Your fettling blunders!

nich

Well, I've had two this evening which probably added an hour to my fettling session.

I've got a new Avid BB7 brake which I'm fitting.

The first blunder happened when cutting the outer brake cable for the inline barrel adjuster.

The idea is that you cut the outer casing at mid-way point - add the adjuster, then add the remaining outer casing after - all the way to the caliper.

Well, when I went to go and cut the outer casing I left the inner wire inside - yes, I snipped right through it!. BLAH.

This lead to faffing about in the garage with a torch trying to find a spare brake cable.

The second blunder was the ole disc rotor round the wrong way.

What annoyed me most was that I checked this before hand. I mean, I double and triple checked it. How can you get it wrong? It's got arrows on the rotor showing which direction it should go. I had followed the manual perfectly. Everything will be fine.

Wrong! When I put the bleeding wheel on, it was only then that I realised the forks on my RoadRat are bit weird, and backwards like. So the direction of the rotor was wrong! gahhhhh!!!

All fixed now though

Canny Jock

I have now taped 2 sets of handlebars, each time wrapping each side the same direction instead of opposing, despite taking ages to get it right...

And don't get me started on how many inner tubes I have holed with tyre levers.

Blue Meanie

He He: Tyre levers help sell more tubes than broken glass

PBo

Canny Jock wrote:

And don't get me started on how many inner tubes I have holed with tyre levers.

Never done that - but I've torn a hole where the valve stem meets the tube, due to over vigorous pumping....

suzyb

Went to tighten my MTB brakes today and ended up making the front so loose it didn't work at all.

However I found a guide on how to adjust them properly and realised what I hadn't done. Which I also hadn't done when setting up the brakes which explains why the barrel adjuster needed so much adjustment.

Now, for the first time since I got the MTB, I have the brakes set up properly

nwallace

nich wrote:

Well, I've had two this evening which probably added an hour to my fettling session.

I've got a new Avid BB7 brake which I'm fitting.

The first blunder happened when cutting the outer brake cable for the inline barrel adjuster.

The idea is that you cut the outer casing at mid-way point - add the adjuster, then add the remaining outer casing after - all the way to the caliper.

Well, when I went to go and cut the outer casing I left the inner wire inside - yes, I snipped right through it!. BLAH.

Snap!

I've also done it with a gear cable when I didn't have any spares at all.

Found fitting the barrel adjuster onto a road frame front a bit tricky, "Before the first cable stop" says the instructions... Er yeah, Cable stop.

nich

nwallace wrote:

nich wrote:

Well, I've had two this evening which probably added an hour to my fettling session.

I've got a new Avid BB7 brake which I'm fitting.

The first blunder happened when cutting the outer brake cable for the inline barrel adjuster.

The idea is that you cut the outer casing at mid-way point - add the adjuster, then add the remaining outer casing after - all the way to the caliper.

Well, when I went to go and cut the outer casing I left the inner wire inside - yes, I snipped right through it!. BLAH.

Snap!

I've also done it with a gear cable when I didn't have any spares at all.

Found fitting the barrel adjuster onto a road frame front a bit tricky, "Before the first cable stop" says the instructions... Er yeah, Cable stop.

It confused me a bit as I've never even heard of an 'inline barrel adjuster'

I just googled some images and found one, then went all out on it and did it! :twisted:

redvee

Cut the front outer too short so it means I can't flip the stem over on my Tricross, luckily I've got non adhesive tape on the bars so it's no major hardship plus I need to retape the bars on that side anyway, the second turn was loose and it looks horrible.

pst88

Wanted to change my bottom bracket so I got out my trusty crank extractors and promptly stripped the thread on the cranks. Then tried to use a hammer to get them off and bent the chainring. Now resorting to an angle grinder to get the bloody thing off but not through yet.

shouldbeinbed

cleaned & drained my disc brakes and promptly lost the 2 screws that hold the resevoir cap on. not a clue where they've gone I think kids/dogs/gremlins have eaten them. trying to find a couple that fit in m spares but not much luck so far. half :twisted: half :oops:

greg66_tri_v2.0

I have a few. Off the top of my head:

