Stupid things we all must have done

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ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Ouch! i just have a vision of wheels and Knees and Elbows flying everywhere
Or severed fingers!

I was lucky - the glove got ripped off my hand and almost jammed the wheel, but it got forced through under the brake and I didn't crash. That's not a mistake that I will repeat!
 

Trickedem

Guru
Location
Kent
I had just finished building my fixie, which was a restoration project from an 80s bike. I was quite pleased to be able to use one of the original chain rings and went for a little spin down the road. However, I had only put two of the chainring bolts back in place. I put a bit of power down and the chainring crumpled and deformed. I had to pay over the odds for another of a simple vintage.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
At the end of one of my first commutes in busy traffic. I picked up the bike and was carrying it upstairs to my office. The front wheel fell off. I had forgotten to flip over the front skewer after fixing a puncture a couple of days earlier. It seemed to ride OK, or maybe I was wobbling about so much with fear that I didn't know any better.
 

Ian H

Ancient randonneur
Or severed fingers!

I was lucky - the glove got ripped off my hand and almost jammed the wheel, but it got forced through under the brake and I didn't crash. That's not a mistake that I will repeat!
Robert Millar described showing off by using his bidon to clean the rear tyre. It jammed and over he went.

I clean the rear tyre with my left instep. I tried it once on the fixed and ran over my own foot.
 

Amanda P

Legendary Member
I committed many of the acts mentioned here, but the following story wasn't me, honest:

My house-mate at university in Cardiff rode a bike to lectures. He'd taken it home for his dad to fix up one weekend, and they'd removed the front wheel to get it in the car. He put it back together in the kitchen on the Sunday night, but got distracted by the phone ringing.

Come Monday, he set off for lectures. Many students in Cardiff have to pass by the Woodville pub (the Woody to its many friends). If you're cycling, there's a useful shortcut if you hop up over a kerb to get from Senghennydd Road or Woodville Road into Corbett Road, and my mate, approaching the kerb, hoiked up the front of the bike up to do just that.

You can see where this is going... the unsecured front wheel described a graceful arc as it left the fork, bounced a couple of times and then rolled away down the hill towards Corbett Road. My mate took a header over the handlebars of the suddenly-immobile bike, but pulled off a spectacular parachute roll. The drama was improved though, by his satchel coming open and pages of lecture notes blowing all over the place like a sudden snowstorm. This was all at about 8.50 in the morning when the junction was busy with students, including me, on their way to lectures, so there was a significant audience. Most of them - I mean us - were laughing so hard we could hardly help him chase the notes down...
 

Big John

Guru
At the end of one of my first commutes in busy traffic. I picked up the bike and was carrying it upstairs to my office. The front wheel fell off. I had forgotten to flip over the front skewer after fixing a puncture a couple of days earlier. It seemed to ride OK, or maybe I was wobbling about so much with fear that I didn't know any better.
Got back home after a 4 hour club ride. Pulled up at the curbside outside the house and lifted the bike onto the pavement. The front wheel fell out. I couldn't remember when I'd last had the wheel out but I obviously didn't flip the skewer. At times we'd been doing through and off. Thanks for rekindling that memory :cry:
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Got back home after a 4 hour club ride. Pulled up at the curbside outside the house and lifted the bike onto the pavement. The front wheel fell out. I couldn't remember when I'd last had the wheel out but I obviously didn't flip the skewer. At times we'd been doing through and off. Thanks for rekindling that memory :cry:
What the Hell! We both survived.:cheers:
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
Sorry but none of these is top stupid, they're more sort of...careless. Stupid is severing the lead on a power mower, looking at the copper and thinking 'I wonder if that's still live', then finding out by prodding it with a finger. Reader, I found out.
 
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