find_bruce wrote:It's very judgemental of me, but when I saw this bike today, I felt better about my own shoddy skills
At least the forks are on the right way!
Yesterday I figured I would patch a tube to use as a spare. Inflated it a little and found two holes opposite each other, the offending metal fibre had pierced the outside, then when it went flat, the inside too. OK I'll use a big patch and cover both. Rubbed back the tube, applied the rubber cement, waited for it to tack off then stuck the patch on. Quick inflate to make sure I'd covered both holes... Nope, missed both, completely, not even any adhesive over them. Quickly pulled the patch off applied more adhesive, actually over the holes this time, tack off, install patch and hold in place for a while happy that I now had a tube with a patch ON the holes. Later in the afternoon put at little air in the tube to check again.... Patch didn't seal properly.
On a better note managed to remove a somewhat stubborn cassette that would t come off using the chain whip. Old chain in vice, wound the chain around the wheel and wound it up under the bench, skewer to hold the locking tool and a long spanner with a lot of down force while the wheel was trying to wind up under the bench. voila. Lock ring off.