Your fettling blunders!

desweller

frinkmakesyouthink wrote:

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.

I'm glad I wasn't drinking coffee when I read this one. You hit yourself in the HEAD with your BIKE?! That takes a special genius.

gbsahne001

Gussio wrote:

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......

Did the same weekend before last :oops:

bails87

Removing grips from MTB bars.

-Hold end of grip with left hand
-Hold long, narrow screwdriver with right hand
-Push screwdriver between grip and bar with right hand
-Start bleeding from left hand
:oops:

essex-commuter

Last week I swapped the racks over on two of my bikes. Just fitting the last bolt into the frame and the thread pulled through. Tried fitting a shallow head bolt through from the inside but it fouled the chain when in the largest gear (it was the bottom drive side hole that err...'de-threaded'). Ended up slightly counter-sinking the inside of the aluminium frame around the hole so I could use the bolt with the nut on the outside...very unorthodox but it has done the job perfect. The frame in question is on my 'hack' bike, probably wouldn't have resorted to this belt and braces approach on any of the others.

jds_1981

Managed to but some relatively deep marks into one section of the 'textured' rim of my wheel as I was putting it together the other day - received it mainly assembled but then strapped together with industrially thick plastic ties which I was having to snip through with pliers. Seems okay to ride on though and doesn't catch when braking.

nich

bails87 wrote:

Removing grips from MTB bars.

-Hold end of grip with left hand
-Hold long, narrow screwdriver with right hand
-Push screwdriver between grip and bar with right hand
-Start bleeding from left hand
:oops:

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Ouch

I just squirt some WD40 under and they slip off.

I wipe it down, then re-apply a small amount to get them back on. I never have any problems with them rotating or slipping off - I think using WD40 worries some people for this reason, but it's fine once it dries 'n stuff

bails87

nich wrote:

bails87 wrote:

Removing grips from MTB bars.

-Hold end of grip with left hand
-Hold long, narrow screwdriver with right hand
-Push screwdriver between grip and bar with right hand
-Start bleeding from left hand
:oops:

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Ouch

I just squirt some WD40 under and they slip off.

I wipe it down, then re-apply a small amount to get them back on. I never have any problems with them rotating or slipping off - I think using WD40 worries some people for this reason, but it's fine once it dries 'n stuff

It was one of those stupid things where, looking back, if I'd been watching someone else do it I would have told them to stop because it was obvious what was going to happen!

Lock ons are the answer.

SimonAH

Fortunately I'm blessed with a very large, very well lit workshop which does make things massively easier these days. However over the years I have learned that one of the best tools you should have in your arsenal are bloody big magnets. One under a steel tray to put bits in and one on a handle for sweeping over floors / grass / undergrowth to locate the parts that go 'ping'.

lae

^^ I think hairspray is the industry-standard lubricant for installing grips! It dries sticky.

And to remove old hard grips you can put a big adjustable spanner on the handlebar, slide it up to the grips and whack it with a mallet.

Anyway.

I remembered another one - when I was about 16 and fiddling around with my first old road bike, I tried to remove a cotter pin without supporting the crank arm. My buddy held the frame, and I whacked the cotter pin with a massive hammer. Did it a few more times and I felt that something was moving - the bottom bracket shell had come away from the seat tube! Whoops!

Gave me an excuse to practice brazing though, which was useful.

greg66_tri_v2.0

bails87 wrote:

Removing grips from MTB bars.

-Hold end of grip with left hand
-Hold long, narrow screwdriver with right hand
-Push screwdriver between grip and bar with right hand
-Start bleeding from left hand
:oops:

Similar (but not cycling related incident):

Bought a nice new sharp boning knife. Got home, was in a bit of an impatient rush to get it free of the packaging and the cable ties...

Next stop, A&E.

Well, that went well.

redvee

I made my own bar ends from some 3/4" solid alu bar and was quite impressed with them though I could have bought some Onza's for a little bit more. Fitted them and was doing the final tweeks and decided that the square edges at the bars needed reshaping so took an hacksaw to them and cut an angle in one and then kept going with the saw onto the object underneath, namely my wrist. Luckily only a small wound appro 1/4" deep and 1/2" long. Rode upto A&E, 5 miles, to get a bandage put on and bits of alu picked out. Still got the scar on my right wrist to this day.

