Thread To Tell Everyone What Fettling You've Just Done

rhodrich

imatfaal wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

Day off today, as it's my birthday. Converted my Mercian to retro track specification this morning, in anticipation for taking it on the track at Herne Hill tomorrow. Track bars, temporary front brake (to enable me to get there on the roads), and clips and straps fitted. 17T cog fitted to the other side (front ring is a 54T) - will flip the wheel when I get there.

Slightly concerned about riding with clips and straps through traffic. Haven't done it for years! Hoping that my pull back rather than twist reflexes still work!

Happy Birthday - and a picture of the aged beauty (the bike obviously) gracing HH velodrome would be cool

Thank you! Wimped out of cycling over there. Tried a few runs around the block, and it was just too difficult. Clips and straps is one thing. Clips and straps with shoes that have proper slot cleats fitted, on a fixed gear bike is a whole different ball game. NOT easy to get feet in or out at the best of times.

Picture of the new stand, plus my bike and someone's derriere to prove I was there:



Fantastic weather, and a great day out. Riding round the track is so different from road riding. The slingshot feel when you're coming down the banking out of the bend is just magnificent. It's all so fast and fluid. I'd love to get into doing it more. Just a shame I've got 3 kids and a job in the City. iPete was there with his camera, so I'm hoping he got some action shots.

veronese68

itboffin wrote:

Any tips for improving the mech disc stopping power?

Are they properly bedded in, makes quite a difference.

itboffin

i doubt it, anyway i just ordered some st-r780 flat bar levers (ultegra) which should help

veronese68

If it's flat bar could you not have just gone hydraulic? I think Merlin were selling SLX at a good price recently.

kingstonian

Rhodrich wrote:

imatfaal wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

Day off today, as it's my birthday. Converted my Mercian to retro track specification this morning, in anticipation for taking it on the track at Herne Hill tomorrow. Track bars, temporary front brake (to enable me to get there on the roads), and clips and straps fitted. 17T cog fitted to the other side (front ring is a 54T) - will flip the wheel when I get there.

Slightly concerned about riding with clips and straps through traffic. Haven't done it for years! Hoping that my pull back rather than twist reflexes still work!

Happy Birthday - and a picture of the aged beauty (the bike obviously) gracing HH velodrome would be cool

Thank you! Wimped out of cycling over there. Tried a few runs around the block, and it was just too difficult. Clips and straps is one thing. Clips and straps with shoes that have proper slot cleats fitted, on a fixed gear bike is a whole different ball game. NOT easy to get feet in or out at the best of times.

Picture of the new stand, plus my bike and someone's derriere to prove I was there:



Fantastic weather, and a great day out. Riding round the track is so different from road riding. The slingshot feel when you're coming down the banking out of the bend is just magnificent. It's all so fast and fluid. I'd love to get into doing it more. Just a shame I've got 3 kids and a job in the City. iPete was there with his camera, so I'm hoping he got some action shots.

Your bike was the nuts in the flesh, really liked it.

kingstonian

Vittoria Corsa G+ with gumwall went onto my steed today. Look bloody lovely, just need to get time to take it for a spin to see how they ride.

azzurri78

Rhodrich wrote:

Picture of the new stand, plus my bike and someone's derriere to prove I was there:



Fantastic weather, and a great day out. Riding round the track is so different from road riding. The slingshot feel when you're coming down the banking out of the bend is just magnificent. It's all so fast and fluid. I'd love to get into doing it more. Just a shame I've got 3 kids and a job in the City. iPete was there with his camera, so I'm hoping he got some action shots.

Haha. That would be my derriere! Nice. As was the Mercian!

dyrlac

Prepped the L'Étape for commuting duties: gears indexed, brakes tweaked, tyres inspected, seat levelled. First rollout since rising from the grave with a new frame after the crash in July. Time to see if turbo power is actually transferable to the road.

wolfsbane2k

Quick clean of roadie, and new chain.
Realised one of my in line trims is completly fubared, and is actually the part of my rear shifting woes.
Completely slackened it off, used the trim on the rd, shifting consistently better. Why, i don't know.

Also stripped and cleaned the MTB.
That has never been done before by me, i recall paying someone to do it 2 years after buying it. Wow, what filth!

