Thread To Tell Everyone What Fettling You've Just Done

dyrlac

After my mishap on Putney Hill earlier this week with my chain coming off the fixie at speed, I installed chain tugs on the horizontal dropouts of my Charge Plug. I certainly feel better, not having to keep looking down to make sure the rear tyre isn't creeping toward the chainstay, although I suspect, like all bike safety equipment, that it isn't very pro.

More anodised red, naturally. I now have so much tart on a pretty generic bike that I am riding the equivalent of a Ford Mondeo tricked out with a spoiler.

redvee

Fitted a Campagnolo seatpost to the SS commuter, been after one for a while and this one came along at £23.

Kieran_Burns

Sunday was "The Great Inner tube Interregnum" where disorder and chaos was sewn amongst the chaff and chains that befouled the bike boudoir .

Okay, so I gathered all the discarded inner tubes and sorted through those that were actually still usable, punctured but usable or just basically binnable.

I found the damn things everywhere in the garage and now have a dozen spare (some for specific bikes) and a few brand new ones I never knew I had.

bendertherobot

Stopped at the side of the road, grasped rear mech, pulled it back out to straighten hanger after knocking the bike over whilst taking it out of the garage.

timothyw

Fitted the crown race, headset, seatclamp and bottom bracket on my new Kinesis Crosslight Pro6 frame.

Fitting the Crown Race was pretty terrifying, it has to be said (it took a fair amount of heating and hammering). Trimming the steerer is next.....

gingaman

As part of my current drive to learn how to fettle my bike myself, this weekend I successfully replaced jockey wheels, cassette and chain, doing so for the first time without sending it in to LBS. Next week a bit of bottom bracket maintenance.

rhodrich

Built up replacement bike frame yesterday evening: a mid 80's Dawes Galaxy to replace my mid 70's Viscount Aerospace Pro, which has an alarming crack on the head tube, and another ominous looking crack on the seat tube to bottom bracket join.

I knew it was going to be a challenge doing the build in one evening, from bare frame and forks to commuter bike, but can happily say that I did it (finished at midnight!).

Rode the bike in this morning, and whilst there were a few teething problems: seatpost went down, as it wasn't tightened enough, the index is a little bit off, and the headset loosened slightly, there was nothing that couldn't be fixed with another 5 minutes of fettling.

Job done!

itboffin

At first I was happy that building a complete bike took almost no time at all now I'm sad to finish so soon .

Its still very reassuring to know everything on my bikes has been fitted, maintained and tweaked by me.

Oh not wheels, I don't do wheels.

veronese68

My build is taking months, but I've built my own wheels. Pressed in the headset tonight.

UndercoverElephant

itboffin wrote:

Oh not wheels, I don't do wheels.

You, Sir, are a fettling wuss-bag.

rhodrich

Turned out that the headset on my Galaxy was loose as the stack height was too low, preventing it from being tightened enough. Added another 2mm spacer, and it's all good now. Similar problem with the seatpost: the seatpost binder bolt was too long, so it couldn't tighten enough. Shorter one sourced from the spares box, and fitted.

I'm not sure I can get on with the 175mm cranks I've got fitted though. They just don't feel right, and I'm worried about pedal strike. On the lookout for a road or touring triple with 170mm cranks......

Wheelspinner

Hmm, this may end up in the Rants thread.. :x

Attempted fitting the headset to new frame last night, using the proper ParkTool jobbie. Top cup went in nice and smooth, just as they should. Bottom cup not even close to fitting. Tried a couple of times, even stuck the cup in the freezer for a half hour to see if that would shrink it enough, but still no luck. Gave up in disgust, and will now have to spend considerable time sanding the head tube out enough to get the sodding thing done.

Honestly, frame manufacturer dudes.. if you are going to use a design that requires precise manufacturing tolerances, then find a factory that can produce according to that tolerance!

Not looking forward to installing the press-fit bottom bracket if this is any indication of how well made the frame is. Not a cheap one either. Humph.

rolf_f

UndercoverElephant wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Oh not wheels, I don't do wheels.

You, Sir, are a fettling wuss-bag.

Quite. That is so fettling wuss-baggy that I don't think I can bear to communicate with him anymore.

redvee

New Swiss Stops on the front brake, not sure of the mileage I've done on them but they've outlasted 3 sets of rears. Could have got away with a few more miles before the metal on metal point.

itboffin

Full on drive train cleaning for the summer commuter before switching it back into turbo mode, winter commuter feels heavy and tired.

oldbazza

Got the steerer cut on the Heliums fork so that's now fitted plus all the mechs,brakes,shifters and chainset ready to be 'plumbed in'.
Also cut the steerer and fitted the On-One fork to the Trek commuter project,fitted the chain and old Mavics;just got to see if it'll all work nicely.

rhodrich

Did some further build up work and teething problem resolution on the Galaxy:

Adjusted headset - reason it was coming loose is that it couldn't be tightened fully, as the stack height was too low (probably as the bike at one stage would have had a hanger for centre pull brakes). Resolved by using a 2mm spacer from the spares cave.

Tightened up seatpost. Again, the problem was not that I hadn't tightened it, but that the seat post binder bolt was too long. Resolved by using a shorter Campag binder bolt from the spares cave.

