Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Farmyard down the plug well is a very accurate description :)

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Waiting on parts for the DRZ again... so back to the VFR. It's very reluctant and lumpy on startup and a bit jerky at low revs. So synched the starter valves, which will hopefully smooth it out a bit. I've got a feeling it needs cam chain tensioners looking at and possibly the dreaded VTEC valve clearance check too.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0734b26e_c.jpg

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Oof, it's like an SV in there, but with TWO of everything ....

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

That smoothed my previous VFR out lovely at low low revs, the current one does not have the problem.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

A pretty pathetic effort compared to the above but I wanted to replace the chainset on my custom made 1982 bike frame (I have grown somewhat attached to 'Wester' ). I had stripped down the bottom bracket and replaced the bearings and regreased. When fitting the chainset the crankarm fouled the bottom bracket shell. After investigating the problem I discover the crank spindle is an ISO standard and the chainset is JIS standard. Got hold of a sealed bearing bottom bracket, tried to fit it and what I thought was the correct splined spanner does not fit. Persevered with a homemade spanner but could not get the cup to screw in fully as its about 8mm deeper than the one removed, continuing would only have ended up damaging the splined cup so had to abandon and have now ordered the correct required spanner. A 20 minute job will run into a third day -sometimes I hate 'progress' (Perhaps should have been posted in gripe of the day)

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

One of our biggest gripes at the shop I work at is bottom bracket "standards". None of them are standard! The amount of new sizes, designs and new tools needed for them in the last few years is ridiculous.



Whatever you do don't buy an old Stronglight chainset that requires a special crank puller for one side that is possibly the rarest tool in the world. Also never trust wheel bearing cartridges. Some manufacturers share seals from other sized bearings that have the wrong number stamped on them. The amount of niche knowledge that is needed to be able to work on a range of bikes is mind boggling. 12 years working professionaly and I still learn something new every week.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Agree with bottom bracket comments. Even more annoying when you can't get the bloody thing out at all to repair things (like my Falcon Escape)

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Agree, which is why I've only ever bought frames with 68mm threaded BB's, none of your press fit bollox :-). I'll stick with my Hope BB's which I can replace the bearings myself. I don't generate enough power for anything else.

I lost my rag when Shimano didn't make my 10speed Ultegra wheels 11 speed compatible, and you couldn't swap the freehub either. I couldn't get replacement cones for them either. Mavic on the other had made their freehubs 11speed compatible early on, but like you said, they weren't easy to get replacement bearings for.

Campag was the same when 10speed came out and all my beautiful hubs wouldn't work, because the 9 speed freehubs wouldn't take the 10speed cassette as it was a totally different design.

Life was simpler with square taper BB's and friction shifters :-) :-)

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Shimano are usually pretty good at trying to stay compatible in an increasingly diverse world of cycling tech. Their only major glitches have been 9 to 10 speed mountain bike and 10 to 11 speed road. Their Dynasis system changed the cable pull. Also the third variant of Tiagra 10 speed, which is not compatible with anything else except itself. We get a lot of confused customers trying to use Tiagra with other 10 speed parts (Old 105 and Ultegra and even other previous Tiagra) and not able to figure out why it's not quite working.


At least they try though. Sram have always made their own stuff incompatible with themselves.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Agreed that was Shimsno's only glitch, although let's see what happens when they roll out 12speed :-)

I'm not a SRAN fan, except for Etape wireless, wish Shimano had introduced it, rumours suggest it might be in the pipeline?