- fitted a new chain. Then realised I hadn't run it through the rear mech properly.
- tried to shorten a chain. Took the pin out, couldn't get it back in. Broke the chain tool trying. And the pin.
- broke a spring in a pedal trying to "fix" it
- cut through one of the wires running from an ergomo BB whilst removing it. That was an expensive fcuk up.
- during the process of changing a brake pad in the kitchen, I completely lost a crucial bolt. It flew off the worktop, hit my leg and disappeared into the wicker veg drawers. It took me an hour to find it. It had landed, and stayed, on a drawer runner, at the back of the unit. I seriously thought for most of the hour that a rift in the fabric of space/time had opened and swallowed it.
- indexing gears. Can now do this first time every time. But had my share of "tuning" attempts, which took two+ hours to get the gears back the state they were in before I started. Much like computers.
- most recently: snapped a seat post collar. Because torque wrenches are for pussies. Bolts need man-power. Right up until they snap something. That's too much man power, that is.

Conversely, my finest fettling to date is to take a triple FD for standard rings, and a triple front STi, and get a double compact front chainring running on it. With Q rings. So there. Nah-nanny-na-nah to you. And no returns.

EKE_38BPM

Greg66 wrote:

I seriously thought for most of the hour that a rift in the fabric of space/time had opened and swallowed it.

Been there. Some things have never turned up, Ever.
Other things have turned up years later.

Doing my fettling at the back of a double garage, with two cars in it, a slightly sloping floor, a cluttered workbench and not enough light sources mean that if something drops or flies off, I can spend ages trying to find it.

warthog562

being a profesional technician i ahave seen and even commited a few screwups in a professional manner.

- I once lost a spanner in an aircraft took me 3 days and a boroscope (camera on thin cable setup) to get it back

- seen a new sheet metal woreker drill through a loom of wires after his supervisor said " go for it whats the worst that could happen" and then the tell tale signs of cable insulation came out. That resulted in a week of cable routing.

on the plus side we got free beer from the supervisor.

also a mate of mine tried to fit a new BB while quite drunk and didn't notice that both the crank arms where on the same way (both legs would have to go up and down at the same time). He found out the next afternoon when we where supposed to go on our drunken planned ride. lucky between the group we had the tools.

t0pc4t

Greg66 wrote:

I have a few. Off the top of my head:

- fitted a new chain. Then realised I hadn't run it through the rear mech properly.

+1 but never realised, just thought powerlink chains were 'noisy' LBS sorted it when I had my new forks fitted.

Never ever work on your bike drunk

WesternWay

Last weekend, gave my bike a good old clean.

Cleaned and repacked the wheel bearings with grease. Took the chainrings off for a good old clean, removed the brake blocks to get the brakes and blocks clean, cleaned the rims, took the chain off, adjusted the rear derailleur.

Put it all back together again and at the end of the drive really, really wished that I had not forgotten to put the blocks back on the brakes.

Butterd2

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

I seriously thought for most of the hour that a rift in the fabric of space/time had opened and swallowed it.

Been there. Some things have never turned up, Ever.
Other things have turned up years later.

Plus 2 on that. Once dropped a seat post bolt down between the floorboards. Fortunately by the time I had found the lump hammer and crowbar my wife had dug out my daughters toy fishing set complete with rod, line and magnet on the end of it and had retrieved the bolt. Saved me trashing the kitchen floor!

Fireblade96

Fitted a new read mech to the MTB, in the garden in the sunshine.
Threaded the chain through the mech and was just about to reattach the Powerlink when it slipped through my greasy fingers.
Mech unsprung vigorously and powerlink sailed gracefully off into the undergrowth, never to be seen again :-(

Plenty of small parts have vanished in the shed, I reckon the spiders are building their own bike somewhere in the dark recesses.

SamWise1972

pst88 wrote:

Wanted to change my bottom bracket so I got out my trusty crank extractors and promptly stripped the thread on the cranks. Then tried to use a hammer to get them off and bent the chainring. Now resorting to an angle grinder to get the bloody thing off but not through yet.

