No spin this weekend...

Yep, that's right...My faithful Niner is in service as I've run into some brake issue that I couldn't get sorted in-house. 

Time to get new set of brake pads...yes, yes...I shouldn't have waited this long...

After I got new pads for the bike I just realized that my breakes need to be bled. As I don't have an Avid bleeding kit and brake fluid at home I've decided to leave the bike at my expert bike mechanic friend. 

Lets head to BringaSzevíz60! 

As the beast is getting some well needed TLC I had no other choice but to skip my usual Saturday MTB session. Ah well, stuff like this happens! 

Welcome back to life you beautiful beast!

During yeasterday the Niner got so much abuse that left no other choice but to carry out a proper TLC on it. Sunny day, savage metal music and an hour later a squeeky clean single speed XC weapon! I'll take that thank you very much! ;)  

Another cool evening in The Shed

Wow, what a savage evening it was! Good friend of mine popped in to get his pedals serviced. Got them sorted and in the main time we got some proper rock music going, we had brutal tasty toast on the top of the stove and also had a hot cuppa Earl Gray. Oh, and of course endless bike talk! So, what more could we wish for on a Friday evening, hah? 

Another quiet evening

Thursday evening in The Shed

It was such a nice evening in The Shed: burning fire, good music and some bike maintenance. Got the rear wheel and the headset sorted and also got a new chain fitted on the Niner. Long story short: I like evenings like this!! :)  

Chilled out evening in The Shed

I ride my bike on the weekends and I do all the bike repair stuff during the week. And every time I'm out in The Shed doing my stuff I'm having a ball! 

Like the other day: savage music, cold beer and a tubeless conversion on the Niner. Perfect combination, isn't it?  #itcan'tgetanybetter #shedlife :)

DIY bike repair stand

Well, first of all it's not an advanced bike repair stand type thing really, but after all it makes things much easier when it comes to bike repair in my shed! Needless to say too much, let's see the project:

The shopping list:

               - 10cm x 10cm wood column (2 x 50 cm long pieces)    

               - 1 shovel handle (cut up to 50cm long pieces)

               - 6 pieces of plastic wall dowel plugs

               - 6 pieces of 18 cm long bolts

               - 6 pieces of washers 

               - 1 set of handlebar tape

• First we got the wood planer and got the wood columns nice and smooth.
• Then we drilled the holes for the bars and for all the fitting bolts as well. 
• After all this we got all the necessary measurements right and got everything fitted.
• At the end I wrapped the bars with the handlebar tape to make sure it won't damage the frame.

Here we are, it's ready :)

It's possibly the most simple thing that can be used as a bike stand but in the end of the day it's enough to get basic maintenance jobs done and they'll be much easier this way then having to get them done with the bike on the floor. And considering the fact the total cost of the whole unit was about 6 EUR makes me feel even more happy about it! :)

Testing the latest upgrade of The Bike Shed

Homemade Tubeless Inflator

I've seen a very interesting article a few days ago. It was about how to make a tubeless inflator. I don't normaly jump on these things but after I finished up reading I decided I'll give this a try. I don't have a compressor in my bike shed, so I think it definitely worth a try! 

Everything's here, let's do it!

• 1 x plastic bottle
• 2 x presta valves (I used tubeless valves instead of valves cut out of old tubes)
• 1 x plastic clip
• 30 cm of plastic pipe (from my local pet store)
• some insulating tape

Drilled 2 holes, tightened up 2 valves, taped up the pipe and put the whole inlator together. It was ready to be tested in about 10 minutes! Quite quick little project, isn't it?! 

Here it is, my brand new homemade tubeless inflator

The first pressure test, everything seems to be fine

So, I hope with the help of this homemade inflator I can make tubeless tyre fitting smoother and easier in the future. Test results will be posted, stay tuned! :)

...to read the full article and see the video just click here

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/article/how-to-make-a-tubeless-inflator-44290/ 

The Bike Shed Project // Part 3

The Bike Shed Project has come to an end slowly over the last few weeks. Today I managed to put the final touch on it!

There's always room to improve but at this point I can say that I have a Shed that I was planning to have for a long time. I'm happy with it and I look forward to the countless messing-around-with-my-bike-out-in-the-shed hours out here! :)

The Bike Shed Project // Part 2

The Bike Shed is shaping pretty well, managed to get some work done on it since the last post. Things got out of the boxes but more inportantly I have the heating sorted! 

The place looks a bit more alive indeed

Got this real treasure from my Dad just a few days ago. It is a very-very old iron stove that was my Grandfather's long time ago. It needed some work but it is ready now and it is absolutely amazing. Beast of a heat source! :)

Vintage stove & hot tea. What else I could ask for on a cold winter day?!

So, there's still a little work to be done but I'm already very happy with the way this bike shed of mine is shaping up. Cool little place indeed that'll see countless hours of bike maintenance & servicing! Can't wait! :)

Massive thanks to my Dad for surprising me with this stove and for getting it back to life for me! It was a lovely surprise and a huge help!!

The Bike Shed Project // Part 1

My own bike shed...not just a shed for the bike though but something like a little workshop type thing that I can use for maintenance and for all my bike needs. This has been my dream for a good few years and the time is finally here to get it done!

