Mechanicals that end your ride

petemadoc

50 miles into todays ride and still 30 miles from the car I decided to raise my saddle about a cm. When tightening it back up I heard a snap and the screw thread got ruined. Not an end to the ride but a rather uncomfortable 30 miles on the lowest saddle setting with it wobbling around. Last week a club mate had a busted spoke which resulted in a call to the wife for a lift and an end to his ride.

Just wondering what else is likely to cause disaster and how best to avoid. I don't carry a spare chain link but I think I might get one now. Do you need a chain tool too?

Without bringing your whole tool kit what other essentials are there for long rides away from home and the safety net of calling my dear wife.

balthazar

If your wheel has enough spokes, a broken one is an inconvenience, not ride-ending. Just open up the brake and fix it later. Nobody thinks about that though when buying wheels, preferring to obsess over "ride quality", "acceleration", and whatever other fairytales. /wheelrant

Years ago a friend snapped his frame when deep in the woods, and the "get home" solution was everybody's toestraps (before SPD, and there were a few people) wrapped in a bundle around the broken headtube/downtube. He managed to ride home, albeit with interesting steering.

I've got a couple of nuts and bolts, and a few zipties in my seatpack, which might help with the odd failure: I've probably got something that would have clamped up your seatpost. A spare chainlink and a multitool with a chain extractor are essential, I think. I take a couple of links – 9 speed, and 10 – in case I meet anybody on the road who needs one. They weigh nothing.

However, I went out the other day and discovered a cracked faceplate on my Thomson stem. That ended the ride, to my chagrin. At least iRide (Jim Walker) replaced it for free, though the warranty is much expired: props to them.

markos1963

Chain tool and at least two KMC missing links. A few zip ties. A piece of flexible plastic to use as a tyre boot and a puncture repair kit as you might have more flats than tubes carried. Oh and a toll that can undo/do up any nut or bolt fitted to the bike.

Only ever had one ride ending failure, a busted rear mech but that was sorted out by taking off and junking the mech and runing it as a single speed to get me home.

petemadoc

I currently carry

a tube, patches in case I get a 2nd puncture, multitool, levers, pump

I'm gonna get me a better multitool with a chain breaker on and some missing links

What's with all the zip ties?

rick_chasey

PeteMadoc wrote:

What's with all the zip ties?

What else are you going to tie your victim up with?

Rope's a faff to carry.

shockedsoshocked

The paul on my DA wheels went once in the middle of nowhere. That was a fun walk back to civilization.v

MattC59

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

The paul on my DA wheels went once in the middle of nowhere. That was a fun walk back to civilization.v

Perhaps the pawl would have preferred to have been called James, so had a tantrum and failed ?

MountainMonster

Other than the odd flat, our rides normally don't get ended early because of mechanicals, thank goodness. Saying that, crashing seems to be a normal occurance in our rides, at least someone from the group has a crash or near miss on every ride!

dgstewart

My ride on saturday afternoon there was ended unceremoniously by an almighty rifle shot sound, as my rear tyre inexplicably "exploded". Might sound overly dramatic but I've never heard a noise like it, except said rifle. My brother thought there was someone shooting a rifle in the nearby woods too!

When I got off to look at the tyre it was destroyed, with a gaping hole, kind of sliced on the outside, but also shredded threads on the inside, strangely not directly under the outer slice, but round the tyre by 15mm or so. Tube just had a plain and simple large hole, with no sign of the missing rubber.

I didn't hit anything, and the road was pretty clear - no obvious debris. Thankfully it was on an upslope and I was probably only doing around 15 mph at most. Cue a 15 mile ride home (on the other bike) to get the car.

petemadoc

dgstewart wrote:

My ride on saturday afternoon there was ended unceremoniously by an almighty rifle shot sound, as my rear tyre inexplicably "exploded". Might sound overly dramatic but I've never heard a noise like it, except said rifle. My brother thought there was someone shooting a rifle in the nearby woods too!

When I got off to look at the tyre it was destroyed, with a gaping hole, kind of sliced on the outside, but also shredded threads on the inside, strangely not directly under the outer slice, but round the tyre by 15mm or so. Tube just had a plain and simple large hole, with no sign of the missing rubber.

I didn't hit anything, and the road was pretty clear - no obvious debris. Thankfully it was on an upslope and I was probably only doing around 15 mph at most. Cue a 15 mile ride home (on the other bike) to get the car.

Yes this happened to me once too. Luckily only 2 miles from home and I could still ride on the tyre, but there was a large balloon like piece of inner tube sticking out of the hole.

Sirius631

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

The paul on my DA wheels went once in the middle of nowhere. That was a fun walk back to civilization.v

Take your pedals off, lower your saddle and ride the bike like a hobby horse. That way you only have to get off and push on steeper hills.

JamesB

Depends on what you want to carry !

Last year when MTBing someones seatpost clamp broke---sorted with several zipties and copious amounts electrical tape which kept saddle up near original position.