Tashman

Moved handlebars from the donor bike to the scaffold pole old mountain bike. need to find a socket to fit the crank so i can swap that over too then i might have a working pub bike

cruff

Last spacer removed from race bike. Finally have a back that doesn't feel like painful, badly-put together Lego

#marginalgains

keef66

Noticed bright orange goo coming from the NDS rear hub of my 10 year old RS10s. Which is odd because it's on the summer bike and rarely goes out in the wet.

Anyhoo, took it all to bits to see what was going on. Orange goo in both sides. Ball bearings themselves look pristine (think I replaced them a couple of years ago) but the cups and cones are looking a bit the worse for wear. Everything thoroughly cleaned, regreased, reassembled and adjusted. Back on the bike and functional, but I suspect the seals have had it. The fat lady isn't singing but she's clearing her throat. After 10 years, the first 7 of which were year round use, I suspect the rims have had it too, so they owe me nothing.

I'm thinking Malcolm at Cycleclinic might be doing me some handbuilts. Hmm, what to go for....

Fancy a hub with easy to replace cartridge bearings this time, and maybe a few more spokes. Didn't like the fact the rear wheel went unrideably pringle shaped when a rear DS spoke snapped on me. And a wider rim possibly. If my CR1 will accommodate them...

andy9964

Converted the CAADX to flat bar on Sunday, with the Tiagra shifters and Clarks M2 hyd brakes. Hoses need trimming, the rear makes a full loop before heading off to the caliper. @ £40 for F+R, inc rotors, the brakes are bargaintastic (Chain Reaction, if you're interested ITB)
First communt revealed the indexing was way off, and on further inspection, I hadn't threaded the FD cable through the upper part of the BB guide.
Now indexed properly, it feels, and rides much better than I had hoped.
Happy Bunny

asprilla

Not really fettling be me but I went for a bike fit on the TT this afternoon.

Turns out my position wasn't too bad but the bike wasn't correct underneath me.

Changes were:

Saddle forward about 3cm and lowered (I'd been sitting right on the nose).
10mm longer stem (putting the original back on)
Adjusted extensions to lower my elbows and raise my hands. Also, elbows moved apart and hands closer together.

Feels much more comfortable on my shoulders and neck.

Only thing left unresolved is my left knee which is moving about 4deg out of alignment on the up stroke. Change of position will help that but I'm going to experiment with some orthotics too.

jds_1981

Rebuilt my crappy m820 disc rear wheel with all new spokes. Tension seems okay so will just keep an eye on it for the first few weeks.

keef66

Faffing with tyres and inner tubes last night.

Got a puncture on Sunday. Noticed when fitting the new tube that the tyre had a Park emergency boot patch I'd forgotten about. Which made me suspect that may have had something to do with it.

Sure enough, inspection of the tube revealed an outline of the boot, and a hole worn at one corner where the puncture was. Patched that and chucked it in the spares drawer.
Then removed the tyre and new tube again. The boot wasn't sticking to the tyre any more, the edges curling up, and the corners seemed sharp and potentially abrasive, so the patch went in the bin.
Refitted the new tube with a part worn but otherwise intact tyre from the spares drawer, and turned my attention to the damaged one.
It was a tiny slit in the sidewall, but had clearly been responsible for a blowout requiring the use of the tyre boot in the first place. But what to reinforce it with??
My earlier fail at repairing a bigger sidewall slit with emery cloth and superglue had resulted in a hideously thick and inflexible patch, and when I ripped it off for another go it left thousands of shards of dried glue which rendered the tyre utterly useless.
So i cut out a few chunks of sidewall and binned the rest, and while patching tubes, stuck one of these sidewall patches inside the tyre. Seemed to stick, and it felt like it would be inner-tube friendly. Again, it's gone in the spares drawer, but as it's only done a handful of miles I'll definitely use it at some time in the future. At which point I'll find out if the repair is good enough...

Interestingly both sidewall cuts were in Pro4 SC tyres. Warm, dry roads in the middle of summer. I know it's not a large sample and it's likely pure coincidence / bad luck, but it made me choose the Pro4 Endurance when buying a replacement...

itboffin

dont bother with the endurance they seem to me worse than SC

keef66

itboffin wrote:

dont bother with the endurance they seem to me worse than SC

In what way worse? More fragile? They claim some magic bead to bead protection. My only other comparison is with the GP 4 Seasons on the winter bike. They are pretty puncture resistant, but they have become eye-wateringly expensive, and I find the tread starts cracking after a year or two regardless of wear. I found the Pro 4 SC a much livelier ride.

