You know when something looks wrong ?

[goo_mason]

On Mondays I get the bus to work after walking wee one to school. Gives me a day to take all my week's clothes in to hang in my locker.

Anyway - going up Leith Street, I noticed a student-type on a rusty-looking MTB. He was waiting alongside the bus I was on at the lights. Something about his bike made me look twice, as there was something that just didn't look right. Then I noticed his front brake was behind the fork and the blocks were loose and hanging at 90 degrees to the rim. 'Weird', I thought. Then it dawned on me - his front fork was the wrong way round !! It gave the front of the bike a slight 'bent backwards' look... I wonder if he even realised that it should have been facing the other way ?

From the look of him, I'd guess not.

 

[Terminator]

Something wasn't right on one of my bikes recently and then I found a frame snappage at the bottom bracket.

Then my replacement bike last Monday was all over the place for all of my commute.Eventually I found every spoke in the back wheel was loose.The wheel was a right off.Bought a new wheel ala Evans.

 

[buggi]

i was driving down the road the other day and i saw this bloke riding towards me on the other side. something weird about him. seemed a bit tall. as he got closer, i thought, oh he's only got one arm. closer still i realised he did have two arms, only one was holding the saddle...

.... because.....


he was on a unicycle!

made me smile.

 

[Cab]

he was on a unicycle!

made me smile.

Haven't seen a unicycle on the roads for a few months. Early last summer there were at least three different unicyclists around town.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

I've seen a few of these bikes with the forks turnd the wrong way round, Halfrauds jobs all three of them.

The one time I stopped to speak to the student who owns one of the deathtraps all I got was a very cold brush off about how "it came like that".

Scary!

 

[xroads]

Seen one of those ToysRUs jobbies with back to front forks also. Often the rider also wears their helmet back to front :-)

 

[gambatte]

Just been down to the father in laws. Noticed one of his other teenage bairns had a bike outside. We had a look at it 'cos it was 'new to him' and something was wrong with the wheel.


After 5 mins I'd pointed out something was wrong with the front hub, rear hub, front brake, rear brake, front and rear shifters, bottom bracket, cables etc etc etc.........

 

[Blonde]

When I lived in Hull, it was quite normal to see mtbs with no brakes at all. Reason: Bloke on a bike would find the buckled wheels made the brakes rub so the simple solution was to remove or disconnect the brake - sorted! *Really Quite Worrying*

 

[gambatte]

Kinda found it refreshing earlier in the year, going to Bridlington.

You can come on sites like this, but more precisely the Roady and MTB sites and you'd think you can't ride a bike if it cost less than £300 and doesn't have all the latest shiny bling bits.

Majority of bikes I saw in Brid could be classed as scrap. Saw steel frames virtually rusted thro'. But these are obviously running on a daily basis. Workhorses.

 

[Blonde]

Depends how far you are going on one. If your commute is only 4 miles each way an old shopper or hard tail mtb is great for that. If you're doing 13miles each way (and have somewhere to put the bike inside when you get there) it's a different story. I know I couldn't ride 26 miles every day, 5 days a week and still have anything left at all to ride 50+ miles at weekends if I wasn't riding something that was comfortable and reasonably efficient to pedal. Of course if you're a near super human, amazingly strong rugby player type you might manage it, but I just couldn't.

 

[Arch]

When I lived in Hull, it was quite normal to see mtbs with no brakes at all. Reason: Bloke on a bike would find the buckled wheels made the brakes rub so the simple solution was to remove or disconnect the brake - sorted! *Really Quite Worrying*

They do it in York too - in fact I expect anywhere there are yoofs...

We sometimes saw kids on roadshows (I'm talking 9 or 10 year olds or more), who seemed not to know that bikes had brakes - they would simply drag their feet to stop, and be amazed when we pointed out that the brakes on these bikes worked...