What Have You Fettled Today?

[Heltor Chasca]

A kink in the cable might cause it.

I’m there now. A case of tightening the cable a bit to control the release pressure a bit. It also seems to work better when you are pedalling and there is tension on the chain which controls the down shift some what. All is sweet.

 

[Reynard]

New saddle (Charge Ladle) arrived at lunchtime, so fitted it to the bike. Will need to go for a bimble later to fine-tune the set-up - I've set it up like on the Rouen, which is a good starting point.

Oiling the transmission has improved matters somewhat, but hasn't solved the problems. FD now shifts ok, but the RD still has issues. Sometimes the shifts are smooth, other times it takes a while to make up its mind, and if neither of those, the chain will skip across the cassette, dropping the chain onto a random cog - invariably not the one I wanted.

Worn chain, perhaps? I do have a chain wear tool, I'd better use it to check, I suppose...

 

[TheDoctor]

I've just been washing my Brompton - it's going on holiday soon, and NZ immigration / biosecurity don't like unclean bikes...

 

[Racing roadkill]

I test rode the bike I did the strip and rebuild of at the weekend. The rear brake wasn’t quite right, so I changed the cable for a super stiff PTFE coated cable I bought from Decathlon a year ago, but hadn’t used. Crikey it felt like I’d hit a wall when I pulled the rear brake the first time . It feels like a new bike again, which isn’t bad for less than a hundred quids worth of bits and a couple of grazed knuckles, and a bit of swearing.

 

[keithmac]

I put a road clutch back into the GTO Twin Turbo on Sunday, took 10 hours.

Felt like I'd been beaten up on Monday!.

Needs a bit of spit an polish in the engine bay next..

 

[Reynard]

Oiling the transmission has improved matters somewhat, but hasn't solved the problems. FD now shifts ok, but the RD still has issues. Sometimes the shifts are smooth, other times it takes a while to make up its mind, and if neither of those, the chain will skip across the cassette, dropping the chain onto a random cog - invariably not the one I wanted.

Worn chain, perhaps? I do have a chain wear tool, I'd better use it to check, I suppose...

Nope, not the chain. Back to the drawing board...

Re-tension cable, maybe? What's the best way of doing that on a bike with trigger shifters?

 

[Jenkins]

Nope, not the chain. Back to the drawing board...

Re-tension cable, maybe? What's the best way of doing that on a bike with trigger shifters?

Same as with drop bar shifters.

Click the shifter until the chain should be on the smallest cog and then release the cable from the deraileur. If the chain is on the smallest cog, then tension the cable as best you can by hand and secure to the derailleur - adjust the tension with the barrel adjusters as required.

If the chain is not on the smallest cog, adjust the low setting screw on the derailleur until it drops down to the smallest cog, then tension & adjust as above.

If this doesn't work, get hold of a derailleur hanger tool to check that the hanger is straight then repeat the above. Alternatively. if you don't have a bike stand to do all this on, have a word with the LBS you used to have the pedals removed.

 

[Reynard]

Same as with drop bar shifters.

Click the shifter until the chain should be on the smallest cog and then release the cable from the deraileur. If the chain is on the smallest cog, then tension the cable as best you can by hand and secure to the derailleur - adjust the tension with the barrel adjusters as required.

If the chain is not on the smallest cog, adjust the low setting screw on the derailleur until it drops down to the smallest cog, then tension & adjust as above.

If this doesn't work, get hold of a derailleur hanger tool to check that the hanger is straight then repeat the above. Alternatively. if you don't have a bike stand to do all this on, have a word with the LBS you used to have the pedals removed.

Thanks, I thought as much.

I'll add that to the "to do" list.

 

[keithmac]

I normally select middle sprocket on rear cassette and adjust cable to get the chain bang on centre on the sprocket. Then top and bottom sprockets are set with the limit screws.

If its slow to go "down" the cassette (towards the small or "high" gear) then that will be due to sticking cables, the derailleur spring can't overcome the cable drag as easily as your thumb when going "up" the cassette..

 

[JhnBssll]

Last time this happened to me the mech had excess play and needed replacing. I would whip the chain off and check how much lateral movement there is in the assembly by wiggling the bottom of the cage, it should be fairly solid. Pretty technical I know...

 

[Levo-Lon]

Fitted two fast rolling smart sam lmpac schwalbe tyres to the Ebike.

See if there a bit quieter.. And quicker on the tarmac work run sections

 

[Reynard]

Click the shifter until the chain should be on the smallest cog and then release the cable from the deraileur. If the chain is on the smallest cog, then tension the cable as best you can by hand and secure to the derailleur - adjust the tension with the barrel adjusters as required.

Got the chain onto the smallest cog, and the cable was *really* slack. Well, it was dangling, actually... So re-tensioned the cable and tweaked with the barrel adjuster.

Fingers crossed. Will test-ride tomorrow - I don't fancy being blown over right now.

 

[ColinJ]

Applied some wd40 to the r/h shifter of my 2006 Campag ergo levers. Still silky-smooth shifting.

I got about 10 years use out of my Chorus shifter before it started to lose its 'click'. I watched a video on YouTube which showed how to replace the inexpensive worn-out bits. I followed the instructions in the video and the shifter is working fine again now. I expect it to last me another 10 years!

 

[Racing roadkill]

The front brake on my winter Hybrid / hack felt extremely odd on the ride home on Tuesday, they are full hydraulics, so I thought I’d have a looky see what was what. The pads were absolutely finished, so I hooked out the big box of bike bits, bought in sales etc. but never used, and found some semi metallic pads I’d bought from Decathlon ages ago. They were 5 quid, rather than the 15 quid for the ‘official’ SRAM pads, and they are very good, but they don’t supply a new split pin to secure them, so it’s a good job I didn’t lose the one I had. All I needed was some crap weather to test them out properly we got some. They work brilliantly, and don’t howl when they get wet, unlike the resin / organics that were in before. I’ve also ordered a new Shimano R7000 Groupset ( proper bargain at Merlin cycles at the moment at 30 % off ) which will convert my old Triban 520 to a 540.

 

[keithmac]

Quite a productive day today, fitted back brake pads to my Gtech ebike before work and repaired my air compressor for the princely sum of £15 tonight!.