Your biggest cycling fail so far?

Craig0657

So I was all set for a 60mile ride this morning with a fast group of experienced cyclists, we all met up and had a chat about the route, as soon as I pushed down on the pedals...BOOM, inner tube exploded. Luckily the guys changed it within 2mins and we set off, 10miles later....BOOM! Once again inner tube explodes, a quick inspection of the tyre from one of the guys told me it was fu**ed leaving me with a nice 10mile walk home, slipping down all the hills we just climbed in SPD-SL's.

Apparently all those hours of the turbo through the winter has left me with a "square wheel" that is now unusable!

Anyone else care to share their Cycling failures?

Matthewfalle

1. Experienced fast riders my arse. Clubbies on a Friday morning going out on their bi-cycles.

2. Square wheel my arse. What a load of tosh. Utter load of tosh.

Here endeth the cynicism.

fat daddy

Craig ..... your biggest cycling failure would now be to respond or engage with the troll .... he is just attention seeking, don't say anything, just keep still .. he cant see you if you don't move !

Matthewfalle

Who's trolling? Square wheel? Sound like a great bunch of lads to hang with.

ayjaycee

Matthewfalle wrote:

1. Experienced fast riders my ars*. Clubbies on a Friday morning going out on their bi-cycles.

2. Square wheel my ars*. What a load of tosh. Utter load of tosh.

Here endeth the cynicism.

3. 'Boom' my ars* - it might just about have gone with a quiet Phtt..

4. 'Exploded' my ars* - you had a couple of punctures - sh1t happens and you deal with it. IEDs explode, tyres go flat.

and before I get accused of trolling, I don't think so but will confess to showing a distinct lack of sympathy (which sits somewhere in between sh1t an syphilis in the dictionary if you ever go looking for it). As you might guess, I havent had the best of days so far!

svetty

Craig0657 wrote:

So I was all set for a 60mile ride this morning with a fast group of experienced cyclists, we all met up and had a chat about the route, as soon as I pushed down on the pedals...BOOM, inner tube exploded. Luckily the guys changed it within 2mins and we set off, 10miles later....BOOM! Once again inner tube explodes, a quick inspection of the tyre from one of the guys told me it was fu**ed leaving me with a nice 10mile walk home, slipping down all the hills we just climbed in SPD-SL's.

Apparently all those hours of the turbo through the winter has left me with a "square wheel" that is now unusable!

Anyone else care to share their Cycling failures?

Moral of the story is make sure your bike is roadworthy before setting out and don't use your normal road wheels/tyres when on the turbo.

I have an old rear wheel with a similarly old tyre that I swap to when putting my bike on the turbo.....

sheffsimon

Craig0657 wrote:

So I was all set for a 60mile ride this morning with a fast group of experienced cyclists, we all met up and had a chat about the route, as soon as I pushed down on the pedals...BOOM, inner tube exploded. Luckily the guys changed it within 2mins and we set off, 10miles later....BOOM! Once again inner tube explodes, a quick inspection of the tyre from one of the guys told me it was fu**ed leaving me with a nice 10mile walk home, slipping down all the hills we just climbed in SPD-SL's.

Apparently all those hours of the turbo through the winter has left me with a "square wheel" that is now unusable!

Anyone else care to share their Cycling failures?

Sounds like whoever changed your tube the first time trapped it between rim and tyre and it blew the sidewall out.

Matthewfalle

Svetty wrote:

Craig0657 wrote:

So I was all set for a 60mile ride this morning with a fast group of experienced cyclists, we all met up and had a chat about the route, as soon as I pushed down on the pedals...BOOM, inner tube exploded. Luckily the guys changed it within 2mins and we set off, 10miles later....BOOM! Once again inner tube explodes, a quick inspection of the tyre from one of the guys told me it was fu**ed leaving me with a nice 10mile walk home, slipping down all the hills we just climbed in SPD-SL's.

Apparently all those hours of the turbo through the winter has left me with a "square wheel" that is now unusable!

Anyone else care to share their Cycling failures?

Moral of the story is make sure your bike is roadworthy before setting out and don't use your normal road wheels/tyres when on the turbo.

I have an old rear wheel with a similarly old tyre that I swap to when putting my bike on the turbo.....

Tosh.

