What Have You Fettled Today?

[All uphill]

As mentioned elsewhere on CC I've been struggling to resolve the poor shifting on my Spa. Downward shifts are fine, but moving to smaller cogs on the cassette has been very poor. That seemed to me to indicate friction in the gear cable somewhere, so I replaced both outer and inner without improvement.

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that that the 20 year old Deore rd I'm using must have lost its springiness so I ordered a new rd.

Today I found I have a new Shimano cassette so I closely compared it with Shimano cassette on the bike, which is nearly new. It looks like it is also a fake. The ramps and tooth profiles are quite different. New cassette fitted and works fine.

Lesson learned.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

I noticed that my old pair of fingerless gloves had developed a hole, or rather the stitching had come away. These mitts I think came from Lidl or Aldi in possibly 2011 or not long after and cost about a fiver ! So it was a case of needle and cotton to repair them. I am not tight but they do the job so well and usually wear them over a long finger pair. I have had gloves since I bought these and they have not lasted.

 

[Punkawallah]

Spring cleaning day for the Hack.
Stripped down to fork & frame, scrubbed, bearings serviced, chipped paint wire brushed & sanded, rub down with vinegar, undercoat bare metal and used up remaining part spray tins of black.
Callipers & mechs scrubbed and oiled, cables wire-wooled & oiled, damaged outers replaced & oiled, shifters flushed and bars scrubbed.
Re-assembled with the spare wheels, as the day-to-day ones need servicing.

 

[ColinJ]

I noticed that my old pair of fingerless gloves had developed a hole, or rather the stitching had come away. These mitts I think came from Lidl or Aldi in possibly 2011 or not long after and cost about a fiver ! So it was a case of needle and cotton to repair them. I am not tight but they do the job so well and usually wear them over a long finger pair. I have had gloves since I bought these and they have not lasted.

I ought to do that with a couple of old pairs that I have, but sewing is something that I have never done. I'm sure that wouldn't be difficult though. I will have to buy needles etc.

PS Sorted!!

 

[Shearwater Missile]

I ought to do that with a couple of old pairs that I have, but sewing is something that I have never done. I'm sure that wouldn't be difficult though. I will have to buy needles etc.

PS Sorted!!

View attachment 801716

Luckily, sowing is something I have always done, only on a repair basis I must add. I`d watched my dear old mum sow to repair, years ago. Make do and mend. When mum passed away in 2016 I inherited her sowing kit, every colour cotton under the sun.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Adjusted left mirror on recumbent. It had got knocked in car. Reset to give full width of road rear vision again.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Fitted disc rotor to old front road wheel, installed 50mm Schwalbe Century on it, fitted to gravel ebike to see if it reduces harshness of ride a bit (despite the carbon forks).

New Trek suspension fork fitted to ebike, old hybrid saddle fitted to Trek post, to give it a test ride.

Rear 40mm Marathon Supreme pressure reduced to ~52PSI.

Only a 40min test ride, but seemed a bit more comfy.

 

[sevenfourate]

Another day. Another fettle. This one a post-ride fettle from the last couple of rides; and a pre-ride fettle for tomorrows effort. ***Which with the looming fuel / oil price-rise and availability carnage about to strike us (?) - riding to work might soon be an everyday occurrence however….…

Tyre pressures checked: no pump action required = excellent. Crank arm torque (Done with my recently calibrated and sizeable right arm) = all good ✅

So…..drive-chain:

I’ve been using BananaSlips Tungsten All-weather lube (Lower picture - LHS) which is highly rated. And once all drivetrain parts have been cleaned, left to dry and some of this applied and dried - the sound is ‘silent’. Feels great. And it’s slippery-ness is unquestionable - imo.

BUT: I’ve only done 65 miles. And nearing home I could hear how relatively graunchy / gritty it then sounded. The chain / idlers particularly are also Black in colour and very grubby. Whether it’s residue I didn’t / can’t completely get off the drivetrain that’s mixed in with the new lube, or road grime etc that’s mixed in - I can’t tell you. But its longevity appears to be pretty poor.

So - I’ve re-lubed with it again tonight. And putting it away I came across a full one of these in the Stores (Below pic - RHS). Unused ! Gets really good reviews too. And people are talking of easy re-application: after just a wipe of the chain …..and measuring time between re-lubing in the hundreds of miles (?).

I presume if I decide to try the wax I’d be best to remove the chain and strip completely in White Spirit etc. Also cleaning front sprockets and rear gear cluster thoroughly before moving over to a true Wax - on a drive chain that’s probably got remnants of all sorts of ‘Oil’ based products on. **That might be the weekends job so I can give the Weldtite a go……

 

[raleighnut]

Luckily, sowing is something I have always done, only on a repair basis I must add. I`d watched my dear old mum sow to repair, years ago. Make do and mend. When mum passed away in 2016 I inherited her sowing kit, every colour cotton under the sun.

