What Have You Fettled Today?

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PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Photo Winner
Location
Hamtun
Seems to be a mudguard issue time of the year!
Last week the rear Brommie one gave up, t'other day, the front mudguard on my CX snapped off at the rear stay! (TBH the rear one is looking a bit dodgy, too)
I've ordered a new set but might decide to not fit them yet in case we have a sudden burst of nice weather ☀️

Today's fettle will be removing the old set and giving the bike a proper clean.
 

All uphill

Still rolling along
Location
Somerset
A while ago I vowed not to do work on other people's bikes again. Bikes that were rubbish new, neglected and rusty with owners who want lots done for pennies.

Today I relented and put new brake pads on a neighbour's bike, and replaced an inner tube that was perished.

It's a Claud Butler tourer from around 1985. Built from 531st, canti brakes, bar end shifters, Mavic rims and Deore hubs. The owner has ridden it in excess of 100,000 miles, he thinks closer to 150,000. It's been serviced annually.

I took it for a short ride to test the brakes, and it was a joy. I've asked the owner for £10 to cover the cost of the pads and a coffee. He isn't happy paying me so little.

That's more like it!
 

Gunk

Guru
Location
Oxford
Finished my Brompton project, fitted a new triangle, recabled it and built it back up, rides really well.

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chriswoody

Legendary Member
Location
Northern Germany
It's Spring and I can no longer put off replacing parts that have been busy failing during the depths of Winter, chief among them is the bottom bracket. So I whipped out the old bottom bracket, and was faced with a pretty grotty mess. So I cleaned it all out and the crankset as well while I was at it.

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I popped in a nice new set of Shimano Deore XT bearings, it's a shame that I had to use Shimano, but my Race Face crankset uses a 24mm spindle and SRAM don't make BB's for this spindle size, so Shimano represents the best value for money.

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Then it's on with the chainset and tighten the bolt up with the torque wrench to a massive 61nM as specced by Race Face. I learnt my lesson the hard way a few years ago that this chainset really needs to be properly torqued to spec, so there we have it, all shiny and smooth and ready for the years ahead.

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chriswoody

Legendary Member
Location
Northern Germany
What happened when it was not 61nM ? Does seem a great deal of pressure.

Originally I didn't own a torque wrench and was just tightening the bolt to flippin tight levels. The bolt subsequently loosened off a little and the cranks moved causing some damage to the threads. Try as I might I couldn't get them to stay tight after that and I thought I'd permanently damaged them and almost had to buy a new chainset. Thankfully after I purchased a decent torque wrench that went to 61nm, along with a bit of fettling of the threads I've managed to dodge the bullet and make it work.

Unlike Shimano Hollowtech, the axle is permanently attached to the non drive side crank and the drive side crank is mounted to the axle with a single 8mm bolt in the middle, which I suspect is why it needs a lot of torque to keep it in place. I do really like these cranks though, really light and dead simple to change chainrings which come in a good range of sizes to allow you fine tune the gearing.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Today, I be mostly fettling a door and its lock.

The door in question is to the enclosed back yard of my sister's cottage. I keep my Devon bike, cycling kit, tools, and spares out there.

Imagine my surprise today, nay - *shock* - when I discovered that the door was not only unlocked, it was unlocked because it wouldn't close properly!

It turns out that the wooden door had swollen due to damp over the years.

I found a sander in the garden shed and used it to sand the edge of the door down enough that the door could easily be opened and closed.

The Yale lock was loose and twisting round so I sorted that out while I was at it. The problem was that only 2 small screws had been used to attach the lock to the door. I replaced those with 2 larger screws and added a third screw through an unused hole in the mounting plate. The lock no longer moves about when using it.

After that, and with luck, my bike will still be here on my next visit too! :okay:

PS I told my sister that a bit more needs to be sanded off the door so it can be repainted, otherwise the damp will keep getting into it.
 
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