Next time, a 3 leg puller from Machine Mart would probably remove the cranks non-destructively, though having killed the threads, you might not care.

davis

Once found half a powerlink in the front hedge. Odd seeing as I'd lost it fettling in the back garden. I blame Magpies... or perhaps the spring in the rear derailleur catapulting it over the house...

tgotb

pst88 wrote:

Wanted to change my bottom bracket so I got out my trusty crank extractors and promptly stripped the thread on the cranks. Then tried to use a hammer to get them off and bent the chainring. Now resorting to an angle grinder to get the bloody thing off but not through yet.

Assuming the crank is aluminium, try taking a heat gun to it; aluminium expands waaaay more than steel when heated, and it should almost drop off.

Which brings me on to my greatest blunder: having used the above method to remove your crank, never, ever reattach it while it's still hot, especially to a cold BB spindle. Do this, and you will never, ever, ever be able to separate them again...

SamWise1972

Ghetto heat-treating your cranks is not guaranteed to prolong their service life. This is what you want:



http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ler-cht607

rclarke2

Some years ago (I was about 15) I was restoring an old bike from down the side of my parents house. Stripped everything down, sanded, primed and repainted the frame, repacked all the bearings yadda, yadda, yadda

Anyway, I'd decided that the tyres were good enough to save so I put new tubes in and had inflated the first it to around 5 bar. I can still hear the sound as the canvas gave way and ripped at the crease where the bike had rested on flats for the last 18 months out in the English weather. The bit of inner tube which bulged out was about the size of a grapefruit before it also gave out.....

rhext

Purchased a crank-puller from the LBS, but was far too young and cocky to accept advice on how to use it. So I took it home, noticed that one end of it fitted very nicely over the crank bolts (just like a socket wrench in fact), and happily used it to remove them. Then of course, pausing only to wonder why whoever had manufactured the crank-puller had gone to the trouble of putting all the other threads etc on it when all you needed was the socket end, I then reached for my trusty hammer to actually get the cranks off the bike. Which was never quite the same again!

Then, of course, there's the standard cup and cone "have you really, definitely got all the bearings back in". Last time I did that, I checked everything: poked around in the hub to make sure it was full, worked over a tray to make sure I caught everything, double-checked both hub and tray before tightening the cones, then rechecked the tray when I was finished. Congratulating myself, I picked both wheel and tray up to tidy away, only to hear that tell-tail 'click' of bearing hitting floor. In this case, bouncing on its way into a drain!

jonginge

On my first racing bike the pedals got upgraded to some shimano ultegra look-compatible jobs. I wish I'd put grease on the pedal axle threads before putting them on... The next change of pedals wasn't quite so easy.

On my peugoet I needed new wheels so upgraded from 7spd to 10spd. 7spd chains were bomb-proof and I applied the same fettling techniques to the new chain. It didn't last long. It took longer for the hernia to go away...

jrduquemin

On my first road bike I decided to buy a 120mm ITM Big One stem (complete with quill). I stripped the bars down and installed the new stem then fitted the bars again, including the brake levers and tape. When I tightened the stem bolt to secure the handlebars (back in the day I wasn't fortunate enough to own a torque wrench) I overtightened it just a little bit and thereby stripped the threads in a brand new stem.

I then had to peel off all the tape, levers etc. In doing so, I ruined the tape as it was stuck to the bars with adhesive backing so had to replace the stem AND the tape... GRRRRRRR.... :twisted:

Gussio

t0pc4t wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

I have a few. Off the top of my head:

- fitted a new chain. Then realised I hadn't run it through the rear mech properly.

+1 but never realised, just thought powerlink chains were 'noisy' LBS sorted it when I had my new forks fitted.

Have also done this. Dismantled the rear mech to avoid re-splitting chain......

the_hundredth_idiot

Sunny day. Set up bike stand in garden for some fettling. Put bike in stand and clamp into place. Turn away to get tools. Feel a glancing blow from behind as bike falls in slow motion to the ground.

