Stupidest possible mechanical

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DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
Happily cycling along and then, all of a sudden, the pedals wouldn't go round.

Didn't take long to work out why - the spare inner cable that I carry (why?) had managed to unravel inside my pannier and the free end had wormed its way out through a hole in the bottom and neatly wrapped itelf round both the cassette and rear derailleur.

Lesson(s) learned ...
 

alicat

Legendary Member
Location
Staffs
Sounds like it was lonely!
 
Happily cycling along and then, all of a sudden, the pedals wouldn't go round.

Didn't take long to work out why - the spare inner cable that I carry (why?) had managed to unravel inside my pannier and the free end had wormed its way out through a hole in the bottom and neatly wrapped itelf round both the cassette and rear derailleur.

Lesson(s) learned ...

Well it's well known that any cable, cord or rope left unsupervised for long enough (even in a locked drawer) will find something to tangle with.
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
Happily cycling along and then, all of a sudden, the pedals wouldn't go round.

Didn't take long to work out why - the spare inner cable that I carry (why?) had managed to unravel inside my pannier and the free end had wormed its way out through a hole in the bottom and neatly wrapped itelf round both the cassette and rear derailleur.

Lesson(s) learned ...

Electrical tape is your friend.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
My cycling buddy, before he became a Rapha fanboy, wore budget cycling shoes with laces. One fine day his lace got wound around the pedal spindle and he came slowly to a stop, unable to pedal any further and unable to understand why.

In a similar vein Gti Junior fitted new cleats to his shoes. "Did you do the bolts up effing tight?" I asked. "Yes Dad don't worry!" We set off and on reaching Malham stopped at a big car park to use the facilities. I became aware that the lad was circling the car park calling for help in increasing distress, unable to stop, because both cleats were rotating on his shoes and he couldn't unclip. Eventually we fielded him and held him upright while he removed his shoes and dismounted. We then had quite a struggle freeing the shoes from the pedals because on both sides two of the three bolts had dropped out! We had to cannibalise a bolt from each of my shoes to continue the ride.
 
Location
Northampton
Just out of interest, why do you carry it?
I once thought about carrying one when touring. Decided not to.
Reasons were that, breaking a cable is an extremely rare occurrence.
If I want to replace a cable, I need to cut the ends. This is because, two ends have diffrdiff "heads" to fit different brake types.
If I cut the end before taltak it, its ends will be damaged and it is impossible to route it through.
Am I totally mistaken?
 

Gary E

Veteran
Location
Hampshire
My cycling buddy, before he became a Rapha fanboy, wore budget cycling shoes with laces. One fine day his lace got wound around the pedal spindle and he came slowly to a stop, unable to pedal any further and unable to understand why.

I was about to post one of my cycling mishaps when I saw this. I did exactly the same thing, unfortunately I was on a busy island at the time and had to back pedal 2 rotations, then front pedal 2 rotations etc etc until I managed to get round :laugh:
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Just out of interest, why do you carry it?
I once thought about carrying one when touring. Decided not to.
Reasons were that, breaking a cable is an extremely rare occurrence.
If I want to replace a cable, I need to cut the ends. This is because, two ends have diffrdiff "heads" to fit different brake types.
If I cut the end before taltak it, its ends will be damaged and it is impossible to route it through.
Am I totally mistaken?

It takes quite a long time for a cable to fray then break. If you haven't spotted a fraying cable and replaced it you deserve to walk home although you won't because no broken cable will cause a bike to fail to proceed.
 

Pat "5mph"

A kilogrammicaly challenged woman
Moderator
Location
Glasgow
Happily cycling along and then, all of a sudden, the pedals wouldn't go round.

Didn't take long to work out why - the spare inner cable that I carry (why?) had managed to unravel inside my pannier and the free end had wormed its way out through a hole in the bottom and neatly wrapped itelf round both the cassette and rear derailleur.

Lesson(s) learned ...
An incident in a million, maybe you should play the lottery now.
 
Location
Northampton
It takes quite a long time for a cable to fray then break. If you haven't spotted a fraying cable and replaced it you deserve to walk home although you won't because no broken cable will cause a bike to fail to proceed.

I have very limited mechanical knowledge or skills. I really worried about this during my recent tour. There were very steep hills and corresponding decents. It was raining heavily as well.
I was really worried that if a cable were to break, that is the end!
 
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