What Have You Fettled Today?

[fossyant]

Having failed to get some Vittoria Corsa's to fit the 'new to me' Mavic Cosmics, I've just had delivered some 28c Lithion 4's. What a pig to fit, again fairly tight. Certainly not the tyres. I hope they stretch a bit as not looking forward to getting them off. Must be one of those rims that are slightly oversized.

I've never had issues with wheels/tyres before.

 

[DCLane]

I did the set-up work on the Ridgeback Platinum as I'm hoping to ride the Second Class Return to Scarborough 300 this weekend, although am a doubt to start.

Also, the Viner Mitus was stripped ready for upgrades and a conversion for climbing use. Off came the Shimano Ultegra 6800 shifters / front derailleur, the Dura-Ace 9000 crankset / rear derailleur and clip-on mudguards. It's a bit from two winters' use plus being on a turbo trainer last winter whilst I recovered from a damaged hand and therefore a deep clean was needed. The new build will be done over the next couple of weeks and I'm leaving the FSA SLK brake calipers on as they are both lightweight and match the frameset colour-wise.

Finally the recently acquired Peugeot PY10LS has been dismantled as best I can: lots of parts are quite stuck so it's not been easy. That will allow the frame to be cleaned and painted a bit better.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Not long finished fitting my new 45mm tanwall Caracal Race and a 1.7-2.3 Vittoria latex tube to the rear hub motor wheel of the ebike.

Removing and reinstalling the axle nuts, washers and the chainstay electrics plug/socket was far less hassle than I remembered from last summer, when fitting the 40mm Marathon Supreme. It was getting one side of the Caracal mounted on the ~21mm internal rim width that took a while, then getting the other side on with the lightly inflated tube, as the whole setup seemed really quite "baggy" compared to the smaller tyres I'm used to fitting in recent years!

I really ought to swap out the front 35mm Supreme for the 40mm, but that can wait for another day!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Our 7 year old Range Cooker has not been right for a while, both oven bulbs have gone, I couldn't get the glass covers off by hand and the main door was not closing properly, clearly one of the springs in the hinges had failed. Knowing nothing about cookers I assumed it would be a big job, however some Googling and Youtube convinced me that I could easily fix it.

The manufacturer, Brittania wanted £299 just to turn up and a set of hinges from them was over £100 . I sourced a pair off eBay for £45 and the stuck glass covers for both the oven lights ended up coming off just by using a rubber glove to get a proper grip and use a bit of brute force (two bulbs were a fiver)

Looks like the problem was a broken pin in the hinge, it was a bit of a faff fitting them both, the door had to be stripped and the glass removed to change them over, but it only took about an hour.

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A rip-off some of these oven repair services.

Recently quoted me £180-ish ex' parts to replace the oven rear element.

New element was £19 posted from eSpares and 30 minutes to fit - rear cover screws were fiddly buggers but overall well worth the swearing!

 

[JonBuoy]

New bottle day (Outgoing Camelbak that required two hands to operate the nozzle was a shockingly unsafe ‘design’ !) - along with a new chainstay protector. Luckily the colours I just randomly (Yea right 🤣) chose fit in with everything else ok…….😉

Didn't your Camelbak have a 'bite valve'? If it did you just put the valve in your mouth, squeeze the bottle, the valve opens, the contents are dispensed then the valve self seals. I find it better than a normal bottle but a bit of a PITA to clean. You only need to operate the twist lock on the nozzle if you want to be extra sure that the bitevalve won't operate accidentally.

 

[HLaB]

Bought a spare 32mm tubeless tyre just before I went on holiday, and after inspecting the old one which had saw 20 more miles I used it tonight. Things are quite compatible with the Scribe rims and Continentals that I fitted it dry and seated with the track pump. Which allowed me to inject the sealant through the valve without much mess.

 

[sevenfourate]

When re-lubing the drivetrain last night - I kinda checked the bike over as normal. And thought I felt a couple of clicks / small movements from front wheel *Hub / bearings 🤷‍♂️ I turned the front wheel 90 degrees and rocked the bike gently backward and forward to see if it was the headset ? But nothing……

So - wanting to visit my LBS anyway today; I popped in with the wheel first thing. He told me right off the bat there was ‘nothing wrong’. I asked if he could take axle out, check / lube, re-set bearings, check both spoke tension and truing while it was out of the bike. A full front wheel service per-se……

An hour and a half later I collected - to be told “We found absolutely nothing”. Happy with that I paid and left.

All I can tell you is; I now can’t feel any movement once I fitted it back in the bike. And if nothing else I’ve hopefully eradicated ‘that’ as a cause (If it still happens). But maybe even removing and re-fitting was enough ? As ever - time will tell I’m sure 👍

 

[sevenfourate]

Didn't your Camelbak have a 'bite valve'? If it did you just put the valve in your mouth, squeeze the bottle, the valve opens, the contents are dispensed then the valve self seals. I find it better than a normal bottle but a bit of a PITA to clean. You only need to operate the twist lock on the nozzle if you want to be extra sure that the bitevalve won't operate accidentally.