Absolutely nothing wrong at all with using normal wheels and tyres on a turbo trainer.

It's a turbo trainer, not the bleeding moon.

arthur_scrimshaw

Blimey what's up with you lot today? It's Friday - you should be in good spirits!

Craig0657

Great to see you all joining in with the light-hearted, let's not take ourselves too seriously theme of this thread :? ....

Matthewfalle

Because it wasn't very light hearted. It was a tale of sycophancy, being ill prepared and stuck up in his own backside clubbie bullshining someone who didn't know any better.

All 7 Ps failed in one hit.

fenix

ayjaycee wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

1. Experienced fast riders my ars*. Clubbies on a Friday morning going out on their bi-cycles.

2. Square wheel my ars*. What a load of tosh. Utter load of tosh.

Here endeth the cynicism.

3. 'Boom' my ars* - it might just about have gone with a quiet Phtt..

4. 'Exploded' my ars* - you had a couple of punctures - sh1t happens and you deal with it. IEDs explode, tyres go flat.

and before I get accused of trolling, I don't think so but will confess to showing a distinct lack of sympathy (which sits somewhere in between sh1t an syphilis in the dictionary if you ever go looking for it). As you might guess, I havent had the best of days so far!

I guess you've never had a tyre blow out then.......


OK so your tyre may have worn a bit - if its not too bad then its probably salvageable. If not - keep it as a winter tyre for your turbo sessions.

And yeah sounds like your pals trapped the inner tube when they fixed your flat. Unless the tyre got torn in the bang - it would be fixable. Did they not have a spare inner tube to lend you ?

stretchy

Such a happy forum these days

reformedfatty

Matthewfalle wrote:

Tosh.

Absolutely nothing wrong at all with using normal wheels and tyres on a turbo trainer.

It's a turbo trainer, not the bleeding moon.

Wheels I agree. Tyres, different matter. Turbo's resistance rollers get tyres a lot hotter than normal road use would, to the point where normal tyres will wear much much faster. Which is probably what the OP is talking about - a squared off tyre with insufficient rubber left to offer sufficient puncture protection.

slowmart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB1JlHWvRxc

Watch the link and see if the sentiment applies to some of the posters above...

svetty

reformedfatty wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

Tosh.

Absolutely nothing wrong at all with using normal wheels and tyres on a turbo trainer.

It's a turbo trainer, not the bleeding moon.

Wheels I agree. Tyres, different matter. Turbo's resistance rollers get tyres a lot hotter than normal road use would, to the point where normal tyres will wear much much faster. Which is probably what the OP is talking about - a squared off tyre with insufficient rubber left to offer sufficient puncture protection.

My point is that it is far easier to simply swap out a rear wheel with a suitable tyre than it is to re-fit tyres every time you want to use the bike on the turbo......

As for the troll, just ignore him

burnthesheep

I had ridden for about 5 months on a free/used bike. I put on a fresh cassette, chain, tires, tubes, lines and cables. Was fit to go. One issue, I hadn't researched the fact that "missing links" exist. I didn't assemble the chain correctly. Somehow it rode fine for about 150 miles.

Then, literally half way in a 35 mile group ride with 3 friends I shear the pin off that had backed part way out while going up a small hill by a stop light.

Of course, not a spare or tool.

Now, 6 months later, I carry a mini chain break and missing link with me. One 11 spd and one compatible with others in case a fellow rider needs one.

The other fail, tried to do a real climb of only about 1000 feet after riding for that 5 months. Feet down 3 times to rest. Only 2 miles of 1000 feet. Was literally in the bottom 10 people out of 2500 for the climb. This was on a triple ring and 11-28 by the way. Weak weak weak. I actually had a guy pass me on the way up ask if I was ok or not.

Tried it again on the new fancy carbon aero rig 5 months after that and many many miles of training.....now I'm about #1000 out of 2500 and did it 3x in a row without putting a foot down. Still 11-28 but not a triple, just a normal race-bike double.

First try? 27 minutes. Second try, under 18 min.

Matthewfalle

As an aside - they left you to walk 10 miles home by yourself?

Seriously? Mate, you need to find some new clubbie mates. That is seriously not on.

trailflow

What should they have done, carry him ?

