Fettling - what have you put off?

R_T_A

So I finally decided to MTFU and do some "proper" work* on my bike over the bank holiday weekend, and sort out the bearings/cassette/axle of my commuter. I've been dreading it as I've never done it before, and I always manage to screw up even basic maintenance.

After buying a chain whip, cone spanners and cassette tool I resigned myself to spending hours figuring out what I'd ruined and then going to a LBS to laugh at my handiwork.

It all worked perfectly, and even being extra careful it took under an hour :shock:

I've now got to figure out the following bits:

- BB replacement
- Hydraulic brakes bleeding
- Wheel truing

What areas of maintenance are you putting off?

davmaggs

Cleaning the chain. Used to be fairly good at doing it, but its been left for months (although commuting is less at the moment). However it sounds quiet so I'm tempted to sin, and leave it

roger_merriman

I have a proper Bike shop under 5mins walk so I only do very basic stuff, brakes normally.

kelsen

My rear brake pads. They're almost down to the brake shoes. My apathy is going to result in a screeching noise one day followed by a thin shaving of wheel rim being deposited all over the road!

gtvlusso

All of it - run fixies now for the above reason!

notsoblue

The front suspension forks on my hybrid are getting pretty loose. Tbh, I have no clue how to sort it out so have been putting it off for a while. Will probably end up replacing them with lighter weight rigid forks. Just worried I might get a catastrophic failure the next time I bunnyhop over a pothole :S

Perhaps its a job I should get round to this weekend!

spasypaddy

tightening my chain on my fixie, removing the seat post from my fixie (steel + Aluminium = Integrated seat post)

WesternWay

Everything on my other half's bike. And now we need it at the weekend... It has no wheels attached, no brakes attached, the rear hub stripped, the chain broken, the cassette off.

Aiiiieeee

secretsam

The aged 531 is in dire need of a paint job, followed by a new saddle, seat pin, some STIs and a new front changer. And new bars.

Once I've done that lot I can fit my new mudguards to replace my lousy old ones (see my commuting bike piccie).

rhann

BB easy if you can get it out, but quite often you need a massive lever!

mroli

Changing the BB on my single speed
Rebuilding my station bike and buying all the parts
Changing the Force levers and parts on my "touring" bike for the Rival parts on my "race" bike and vice versa.

lastant

Changing the chain - was planning on doing it every 500 miles, and did that for the first one (and the current one) but think I'm up to around 600 miles now. Need to be sure to do it this weekend, make a note of the mileage and then start rotating every thousand...

That and give it a clean.

And get the Marathon Plus's's' from my old Marin onto the new winter hack, a brand new Decathlon Vitamin. Need to sort out getting the rear cog a bit smaller too, to stop it being quite so spinny...

desweller

Wheel truing. I have never had the courage to try this and the rear wheel on the shopper/hack is wobbly.

Spoke key is in the post, so I will be breaking that particular duck either this weekend or next!

Oddjob62

Got a nice new Chris King headset (sparkly red to match Carly), but the amount of tools you need to (properly) do the job is rediculous

desweller

Oddjob62 wrote:

Got a nice new Chris King headset (sparkly red to match Carly), but the amount of tools you need to (properly) do the job is rediculous

Mallet and long screwdriver to remove.

Pop the new cups into the freezer for a while to get them to shrink. Maybe also dip the headtube in very warm water for a while to get it to expand. I am told (although I have not yet had the opportunity to try it out, but it seems eminently feasible) that this will cause enough of a size difference that the new parts will easily pop together. Hold them together until they reach a high enough temperature to cause an interference fit.

redvee

Lubing up the front v brakes because I couldn't get the brake off the boss. When I unscrewed the bolt the stud came out of the forks, sorted it last night with the help of 2 M8 nuts.

cjcp

Maintenance to my mtb. It needs a new everything except wheels. Frankly, I'd rather buy a second hand mtb.

On the commuter, been putting off changing over the groupset.

shouldbeinbed

pads for my disc brakes. I've been riding other bikes just to avoid the few mins it'll take

Oddjob62

DesWeller wrote:

Oddjob62 wrote:

Got a nice new Chris King headset (sparkly red to match Carly), but the amount of tools you need to (properly) do the job is rediculous

Mallet and long screwdriver to remove.