I hadn't clamped the stand into the open position and it collapsed on itself with the weight of the bike. That's the second time I found out how easy it is to bend a derailleur hanger (the first time was some unintentional, on-bike acrobatics with no one to blame but myself, but with an unfortunately large audience).

pst88

Assuming the crank is aluminium, try taking a heat gun to it; aluminium expands waaaay more than steel when heated, and it should almost drop off.

I tried this without much luck. Got the cranks pretty hot (too hot to hold with here hands)but still couldn't make them budge. I don't know if I'd have to make them much hotter in order to expand sufficiently.

Next time, a 3 leg puller from Machine Mart would probably remove the cranks non-destructively, though having killed the threads, you might not care

I read suggestions of using these and for some reason assumed they would be tally expensive and hard to get hold of. That definitely seems like the best way. Started cutting off with an angle grinder but it's a lot harder to get through than u originally imagined.[/quote]

pst88

pst88 wrote:

Assuming the crank is aluminium, try taking a heat gun to it; aluminium expands waaaay more than steel when heated, and it should almost drop off.

I tried this without much luck. Got the cranks pretty hot (too hot to hold with here hands)but still couldn't make them budge. I don't know if I'd have to make them much hotter in order to expand sufficiently.

Next time, a 3 leg puller from Machine Mart would probably remove the cranks non-destructively, though having killed the threads, you might not care

I read suggestions of using these and for some reason assumed they would be tally expensive and hard to get hold of. That definitely seems like the best way. Started cutting off with an angle grinder but it's a lot harder to get through than u originally imagined.

Gussio

pst88 wrote:

Next time, a 3 leg puller from Machine Mart would probably remove the cranks non-destructively, though having killed the threads, you might not care

I read suggestions of using these and for some reason assumed they would be tally expensive and hard to get hold of. That definitely seems like the best way. Started cutting off with an angle grinder but it's a lot harder to get through than u originally imagined.

Bought mine from Screwfix for around £13

lae

For your angle grinder get the thinnest cutting discs you can. 1mm ones are great, although they don't last long. Bottom bracket axles take some beating even with an angle grinder. You should try doing it with a hacksaw!

Speaking of angle grinders, I used to work as a fabricator making film and theatre sets. Really fun job, but dangerous. Three or four times I've had discs just explode and pieces get stuck in your hands. Once I put a grinder down, was about to remove my safety glasses but I hesitated for some reason, THEN the disc exploded, and a part of it hit my safety glasses and cracked them. Scary!

Also when welding upside down I've had hot bits of weld drip down my sleeves, which is really nasty. When I worked as a car mechanic my friend got a little drip of weld in his eye - the doctors said he would almost certainly be blinded by it but he turned up at work the next day with a bright red eye. He said it was like looking through a red lens.

It was in the same place that I first started fettling on bikes professionally, as they had a little bike shop adjoining the car garage selling cheap Halfords-type bikes, nothing over 500 quid. I was doing paperwork and one of the car mechanic apprentices was working on a customer's bike (everyone helped everyone else out when one side was really busy). He mentioned to me that he couldn't get the bottom bracket out so, without looking up from my paperwork, I just said 'zip gun'. Off he goes with the pneumatic gun, turning the tool the wrong way and completely ripping though the bottom bracket. My fault, I presumed he was working on a car.

Also when trying to remove the front wheel from my 1950 Claud Butler I nearly knocked myself out. The forks seem to be a couple of mm narrower than the OLN axle length so you need to spread the forks to put the wheel in or out. Normally I do this with the bike upside down but I was in a hurry so just spread the forks with one hand, yanked really REALLY hard with the other hand, the bike shot upwards and the stem cracked me in the forehead. It's one of those really old quill stems with the protruding bolt on the top too, rather than a normal 70s or 80s one with a recessed allen bolt. I sat down for a minute, then got up and stumbled inside, had a look in the mirror and I had a hexagonal cut on my forehead where the edges of the bolt had cut me.