Thread To Tell Everyone What Fettling You've Just Done

rhodrich

Replaced spoke in the back wheel of my Pete Luxton track bike, and cleaned and oiled the chain. Fettling doesn't get more exciting than this!

UndercoverElephant

A helpful drafter mentioned last week that the rear wheel of the Scott had a bit of a wobble. Took a look when I got to work and there’s cracks around the spoke holes of the H Plus Son Archetype rim. Ordered its to re-rim both front and back (Kinlin RT-22t rims, alloy nipples for a change and some nipple washers).

Rim for the front arrived first, so did that one yesterday. Builds up very nicely, looks good, if slightly shiny. But no rear as yet.

Commuted in yesterday on a spare I had in the garage, which I’d built as a super-tough wheel - Ambrosio Zenith Endurance hub, Sapim Strong spokes on the drive-side, Race on the NDS. What a great fun wheel that is, really heavy but no flex at all when putting the power down. Picked up a 5th overall on an uphill Strava segment that I just powered up.

Edit: With the new Kinlin front I'm up to second. I love this new wheel, felt fast. Soooo fast. Can't wait until I can get the rear built up.

itboffin

UndercoverElephant wrote:

A helpful drafter mentioned last week that the rear wheel of the Scott had a bit of a wobble. Took a look when I got to work and there’s cracks around the spoke holes of the H Plus Son Archetype rim. Ordered its to re-rim both front and back (Kinlin RT-22t rims, alloy nipples for a change and some nipple washers).

Rim for the front arrived first, so did that one yesterday. Builds up very nicely, looks good, if slightly shiny. But no rear as yet.

Commuted in yesterday on a spare I had in the garage, which I’d built as a super-tough wheel - Ambrosio Zenith Endurance hub, Sapim Strong spokes on the drive-side, Race on the NDS. What a great fun wheel that is, really heavy but no flex at all when putting the power down. Picked up a 5th overall on an uphill Strava segment that I just powered up.

Edit: With the new Kinlin front I'm up to second. I love this new wheel, felt fast. Soooo fast. Can't wait until I can get the rear built up.

I wish i could true a wheel let alone build one

UndercoverElephant

itboffin wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

A helpful drafter mentioned last week that the rear wheel of the Scott had a bit of a wobble. Took a look when I got to work and there’s cracks around the spoke holes of the H Plus Son Archetype rim. Ordered its to re-rim both front and back (Kinlin RT-22t rims, alloy nipples for a change and some nipple washers).

Rim for the front arrived first, so did that one yesterday. Builds up very nicely, looks good, if slightly shiny. But no rear as yet.

Commuted in yesterday on a spare I had in the garage, which I’d built as a super-tough wheel - Ambrosio Zenith Endurance hub, Sapim Strong spokes on the drive-side, Race on the NDS. What a great fun wheel that is, really heavy but no flex at all when putting the power down. Picked up a 5th overall on an uphill Strava segment that I just powered up.

Edit: With the new Kinlin front I'm up to second. I love this new wheel, felt fast. Soooo fast. Can't wait until I can get the rear built up.

I wish i could true a wheel let alone build one

They’re pretty easy, once you start. Truing is just a case of tightening the spokes on the right pulls the rim to the right and tightening the spokes on the left pulls it to the left. You’ll only be tightening, as the wheel will only have worked itself loose. Start with something heavy and tough and you won’t go too wrong.

tgotb

itboffin wrote:

I wish i could true a wheel let alone build one

The trick is to learn by building a new wheel (or rebuilding an old one) with a rim you know is true to start with. If your starting point is a wheel with a wobble that was caused by a prang, pothole etc, you're going to have a tough time.

A very good starting point would be to take a wheel with a worn out rim and high spoke count (32-spoke Open Pro would be ideal) and replace the rim. If you tape the rims together you can loosen the spokes and then transfer them to the new rim one at a time, which means you don't have to worry about getting the lacing right.

Deep section carbon rims, interestingly, are a completely different technique. Because they're so stiff, you have to think in terms of centring the hub in the middle of the rim and getting the spoke tensions even.

itboffin

tried just that and failed more than once, i just make it far worse

kingdav

I got started after pringling a shimano factory front rim in a commuting crash. Bought an archetype, some MDF and Roger Musson's book, built myself a truing stand, dishing guage and got stuck in. Very satisfying! I did make a bit of a mess of re-rimming the perfectly good rear wheel just so it matched, but learn't something from the experience and it was fixable. I plan to build a new pair of wheels soon for a new winter super commuter I'm going to build up.

