What Have You Fettled Today?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

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.

IMG_1007.jpeg


IMG_1008.jpeg


IMG_1009.jpeg


IMG_1012.jpeg
 

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.

IMG_20260402_145220377_HDR.jpg


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.

IMG_20260402_151152824~2.jpg


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.

IMG_20260402_152742572_HDR~2.jpg
 

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.
 
Last edited:
Weird day at the shop… first the boomerang e-bike came back, again, dead electrics, again. This guy has ridden this thing all winter through record setting crap weather without cleaning it or servicing it in any way and is wondering why he is having so many problems. I stripped most of the bike and sealed all of the connectors with dielectric grease and made the lump work…. Again. This time it was the controller, destroyed by all the salt and wet. When I pulled it out one of the guys asked if it was a salt lick. His fourth major repair bill this year, $600. If he had least kept it clean the factory would have warrantied most of this work but he’s totally neglected it so the bills are his.

then an old steel road bike came in needing a new rear wheel. It was old enough that hub standards have change so I had to cold set the frame, widening it to accept the new wider hub. Try that with aluminium or carbon.

finally a Trek Speed Concept came in. The owner tried to adjust the handlebar set up and accidentally damage a screw head so he couldn’t finish the job. The screw was under the handlebars and right against the headset so drilling it out was impossible, the only way to get it out so the bike could be repaired and reassembled was to cut away one of the upper bar mounts and drill down through the handlebar assembly to remove the bolt. Trying not to scrap close to $1000 in handle and headset hardware or scar up his $15000 bike in the process. I pulled it off but that was two very unpleasant hours of work…

sometimes I think I should have stayed retired.
 
The wear marker disappeared on one side of my Spring wheels and TT racing starts next so I put the summer carbon wheels on changed the pad and put fresh sealant.

Only to remember the summer rims are marginally wider so I had to be pernicious with the cleaning, lubing and balancing of the rear brake which I rarely use.
20260403_173640.jpg

I'll need to source new Spring/Autumn wheels. I don't think Hunt do the silver aero wide wheels anymore. I think I got them for my 2018 LEJOG , then transfered them to my new and they were my summer wheels untill about 3 years ago. They did 3411 miles on the old bike in 2018, and the new bike has done 37,360 miles with the wheels on at least 2/3. So at a guess the wheels have done 28,000 miles.

Whilst I was at it I topped up the sealant in my gravel bike tyres too.
20260403_175859.jpg
 

Webbo2

Über Member
The wear marker disappeared on one side of my Spring wheels and TT racing starts next so I put the summer carbon wheels on changed the pad and put fresh sealant.

Only to remember the summer rims are marginally wider so I had to be pernicious with the cleaning, lubing and balancing of the rear brake which I rarely use.
View attachment 804201
I'll need to source new Spring/Autumn wheels. I don't think Hunt do the silver aero wide wheels anymore. I think I got them for my 2018 LEJOG , then transfered them to my new and they were my summer wheels untill about 3 years ago. They did 3411 miles on the old bike in 2018, and the new bike has done 37,360 miles with the wheels on at least 2/3. So at a guess the wheels have done 28,000 miles.

Whilst I was at it I topped up the sealant in my gravel bike tyres too.
View attachment 804202

I can getting faceache messages about a Hunt wheel sale 40% off if it’s genuine.
 
Top Bottom