Thread To Tell Everyone What Fettling You've Just Done

oldbazza

Just fitted Deda bars and stem(from the classifieds) to the Planet X,have new bar tape to fit once I'm happy with the bar/hood positions.

rhodrich

Completed the remaining jobs on my winter commuter - fitted the Tektro R559 brakes in place of the Weinmann Centre Pulls, fitted SPD's, and wired up the dynamo lights.

Bike is now fully prepared for 6 months of dark, miserable, salty hell!

itboffin

replaced the kmc sxl gold chain which has been on my Trek for a good four years, replaced with a std 105 chain and feck me those shimano 105 chains are a bugger to split, i'm shattered hands cut to bits.

Lord_V

Swapping the toe clip pedals put on by the previous owner for spd's.

Easy tinker for a Saturday afternoon just before heading out for a quick ride right?

Wrong, very wrong.

2.5 hours, half a can of wd40 and lots of swearing later I changed the grand total of 1 pedal. (And yes I was turning it the right way! though at some points I did begin to doubt myself..)

There is a special place in hell for the previous owner, firstly for the toe clips, secondly for the amount of time it took meaning it was dark and couldn't get out on Saturday.

(Had a nice ride on Sunday, but that's not the point.)

veronese68

itboffin wrote:

replaced the kmc sxl gold chain which has been on my Trek for a good four years, replaced with a std 105 chain and feck me those shimano 105 chains are a bugger to split, i'm shattered hands cut to bits.

You know you should use a chain splitting tool rather than just your hands don't you?
Gave the Kinesis a clean and put more road orientated tyres back on after leaving it in off road mode for a week. Changed a brake cable on a friends son's bike. Washed the old MTB in preparation for stripping it down.

spasypaddy

rebuilt my look after my accident, tweaked the rear derauiller. wont be riding her until next summer but at least i can look at her with my Enves on.

dhope

Had to take a Dremel to the front mudguard to make it fit with the disc fork. All sorted now.
Was going to build up the beater SS. Remembered again why I haven't - ordered some crank bolts so that next time I try to finish it then I'll have more luck

rower63

Usual weekly removal of chain and cassette on the Dolan. I thought, might as well remove and clean the rear mech too. Removed and dis-assembled the jockey wheels, and was very surprised to discover that although the top wheel says "ceramic bearings" and has indeed got a tiny little bearing cartridge, the bottom one has no bearings, just a bushing! It's a Record-11 rear mech. Checked a retired (bent) Chorus-11 rear mech I have lying around, and it has only a bushing on both its jockeys :shock:

Also tightened up the headset a bit, had been getting a bit wobbly.

tgotb

rower63 wrote:

Usual weekly removal of chain and cassette on the Dolan. I thought, might as well remove and clean the rear mech too. Removed and dis-assembled the jockey wheels, and was very surprised to discover that although the top wheel says "ceramic bearings" and has indeed got a tiny little bearing cartridge, the bottom one has no bearings, just a bushing! It's a Record-11 rear mech. Checked a retired (bent) Chorus-11 rear mech I have lying around, and it has only a bushing on both its jockeys :shock:

Seems to be quite common; maybe the very low loads in jockey wheels mean that plain bearings (which I guess might be quite low friction given the right choice of materials) are good enough?

I use SRAM, which is ball bearing throughout. That's actually a complete nightmare for 'cross, because the bearings aren't particularly effectively sealed, and inevitably end up full of mud; if you don't clean it out quickly (or even if you do, to an extent) it kills the bearings. For that particular application, I've been wondering whether plain bearings are actually better...

elbowloh

rower63 wrote:

Usual weekly removal of chain and cassette on the Dolan. I thought, might as well remove and clean the rear mech too. Removed and dis-assembled the jockey wheels, and was very surprised to discover that although the top wheel says "ceramic bearings" and has indeed got a tiny little bearing cartridge, the bottom one has no bearings, just a bushing! It's a Record-11 rear mech. Checked a retired (bent) Chorus-11 rear mech I have lying around, and it has only a bushing on both its jockeys :shock:

Also tightened up the headset a bit, had been getting a bit wobbly.

...but is it a ceramic bush?

UndercoverElephant

I've been using Tacx jockey wheels for a few years, and I'd definitely recommend them. Proper bearings do make a difference.

tgotb

elbowloh wrote:

...but is it a ceramic bush?

I used to know a girl.....on second thoughts, maybe I'd better not go into that.

rhodrich

Straightened derailleur hanger on the Viscount yesterday evening, using the 'thread an old QR axle into the derailleur mounting hole' technique. (NOTE: ONLY TRY THIS ON STEEL FRAMES!)

