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.


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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?

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Cripes out of my depth here too! Well Wester now has a 9 speed freewheel block fitted to the original Shimano hubs, (which run really smoothly) it has Weinmann concave rims which were the thing back in the 80s. Managed to re-dish the wheel after all this time although the spokes are not stainless.
I built it for cycle camping trips but now it used for less arduous day rides.
Hope the rear axle holds up ok as there is quite a length unsupported wheel to frame. (Obviously the new cassette system is a better design)

Guess it is a bit of nostalgia just like owning a classic Motorbike.
On Ytube the is a guy called Hambini - somewhat opinionated and foul mouthed but I have found his analyses of BB problems fascinating. Most are carbon frames and basically suffer through a lack of quality control with the hole each side not in alignment or under/oversized or not round but slightly oval. Hence creaking pressfit BB

Yep the old BSA still seems the way to go

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

New shock absorber for my ST. Old one removed and will be cleaning up the inaccessible areas whilst its out and waiting for the new one to arrive.
I was torn between getting this one refurbished, or a new Hagon one, but in the end convinced myself the new one is the better choice - even though it's 100% more cost, it does have a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Tinkering last week involved trying to sort the handbrake on the X-trail as it was only working on one side, failed the mot because of it. Rear discs and pads weren't looking great either so figured I might as well do it all at the same time.
After 2 hours I had managed to get 1 caliper sliding pin out and 1 caliper bracket bolt out so I gave up, put it all back together and booked it into my normal garage for them to sort it. It took them 6 hours altogether!

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

MK1 x-trail? Had the same pain. ☹ My local garage always stripped and cleaned the rears whenever it was serviced afterwards as a precaution. They worked great after that.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Mk2 T31 Xtrail but it seems to be a recurring problem with the nissans including the Qashqai.
I reckon I’ll need to either refurb or replace the rear calipers before the next mot

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Most Nissans and quite a few Renaults of that era have that problem. DD get some refurbished by someone else as they're a right sod to do

Took a friend 4 hours to replace a Nissan cube handbrake cable on a ramp

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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Doing up 3 Sv650 1999. I am sure some of the muck is 20 year old!! Every bike has been stripped down to just frames, and currently being rebuilt. Takes about a week per bike so far.

If anyone has any bits kicking about for sale let me know. Cheers

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

I've got a few bits I need to clear out in the coming weeks:
Subframe
Seat (I think)
JMC swing arm.
I'll put a list together as I go through the boxes.


Ste

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Still waiting on parts for the DRZ so set about removing the carb to clean up. Not something I intended to do straight away but may as well while I wait for the other bits.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6bfae34d_c.jpg


Then carried on trying to free up the stuck swingarm pivot bolt. Resorting to spraying it at the joins with it lying on it's side and soaking instead of hammering it. Managed to crush my finger using the brute force method the other day and didn't notice until my glove made strange squishy noises, which I found out was because it was full of blood.
Got a decent propane torch on order too to get a bit of heat on there inbetween soaking it with penetrating oil. Got a feeling it's going to be a slow process over quite a few days.


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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

That's quite a carb, got a TPS and everything. And be careful with your thumb!

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

It has, and the bolts holding it in place were well and truly stuck. As is every other bolt / screw on it. It's definitely not been removed in a long time! Nothing is turning out to be a simple job on this bike.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

The DRZ battle continues. Everything apart again and attacking it with heat. Still no movement on the pivot bolt, but plenty of cracking sounds as it heated up. Need to leave it soaking with penetrating fluid again and back to it tomorrow. I did get some very seized up and stuck bearings out of the back wheel though and it only took about 4 hours. Cleaned up nicely and fresh bearings in there so it might be a bit easier pushing it around now. The bearings were so bad that it even affected trying to roll it about.

Also managed to get a throttle tube and cables from someone of FB who it turns out lives down the road from me and has loads of spares. Need a bit of luck like that with this project that was never meant to be a project.


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https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e732cc1c_c.jpg


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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Quite some journey you are on!!

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

$£%^$£^$£^£$^$% Yeeeeeeesss!


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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Look forward to seeing the bearings

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Well done. Persistence pays off.

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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Today I have mostly been doing learnining...


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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

I'd like to learn to weld. I'm not sure how often I'd need to use it though.

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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Same here - but I suspect it's a bit like going into B&M Bargains. You never go in there with a list: you find out what you need to buy as you're going round :)

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Yep. If you want to really get into it and make the process easier there is a LOT of gear you can buy. I've just got a cheap second hand mid range mig welder from someone locally. All set up with wire etc. Then got cheap gloves, jacket (old german factory stock on ebay) and a decent enough mask. The mask is important.


I factored in the cost of getting my van fixed before MOT to justify a small spend on it. I have done brazing in the past too. Very different but has some basics that are similar. I managed to build a bicycle frame as part of a four day charity course I did a few years ago. All guided by experts, so not sure I could do it on my own. That sort of thing involves a lot more tooling and jigs etc too. Mig is cheap but a bit of an ugly finish. Brazing is a very nice finish but a very expensive setup. Especially if you need insurance for handling the gases.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

They aren't good. Came out in bits.


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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Past their best I think.

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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Nah, give 'em a clean and refit them with a bit of fresh grease and they'll be good as new!

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Whatever you do wear jeans. I'm quite partial to the tracksuit bottom when working on vehicles (for the flexibility climbing under wheel arches etc ). Nothing more alarming than molten weld run off burning straight through your crotch and taking a tour of your cleftal horizon after a quick yet painful visit to nutsack village. Especially if you're contorted into aforementioned wheelarch and can't run away and scream, you sort of end up wiggling like you're in a straight jacket trying to flip up your mask with one hand and punching yourself in the crotch with the other hand.


...or so I've heard...

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Today's job replacing the hdd in my laptop. Nice new ssd now installed.

https://i.postimg.cc/NjXZ08hz/IMG-20...901172-HDR.jpg

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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

I can get recon calipers for £84 each so I'll probably go down that route

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Really cheeses me off that so many laptops over the last few years need the entire back off to get at the hdd or ssd, and often also the RAM. Why have manufacturers stopped giving folks just a small discrete panel to access these components? :-(

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

I agree. It was a right faff. I guess it boils down to cost or maybe to put off people from upgrading so they buy a replacement.

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Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

^Nailed it in one.

There's no money in people upgrading things at home. So they make everything as awkward as possible.
Tossers.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

I would as that's a good price

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