Still a lot to be done but it has started to look like something that I was thinking about. 

I love working on the bike and keep it in a good order. This bike shed (when it'll be ready) will be serving me well. All I need to do is finish it. The next big task is getting the heating sorted and a workshop stand is also a missing piece of tha puzzle. But I'm sure it won't take long before these things are no longer an issue! :)

Things are getting sorted, many thanks Gábor!

Use what you have!

Just a quick snapshot of my way of using the family/team/holiday car on it's limits. I have no shed or garden of my own so I need to work with what I have: storing the bike, toolbox, equipment and when needed the trusted Fabia Estate turns into a workshop! Class! :)

Refurbished Sram X.O carbon rear mech

When I've decided to switch back from Shimano to SRAM again the first task was to pick up all the necessary parts. Since I'm still on a 9 speed system the only option that I preferred was the 9 speed version of the legendery Sram X.O rear derailleur. Just after a short time on the Internet and after a couple of phone calls I managed to pick up this beauty here and to top that, it was the carbon cage version! Happy days! :)

It has it's time served indeed but there was nothing that a little T.L.C couldn't get sorted. However I had to face a pretty tough task during the process: the tensioner spring was broken. I've had a replacement one allright, but I have to say that it is a savage thing to get that little strong spring fitted back into the super tight body of a rear mech! I'll be honest here: I couldn't even get it done myself without the help of Tomek, the excellent mechanic from the ThinkBike workshop! Hats off Tomek, thanks a lot man!

And there it is, the broken spring

And that's about the size of the room that we could work with...

...whilst we tried to fit this extra-mega-super strong little spring.

But after after all the cleaning and messing about with the spring I ended up with a rear mech that is in a perfect shape. I'm sure it'll serve me for a long time unless an univited rock tears off the carbon cage...but I will do my best to avoid that to happen! :)

All cleaned up & ready for action

Time to get ready

Refurbished Dura Ace (RD-7700) rear mech

After a little digging and some research I managed to pick up this second hand Shimano Dura Ace RD-7700 rear mech this afternoon. I was looking for something nice for the cyclocross bike and I think I can't get any better than this! 

The mech is in a very good condition, there's only some cosmetic damage on the side but mothing serious. So once I got my hands on this bad boy the work to bring it back to perfect working order has started. 

Needs a bit of cleaning

I took the two jockey wheels out and started to clean then properly, also got the bolts and the plate a good bit of a scrubbing because I needed to get rid of the dirt fully before I put them back together. 

Nice & clean now, ready to be put back together

When I was done with the jockey wheels and the plate also I got the tensioner spring cleaned and also lubed all the adjuster bolts before I fitted everything back to it's place.

After all the work was done the display on the scale shows some very friendly number :)

Now, since the general condition of this mech was next to perfect the work I had to put in was about 15 minutes and I ended up with a great and refreshed rear deraileur that is going to serve me well. It is ready for action, the last step is to fit it on the bike and test it out in the rough conditions after it's easy life on the road! :)

Cleaning disc brake calipers

Disc brakes are excellent, I find them absolutely brilliant. They are reliable and most of the time they don't need serious amount of maintenance. Of course to have them in a perfect order a little bit of a time needs to be sacrified and I need to clean them from time to time. 

My race bike is not really in use during my off-season break, so I had the perfect chance to do some work on it and make sure the brakes are back to normal after the the savage muddy spins. 

The rear caliper on my bike: the pistons are very dirty and sticky. They even caused the lever to be really rough

Time to fit new pads I guess :)

Sprayed some lube on the edge of the pistons

Then cleaned the inside properly with a kitchen towel

The caliper without the pads, pistons are lubed and pushed back all the way

Inserting the pads back to the caliper

Final check before the pin goes back to it's place

After this short repair both of the brakes are like new and they work really the way I expect them to work. This little repair was just to make sure the brakes are ok for the next couple of rides but the bike nees to get a full, general service before I get my winter training program going. But this will be ok for now, will test of out on Saturday on the ThinkBike.ie CC club spin.

Refurbished XTR front shifter

I went over to my good friend and team mate Richie Felle's place yesterday to pick up the used XTR front shifter that he offered to me before. He has raced a season with this shifter on his race bike and he has no use for it anymore. All it needs just a bit of a work to get it back to 100% order.

When I collected the shifter it was already taken apart so it saved me a bit of a time in deed. So I just checked all the parts in the bag and the first thing I seen is: one of the screw is missing that hold the bottom cover plate in place. But everything else was there and they were in good condition.

After I have checked all the parts I realized all they need is just some cleaning and lube and they will be absolutely perfect for long time. The most "problematic" bit was the inside mechanism of the shifter, all the springs and inserts were quiet dirty, the previously picked up dust got built up inside.

Just a quick weight check on the scale and let's get the things started! :)

All the loose parts on the scale (1 screw is missing)

It took me about 20 minutes to clean the inside, the outside shell, adjuster bolt and spring, and all the hiden spots. After all this the shifter was ready to be put together. 

The refurbished Shimano XTR  SL-M970 front shifter ready to be fitted on the bike

It is ready for action and I can't wait to get it fitted on the bike, possibly I will have some time this week to do some work on the bike. Thank you Richie for this sweet bike part, I know it will serve me very well! :)