for some time, so the rotor & pads were swapped out for new items.

 

[Tom B]

With the first born taking a shine to his bike, I have given it a coat of looking at.

Now he has got the hang of the brakes and modulating the brake as opposed to grabbing it has hard as he can, i've trimmed out most of the slack and lubed up the cables which I think need replacing.

The bike is a Frog 48 which I bought suspiciously cheaply though it has had a few knocks in its life. The seller said it had been fitted with a new chain and free wheel. I think it has been left out at some point in the rain at some point leading to that need, there is rust in the screw heads typical of what you see when they have been left with water in them and the tyres while not cracking have the feel of tyres that have seen a lot of sun/weather.

Rotating the pedals showed a tight spot on the crank. Squirting GT85 into the BB was met with an outpouring of rusty GT85 on the other side. The tight spot has eased and i've trickled in some oil, but a new BB is on the cards. There is a tiny bit of movement in the bearings.
One of the push on grips has also gone loose and appears to have been previously glued on with snot, so I need to finds some 20mm dia 90mm grips.

I then dug out the kiddie trailer and gave that a bit of a lube - the hitch pin is on the missing list so bodged it up with an old tent peg and went for a spin around the block which turned into an 11 mile ride to the ice-cream place.

That reminded me I need to have a look at the annoying high frequency buzzy resonant rattle coming from my mudguards - for another day.

 

[Jameshow]

Taken apart ridgeback BB as it had 5-6mm play in the chainline!🤔🤣🤔🤣

Had one to fit but it's disappeared over the weekend!

It's a 118mm but no rush as I can use carbon bike over summer.

 

[DCLane]

The Mavic Helium wheelset I bought last week arrived and I took the opportunity to fit a new 8-speed cassette I had in the parts shed. It'll need a new chain anyway soon but the move to an 11-28 cassette from 13-23 necessitates this so I'll get that done as well. The wheelset came with 23mm Schwalbe One tyres which will do for now.

I'm also in the process of removing the old rear wheel's tub from the 1040g hillclimb wheelset as it was worn and had come loose. The front won't need to come off as that's OK. Whilst in the old glue removal stage - - I've swapped the 13g Shimano 105 lockring for a 5g A2Z blue one that'll match the bike which I had. And save 8g in the process; it's for hillclimbing so weight matters

 

[youngoldbloke]

Tweaked the indexing on my Ribble SLe rear mech as I'd begun to experience the start of hesitance and clicking sometimes when shifting. Only a quarter turn and all is smooth and quiet again.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Started my rear tubeless build for my recumbent. Work horse Deore Hub, Kinlin Tl-21 Rim, black anodised stainless steel double butted spokes. Being built traditional 3 cross, did lacing, and taking out the slack this afternoon. Took about an hour. Bringing up to tension, truing, dishing, stress relieving spokes will be tomorrow’s job. Tape, valves, sealant on the way. The tubeless tyres are already here. Looking at tyre rolling resistance, should gain about 1 km/h which will be invaluable on longer audaxes.

 

[Jameshow]

The Mavic Helium wheelset I bought last week arrived and I took the opportunity to fit a new 8-speed cassette I had in the parts shed. It'll need a new chain anyway soon but the move to an 11-28 cassette from 13-23 necessitates this so I'll get that done as well. The wheelset came with 23mm Schwalbe One tyres which will do for now.

I'm also in the process of removing the old rear wheel's tub from the 1040g hillclimb wheelset as it was worn and had come loose. The front won't need to come off as that's OK. Whilst in the old glue removal stage - - I've swapped the 13g Shimano 105 lockring for a 5g A2Z blue one that'll match the bike which I had. And save 8g in the process; it's for hillclimbing so weight matters

What weight are the helium's?
My dura-ace are 1390gms iirc!

 

[Jameshow]

Started my rear tubeless build for my recumbent. Work horse Deore Hub, Kinlin Tl-21 Rim, black anodised stainless steel double butted spokes. Being built traditional 3 cross, did lacing, and taking out the slack this afternoon. Took about an hour. Bringing up to tension, truing, dishing, stress relieving spokes will be tomorrow’s job. Tape, valves, sealant on the way. The tubeless tyres are already here. Looking at tyre rolling resistance, should gain about 1 km/h which will be invaluable on longer audaxes.

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I gave a pair of Ambrosio p20 tubeless wheels/bitex which are a pain to put tyres onto being tlr.
Is it worth going tubeless and can it be done cheaply? Say £50??!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I gave a pair of Ambrosio p20 tubeless wheels/bitex which are a pain to put tyres onto being tlr.
Is it worth going tubeless and can it be done cheaply? Say £50??!

You won’t even get a pair of tubeless tyres for £50

 

[DCLane]

What weight are the helium's?
My dura-ace are 1390gms iirc!

They're 1650g apparently: https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/mavic-helium-gamechanger
For £59 delivered with tyres I'm happy, although only the front skewer is a genuine Mavic one. I'll have a hunt for a matching rear.

The Dura-Ace wheels are lovely, but out of my price range for what will be a very occasional use bike at retro events.

 

[pawl]

With so much time being absorbed on the Brompton project, other jobs had been put on the back burner. My motorcycle desperately needed a good clean and the chain degreased and re-waxed, so I put the sounds on in the garage (an old iPod nano docked into a 15 year old Sony midi hifi system, perfect for the garage) and set to it.

View attachment 692029

The problem with bikes is the dirt gets into every nook and cranny, but some G101 and plenty of elbow grease had it coming up like new.

View attachment 692030

I then degreased the chain and waxed it, it’s not immaculate, but for a 9 year old 30,000 mile bike, it’s pretty good (And this is just with detergent and water, I don‘t use any silicon dressing products, I’m not a fan)

View attachment 692032

Wasn’t it so much easier to clean the chain,Check the rear tyre when motor bikes had centre stands

 

[C R]

Cleaned and oiled the chain and adjusted and greased the pedal bearings on my road bike.

 

[DCLane]

All the glue's off the rear Deerobust hillclimb tub wheel. Now I've got to decide which tub to use, or buy a lighter one to fit instead. Looking at the front I was just hoping to re-glue a section but may simply remove the glue on that one as well, taping them both.

Also, I've had a pair of Vision mini TT bars since 2019 - originally purchased to use for PBP in 2019 I added them to the Ridgeback Platinum today in preparation for a 619km audax on Saturday-Sunday. It necessitated moving some things around on the handlebars, but hopefully it'll all be OK. New rear brake pads on the Ridgeback as well; I'd chanced it on the 400km event I rode three weeks ago and they're down to the metal.

Edit to the above; it's also had a new chain today since the old one was almost at the .75 limit. Hopefully it'll be OK with a used cassette.

Oh, and my Raleigh Pioneer now has a set of Shimano A530 flat/SPD pedals after my son pinched them in September. He owes me £25.