Bike… (again)

It might be fixed. It might not (but I think and hope it is).

So I spent a couple of hours looking up other people’s fixes for the issues I have been having after getting a repeated error 71 yesterday. Error 71 typically is caused by a loose battery, my battery doesn’t appear to be loose (I’ve checked), I did try moving the part that the battery plugs into closer to the locking mechanism to try and prevent any movement yesterday but as I said that still left me with the error 71.

My main issue is the bike powering off, when it does this there is no error code to track down, and it’s not doing it reliably enough to actually troubleshoot specifically what has gone wrong, until yesterday when it turned off and when I tried to turn it back on I got repeated error 71s, this seems likely to me that the two issues are connected. Other people online (now I have gone and looked for error 71) also seem to think that the two issues are connected. And the general fix seems to be to add padding to the battery bay so that the battery has even less space to move around in.

So that is what I did before going out today. Yesterday and the day before (and the day before that) the bike turned itself off repeatedly. Today it didn’t and the only change I made was a small sheet of (high quality) bubble wrap. Not sure how long bubble wrap – even the good stuff – will last using it this way but I some other types of pack materials too, so I will try those as well.

But touch wood and whistle I have fixed the issue. If so then I will finally get the dropper post install on Wednesday, Dr Velo will do that for me, for less than the cost of the two remaining tools (tool for removing lock nut/ring and cable cutters) I would need to buy to do it myself. And once that is done I plan on doing some longer more technical rides. My saddle as it comes from the shop won’t go that low, the seat tube is weirdly tall anyway and the seat post (the moving bit that the saddle attaches to) is too long so even with it set to the lowest point possible, it still has 4-6 inches sitting proud of the seat tube. My dropper with a total movement range of a 125mm (apologises for the mix of measurements) when fully compressed will only be ~20-30mm above the top of the seat tube, making the saddle much lower, which in turn means I can get my arse further back and lower while descending.

I was given one by my sister and BiL an old one of my nephews I think, which I had on my last bike and TBH it’s one of those features that I think are pretty much essential – a long with remotes for fork/suspension lockouts – however the original one I ordered with this bike I was told wouldn’t fit (too slim) so I sent it back, I should probably had bought a shim to convert it to the wide seat tube that my bike has. But as it turns out that dropper which was a 150mm version would have been too tall anyway, so that at least worked out well.

And while that is all happening I need to design a dual water bottle cage holder so I can go back to having two water bottles like my last two bikes even though this bike doesn’t really have space for two, so I plan on making them side by side:

It’ll actually be made from a single sheet of aluminium, which I already have, I just need to actually design it then cut it out and bend it to shape, you can buy some very similar designs from various places online, but I haven’t found a design for one I can make/edit to my exact specifications and the only CAD software I ever used stopped being sold about 20 years ago and I was pretty crap with that, so I might need to experiment. Or maybe just knock something up in Gimp, which I do know how to use (to an extent), print it out on paper and stick the paper to the metal. The lower part of the down tube will be getting a bag (that again I already have) which I will carry tools in, as once I have the dropper installed my saddle bag (the lump behind the saddle in the above image) won’t be used – it does work with a dropper, just not very well, I’d also like to be able to fit my mudguard (not a freaking Fender) there instead.

So hopefully everything will now work out.

I really ought to go to bed, I was supposed to be having an early night, but I get doing things like this and suddenly it’s 2am (02:30 now). Going to spruce up my drive train tomorrow and hopefully go for a long ride without the bike turning itself off… we’ll see… 😀