How was your mechanical fiddling today?

[Snuffy]

So we have a thread for "How was your commute today?" and "How was your recreational ride today?"....

Here's the home mechanic's version of the same thread.... Share stories of how ingenious you are at solving some problem... or how frustrated you are on removing a stuck crank.....

Of course, this is not to take away from any other maintenance threads for questions that people have.....

And for today's fiddling...

Several little jobs to do today... first up was to fix the puncture I copped in the last few km of my commute today.... I should point out that a rear flat is a semi major operation for my folding bike because the bolt up rear axle and Nexus hub aren't quite as easy as your QR and RD setup.... anyway tube out and found a billion little pieces of glass in the tyre although only one made it through...

patched the tube...

And while it was drying, I replace the grips on my MTB... ditched the ODI Ruffians for a pair of Oury lock ons... firmer than standard Ourys, but still quite a fair bit softer than the Ruffians..... will see how we go.....

Tube's dry, tested and back on the bike... fiddle a bit with the headtube folding mechanism and manage to pinch my finger under the mechanism while I'm closing it... almighty big blood blister on my left hand ring finger

So in summary for tonight....
- First puncture on the folder - LOSE
- New Ourys on the MTB - WIN!
- Blood blister on my finger - LOSE

With that kind of ratio I'm glad I'm not a professional wrench.....

[The Duckmeister]

I had to work on a Dunlop pile of pooh today. Such is the life of a professional at times.

[Luke52]

Pulled the spring out of my Mozo fork today. Cleaned all the gunky crap off it, loaded it up with some grease and put it all back together.

Bounces up and down MUCH more smoothly now. Not bad for a first time fork repairer I reckon

[baudman]

Not today, but on the weekend, still trying to perfect the tightening of chains (on hub-geared bikes for my three, but same as for SS/Fixies).

One is too tight. One is too loose. And one now slightly rubs its tyre (not on the chain stay, coz that'd be easy, it's on the spoke lock, so it's a bit trickier coz that's up on the seat stay).

[UJ1]

Good topic Snuffy just when I thought all ideas were exhausted!

I like working on bikes, I find it therapeutic and sometimes I would rather work on a bike than ride. But I can sympathise with Duckmeister, I would hate to work on sh!tters for a living.

[Snuffy]

Damn... my finger is turning all funny colours of purple

[smc]

Got a delivery from CRC yesterday, cranks, cassettes, chains and other bits. Set about fixing my commuter which has been on the death bed of late. Then fixed a few tubes for spares as I accidentally ordered 1-1.5" tubes which I don't think will like filling up 2.1" tyres

Tonight plan to get stuck into the good bike, new cranks, cassette and chain and swap the tyres back to knobies.

Then if time permits some upgrades to the road bike.

[ReG_C]

I had to work on a Dunlop pile of pooh today. Such is the life of a professional at times.

I regularly do that at work too and the odd ebay job

just abt to tackle tyre liners in my wet weather commute and re-align the front brake

re-grease the threads on the BB of my roadie, and change the tyres (Rubino Pro's FTW)

and then wash my MTB and give it a service it deserves, wow, I thought this was going to be my day off

[Robsalvv]

Ok fiddlers... um, that sounds wrong LOL... how do you lube your cables?


My commuter is >20yrs old. It still has original brake and gear cables... they still seem to be in ok condition at the levers but because of their age, they're on my radar.

They've only ever had a few messy squirt of WD40 over the years - is there a better way?

[ReG_C]

are they rusted further down the cables?

I'd suggest un-clipping your brakes and sliding the outer cable away to inspect the places to can't see without doing this procedure

I've found a light grease, or singer 3 in 1 works, but needs it fairly regularly (my bike gets dirty often), the roadie gets it when the gears start to have trouble getting into the smallest cogs on the back (every 6 months)

[crb]

Last weekends' fiddle:

1. Replaced 8sp 12-25 cluster with 9sp 12-27 cluster - lost my cluster removal virginity.

2. Replaced 8sp chain with 9sp chain and Connex Wipperman link - I wonder if I got the length right?

3. Replaced 8sp Micro flatbar shifter with 9sp SRAM Attack flatbar shifter.

4. Fiddled with cable tension.

I still need to get the LBS to trim my new shifter cable.

The weekend after next - salmon brake blocks!

[smc]

The good mtb got new cranks last night, gone from XT to SLX but they look nice. New cassette and chain thrown on. Need to pull the headset apart and grease it up, seems a bit rough after all the rain and snow it copped the other week. Speedo also needed to be dried out inside and a new battery.

[Snuffy]

How to get this plastic shim out of the headtube of my folder? hmmmmmm

[Frosty]

Good thread, Snuffy.

Before I went on our 5 month sojourn to Darwin etc, my main MTB developed a squeak in the bottom bracket. I solved that problem by taking my 'backup' MTB with us.

Now it is time to get off my bum and give the MTB a good grease and clean. As the weather is still crap, that won't be happening today.

BTW, Have I told you guys lately - How bloody great this retirement caper is!

[Jugglingogre]

BTW, Have I told you guys lately - How bloody great this retirement caper is!

rub it in why don't you