I take you mean sewing unless seeds are required.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

I take you mean sewing unless seeds are required.

Well spotted that man ! Thanks for pointing it out. That explains why I thought `The Great British Sowing Bee` was about planting seeds then.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

They say that things come in three and so they did yesterday. It started with me knocking over half a caffetiere of coffee in the kitchen. What a mess to clear up and it ran everywhere, I found more runs this morning ! Yesterday was an epic day weather wise here in Suffolk and I had been looking forward to a nice warm bike ride. I got all the gear on, got my prescription sunglasses out and as I put them on one arm broke. That was that then and so put another pair on. Out into the garage for the bike, pressed the remote for the garage door and it started to go up, making some strange noises on it`s way. However the door did not stop, it continued and came out of the slots and so I had to stop it manually. So, whilst still in my cycling gear out came the steps and I had the job of re-slotting the roller door in the guides. That was not an easy feat I hasten to add. Once that was achieved I then manually lowered the door until it was down. By this time I had gone off the idea of a ride and as my wife pointed out, not a good idea now as I was quite wound up by it. That was the third thing yesterday and so now we can`t use the garage door unless I hand crank it. The door was never a total success since we had it fitted, very noisy and despite having mods done to it. Last year the door did the same thing, it ripped off the magnetic sensor and it was refitted. This time it stayed in place but for some reason the sensor did`nt pick up on it. Technology eh ? I think I will go back to a manual up and over door.

 

[ColinJ]

I am mid-fettle, but have stopped to have something to eat. This is what I have been doing...

I have been using a games controller mounted in front of my handlebar to control my smart turbo trainer apps. I had stuck a Garmin mounting plate on the bottom of the controller so that I could then attach it to an out-front Garmin mount. Unfortunately, to get the controller far enough from the handlebar I could only stick half of the mount on. As a result, the mount kept coming loose, leaving the controller in danger of falling off!

I got fed up with it and decided to come up with a more permanent bodge solution!

I have now attached the controller to a piece of timber and attached a shelf bracket to the bottom of that. For comfort, I have an adjustable high-rise stem on the turbo bike and that stem conveniently has a lattice design which will allow me to bolt the shelf bracket on. That's a job for later...

State of play so far:

I have made sure that all of the controller's buttons, status leds, and its charging socket are unimpeded.

(I will update this post after the job is finished.)

It is finished.

Obviously, not a beautiful job but I just wanted to get it done ASAP so I could use the turbo trainer tomorrow while watching some of the live coverage of Strade Bianche.

 

[VinSumRox]

Fitted mudguards to OH's new bike. Several hours and much swearing later got it done. For some reason Giant/Liv make it difficult to fit mudguards by the position of the fitment on front fork crown and the downtime. Quite a bit of bodging and drilling required...

 

[HLaB]

Another day. Another fettle. This one a post-ride fettle from the last couple of rides; and a pre-ride fettle for tomorrows effort. ***Which with the looming fuel / oil price-rise and availability carnage about to strike us (?) - riding to work might soon be an everyday occurrence however….…

Tyre pressures checked: no pump action required = excellent. Crank arm torque (Done with my recently calibrated and sizeable right arm) = all good ✅

So…..drive-chain:

I’ve been using BananaSlips Tungsten All-weather lube (Lower picture - LHS) which is highly rated. And once all drivetrain parts have been cleaned, left to dry and some of this applied and dried - the sound is ‘silent’. Feels great. And it’s slippery-ness is unquestionable - imo.

BUT: I’ve only done 65 miles. And nearing home I could hear how relatively graunchy / gritty it then sounded. The chain / idlers particularly are also Black in colour and very grubby. Whether it’s residue I didn’t / can’t completely get off the drivetrain that’s mixed in with the new lube, or road grime etc that’s mixed in - I can’t tell you. But its longevity appears to be pretty poor.

View attachment 801727

So - I’ve re-lubed with it again tonight. And putting it away I came across a full one of these in the Stores (Below pic - RHS). Unused ! Gets really good reviews too. And people are talking of easy re-application: after just a wipe of the chain …..and measuring time between re-lubing in the hundreds of miles (?).

I presume if I decide to try the wax I’d be best to remove the chain and strip completely in White Spirit etc. Also cleaning front sprockets and rear gear cluster thoroughly before moving over to a true Wax - on a drive chain that’s probably got remnants of all sorts of ‘Oil’ based products on. **That might be the weekends job so I can give the Weldtite a go……

View attachment 801728

I like BananaSlip for the longevity I'd get out of components but I switched to Squirt which has a bit better longevity. Sometimes with BananSlip after a wet ride within what seemed like 5mins of finishing a wet ride I'd get brown specs (surface rust). And whilst it was easily cleaned it could be ugly on a ride, particularly if I was drenched before a coffee stop. Or its would start making the noise you describe. With Squirt I get day at least before those specs would appear, weeks in summer and I've usually cleaned the chain before that and I've never had that noise.