What Have You Fettled Today?

[Drago]

Dug the Suntour NCX shock absorber seatpost out of the dungeon and affixed it to my Ribble CGR. Its not my favoured tipple but I'm still struggling with a bad back amd im hoping itll remove the worst of the jolts. I have a shock stem somewhere but not seen it since I moved house 3 years ago so will need to,root around if I decide to fit that as well.

 

[Cycling Badger]

Spent over an hour trying to find the right combination, location, orientation, pitch and cable routing for Garmin, Phone and front light atop my drip bars. Swear this in an exponential problem.

At one point I thought I had found the perfect position for all three. Only to realise the Garmin mount was preventing access to the topcap screw.

Think I’ve done the best I can with the brackets I have. Time will tell if the effort to improve layout was worth it.

 

[Gunk]

Spent over an hour trying to find the right combination, location, orientation, pitch and cable routing for Garmin, Phone and front light atop my drip bars. Swear this in an exponential problem.

At one point I thought I had found the perfect position for all three. Only to realise the Garmin mount was preventing access to the topcap screw.

Think I’ve done the best I can with the brackets I have. Time will tell if the effort to improve layout was worth it.

I’ve lost sleep on how to best mount a Garmin.

 

[DCLane]

Last week I picked up a pair of Shimano Ultegra 6600 brake calipers for the Giant FCR. They arrived today and, whilst clean on the front, clearly had 15 year-old solidified dirt everywhere else. So I've spent about an hour cleaning them thoroughly and they're now on the FCR to replace the original nearly 20 year-old Tektro's and look much nicer / shinier. Yes they're old, but they fit the bike's age as the FCR is from 2008. I've previously swapped the Tiagra 4500 crankset for an Ultegra 6503 triple and the brakes now match closely enough.

At the same time I took the opportunity to fit the Bontrager Arvada saddle I'd picked up to test. We'll see how that feels on a trial ride.

The next stage is to pick up 9 speed Ultegra triple / long cage derailleurs at some point, but no urgency for that bit.

 

[KuroSan]

Giving the bike a quick once over ready for Critical Mass tomorrow. Bit of lube, a bolt check and a bit more air in the fork should be enough.

 

[Sharky]

Just tightened up the chainring bolts, after replacing a 34t, with a 40t the other day.

I treated myself to the proper tool to hold the slotted side of the bolt, after years of using screwdrivers, hacksaw blades even Stanley knife blades, all very inefficient.

The new tool made it so easy ....

 

[sevenfourate]

Just tightened up the chainring bolts, after replacing a 34t, with a 40t the other day.

I treated myself to the proper tool to hold the slotted side of the bolt, after years of using screwdrivers, hacksaw blades even Stanley knife blades, all very inefficient.

The new tool made it so easy ....

View attachment 822720

Ditto. Although your packaging probably cost more than my tool ! Did the job on my recent chainring swap though👍

And yes - some over the years have been swines. And seemingly impossible to hold the rear / stop it spinning; with an assortment of kitchen utensils 🤣🤣

 

[VinSumRox]

Washed the gravel bike post mini tour and lubed the chain. Impressed how clean the bike was after a mix of wet trails and road, why would you not have mudguards 😀

 

[Cycling Badger]

Noticed an annoying air bubble somewhere on the front break system. Suspect it’s at calliper end. More of an impact on feel than performance. Prepping bike for tomorrow’s ride and worked through a satisfying list of little jobs. Who doesn’t enjoy a little fettling - very rewarding 😃

- Front brake bled (both ends)
- Bike Washed
- Chain clean and lubed
- Swapped out the 50mm 650b for the 35mm 700c (mostly roads tomorrow)
- Callipers adjusted for alt wheels (wish I had built both sets on matching hubs!)
- Tyre pressure set

Looking forward tomorrow’s ride 😀. And low stress morning not making last minute adjustments.

 

[avecReynolds531]

During a recent overhaul: a complete clean, dried in the sun, steel-brushed rust removal, & reassembled with fresh grease.
Rewarding & relaxing work returning this (old but good) RWNm 24 - it had had a tough life - back to fully working.*

* Maybe there's still a place for the much-maligned adjustable?
Touring on folding bikes meant having to think of 8, 10, 13, 15, and 17mm. In place of 5 spanners, or 5 sockets & appropriate ratchet (s), a small adjustable covered the 8 - 17 mm range easily. It kept things simple.

 

[Jenkins]

Just tightened up the chainring bolts, after replacing a 34t, with a 40t the other day.

I treated myself to the proper tool to hold the slotted side of the bolt, after years of using screwdrivers, hacksaw blades even Stanley knife blades, all very inefficient.

The new tool made it so easy ....

View attachment 822720

On SRAM cranks (or at least the ones I've used) the chainring bolts have a 4mm allen key fitting on one side and a 5mm on the other - no need for a slotted tool.

This morning's fettling involved swapping the SRAM NX shifter and rear derailleur on the Pickenflick flatbar out and replacing them with a 1x Apex rear derailleur and S-700 shifter. No particular reason other than consistency across the fleet so that all the SRAM equipped bikes (with the exception of the NX equipped ebike) now run 11 speed Apex or Rival so stuff can be swapped across in an emergency (the NX is a different pull ratio).

Slight problem in that the cable run at the rear is much longer on the Apex, so I had to cut a new length of outer and probably did it a bit too long and the cable on the S-700 shifter was a bit short (cut to fit whatever it last came off) and only just made the clamping bolt. I'll see how it goes and fit a new cable if necessary.

 

[Sharky]

On SRAM cranks (or at least the ones I've used) the chainring bolts have a 4mm allen key fitting on one side and a 5mm on the other - no need for a slotted tool.

I've had some like that and makes life easier.
But the ones I've just been working on are Stronglite and I mentioned earlier, that one of the spider arms runs parallel to the crank and would be impossible to get an Allen key on that bolt . It was a bit of a juggling act to even get my new tool between the bolt and the crank

 

[Elybazza61]

Decided to try and simplify the Di2 wiring on the Stayer all road so bars off .

And everything removed ready for re-routing.

What followed was much head scratching, cursing before getting it all connected, back on the bike and everything back on.

Much tidier with junction box removed and bluetooth gizmo tucked away under the bars, also now easier to take off the aero bars with the inline connectors.

Took much longer than intended but at least it all works.

 

[Jenkins]

I've had some like that and makes life easier.
But the ones I've just been working on are Stronglite and I mentioned earlier, that one of the spider arms runs parallel to the crank and would be impossible to get an Allen key on that bolt . It was a bit of a juggling act to even get my new tool between the bolt and the crank

SRAM have something similar on their 1x systems, but they get round it by embedding a fitting into the chainring itself as per pic below.

In the past I've picked up cheap used ones where the captive bolt fitting has been removed and managed to get a ball end allen key between the crank & ring to hold a standard bolt in place while tightening from the other side.

 

[Cycling Badger]

Took much longer than intended

Isn’t that always the way 😀

Good job and sounds as if (for you at least) it was worth the effort. 👍