Post your fails

[Torvi]

as the title goes, post your mechanic fails, funny stuff you did wrong etc, let the banter and laugh start


1. tensed the brakes so hard they were braking all the time and been wondering why is it so hard to cycle
2. lost the hub bearings dust cap which resulted in buying new wheel because i couldnt find the proper one on the internets and bearings kept falling out
3. somehow bent the rear axle, don't ask me i don't know either how it happend.
4. cut the brake wires so much it slipped out of the brake when i was braking downhill (it was front brake and i mostly use it when slowing down from descents) -funny i didn't see much difference until i arrived home and did usual maintenance check
5. bought a cassette to a wheel with freewheel... it still lies around useless, anyone wants 8sp cassette free? pay postage and is yours :P

 

[Cyclist33]

The other night, fitted an inner tube such that a four inch section was pinned between the rim and tyre. Didn't bother to rectify it and the tube exploded on inflation.

Then did exactly the same on the other wheel.

 

[ianrauk]

Trimmed the brake cables before threading them through the outers.
Spent hours getting very frustrated trying to screw in a BB, then realising the thread on that side was reversed.

 

[gavroche]

Trimmed the brake cables before threading them through the outers.
Spent hours getting very frustrated trying to screw in a BB, then realising the thread on that side was reversed.

A reverse thread is called a left hand thread.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

T'internet ain't big enough yet. And I doubt I have enough time left to give a full account but, for starters, my cabling is atrocious, whereas my bar-taping is simply bad.

 

[Hip Priest]

Being a person with limited mechanical sympathy, I invested in a torque wrench. The first thing I did was tighten one of my stem bolts, but not really understanding how the torque wrench worked - and of course having not read the instructions first - I over-tightened it to the extent that I split the stem.

Good luck topping that.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

It is little things with me : I think I'm better at the simltstuff than I am so am a bit cocky but have less confidence with more dismantling stuff so tend to be over cautious.

Daft things I've done

Tightened my seat post bracket so hard the other day that I snapped the allen bolt in half.

A few too many snakebite punctures dpwn to my own carelessness

Put a new bottle cage on the Brompton and zip tied the rear cables to rhe frame.

That scene in Father Ted where he is trying to tap a small dent out of a car and ends up with a total wreck, thats me tensioning spokes properly and truing dings out of a wheel.

 

[ianrauk]

A reverse thread is called a left hand thread.

Yes. I know. Now.

 

[simongt]

Not so much a mechanical fail, but something I've never come across. Put a new bottom bracket cartridge into one of the good lady wife's bikes and later had to adjust the front mech travel so it would take the chain onto the big ring smoothly. No problem as such, so started the various adjustments. Tightened the cable, changed gear, nothing happened. Pulled the exposed cable by the mech, again nothing. Looked up at the shifter on the handlebar to observe that the gear cable itself had actually sawn through the outer sleeve. Now that's something you don't see every day - !

 

[screenman]

Not quite mechanical but very bike related. Prior to a cross race in 1971 I squirted a big dollop of embrication cream onto both legs a with a long sweep of both hands spread it from ankle to thigh in one nice line, only to realise it was tub cement.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Not quite mechanical but very bike related. Prior to a cross race in 1971 I squirted a big dollop of embrication cream onto both legs a with a long sweep of both hands spread it from ankle to thigh in one nice line, only to realise it was tub cement.

I don't believe it!!!

 

[screenman]

I don't believe it!!!

It is very true I promise you, Bagshot Cyclo Cross and the cement came in a orange tube with everything written in French, was purchased from Ken Ryall cycles in Hounslow. I was 15 at the time and it has lived with me.

 

[jefmcg]

replaced a cable while my feet were bare. Ended up with wire strand stuck in my foot.

At least it was easy to pull out.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Put too much flair into removing a seat post and snapped off the seat stays and seat tube at the BB.

 

[Garry A]

Then I got a pedal spanner.