Cafewanda

Late last night decided to replace the front brake pads as they were decidedly worn down. During that exercise seriously thought about (a) lifting weights again for upper body strength and (b) replacing the whole blocks next time. Less swearing surely :roll:

Managed to complete the job and was about to put everything else back together when I realised the brake cable was way too loose and I didn't know how to adjust it. Rats! PT today so not a happy bunny and will have to visit the bike shop this evening for a 'save me' job plus maintenance lesson.

lardboy

1) GFs new Sidi shoes: screwed cleats into the plate, but used too much awesome strength, so broke the plate. No worries, I'll just turn it round. While trying to force open the hatch in the inside of the shoe, with a screwdriver (as the instrictions said), I break through the soft inner and go straight ino my middle finger, at the joint.

2) Second hand steel frame, just unpacked it after delivery, and giving it a quick look over. The dropouts have adjuster screws. As I discover, very brittle adjuster screws. SNAP!

3) While cabling up the steel frame, I decide that the front outer run of the rear mech cable needs to be shorter, so I pull through the cable, only to hear a whizzing sound as the rear outer run springs off sending both cable end caps off into the world, never to be seen again.

4) Forgot to reconnect brake cables after replacing the wheel more times than I care to remember. Including on my friend's bike, which didn't "brake at the back too well". Oops.

I'm sure there's more, but this is what springs to mind so far.

bigbelly

Too many blunders to remember.

I used a torque wrench to tighten up the seat post collar. I greased the threads on the bolt.. bad idea... the grease renders the torque wrench useless and I snapped the bolt off when tightening. Incidently, with grease, the torque wrench never got near the indicated torque setting.

Bought a cheap car torque wrench. Decided I needed it to put on bottom bracket cups. Worked great on drive side cup. When tightening non-drive side... seemed to keep tightening with no "click". Turns out the wrench only "clicks" in one direction. Good thing I realised before anything flew off!

desweller

bigbelly wrote:

I used a torque wrench to tighten up the seat post collar. I greased the threads on the bolt.. bad idea... the grease renders the torque wrench useless and I snapped the bolt off when tightening. Incidently, with grease, the torque wrench never got near the indicated torque setting.!

I always specify that threads and the undersides of the heads of screws should be greased if I want a repeatable tensile load from my torque reading... Friction is so difficult to predict, so it is usually desirable to reduce it in these applications as much as possible. I would have thought it more likely that either your torque wrench was under-reading or the screw was faulty.

Cafewanda

Update to my previous post.

Turns out I'd put the pads on the wrong blocks. Thank God for my (very) friendly lbs who didn't laugh (too much) and didn't charge me to put things right :oops:

Still, it was a useful maintenance lesson in the end.

Alphabet

When my Kona Kula arrived, the rear brake was a bit squashy - presumed there was a bit of air in there as the problem went away if it pulled the bike up onto its back wheel. thought about the overpriced bleeding kit but the chap in on your bike said it wasn't needed, just tip the brake lever up, open the reservoir cap, pump the brake and top up the fluid if the level drops. easy.

stripped the head off one of the cap screws when i was putting the reservoir lid back on. arsecakes. leaky brake for the next two weeks while a spare lid and two screws were ordered from Shimano (only needed one sodding screw) meaning i was commuting on one brake for the entire time.

finally, the brake is bled and all is right with the world. I'm never opening it up again.

lardboy

One non-bike blunder.

My fiance is highly allergic to bee and wasp stings, so has to carry an epi-pen with which I have to stab her in the thigh, call 999, then run around panicking should she get stung. As she had one that was out of date and heading for the bin, I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at it and see how it worked, just in case I had to use one on her.

Turns out what I thought was the stabby end, wasnt. This I discovered when my hand was getting wet. It had pushed the needle into the pad of my thumb, through the bone then out through the thumbnail, and was squirting pseudo-ephedrine through my finger onto the back of my hand.

A nice call to 999 followed, with me laughing my head off at my stupidity. As the needle had gone all the way, I hadn't got a dose of adrenaline, apart from what was left on it as I yanked it back through. After I'd calmed down, I was fine, and the new owner of a story-worthy wound.