OP you know you can take your shoes off and walk in your socks ?

Check your rim tape or look for sharp object still lodged in your tyre. a squared off tyre wont cause flats unless the rubber,puncture strip and casing was extremely work through. What does your tyre look like ?

Matthewfalle

trailflow wrote:

What should they have done, carry him ?

OP you know you can take your shoes off and walk in your socks ?

Check your rim tape or look for sharp object still lodged in your tyre. a squared off tyre wont cause flats unless the rubber,puncture strip and casing was extremely work through. What does your tyre look like ?

Call him a cab if he had no phone.

Lend him the cab fare if he had no money.

Check his tire properly and lend him a tube.

Repair his tire properly

Offer to call one of their birds or blokes or mum of dad if he didn't have one to come and pick him up.

Not be such a bunch of twats

Any multitude of things really including and beyond the above.

As it was they dumped him in the middle of nowhere.

Think how you would feel it if it happened to you/your burd/bloke/kid?

What a bunch of knobs.

trailflow

Matthewfalle wrote:

Call him a cab if he had no phone.

Lend him the cab fare if he had no money.

Check his tire properly and lend him a tube.

Repair his tire properly

Offer to call one of their birds or blokes or mum of dad if he didn't have one to come and pick him up.

Not be such a bunch of twats

Any multitude of things really including and beyond the above.

As it was they dumped him in the middle of nowhere.

Think how you would feel it if it happened to you/your burd/bloke/kid?

What a bunch of knobs.

Im sure the OP is a big boy who can figure all that out himself. He would not of been lost within 10 miles. Im sure this story has some missing details.

I would of told them to ride on.

You would of called the fire brigade by the sounds of it.

Craig0657

They all offered to wait/try another tube/call someone to give me a lift, I told them to ride on. I wasn't complaining about the incident at all, as mentioned it's my fault for not checking my bike was road-worthy before the ride , I just thought it would be funny if we all posted some stories of the rides that may not have gone so well but apparently no one else has them....

I'll take a pic of the tyre tomorrow and post it on here, the guy is totally right in that it is farked!

And I called them a fast group because all of the riders are faster than me, I guess fast is a relative term.

DavidJB

I'll try to get the thread back on track...

Riding with the flu, then hitting the 25 mph block head wind 20 miles from home (all one direction) whilst completely bonking and being emotionally and physically drained...I cried but I did get home.

Going out with 1 rear light after work in shorts/knee warmers and a base layer/jersey...got rained on...light failed 11 miles from home in pitch black lanes...phoned girlfriend...stood around in 1c for 35 minutes soaking wet and got hypothermia, shivered non stop for 5 hours...was fun.

Riding into the back of a van because my brakes didn't work and I was taking a drink in the rain...instead of throwing the bottle and using both hands I pulled a stupid face, hit the van, fell off and dislocated my shoulder...when I picked my arm up it popped back in and I rode home...couldn't lift my arm above my shoulder/head for 6 months.

Racing at odd down and clipping the side of the track, going down and my team mate riding over my head...thankfully the helmet...cut up face, lots of skin lost and a cracked Wilier Cento1 Air frameset

Cutting the steerer of my new race bike too short and having to buy another fork for £350.

And many more probably.

jgsi

DavidJB wrote:

I'll try to get the thread back on track...

Riding with the flu, then hitting the 25 mph block head wind 20 miles from home (all one direction) whilst completely bonking and being emotionally and physically drained...I cried but I did get home.

Going out with 1 rear light after work in shorts/knee warmers and a base layer/jersey...got rained on...light failed 11 miles from home in pitch black lanes...phoned girlfriend...stood around in 1c for 35 minutes soaking wet and got hypothermia, shivered non stop for 5 hours...was fun.

Riding into the back of a van because my brakes didn't work and I was taking a drink in the rain...instead of throwing the bottle and using both hands I pulled a stupid face, hit the van, fell off and dislocated my shoulder...when I picked my arm up it popped back in and I rode home...couldn't lift my arm above my shoulder/head for 6 months.

Racing at odd down and clipping the side of the track, going down and my team mate riding over my head...thankfully the helmet...cut up face, lots of skin lost and a cracked Wilier Cento1 Air frameset

Cutting the steerer of my new race bike too short and having to buy another fork for £350.

