Thread To Tell Everyone What Fettling You've Just Done

wolfsbane2k

removed & sanded the brake pads on the roadie after realising they'd almost stopped working. They were almost solid black, was nice to see the blue of the swissstops again. Also Quick recentering, as the cable appears to be ever so slightly offset by the pannier rack mountings, meaning it wasn't applying level.
Much, much better stopping power!

dyrlac

Replaced 30mm cone spacer on the Caadx with a 10mm ebay special, sacrificing some weatherproofing in the process (ebay spacer has no cutout for a gasket). Attempted to replace the steerer-tube-mounted cantilever front brake* cable hanger with a fork mounted version (thereby lowering the stem by a further 10mm), only to realise the diameter of the central mudguard hole in the fork is too small to use ordinary brake fixings to support the new hanger, so back to the drawing board after recabling the front brake.

Caadx still rides like a boris bike despite losing 20mm of stem height and I now need to come up with a bodge in an area (the front brake attachment point to the bike!) where bodges are not very clever. Need a time machine to send a message to myself in 2013: "don't let bike shops desperate to move late season inventory push you into a too-large frame". At this rate I'll just put a basket and a bell on the thing and be done with it.

* Cantilever brakes are even stupider than disc brakes. So many potential points of failure. What problem are they trying to solve that isn't addressable using long drop calipers?

tgotb

Dyrlac wrote:

* Cantilever brakes are even stupider than disc brakes. So many potential points of failure. What problem are they trying to solve that isn't addressable using long drop calipers?

Not clogging up and stopping the wheels go round when you ride your bike through a muddy field. Neither calipers nor V-brakes will do this for you, has to be discs or cantis.

luv2ride

More post-ride adjustment required on the TRP Spyres on the Crosslight. Cleaned the road muck out of the calipers but now seem to have to partially engage the caliper arm on the front brake before clamping the cable for them to work properly. Getting slightly fed up with them being so temperamental

UndercoverElephant

Made a rear wheel for a colleague’s MTB. Rodi rim, Deore hub and DT Swiss Competition spokes. Very nice, and a real upgrade over his current taco with cemented alloy nipples which you could barely true.

keef66

Spent most of last week faffing with a colleague's long service award, a Genesis Datum 20. He's in Germany but the UK business had to buy it for reasons unknown. Tax avoidance possibly. So I'd pointed him in the direction of Rutland's sale bikes. For £50 they couriered it to Germany, then failed to deliver it 5 times and it ended up back here. So I rashly offered to purchase and fit the mudguards and rack he wanted, before the movers took it along with his house contents from the UK to Germany. Forgot how long that kind of fiddly stuff can take. And I set the contact points up using the measurements from his bike fit.

Oh, and I had my first play with disc brakes. The front was rubbing despite centring it twice. So I concluded the disc itself was slightly bent, and un-bent it with a large adjustable spanner. Blissful silence when spinning the front wheel!

I'm secretly hoping he doesn't get on with it and sells it to me next year. Of course it's my size!

sloppyschleckonds

Maxxis Padrone 28's tubeless on, brooks saddle replacing lightweight summer thingy

May dust off the sks mudguards soon

Winter kit dragged from attic, Assso LL's, buffs, S7 Gloves, Woolie Boolies

itboffin

One of the bonus things about living here in Windshire you need never put your winter kit away

sloppyschleckonds

itboffin wrote:

One of the bonus things about living here in Windshire you need never put your winter kit away

jds_1981

CX Bike - straightened mech hanger, serviced suspension seat post, replaced bent chain ring.
MTB - replaced all brake pads, serviced suspension fork bottoms. Washed both of them. Took a lot of time.

DJFish

Steerer tube has been creaking like mad so I stripped it down, cleaned & re-greased it.
And it still creaks!
ARGH!


After all that it was the bloody seatpost!

veronese68

Walked out to garage and checked my tyres had air in them, pinch test said yes so I shut the door and went back indoors as it was cold out. Really do need to be nicer to my bike.

redvee

Veronese68 wrote:

.....as it was cold out. Really do need to be nicer to my bike.