Derailleur cage had been going 'ping, ping, ping' on the spokes in bottom gear, as the hangar was bent slightly down (no idea why). Threading the axle into the hole (they have the same thread) saw the axle pointing noticeably downwards. A quick tug upwards to bend it back into shape (plus a small tweak backwards, as it was pointing forwards slightly), and the shifting has been transformed. No more pinging in bottom gear, and the whole transmission is quieter.

cyclingprop

itboffin wrote:

replaced the kmc sxl gold chain which has been on my Trek for a good four years, replaced with a std 105 chain and feck me those shimano 105 chains are a bugger to split, i'm shattered hands cut to bits.

Also, particularly easy to snap, as you pull out to cross vauxhall bridge going South :S. I use SRAM now.

MonkeyMonster

Carbon seat rails - ending up creaking a bit even with re-tightening every couple weeks. Any ideas?

Koncordski

Replaced all the brake pads on the brompton, went for clarks standard cheapo ones but they feel spongy as hell on my ride in this morning. Buy cheap buy twice?

desweller

MonkeyMonster wrote:

Carbon seat rails - ending up creaking a bit even with re-tightening every couple weeks. Any ideas?

They may not be creaking where they meet the clamp.

Saddle rails are fixed at the front of the saddle but sometimes allowed to float at the back, so the seat can bend. Sometimes they creak where they're mounted at the back of the saddle.

MonkeyMonster

DesWeller wrote:

MonkeyMonster wrote:

Carbon seat rails - ending up creaking a bit even with re-tightening every couple weeks. Any ideas?

They may not be creaking where they meet the clamp.

Saddle rails are fixed at the front of the saddle but sometimes allowed to float at the back, so the seat can bend. Sometimes they creak where they're mounted at the back of the saddle.

It's generally quiet after rail clean and tighten and then gets worse as the weeks progress...

cyclingprop

DesWeller wrote:

MonkeyMonster wrote:

Carbon seat rails - ending up creaking a bit even with re-tightening every couple weeks. Any ideas?

They may not be creaking where they meet the clamp.

Saddle rails are fixed at the front of the saddle but sometimes allowed to float at the back, so the seat can bend. Sometimes they creak where they're mounted at the back of the saddle.

Also try lower tension + carbon paste.

Initialised

My shiny new SLX 11-28 cassette turned up today, I'm going to try and wean myself off 11-32 and crawling up hills but the damn thing is stuck fast.

I've never had this problem before, but cassettes I've removed in the past have usually been fitted by me. This one got fitted around a year ago when my wheel went in for a freehub replacement under warranty so will have been fitted by an Evans mechanic who may not have understood the terms Netwon and metre.

So any top tips on removing a stuck lock ring.

I've already managed to bend a 10" adjustable spanner, get one of my lockring tools stuck and my chain whip has been torn apart and another is a little crooked after following what advice I could with the tools available from this thread: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic ... e-lockring

I don't have red diesel or plusgass handy will GT85 do the same job?
I don't have a vice.

Anything else I can try before giving up and taking it to the bike shop?

rolf_f

More leverage. Not surprised you are having problems with only 10" of leverage. I use an 18 inch long torque wrench. If the lever is long enough, it won't require much effort at all!

daddy0

Rolf F wrote:

More leverage. Not surprised you are having problems with only 10" of leverage. I use an 18 inch long torque wrench. If the lever is long enough, it won't require much effort at all!

I use the metal tube from a Henry vacuum cleaner to increase leverage for such things - put it over the wrench and le voila, un extension!

veronese68

But if the spanner bent leverage is not the problem, a better spanner may help. If you need to add leverage I have resorted to a scaffold pole. But that does bend things quite easily.

Initialised

It's never happened before, I've changed plenty of cassettes.

I tried using a metal vacuum cleaner tube on the chain whip and a curtain pole on the wrench, no joy, the extra leverage destroyed a chain whip and bent another!

I going to take it to the LBS before I damage it, warp the rotor or lose a finger.

UndercoverElephant

I once over-tightened one so badly that I snapped the metal shaft of a chain whip with my bare hands trying to get it loose. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

New wheel? That's what I did in the end.

rhodrich

If the worst comes to the worst, and you're changing the cassette anyway, careful use of an angle grinder can get it off fairly easily.

Initialised

I took it to KB Cycles, they got it off in a few seconds, it took two of them.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Two seconds or two staff... Or both?

davis

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I once over-tightened one so badly that I snapped the metal shaft of a chain whip with my bare hands trying to get it loose. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

New wheel? That's what I did in the end.

I've never done this. Not at all. Tacx chain whip wasn't that good in one piece, but it was much worse in two.

Initialised

NitrousOxide wrote:

Two seconds or two staff... Or both?

Two staff, one on the wrench, one on the whip.