Bike pedals installed the wrong way!

lae

Used to work in a shop that sold bikes (not really a 'proper' bike shop) that had a car garage attached. Not Halfords, but that kind of thing.

I was doing paperwork and teaching the new guy how to work on bikes and serving customers at the same time. I'd already taught him how to take a bottom bracket out but he was having trouble with this one. I was busy and completely absent mindedly said 'just get the zip gun on it (the air socket driver that mechanics use to take wheels off and such. We had a very small, weak one that you can use on stubborn BBs if you're careful). Looked up to see him holding a knackered BB tool in one hand and the massive Matco car mechanic's zip gun in the other - the splines of the BB had completely sheared off. One frame truly knackered.

Also sold some bikes to some nice Polish people. I forgot to tell them that the brakes are the other way around. Testing in the car park one of them went over the handlebars. He was a nice guy and when I moved jobs we ended up working together.

elcani

Lent my MTB to a mate for road ride. When changing the tyres back to nobblies and adjusting the saddle etc, I noticed an alarming amount of play in the headset. He's a big bloke, but I was still suprised. Spent 10 frustrating minutes trying to adjust it before realising he'd locked the forks out and the clunking was coming from them.

I've actually done the same thing before, that time it was a loose quick release.

CiB

oldwelshman wrote:

Best thread this year
Was the saddle facing the correct way ? 8)

Tis a larf isn't it?

I once finished putting the bike back together after a full clean & polish and yo - the saddle was pointing backwards. I blamed it on that Ashes victory in 2005 that I was engrossed in, the 4th Test that we won on the penultimate ball. 8)

furrag

When down under, my brother in law purchased me a bike. I drunkenly had a go at building it in the early hours. As I realised I was drunk, I had built it loosely, and not everything was secured in case I had made a mistake. Well I woke up that afternoon and hadn't realised he had taken the bike from the garage... he came home later that evening with a complete look of fear in his eyes.

Thankfully he had got the train home and had a quiet 5 minute bike ride through the back streets from the station. As he was riding home, he told me he tried to turn and the wheel responded really poorly to steering. Then as he tried jumping up a curb, he pulled the handlebars off of the stem. Thankfully he was okay (as was the bike) but with the knowledge a potentially fatal accident had been avoided, it provided a few laughs among the household that evening. He never rode the bike again! :oops:

andyrr

Easy one - install new gear or brake cable, see the outer is too long, remove from the brake or gear clamp, snip the outer to required length then realise that you've snipped through both the outer AND the inner and now the inner cable is too short as you haven't pulled the inner wire back up the outer.

leedsmjh

balthazar wrote:

Surely everybody's put cranks back on both facing the same way, or at 90 degrees. No? Just me then. And, more than once...

No not just you .....

ratherbeintobago

Confession time:

Knackered a set of cranks by installing Time ATACs the wrong way round (see threads passim)

I felt less bad about it when I went to the bike shop (after replacing the above) to try another bike (using the pedals off mine) the chap in the bike shop tried to refit them the wrong way round too...

Andy

STEFANOS4784

Phew, where to start, good one was when i changed groupset i changed the cables and couldn't get the front mech to change at all. Tightened the cable as much as possible but still nothing, gave up went to LBS and he told me i had a brake cable in there. Oops. Loads more but meh, that's what it's all about:)


(To be fair i still don't really know why it makes a difference :roll:)

Ben6899

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Phew, where to start, good one was when i changed groupset i changed the cables and couldn't get the front mech to change at all. Tightened the cable as much as possible but still nothing, gave up went to LBS and he told me i had a brake cable in there. Oops. Loads more but meh, that's what it's all about:)


(To be fair i still don't really know why it makes a difference :roll:)

Gear cable housing will tolerate tighter radii before kinking and trapping the cable itself.

STEFANOS4784

Ben6899 wrote:

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Phew, where to start, good one was when i changed groupset i changed the cables and couldn't get the front mech to change at all. Tightened the cable as much as possible but still nothing, gave up went to LBS and he told me i had a brake cable in there. Oops. Loads more but meh, that's what it's all about:)


(To be fair i still don't really know why it makes a difference :roll:)

Gear cable housing will tolerate tighter radii before kinking and trapping the cable itself.

Thanks for that, clear as mud

Barrie_G

When fitting a new set of suspension forks to an mtb I measured and cut the steerer without putting the stem on first :oops:

That proved rather expensive but on the positive side I've never done it again.