Bringing it into the warm would be a start

drhaggis

Swapped the R540 spd-sl's for a pair of flats last Friday. No typo! Why? I went with Haggis Jr for our first "proper ride" together, and going clipless feels dangerous with an erratic novice rider.

Anyway, today I cleaned the crank & the thread in the real peadals, applied some grease and put them back again. I then put a new chain for the first time, but not before switching off my brain. So it was all going alright, until I went to trim the guiding pin (Shimano chain). Then all hell broke loose. It was then I realised I'd put the chain the wrong way. With no spare pins or quick links, I thought, nah, let's trim it first, and reseat the chan another day. But I couldn't bloody trim that farking pin!!!!

So I changed my mind. That pin wasn't ripe enough for my taste, I thought, so removed it, put the chain the right way around this time, and put the pin again. Phew! Let's trim the pin now. Except I couldn't. And I ended up bending it or something, and decided to remove it for closer examination. What could possibly go wrong? Well, remember my brain was still off, so I managed to drop the driver pin, which then rolled into a bloody slit in the floor, and lost it for good.

Everything was not lost, however! Evans would still be open for an extra 30 minutes, so I took the kids, kissed my wife, and left to Evans to buy KMC quick links. I'd had enough of shimano pins. Enjoyed the xmas lights, had a hot chocolante with the little ones, went back home and put the chan together in no time.

So if tomorrow you're riding in Edinburgh, and see an unshaven man with a red Spesh helmet, and a blue Giant Defy, beware! That farking chain may split at any given moment.

Moral(s) of the story? First, thank god I'm not a surgeon. Second, do these things with a mate with experience. Third, better get some decent pliers. Fourth, fark shimano chains.

itboffin

KMC jobs a good un

dyrlac

Fascinating posts today. Had a persistent clicking during out of the saddle efforts on my FXE, thought it was the headset, but a full disassembly and regreasing did nothing. About to tackle the bottom bracket (annoying as it is an old octolink system and my compatible tools are scattered hither and don, and I had previously managed to strip half the threads off the self extracting bolt cavity), then checked my cleats. Sure enough, 6000 km had worn my SPD cleats down to nothing. Replaced from spares and the click was gone. Less pleasing, however, was the play I managed to introduce into the headset....

veronese68

Veronese68 wrote:

Really do need to be nicer to my bike.

Stripped the bike down to give it a thorough clean and lube job. The frame was showing signs of corrosion around the bottom of the down tube so squirted some ACF50 into the tubes to make sure there was no corrosion from within, thorough inspection showed it was not as bad as I feared. But the financial controller gave me permission for a new frame so do I sell it and buy a new something. Put it all back together and it's all smooth, clean and lovely, so apologies for the rain.

roger_merriman

Veronese68 wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

Really do need to be nicer to my bike.

Stripped the bike down to give it a thorough clean and lube job. The frame was showing signs of corrosion around the bottom of the down tube so squirted some ACF50 into the tubes to make sure there was no corrosion from within, thorough inspection showed it was not as bad as I feared. But the financial controller gave me permission for a new frame so do I sell it and buy a new something. Put it all back together and it's all smooth, clean and lovely, so apologies for the rain.

Is this the Kinesis? which is the green one? I don't know to be honest how long frames should or do last? it's not that old? though it does have fairly regular use.

If new guess could be full hydro? and 1X both of which are good, i'm less keen on 1x for MTB than commuting admittedly, but for commuting its lovely.

I have pondered about the old MTB I use, it's been used for commuting for getting on for 4 years now, pervious 7 MTBing though fairly low miles. it has dents from where i tweaked my wrist and so on. and the new job is a 22 mile round trip which clocks up the miles. it also is a outside pet which doesn't help.

veronese68

roger merriman wrote:

Is this the Kinesis? which is the green one?