Hmmm no mallet or long screwdriver... See even doing a bodge job means finding some more tools

CXXC

need to straighten the RHS hood on both my road bikes (why the same side and why by the same amount? maybe an optical illusion?)

still waiting for a new ksyrium sl rear drive side spoke to replace the one that snapped, been 3 weeks now

MonkeyMonster

need to remove bb and re-grease.
clean chain
true the tiny niggle out of rear rim
if i could really be bothered - play with the cable covers given when I turned stem over they are now feeling a bit odd
grease wheels too probably

ketsbaia

I've put off just about everything. I need a tool kit and a workstand, but need to wait until the end of the month until I can afford them. Then I need to buy a new crankset for the commuter hack, which won't happen until the following month.

The cranks on the winter trainer are grinding a bit as well, so I need to sort that out as soon as possible too.

But I really want to save up for new wheels for the Sunday best instead...

BTW, if anyone can recommend a cheap tool kit and workstand, fire away. If I can sort those out this month, I might stand a fighting chance of getting something done before Christmas.:D

will3

I still haven't taken the snow tyres off my mtb that were put on in december last year. Hardly seems worth it now.

essex-commuter

My chain has 0.75 wear over 2500 miles and my cassette has 3500 miles on it....debating whether to try to get through to 2011 with both and then change or put a new chain on at 1mm wear and then replace the chain and cassette in about 3000 miles time. I reckon I will do about 2500 miles between now and Christmas. I'm thinking run what I have until 2011 but it seems criminal to fit a new chain and cassette mid-Winter.

Decisions decisions.

gbsahne001

BSO:

changing the rear mech cable; discovered that it's been rubbing against the front v brake's exposed cable, which has eaten through the outer cover of the rear mech's cable.

Doesn't look as though it's happened over night, so might just leave it until I either can't change gear or find myself stuck in the bottom gear.

I'm also in a similar position on the chain, as it's on 3000miles now and I'm loathe to change it going into winter, only to have to change it again afterwards I suppose I could get a new chain now, put it on and then swap it over in November, just depends upon whether the cassette's equally as worn.

bobbygloss

Seatpost. My mtb is old and cheap, and the steel clamp is about to cut the top off the post where it tapers. I keep meaning to caliper it but never do.

Also the suspension fork, I've never figured out how to take it apart and there's a lot of wobble (sideways, that is) where the legs meet the upper part.

oscarbudgie

My so - called 'winter trainer' (a Dawes Giro circa 1998) - has been sat in the garden for the last 4 months without a rain cover. The nearly new Tiagra groupset I bought 3 months ago to put on it is still in a box under my desk and is probably too good for the Dawes anyway so I'm planning on finding a nicer (steel?) frame.....
If I keep the Daws I could make it singlespeed -how easy or hard is to do with (vertical dropouts)

_jon_

My front wheel is making a scraping noise and the hub is all rusted over. I really need to take it apart and re-grease the bearing (or replace the wheel). I'm surprised it hasn't seized up by now.

I am also only able to use the top two gears. Partly because the front dérailleur has seized.

I'll get round to fixing it one day. maybe....

Oddjob62

Oddjob62 wrote:

DesWeller wrote:

Oddjob62 wrote:

Got a nice new Chris King headset (sparkly red to match Carly), but the amount of tools you need to (properly) do the job is rediculous

Mallet and long screwdriver to remove.

Hmmm no mallet or long screwdriver... See even doing a bodge job means finding some more tools

Well tried to bodge but no good... the headset was SOLIDLY wedged in there. Even with a proper removal tool it took a good 20 of hte hardest strikes i could muster before it popped out.

Well now i have a homemade headset press, a proper headset removal tool, a proper crown race setting tool, a mallet, a pipe cutter, and i just need to get me a star nut setter to complete the job.

SmellTheGlove

Brake adjustment. Stupid I know. And even more daft to admit it.
But anyway, took the tools to it at lunchtime and I'm now legal again.

The rest of the bike though is still, predictably, a whole heap of cr@p.
btwin Vitamin now properly on the cards as commuter.


EDIT
This brake thing is a recurring 'mare - I've just remembered I need a new bolt for the rear brake lever pivot on the MTB too.

Oddjob62

Oddjob62 wrote:

Well now i have a homemade headset press, a proper headset removal tool, a proper crown race setting tool, a mallet, a pipe cutter, and i just need to get me a star nut setter to complete the job.

Yay!! now i've gota nut setter and she's all back together again with her new bling Chris King headset