What bike, part or cycling related item have you regretted buying?

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Doug.

Veteran
Both these items were pretty costly, which does annoy me, as there doesn't seem to be any correlation between price & quality, just price & brandname[/QUOTE]
 

SuperHans123

Formerly known as snertos999
I actually make regular use my Park Tool chain cleaner and coupled with Rhino Goo bike cleaning fluid gets the chain absolutely gleaming.
 

mikeymustard

Veteran
:smile: this thread seems to have turned into a 'do you like chain cleaner doodads' discussion.
Who'da thought Britain could be so polarised! [Irony emoji]
 
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MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
A £22 Mountain Morph pump... absolute sh!te because the fitting is far too tight for a schrader valve. :thumbsdown:
 
Airzounds
+1 - utter rubbish!

I'm not sure why there is so much hate for the park tool chain cleaner. I suspect people are not using it quite right. You do get an oily mess on the floor, but you would anyway using a degreaser. This is combated by spraying the immediate area with a bit of water, that means that you can just brush it away later, rather than getting black oil stains on the floor. It does a great job of making a manky chain shiny again. First pass through with concentrated degreaser, then a diluted pass through, then 3x clean water. Dry with a rag, then leave to air dry before lubing. Love it.
 
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byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
I had Air Zounds on my trikes. I rather liked them and did have the odd occasion to use them. However they really don't like frost. The air lines split!

If you use Zounds, then you really need a bell too, for the 99% of the time when all you need is a polite warning.
 
I had Air Zounds on my trikes. I rather liked them and did have the odd occasion to use them.
I didn't like it because in an actual emergency, I needed both hands to brake and steer so I couldn't use it then. So I'd only use it if someone cut me off but I had plenty of time to brake, or after the emergency to angrily chastise the person who had endangered me.

So it did nothing to increase my safety, but plenty do increase my stress levels - because the last thing you need after an near miss is an extremely loud noise 1/2 metre from your ears.

Plus I have a very loud voice, which I can deploy while keeping both hands free.
 

byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
I had mine set up under my thumb on my recumbents. I could, and a few times did, slam all on and then apply the horn. At least once it stopped a late pull out of a vehicle that I'd have had trouble missing.

People tend to under-estimate the speed of a recumbent on a slight incline.
 
Am I the only person who likes the chain cleaner doodah

No, I get on well with mine too, albeit a recent version. Frugal squirt of degreaser and a few spins (without the cleaner) then leave for five mins while cleaning rest of bike, then cleaner filled with 50/50 Fenwicks/water and back pedal until everything foams lots. Rinse twice with cleaner full of hot soapy water from cleaning bucket and then with fresh water. Takes ten mins, works a treat; unlike the Halfwits own-brand version that would regularly jam and send my thumb/knuckles into the chainset. Barsteward thing met a deserving end involving the garden wall and many many small pieces.

Other cr@ptastic purchase include 2x Garmins that I'm convinced suffered from low-level malevolent A.I. rather than just half arsed firmware, and a Louis Garneau jersey that looked clever with windproof chest panels but turned out to be great at freezing a line down middle of my chest due to a cheapo zip and no zip-baffle. Early SPD clones were also a bad call for XC racing, as lack of float means I'm still having knee problems 25 years later. HiteRite was also a dud, as unless you greased your seatpost with GT85 it'd never return your saddle to the 'RiteHite'.
 
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