Yes. It's a little over 3 years old I think. My neighbour bought one at the same time as me and his frame cracked in the same area. He does ride without mudguards along the tow path to Brentford so it had a slightly harder life in that respect. I think mine is still ok for now but I'd have expected it to last better than that. I bought ali and avoided carbon as I thought it would be more robust, not convinced now. If I do replace it I would want to go full hydraulic, the Parabox is good, but I'm sure full hydraulic would be better judging by the feel of the brakes on the MTB. I quite like having the double for commuting, I just drop down at the front for lights and change back once I'm going. Although 1x should work perfectly well it would probably mean going SRAM which is a bit alien to me.
22 miles a day on the old MTB will certainly keep you fit.

roger_merriman

Veronese68 wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

Is this the Kinesis? which is the green one?

Yes. It's a little over 3 years old I think. My neighbour bought one at the same time as me and his frame cracked in the same area. He does ride without mudguards along the tow path to Brentford so it had a slightly harder life in that respect. I think mine is still ok for now but I'd have expected it to last better than that. I bought ali and avoided carbon as I thought it would be more robust, not convinced now. If I do replace it I would want to go full hydraulic, the Parabox is good, but I'm sure full hydraulic would be better judging by the feel of the brakes on the MTB. I quite like having the double for commuting, I just drop down at the front for lights and change back once I'm going. Although 1x should work perfectly well it would probably mean going SRAM which is a bit alien to me.
22 miles a day on the old MTB will certainly keep you fit.

That seems a shame, if it isn't lasting though in fairness a lot of bikes do very little miles! I'd be surprised if a full Hydro didn't feel better, though there is a fair difference even then, the old MTB has its replaced a few years back, not long before I got the Full Suspension, they are okay brakes, but nowhere as good.

i do the dropping a ring down on the MTB, at times I want to drop down gears quickly, for commuting i'm not fussed. the MTB shifters are broadly the same though was very odd the first few weeks!

lincolndave

I’ve just cleaned both of he bikes, relubed the chais, indexed one set of gears, ones going to be used the other wrapped up until April/ May

prawny

Spent an hour yesterday converting the Bizango into a back up commuter.

Stuck some old narrow bars from BITD (my dad won them for me at Bike 96) and an adjustable stem with the required clamp size (£4.50 from cycle republic) along with some Schwalbe Land Cruisers and some Wiggles own Ergon Grips. Rode it in this morning FK me it's heavy, will do the job though, until the warranty is sorted on the Saracen.

Should be a bit easier for Mrs P to use in the summer too.

timothyw

Had to fettle the bottom jockey wheel at the side of the road this morning.

Considerably fewer bearings still in it that I imagine it started with, but a lot less shite in it, should cover me for another few miles while I sort out replacements.

keef66

Veronese68 wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

Really do need to be nicer to my bike.

Stripped the bike down to give it a thorough clean and lube job. The frame was showing signs of corrosion around the bottom of the down tube so squirted some ACF50 into the tubes to make sure there was no corrosion from within, thorough inspection showed it was not as bad as I feared. But the financial controller gave me permission for a new frame so do I sell it and buy a new something. Put it all back together and it's all smooth, clean and lovely, so apologies for the rain.

When I was mudguard fettling a while ago I found my Racelight Tk had bubbling paint and lots of white powdery stuff on the inside of the chainstays, presumably where the guard traps abrasive crap and salty water. Took it back to sound paint with scrapy things and a little wire brush, and relieved to find it looks to be pretty superficial and the alu seems fairly thick there. So I just put it all back together with the bodged rear guard for winter riding duties.

If it doesn't fall apart and kill me in the interim, I'll strip it down completely in the summer and effect some kind of paintwork repair. Am I correct in thinking that etching primer is required for aluminium? And would helicopter tape help prevent a repeat occurrence?

timothyw

First time fettling Hydraulics (Giant Conduct cable to hydraulic brake unit) did not go well yesterday!