After all the faffing I have a 23mm Endurance on the rear, a 25mm SC on the front and another patched in the spares bin.

Maybe I'll try the fabled GP4000SII next...

timothyw

Have you tried Durano's yet?

Can be had at reasonable prices and do the job for me.

keef66

It's an expensive job this slashing nearly new tyres! And post Brexit it looks to have become even more so. I can't quite get my head around a set of bicycle tyres costing as much as one of the ones Kwik-Fit just put on my wife's car. I know all about economies of scale, but £30 for a half decent bike tyre! The one that went in the bin last night had I think less than 40 miles on it. As a Yorkshireman I found it physically painful. I might as well have taken the cash out and burned it.

itboffin

keef66 wrote:

itboffin wrote:

dont bother with the endurance they seem to me worse than SC

In what way worse? More fragile? They claim some magic bead to bead protection. My only other comparison is with the GP 4 Seasons on the winter bike. They are pretty puncture resistant, but they have become eye-wateringly expensive, and I find the tread starts cracking after a year or two regardless of wear. I found the Pro 4 SC a much livelier ride.

After all the faffing I have a 23mm Endurance on the rear, a 25mm SC on the front and another patched in the spares bin.

Maybe I'll try the fabled GP4000SII next...

i took the SC off after i started puncturing every ride, they look like new with only a few small holes so i've saved them, the endurance seem more fragile from the off in better weather

itboffin

just finished connecting up the rear mech and brake on this monster



the stem is 4cm too long and the stack height not right, also now regretting having bought the ultegra flat bar levers and not buying the clarks M2 hydro set but then it wouldnt be a true parts bin build.

stopping distance with both brake on full lock is eventually :roll:

might need to trim that rear mech outer but otherwise not bad considering i will most likely ride this once

asprilla

Just cut 35mm off the steerer on the TT bike taking off the excess above the stem. I'll be taking about the same off the back of the extensions this evening, once I've picked up some tin snips from Screwfix; I figure I can make the cuts with a pipe cutter and then snip the spare bits off without messing with the cables.

Was originally going to leave them in one piece but I banged my knee when out off the saddle turning right at a rbt and it shifted the whole pad and extension down.

Update; got some tin snips from Screwfix and job done.

Pre-fitting


Post-fitting

milemuncher1

I took the rear tyre I replaced yesterday off, and put it back on the right way round ( directional tyres lol ). Checked that I had put the new chain on the right way round ( I had fortunately). Replaced about 4 other tyres on various bikes.

Man Of Lard

Replaced chain (1.4% wear - oops), cassette & jockey wheels - front rings still apparently AOK. Gone from perfect shifting to a bit of vagueness between 5th & 9th (on a 10 speed block), but only under light load... May have left 1 too many links in the chain.

itboffin

Whilst setting my rear wheel alignment i noticed that my chain should be shorter, link removed and shifting improvement but the big big combo whilst still do able needs to be avoided now.

asprilla

Been having some chain rub on the big ring so I decided to quickly adjust my limit screw before I left late this morning.

Couldn't find the appropriate screwdriver and was running late (also noticed chain had no lube and tyres were at 80psi) but eventually managed it.

Was only when I got on the road that I realised I'd adjusted the wrong screw. Do it properly or don't do it at all is the moral. And only do it after you've had a coffee.

keef66

Yep, never do any maintenance if you're tired, irritable or in a hurry. It never ends well.

asprilla

keef66 wrote:

Yep, never do any maintenance if you're tired, irritable or in a hurry. It never ends well.

This is why I barely do maintenance.

drlodge

Given the Rourke some much needed TLC:
- fitted the Rogue Mechanic shim kit for UT bottom bracket bearings that I've had for about 3 years, had some persistent creaking which would go every time I regreased the BB bearings in their shells but then come back. Only time will tell if its fixed the problem for good. However I did notice the QRs were not as tight as they should be, so might have been them to some degree
- was thinking about changing the rear derailleur cable, ordered a bag of 5 in, then it snapped at the weekend about 30 miles out from home. DoH! Limped back on 2 gears, fitted new derailleur cables. Last time it snapped was nearly 3 years ago...should be more vigilant.
- Gave the bike a good clean and fitted the Potenza 11-32 cassette with Road Fairy link and new chain to extend it. Should be just the job for Mont Ventoux in a few weeks