What Have You Fettled Today?

[Ming the Merciless]

Fettled the alignment of the front Dynamo light on my newly built recumbent. The light is German , bolted to the frame, has a strict cutoff to prevent dazzling.

Armed with a multi tool, and head torch I rode down to the local park. The local park is perfect, as it has a narrow path covered in leaves, with no light. It's also pretty quiet this time of night.

The light was angled too low which meant it was only lighting up about 2 metres ahead. I changed the angle so the light now points 10 metres ahead. This is as recommended by the light manufacturer and what the light reflector is designed for.

The back of the light now touches the FD derailleur clamp. So I need to get the extension bracket to move the light forward and up. Otherwise all good and orientation of light will be fine for social ride Wed night.

The twin rear LEDs looked great nice and bright. I didn't turn on the fibre flare as well for this short ride.

 

[Gunk]

Fitted an iPhone mount to my new road bike.

I’ve used these Topeak mounts for a while now and they’re great quality.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I was going to shim the mirrors on the recumbent. But realised they could be attached outboard of the brake lever clamps without interfering with braking or where I hold the bars. The bar tape has thus acted as the shim. Will check alignment with view behind on next ride tomorrow.

 

[Arjimlad]

Put new chains on my Giant Revolt and my son's Subway, but we both had skippy gears so last night he had a new freewheel and I a new cassette. Giant Bristol supplied Sunrace parts, first time I've used those. Had to put the cassette lockring tool in my bench vice, and exert much force on the whip to release my old one.

The new cassette is extremely shiny!

 

[DCBassman]

Some time back, while fiddling with the satellite receiver (faulty), I tried to reconnect the dish with the power on. Scratch one quad LNB.
The other day, I picked up a basic HD Freesat box new for nothing (coupons), so decided I'd better get a new LNB, a whopping £14.99 for a piece if low-noise satcomms gear that, back in my RAF days would have cost probably well into six figures. Such is progress...
I live in a first floor flat, but my dish is close to the walkway, so thought I'd give it a go and see if I could do it without bottling (don't like heights) or having to call in a pro.
Armed with my trusty Bekvam step stool and an 11mm combination spanner, it took me about twenty slow and steady minutes to complete the job, and I confess to being inordinately pleased with myself!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Fitted a couple of water bottle cages to my recumbent. Having seen the crap on the frame from lack of a front mudguard during yesterday's rain. I'm going to fit a front mudguard which needs a stay adapter on the axel. Awaiting front mudguard now.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

Replaced the rear derailleur outer cable as I have been having the odd problem shifting up again recently. Inner was fine as was the outer near the shifters. Hardest part is alignment again, only a road test will prove 100%. Whilst I was doing this Mrs S came in to the garage with a package that had just been delivered, a ha ! my rubber sheet for a mudflap. It is handy having a forward address to the garage !
After the gears aligned I set about measuring and cutting the new flap, attaching it to the existing one. Hopefully it will be long enough to sort out the bit of spray I get on the feet and chain rings. This was made out of 1mm rubber sheet, a bit flexible perhaps but we shall see. I really need some black bolts, don`t I ?

 

[Gunk]

Changed the 12 year old tired Juicy Carbons on my lads Giant Trace Advanced



For a set of SRAM Level TLM’s, big improvement.

 

[keithmac]

Changed the 12 year old tired Juicy Carbons on my lads Giant Trace Advanced

View attachment 494585

For a set of SRAM Level TLM’s, big improvement.

View attachment 494586

View attachment 494587

My lad would be all over that!, is it carbon frame?.

 

[keithmac]

Ducati 999 service and belts today, genuinely shocking how much you have to take off to do a proper service!.

 

[Gunk]

My lad would be all over that!, is it carbon frame?.

It is.

 

[keithmac]

It is.

View attachment 494598

Lovely bike!.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Fettled the mounting of the front Dynamo light on the new recumbent build. See attached photo.

Fitted a Terracycle stub to the light brazing. This is approx 30mm across and has diameter the same as normal sized handlebars. An M5 bolt goes through the light brazing, purple arrow. The brazing is threaded so you need to use an Allen key to turn it. Awkward at first at Allen key handle was hitting front derailleur , but I managed it. You then bolt a cover and hex with a spanner. You then attach the other half of the mount by bolting another cover on end with another M5 bolt, that goes into a thread in the hex, see yellow arrow. The manufacturer assumes the mount will be a certain thickness. Fortunately I had spare longer M5 bolts to cater for a wider light mount brazing on the frame.

I then have a R&M handlebar mount designed for mounting B&M Dynamo lights on a handlebar. I bolted that to the Terracle mount, see blue arrow for arm of this mount . Then the light (green arrow) bolts to the other end (yellow arrow) of this mount.

The result is that the back of the light no longer touches the derailleur clamp. This was a potential point of failure from vibration related contact. Plus I can now also rotate the light alignment properly for the road. I'll check alignment on a ride down the park tomorrow night or Sun night.

With recumbents you don't mount lights on handlebars as it either leads to it just illuminating your legs, or you point it so high it dazzles others and doesn't provide useful light on the road.

Tomorrow front mudguard arrives. The carbon forks don't have a tab for mudguard stay attachment. So initially I just added a mudguard to the rear. But riding in the wet twice this week has revealed the folly of this. I have mud splattered all up the lower side of the frame including a pump mounted there. It would also hit water bottles when mounted under the seat. I've also been getting my splatter on the face and my jacket when riding. So I've found some PDW adapters that go between the QR and fork dropout to provide a mudguard stay bolt mount. So a goodly amount of cleaning tomorrow, then front mudguard on. Clean bike and clean me even in wet weather.

 

[Gunk]

Ducati 999 service and belts today, genuinely shocking how much you have to take off to do a proper service!.

View attachment 494597

Always had a soft spot for the 749/999 any piccies with the clothes on?

 

[iandg]

Recently bought a rack fitting Son rear Dyno light so fitted the carrier and light and wired it all up to the existing front.