Firstly, discovered that it isn't possible to route the hose through my fork (which has internal routing) without trimming it and fitting a new barb and olive (which naturally, I didn't have). Fortunately I appear to have ample hose length, although since I'm also changing the bars on the bike want to get position dialled in before trimming, so right now hose is taped in rather ugly fashion to side of fork.

Not much fun getting the compressionless outer and cable fitted to the bars. Tricky process of trial and error getting that dialled in. Not much help that the torx clamp which grips the cable can't really be tightened while the bars are mounted on the stem - well not without some kind of dedicated torx allen key which I don't have, i just have the socket.

Then discovered my cheap and cheerful bleed kit didn't contain the adapter required for the top end of the system (and after my earlier investigations bleeding very much required!) Have now ordered Tektro kit which contains olives and barbs, and additional universal kit which has selection of adapters, hopefully the right one will be included in one of them...

Still, otherwise looks like a very neat solution, just a right ball ache to set up!

luv2ride

Finally got round to putting my new Halo Clickster freewheel on the Singlecross, after the Simano DX died. Man, it sounds like a motorbike

...whilst I was at it, also drilled the rivets out of the front guard in order to fit a mudflap. Very satisfying...and now hopefully much less muddy feet. The lanes are getting pretty gloopy around here.

prawny

prawny wrote:

Spent an hour yesterday converting the Bizango into a back up commuter.

Stuck some old narrow bars from BITD (my dad won them for me at Bike 96) and an adjustable stem with the required clamp size (£4.50 from cycle republic) along with some Schwalbe Land Cruisers and some Wiggles own Ergon Grips. Rode it in this morning FK me it's heavy, will do the job though, until the warranty is sorted on the Saracen.

Should be a bit easier for Mrs P to use in the summer too.

Spent 20 mins last night removing salvageable parts of the Bizango after it got hit by a car.

Anyone want to buy bright yellow suspension forks?

redvee

I've been toying with the idea of a twin mount under the Garmin for a Go-Pro and front light. Today I finally got the dremmel out and cut down a couple of alloy strips I had and bolted a couple of mounts on. Will get some pics up when I fit it over the weekend.
You can buy plastic twin go-pro mounts on ebay but they are far too flexible for a camera and light.

trivial_poursuivant

redvee wrote:

I've been toying with the idea of a twin mount under the Garmin for a Go-Pro and front light. Today I finally got the dremmel out and cut down a couple of alloy strips I had and bolted a couple of mounts on. Will get some pics up when I fit it over the weekend.
You can buy plastic twin go-pro mounts on ebay but they are far too flexible for a camera and light.

Great idea. Also if you not using a go-pro there , I found a few lights that will connect to the mount so you can have it centre underneath your Garmin and off your handlebars.

I bought a k-edge twin mount. Solid and works brilliant but they are a bit costly. I also have a k-edge xl which I assumed I could just buy the go-pro adapter for and it would fit underneath. Nope! Not compatible so still undecided whether or not to just glue it on but that means I ain’t getting it off. Annoying thing is, the XL has the holes but just not in the right places.

timothyw

Long evening fettling the Giant conduct hydraulic brakes.

Had a bit of a spanner thrown in the works - had hoped to use them with my old ultegra 9 speed brifters, but this is going to be impossible as it stands because they don't pull enough brake cable - have to squeeze right to the bars to get any braking force, doesn't feel strong enough to risk on the road.

Anyway, put back on the SRAM brake levers that were on the bike before (it was running single speed, had hoped to go to 1x9...) and they still need quite a lot of pull but seem like they should be effective enough.

I suppose I ought try them out with the Tiagra 4600 brifters from my other wet bike but not really the time of year to risk having both out of action - perhaps will see if I can find some being sold cheap, although better bet might be new Sora/Tiagra groups, as research seems to indicate that each major revision of Shimano road brakes pulls more cable, and the Giant Conduct was almost certainly designed with current Tiagra/105 brifters in mind (that being what it is usually sold attached to...)

Anyway. Studded tyres on ready for bike club lunch tomorrow/commute Monday....