Fitted 105 triple front mech that came through the post to replace the minging 200GS one that was the only one I could find.

Replaced the non aero 105 levers with some Shimano 600 tricolor ones that I had knocking about. This required a rewrap of the bars as well.

Total cost: £13.50 for the front mech. All other items sourced from existing parts.

Still to do: find and source suitable square taper triple, with 170mm arms to replace the Middleburn RS7 that's on there.

il_principe

Wheelspinner wrote:

Hmm, this may end up in the Rants thread.. :x

Attempted fitting the headset to new frame last night, using the proper ParkTool jobbie. Top cup went in nice and smooth, just as they should. Bottom cup not even close to fitting. Tried a couple of times, even stuck the cup in the freezer for a half hour to see if that would shrink it enough, but still no luck. Gave up in disgust, and will now have to spend considerable time sanding the head tube out enough to get the sodding thing done.

Honestly, frame manufacturer dudes.. if you are going to use a design that requires precise manufacturing tolerances, then find a factory that can produce according to that tolerance!

Not looking forward to installing the press-fit bottom bracket if this is any indication of how well made the frame is. Not a cheap one either. Humph.

If you have problems with the Press Fit you should send the frame back as being "not fit for purpose."

bigmat

Got the track bike ready to roll - saddle up and back, bars tilted forward a bit, name on frame etc. Just need to ride it now.

Alloy rims and brake blocks back on the racer - didn't fancy carbon rims yesterday. Have a feeling it will stay like that until spring now.

Next job = new brake pads on the Iron Horse and that will be 3 bikes fully fettled, slowly working my way through the fleet.

vermin

Wrapped the back wheel in Specialized Roubaix Armadillo Elite 25/23 rubber.

On first commute (dry), it rolled well, handled predictably and was much more comfortable than the 23mm Lugano. Time will tell whether it is pucture resistant, mileage durable and grippy in the wet.

redvee

Dribbled some chain lube into the SS freewheel as it was making noises after the wet rides and submersion recently.

rhodrich

Stripped down my old bike (Viscount Aerospace Pro) to full nakedness (except for paint). Rubbed down the area on the head tube which I could have sworn was cracked, and now I've got better access to the inner side of the tube, with a magnifying glass, I can see that the frame isn't actually cracked, and this and the other dodgy bits turned out to be poor paint adhesion. This still doesn't explain why the lower headset cup was loose in the frame though. Given the state of the headset though, I'm sure a new one would solve the problem however.

The question now is what to do with the frame. It's actually a lovely riding frame, and fairly lightweight (being made from Phoenix 'Aerospace' 1027 tubing). I've owned it for 20 years, so it's got sentimental value to me, but really, the cost to put it back on the road (it really needs a paint job) would be more than it's worth

Solution may be to put it in the loft, and forget about it for another 20 years......

j_mcd

Put bullhorns on the +1 a few weeks ago. Was pretty pleased with them but something wasn't quite right. Put a much shorter stem (60mm) on last night and now everything is SO much better. Like a different bike.

One note of caution, don't change stems in a very poorly lit garage. The first bit of today's journey was done with the bars totally off centre and with a distinctly leftwards pointing aspect. Lucky I had those allen keys with me.

Wheelspinner

Il Principe wrote:

If you have problems with the Press Fit you should send the frame back as being "not fit for purpose."

It's now done, fitted headset after some judicious "adjustment".

Next up - an internally routed hydraulic rear brake line. That sounds like fun, because I just love bleeding brake lines... :roll:

Kieran_Burns

Wheelspinner wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

If you have problems with the Press Fit you should send the frame back as being "not fit for purpose."

It's now done, fitted headset after some judicious "adjustment".

Next up - an internally routed hydraulic rear brake line. That sounds like fun, because I just love bleeding brake lines... :roll:

No need to swear...

MonkeyMonster

Rolf F wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Oh not wheels, I don't do wheels.

You, Sir, are a fettling wuss-bag.

Quite. That is so fettling wuss-baggy that I don't think I can bear to communicate with him anymore.

For your health, this is a good thing anyway.

itboffin

I have the attention span of a ....oh look the drinks trolley.

Anyway I fear I might have to swap out the drops on my ss for some bullhorns, I never use the drops riding across London and it would be nice to have more hand position options.

rolf_f

MonkeyMonster wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Oh not wheels, I don't do wheels.

You, Sir, are a fettling wuss-bag.

Quite. That is so fettling wuss-baggy that I don't think I can bear to communicate with him anymore.

For your health, this is a good thing anyway.

Yes, but I do like to try to be polite.

dhope

Disc brake had become decidedly less stoppy recently. Thought it might have been that gently braking had just polished the pads and rotors. Turns out I'd just not set them properly a few weeks back and only one pad was engaging until the last minute. Stoppy again. Do like this front disc stuff.

oldbazza

Quick look at the Helium to see how I'm going to do the internal cables as I have not planned right and the (PF) BB is in :roll: :oops: may have come up with a cunning plan(involving magnets etc after seeing this;
http://www.parktool.com/product/interna ... g-kit-ir-1).
I(well the LBS) don't want to take the BB out and then back in again;might be lots of swearing this week-end as I also want to get the Trek commuter done and have a secondary glazing window to do.