It isn't too hard when you follow some instructions and it shouldn't take long to get an understanding of what you are doing.

wolfsbane2k

Somehow or other, I've managed to clean the bike and drivetrain properly before 10am on a bank holiday
Saturday.
Normally I leave it until the last thing on a Sunday or Monday night...

itboffin

took my 2013 HP discontinued chromebook apart and installed custom firmware then xubuntu and chrome stable 66, screw you Google, nothing wrong with this device

ugo.santalucia

New front gear cable, rear hub full service, tyres squared... and that's after just 3 rides! *

* totalling 813 miles :-)

Tashman

Not me - but the wonderful Dr Bike in Lewes. I'd indexed the rear mech on our £20 BTWin Rockrider 340 we picked up for Tashboy. Couldn't sort the front mech at all though. Seemed to be stuck between the 2 smallest chainrings and I couldn't get my head around it in the limited time I had. Brakes were also a little on the slack side. They got it working beautifully and even insisted on fitting the new tyre I had for it. All for a donation too. A proper community asset. Seemed to be several kids there later too borrowing the tools to do the work themselves on their bikes

greenamex2

Knees been hurting a bit since my bike was in the LBS being upgraded.

Checked with the LBS...they admitted to possibly not having been too accurate with the seat height.

Raised the seat height 5mm.

Pain gone.

And a new Strava PR to boot.

greenamex2

greenamex2 wrote:

Knees been hurting a bit since my bike was in the LBS being upgraded.

Checked with the LBS...they admitted to possibly not having been too accurate with the seat height.

Raised the seat height 5mm.

Pain gone.

And a new Strava PR to boot.

And fitted a carbon stem I had left over from the road bike (long story) whilst oiling the chain after going through a 12 inch deep puddle...twice...yesterday.

prawny

Farted around with the hub in my rear Aksium, I think the bearings are going to have to be replaced, cycle republic are talking nearly £50, sod that, the whole wheelset was only £150. Now to decide whether to try and replace the bearings myself, buy new Prime Peloton wheels, or get a new bike. Mine feels tired now anyway, it needs a new chainset and the shifting hasn't been right for a while, no amount of new cables, cassettes, chains or cleaning can sort it. In fact the only thing that is really on song is the brakes (which were new in December)

keef66

If you want a new bike and can afford one, go ahead. No need to come on here and justify it to us.

itboffin

keef66 wrote:

If you want a new bike and can afford one, go ahead. No need to come on here and justify it to us.

its alllll part of the process

veronese68

itboffin wrote:

keef66 wrote:

If you want a new bike and can afford one, go ahead. No need to come on here and justify it to us.

its alllll part of the process

I can rarely say it’s the bike that’s tired.

prawny

Veronese68 wrote:

itboffin wrote:

keef66 wrote:

If you want a new bike and can afford one, go ahead. No need to come on here and justify it to us.

its alllll part of the process

I can rarely say it’s the bike that’s tired.

I'm blaming the bike for me being tired

Has anyone gone back to rim brakes from discs for commuting? I was hoping that discs would stop me from having to replace rims, but in the last 2 years I've had one rim crack around the spokes and the hub is going in the other. Seeing as I only pay bottom dollar for commute wheels I'm thinking they're pretty much disposable, so it's only the braking performance that is concerning me now.

tgotb

prawny wrote:

Has anyone gone back to rim brakes from discs for commuting? I was hoping that discs would stop me from having to replace rims, but in the last 2 years I've had one rim crack around the spokes and the hub is going in the other. Seeing as I only pay bottom dollar for commute wheels I'm thinking they're pretty much disposable, so it's only the braking performance that is concerning me now.

Or just use the fact you're not wearing the rims out to justify buying decent kit. Cheap kit isn't designed to cope with heavy use; I recently read that the average bike is ridden less than 30 miles a year.
I've had the same set of commuting wheels for ~5 years now. Ambrosio Excellight rims (very similar to Open Pro), and Novatec hubs; you could build a set today for well under £200. If the bearings in the hubs do go, they cost a couple of quid each and take minutes to replace.

From a pure braking performance perspective, I still prefer rim brakes. They're both great when they're working well, and they can both be rubbish if you get cr*p ones or set them up poorly, but problems with disk brakes tend to be trickier to solve, and a 700mm diameter braking surface is always going to beat a 160mm one.

prawny

Some things I'm not willing to spend a big wedge on and wheels are one of them, I've dinged too many rims to want to risk a decent set on a commuter, the roads round here are terrible and getting worse. I'm tempted to get a summer rim braked bike, and stash the Hack somewhere until the winter. I just can't imagine using it to ride somewhere for fun, and even commuting should be fun sometimes.

mudcovered

TGOTB wrote:

Or just use the fact you're not wearing the rims out to justify buying decent kit. Cheap kit isn't designed to cope with heavy use; I recently read that the average bike is ridden less than 30 miles a year.
I've had the same set of commuting wheels for ~5 years now. Ambrosio Excellight rims (very similar to Open Pro), and Novatec hubs; you could build a set today for well under £200. If the bearings in the hubs do go, they cost a couple of quid each and take minutes to replace.

