What Have You Fettled Today?

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Oldhippy

Cynical idealist
Picked up new alternator today for my boat but will fettle Sunday.
 

Rickshaw Phil

Overconfidentii Vulgaris
Moderator
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:eek:. 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

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
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 :tongue: .

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 :cursing: 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.
 
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Andy in Germany

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

2026_03_21_Repairs_01.jpg


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.

2026_03_21_Repairs_02.jpg


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...
 
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