And many more probably.

chopper ;-)

Matthewfalle

trailflow wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

Call him a cab if he had no phone.

Lend him the cab fare if he had no money.

Check his tire properly and lend him a tube.

Repair his tire properly

Offer to call one of their birds or blokes or mum of dad if he didn't have one to come and pick him up.

Not be such a bunch of twats

Any multitude of things really including and beyond the above.

As it was they dumped him in the middle of nowhere.

Think how you would feel it if it happened to you/your burd/bloke/kid?

What a bunch of knobs.

Im sure the OP is a big boy who can figure all that out himself. He would not of been lost within 10 miles. Im sure this story has some missing details.

I would have told them to ride on.

You would have called the fire brigade by the sounds of it.

Nah - I just wouldn't have gone out with a bunch of choppers. Simples innit.

MozBiker

For my first month of cycling I didn't carry any spares with my at all. Stupid I know. I was fortunate enough not to suffer any punctures or mechanicals. A bit later I did carry around patches and a pump but not an inner tube. On one ride I punctured twice and used to tubes from my mates. After that I always carry two tubes at least and a patch kit and a chain breaker tool incorporated into a heck of an awesome multitool. Haven't punctured in over 4000km now.

fat daddy

the more tools you carry the less you have mechanical issues.

I think weight = reliability .... but not necessarily in the way you think, ie big heavy tyres are puncture resistant .... yes they are, but the lightest racing tyre is equally as puncture resistant if you are carrying around a workstand, track pump, replacement wheel, tube, tyre and a full tool kit.

burnthesheep

Matthewfalle wrote:

Call him a cab if he had no phone.

Lend him the cab fare if he had no money.

Check his tire properly and lend him a tube.

Repair his tire properly

Offer to call one of their birds or blokes or mum of dad if he didn't have one to come and pick him up.

Not be such a bunch of twats

Any multitude of things really including and beyond the above.

As it was they dumped him in the middle of nowhere.

Think how you would feel it if it happened to you/your burd/bloke/kid?

What a bunch of knobs.

This.

As I pass a person that appears in the middle of "mechanical" I ask if they need anything. If they don't immediately say "we're good" I will stop. Once it was a guy in nice kit, nice carbon bike, and he had tools. But, his CO2 leaked on trying to put the gas in and didn't carry a pump. I carried a pump. Otherwise he was stuck walking.

I've been helped before as a noob so I try to be aware in case so that someone else doesn't have to walk several miles home.

meanredspider

burnthesheep wrote:

This.

As I pass a person that appears in the middle of "mechanical" I ask if they need anything. If they don't immediately say "we're good" I will stop. Once it was a guy in nice kit, nice carbon bike, and he had tools. But, his CO2 leaked on trying to put the gas in and didn't carry a pump. I carried a pump. Otherwise he was stuck walking.

I've been helped before as a noob so I try to be aware in case so that someone else doesn't have to walk several miles home.

The cultural differences are funny. I learned that in NL you don't bother asking if the guy stopped is OK and that it's his (her) job to flag you down if they need assistance.

To corroborate this, I was once pushing hard to see if I could improve my rather meagre position on a Strava segment towards the end of my ride when a guy jumped out in front of me, leaving me no choice other than to stop or run him down. He asked to borrow a pump so I fished it out of my tightly packed tool "bottle". He pumped up his tyre (took a while with a micro pump) and handed it back to me, jumped on his bike, and disappeared - leaving me to re-pack everything, and ride, stiffening with cold, back home.

I vowed next time just to run him down....

Craig0657

trailflow wrote:

OP you know you can take your shoes off and walk in your socks ? ?

Seems stupid to say now but at the time I didn't even consider this as an option! Obviously this resulted in totally mashing the cleats and then getting ripped off by halfrauds for some new ones as I wanted to ride the next day :evil:

term1te

Falling off my bike, whilst its attached to a turbo trainer. My, then very young, daughter walked in front of me whilst I was mashing it on the turbo. Not thinking straight, I slammed on the brakes, and violently swerved to the right to avoid her. The bike and turbo toppled and I fell off with one foot still clipped in as the weight of the turbo brought the bike back upright. Didn't look very professional. Fortunately she was too young at the time to remember now.