Carry spare chain link / chain tool as part of multi tool, 2 inners , repair kit, bit old tyre, several zipties, rear mech hanger, spare seatpost clamp, soem electrical tape

cougie

I've had a rim explode.

A tyre disintegrate.

Chain snap on my fixed wheel and i didnt have any spares.

Two punctures in one pothole and just one inner tube.

Two seatpost clamps snapping. (that didnt end the ride, just shortened it as rode out of the saddle home.

The pawls go on a wheel as above - luckily I was only half a mile from home.

If you do have a multitool - make sure you can use all the bits. Doing chain links on a multitool is a nightmare...

piquet

Rim disintegrated and wrapped itself around the brakes

Rear derailleur through spokes (twice!)

Bike written off when horse stamped on it.

Chain snapped

seat post bolt sheared.

Puncture and wrong size tubes in my pack, fixed with last remaining patch - train home seemed a better idea than risking being mile from anywhere

Pokerface

PeteMadoc wrote:

50 miles into todays ride and still 30 miles from the car I decided to raise my saddle about a cm.

A full cm!? :shock: That's a lot.


Sorry about your luck. ANyway - I've only had to call the wife for a lift once. Double flat I think it was and no pump, etc.

Last race I broke a spoke - but there was a neutral service car to give me a new wheel. 8)

JamesB

Last race I broke a spoke - but there was a neutral service car to give me a new wheel.

good reason to go with hanbuilts??

rake

the only time i havent made it back was when johnney foreigner drove his car into my side insisting it was my fault. otherwise no major breakdowns.

shouldbeinbed

The only non crash inflicted ride ending problem was a pedal snapping off. Though the force I straddled the crossbar with, I was glad not to be sat down for the 5 mile walk home.

ademort

MyCarbon Aero Quest seatpin suddenly broke around 10 miles from home, bloody hard work trying to carry a saddle with half a seatpin attached to it and still ride the bike. On a number of occasions the freehubs gone on my work bike, nice push/walk home. Once the chain broke and another nice walk/push home.Once i took my good bike with deep carbon rims to work and got a puncture/blowout on the way home. Innertube was unrepaireable and i had the wrong size innertubes with me. Long walk home and it was 30 degrees that day, feet were effin killing me when i got home.All in all that,s not too bad for 35 years cycling.
Ademort

shockedsoshocked

Had some time pedals disintegrate about 30 hilly miles from home once too. Didn't end the ride, but my right leg felt fucking massive by the time i got home.

rolf_f

dgstewart wrote:

Cue a 15 mile ride home (on the other bike) to get the car.

That's the best approach - just bring a spare bike with you

Gazzaputt

Had an Eggbeater pedal come away from the axle still connected to my shoe.

petemadoc

Gazzaputt wrote:

Had an Eggbeater pedal come away from the axle still connected to my shoe.

Ha ha, yes, I'd forgotten this ended a mates ride a few months ago. He's new to the whole cycling thing and I think he forced the non drive side pedal into the thread the wrong way and eventually it failed. Then rather than getting it fixed he did a botch job with some sort of metal glue :shock: That lasted a few weeks before it cut short another ride and then he finally admitted defeat and got it fixed properly.

Skippy2309

on my old bikes I managed to snap a bb was weird trying to pedal with only the drive side crank working a wobbling all the place....

also managed to snap the chain, rip a pedal off the crank arm, snapped a crank arm off, broke the free hub... also managed to rid home with only one crank arm attached that was interesting


personally the worst was snapping a single screw in a cleat. on the drive side... i couldnt unclip and it was nigh on impossible to pedal as it was sipping everywhere. i managed to get up the hill and had to brace on a well and remove the shoe and force it from the pedal :shock:

brucey72

On the NR Cyclone on Saturday a guy in front of me had his seat fell off on a descent which then bounced across the road. Unfortunately for him a car was coming the other way which ran over it. I didn't stop to help as I couldn't stop laughing at his misfortune and the 'interesting' last 8 miles he was going to have to ride back to the finish should he not have somehow been able to re-attach his seat.

Pross

I've had a clubmate whose crank axle sheered on him (couldn't have ridden on even if repairable as the broken axle gouged his leg so deeply). It was a freak occurence due to a manufacturing fault.

Only once have I had to call for a lift, that was when a spoke went for no apparent reason about 5 miles from home and the wheel went completely out of true. I also had a lucky escape first time out on my current bike, I carried a chain tool for the first time ever and about 7 miles into the ride my chain snapped - my luck usually works the other way!

dgstewart

Rolf F wrote:

dgstewart wrote:

Cue a 15 mile ride home (on the other bike) to get the car.

That's the best approach - just bring a spare bike with you

Indeed, I always hire a man to run really fast behind me with my spare bike.

In reality my brother was up visiting and was riding my other bike. As he was already complaining about:

1) My saddle being uncomfortable, and
2) He had a bad cold, and...
3) He shouldn't have had soup for lunch - repeating a bit apparently,

I decided to relieve him of his troubles and make the ride home myself.