Do you know - I’ve no idea. I only know when squeezing over the sink…..I had to open (Turn) the valve in order for anything to come out. I’ve never used - but think I can comprehend a bite-valve in use.

And I think I’m still happier where I’m am with this bottle now. The other thing tbf - was the Camelbak seemed slightly on the small size diameter wise - and fitted my cage ‘terribly’ (Slightly loose / moving).

So yea - I was most happy to dump the Camelbak all in all 😉

 

[raleighnut]

When re-lubing the drivetrain last night - I kinda checked the bike over as normal. And thought I felt a couple of clicks / small movements from front wheel *Hub / bearings 🤷‍♂️ I turned the front wheel 90 degrees and rocked the bike gently backward and forward to see if it was the headset ? But nothing……

So - wanting to visit my LBS anyway today; I popped in with the wheel first thing. He told me right off the bat there was ‘nothing wrong’. I asked if he could take axle out, check / lube, re-set bearings, check both spoke tension and truing while it was out of the bike. A full front wheel service per-se……

An hour and a half later I collected - to be told “We found absolutely nothing”. Happy with that I paid and left.

All I can tell you is; I now can’t feel any movement once I fitted it back in the bike. And if nothing else I’ve hopefully eradicated ‘that’ as a cause (If it still happens). But maybe even removing and re-fitting was enough ? As ever - time will tell I’m sure 👍

Loose skewer ?

 

[sevenfourate]

Loose skewer ?

“Possibly” 🤷‍♂️ Although certainly didn’t feel it taking the wheel off. And unless ridiculously minor - it hadn’t moved as I always put the lever in a certain position.

*I suppose the nut on the rear could have undone - leaving the lever in its original position. Seems unlikely as I came undone from tight very positively / clearly. So I’ve literally no idea……

 

[Andy in Germany]

Was asked to "quickly" set up some new cantilever brakes on a fairly old Peugeot. Managed it eventually. Technically I managed it twice but the first time I forgot to put the rubber hood over the brake pivot that older bikes often have, so I had to start again.

Incidentally, I know the blocks are on backwards. I noticed this, but I was spooked by the fact they were supplied like that. The chief mechanic decided that as the brakes worked he would leave them this time. I suspect he didn't want to bother resetting them a third time...

 

[HLaB]

A failed but successful fettle today. My front tyre went down to 20psi (last pumped to 60psi on Thursday evening). I pumped it up but as I was heading out the door for today's 100miler I lost confidence in the Peaty's (its happened a few times with Peaty's) and topped it up with Orange Seal Regular. The tyre seemed a lot more solid for it after I pumped it up. But as I was removing the track pump, half blind up close with my contact lenses in, I managed I think to remove the head of the valve core. The tyre stayed solid though and 105miles later its still solid 😵

 

[Shearwater Missile]

After reading a thread a couple of weeks ago about jockey wheels, I thought I`d check the ones on my summer bike. Managed to get them off, one at a time without removing the wheel. They were a bit gummed up, if that is the right expression. Cleaned the bushings with GT85 and a polish with T-Cut. The pulleys themselves were clean and not shark finned. Re-assembled, making sure the lower pulley was fitted the right way round. A quick check with gears and job done.

 

[Gunk]

View attachment 807708

Was asked to "quickly" set up some new cantilever brakes on a fairly old Peugeot. Managed it eventually. Technically I managed it twice but the first time I forgot to put the rubber hood over the brake pivot that older bikes often have, so I had to start again.

Incidentally, I know the blocks are on backwards. I noticed this, but I was spooked by the fact they were supplied like that. The chief mechanic decided that as the brakes worked he would leave them this time. I suspect he didn't want to bother resetting them a third time...

I use one of these, only £8 but really good for setting up cantis and V brakes

 

[sevenfourate]

After buying new Summer gloves today…..my thoughts went to ‘grips’. And i hadn’t noticed how super worn / smooth they were 🙄

Luckily being completely OCD and buying any and everything I like in multiples - I found I did indeed have some ‘in stock’ 😉

The only thing being - the cheap Aluminium bolts for the ‘Lock-on’ part of the equation rounding off and causing issues once. And I had to carefully remove them……with a grinder !!

So I’d bought snd was using some Titanium items to make swapping over painless in future 👍 So I removed and swapped those out for the standard items - lubing with some white Lithium grease before they went in.

10 minutes later once my OCD was happy both grips couldn’t be any straighter / squarer / more identical but opposite; I fully tightened the Ti bolts……

I then of course ordered another pair 😁