For disc brakes this is the approach to take. I've got a 20 year old disc braked MTB front wheel that has done over 10000 miles (including some horrible offroad conditions that have seen it totally submerged in water and partially submerged in peat bogs ) and its still as good as new. Hub bearings have been serviced a few times but that's it. The rear wheel has had to have a new rim twice (but on one of those occasions it was after being rear-ended by a car at a junction). Again hub bearings serviced a few times but that's it.

Mike

tgotb

Open Pros are £35 a go; how much are you hoping to save?

Building a bike with cr*p kit is a false economy; it ends up being no fun to ride (as you've acknowledged) and falls apart. If you then fix it with more cheap kit (because "it's going to fall apart anyway") you perpetuate the viscious circle.

The best thing I ever did for commuting was build a bike with decent kit that was properly suited to the task (rack, proper wide mudguards, disk brakes), but still light/stiff enough to be fun to ride. In 5 years I don't think I've replaced anything more than tyres, gear cables, chains, cassette, brake pads and rotors, and possibly a bottom bracket. It's still nice enough to ride that it took me until last week to get my road bike off the turbo where it's been since November. If I do destroy a rim, it'll cost me £35 to replace, but it hasn't happened yet. Life's too short to ride a clunker...

prawny

I spose, maybe I'll have to learn to build wheels myself, a £35 rim rebuilt by a shop ends up being £100 plus time on the train. I can get a £100 set of wheels the next day. My bike is what I aspired to as the perfect commuter, it's got cheap but funtional kit on (tiagra, aksiums, HyRds) fast wide tyres (hyper voyagers) and full guards but it just feels dead. Uphill it's a real slog, much worse than the Tenet frame it replaced with all the same kit on it, I don't know what it is. On a 10 mile commute I think I'd be fine with it, but by wednesday I'm 120 miles deep in the week and I'm more knackered that I ever have been before.

tgotb

Definitely teach yourself how to build wheels; if you're methodical, it's easier than you think, and very satisfying. Once you've got the feel for it you should be able to re-rim a wheel in an hour or so.

What frame do you have? I based my commuter around a fairly light/stiff CX frame with identical geometry to my race bikes, which I think helped keep it fun to ride...

prawny

I had a Saracen Tenet which I was happy with, despite it being a bit uninspiring but when it cracked they swapped it for a Hack. The geometry is largely similar but it's got such huge clearances the wheelbase must be longer, i think the front is higher and the frame must weigh a fair bit more on it's own. The tubes on the rear triangle are pretty chunky.

Ideal would be something like the Tenet really, basically a normal racey bike with discs, I've not been convinced by super wide tyres. And I don't like a high front end.

prawny

Cleaned and tweaked the commuter, it needed a new chain too, Think I caught it just in time so the cassette will still be fine, that chain had been used on two back wheels a fair bit so it's been spread over two cassettes anyway.

Definitely need new rings on the front, they're badly hooked and one of the last remaining original parts of the bike so they've done about 17000 miles.

Just need to decide whether to get a new bike or not before I spend the cash. Really like the green Vitus wiggle are doing for £800 with hydro 105

N0bodyOfTheGoat

prawny wrote:

Cleaned and tweaked the commuter, it needed a new chain too, Think I caught it just in time so the cassette will still be fine, that chain had been used on two back wheels a fair bit so it's been spread over two cassettes anyway.

Definitely need new rings on the front, they're badly hooked and one of the last remaining original parts of the bike so they've done about 17000 miles.

Just need to decide whether to get a new bike or not before I spend the cash. Really like the green Vitus wiggle are doing for £800 with hydro 105

Spec of that Vitus looks pretty good for £800, I'd struggle to recall a cheaper bike with Shimano BR505 hydraulics.

Even with BC discount if they have a frame size that fits you, http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitu ... prod159582 looks nice, but it would end up way over £800 unless you had a big box of suitable spare components.

prawny

I'm thikingnof heading away from CX style bikes tbh. The one I've got now has been a bit disappointing I've even been thinking about going back to rim brakes and getting something like an Allez, I've really missed the raw speed on my long a road commute.

I'm swaying towards the Vitus at the mo, but I've also been tempted by the Claris equipped Vitus Razor for £320 after BC discount on CRC. I like the sound of £5 chains

elbowloh

Had a noisy creaking sound, seemingly coming from the BB area (PF30 with FSA reducer cups and Ultegra hollowtech 2 cranks). Took the cranks out and the cups, cleaned, re-greased and and re-assembled. Still getting a creak, but I don't think it's from this area anymore.

Next step is to check the saddle/rails interface and the bottle cage bolts (where I've had this problem before and it does sound remarkably like a creaking BB).

prawny

elbowloh wrote:

Had a noisy creaking sound, seemingly coming from the BB area (PF30 with FSA reducer cups and Ultegra hollowtech 2 cranks). Took the cranks out and the cups, cleaned, re-greased and and re-assembled. Still getting a creak, but I don't think it's from this area anymore.

Next step is to check the saddle/rails interface and the bottle cage bolts (where I've had this problem before and it does sound remarkably like a creaking BB).

It's almost always the bloody seatpost :x