What Have You Fettled Today?

[Punkawallah]

Swapped freewheels on the Galaxy, as the old one had lost use of the fastest gear. Turns out, so does the replacement. In a fit of pique, I’v adjusted the limiter, and now have a 2x4 gear set up until I can source a new freewheel.

 

[DCLane]

Pulled the NeilPryde Nazaré out of storage, lubricated and checked everything before use tomorrow. I forget how light it is (~7kg) compared to the other road bikes I tend to use in poorer weather. Before putting the bike away last year it received a new chain, inner cables and tyres, so over-winter has been fine.

 

[cyberknight]

sorted out the FD on the cx bike , a good dose of wd 40 sorted it out but the last time i rode it i dont remember it being wet so i dont know why it decided to seize up .

 

[TheDoctor]

Reverted my ebike back to 7 speed gears. I've never managed to get 8 speed or more indexing on that frame.
Fitted the 9 speed to my Ribble instead. Indexing perfectly after 5 minutes...

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I was all set to get out for a ride just after lunch when I had a text from a friend asking for help with a seized pedal on his son's bike. He'd had a go at it himself and had already managed to break two hex tools. I should point out that said friend has spent his career in the motor trade so is no stranger to spannering and has a lot more experience than me in sorting out seized or rusted fixings.

Fortunately the chainset is a SRAM Dub which I've worked on before so it was easy to get the crank arm off and with a bit of strategic application of boiling water and a breaker bar I was able to get the pedal off easier than I thought it was going to and without any further damage. A pub evening is now on the cards as my payment.

 

[DCLane]

Been doing bits and pieces today whilst also tidying the bike parts shed and swapping round the bikes which are stored outside under cover:

The Woodrup had an incorrectly routed rear gear cable, so I corrected that.

The Fuji Track grasstrack bike had a lovely pair of Mavic Ellipse wheels which, given it’s stored outside under cover, I’d prefer were kept in the bike parts shed. So I’ve swapped the tyres and latex tubes for the M-Part track wheelset I picked up last month.

Our wheelbarrow has got rusty and the tyre was flat. It’s received – eventually after effort – a replacement Continental inner tube and I also painted the rust. It looks a lot better. It's got a wheel, so to me that counts .

Finally, the Prime carbon wheelset I bought in January received a pair of Specialized Turbo tyres as announced in the Bargains thread earlier this month, some Specialized Turbo inner tubes and a cassette. They were supposed to have an 11-speed freehub, and “11S” was stated on it, but there was no way I could fit an 11-speed Dura-Ace or SRAM Red cassette so instead an Edco 10-to-11 speed cassette was used.

SWMBO did comment about the number of bikes (there are two elsewhere in storage and a frame elsewhere) and we've agreed I'll try to shift my Dawes Kingpin. It's not getting used and I've a better Kingpin frame in the attic.

 

[Andy in Germany]

The plan was to swap the cassette and chain on my touring bike. Then events took over...

Ordered chain and cassette through work; they arrived last week, so I rode in on Saturday, swearing occasionally at slipping gear.

Drop wheel. Notice tyre is very worn. Swap tyre. Swap tube as well.

Swap cassette and chain. Realise chain wheel is filthy. We have a cleaning station at work so I could clean it. Laziness fights conscience for a few minutes, conscience wins. Remove chain wheel, dismantle and clean.

Notice brake blocks. My goodness but they're worn. Swap brake blocks on the basis the bike is in the stand anyway. Remember the headset is a bit loose so tighten that, after ten minute search for spanners.

Rebuild transmission, test. Gears playing up. Swap cable and sleeve.

No change. Remove mech, check dropper, find a slight bend, so I correct this. Gears still playing up. From experience this happens when the mech gets worn internally. I'd been keeping an STX mech for this eventuality; swap mech. New mech is even worse.

Fortunately I organised the used parts bin last year, and it pays off now. Find a pristine STX shifter I hadn't noticed before. Fit to bike, check gears. Much rejoicing: gears work.

Ride home. Nothing goes wrong; gears go, brakes stop, all good...

 

[EckyH]

Then events took over...

In every small problem there is a big one which want's to come out.

E.

 

[Andy in Germany]

In every small problem there is a big one which want's to come out.

E.

The experience of every bike mechanic.

Also, customers who say "I only need the gears adjusting" then 'remember' that the brakes are sticky, the lights aren't working, and "can you check the pedals..."

 

[Shearwater Missile]

The experience of every bike mechanic.

Also, customers who say "I only need the gears adjusting" then 'remember' that the brakes are sticky, the lights aren't working, and "can you check the pedals..."

It is like the word "just". Can you just to this, can you just do that and whilst you`re at it can you just do that too. That 5 minute job never takes 5 minutes. My wife knows that if I say " I`am just going out to the garage" , I`ll be gone at least half an hour more like three quarters ! Fettling takes time.

 

[Punkawallah]

It is like the word "just". Can you just to this, can you just do that and whilst you`re at it can you just do that too. That 5 minute job never takes 5 minutes. My wife knows that if I say " I`am just going out to the garage" , I`ll be gone at least half an hour more like three quarters ! Fettling takes time.

The two words in the English language that terrify me are ‘just’ and ‘only’. As in ‘it’s just a ten minute job’ and ‘it will only take half a day’.

 

[Andy in Germany]

It is like the word "just". Can you just to this, can you just do that and whilst you`re at it can you just do that too. That 5 minute job never takes 5 minutes. My wife knows that if I say " I`am just going out to the garage" , I`ll be gone at least half an hour more like three quarters ! Fettling takes time.

It's usually in response to me saying "We aren't taking any new repairs on at the moment..."

 

[Shearwater Missile]

It's usually in response to me saying "We aren't taking any new repairs on at the moment because we are short-staffed..."

It`s a bit like garages here. We phoned yesterday to book the wife`s car in for a service. They are booked solid until 20th April. I am guessing a skill shortage. My nephew`s son is in his second year as an apprentice car mechanic and he says the same, they are so busy.

 

[lazybloke]

My wife's car: The ignition lights came on just fine, but the dashboard lights flashed like a Jean Michel Jarre concert when I tried to turn over the engine, together with muck clicking from relays.

Battery voltage was close to 9 volts; dead cell. 10 minute job to replace it; once i'd taken the other car to collect the new battery.

That's the 2nd time the battery has died in thus car. Got the 1st replaced under warranty, amazingly.

The battery in the other car has been reporting "low voltage" for well over a year but hasn't let me down yet!

 

[itboffin]

More caliper cleaning resetting and another new set of pads and still there’s rubbing, but not all the time which makes me think it must be the rotor, which looks perfectly flat 🤷‍♂️