Best WTF failure on your bike

darkhairedlord

ratsbeyfus wrote:

When getting out of saddle to climb a hill on commute home my FSA Gossamer crank left arm came off which in turn caused the right arm/chainset to also come out at the same time. The right arm got caught in rear wheel which rotated and slammed the arm and trapped it into the seat stays. All happened in a split second. Put everything back together and cycled home only to discover that the RHS carbon seat stay had actually been crushed. Repair would've cost more than new frame.

I thought your's was trashing the CAAD 9 on a turbo trainer?

simon_masterson

A couple of years ago I had a fixed cup fail on an old loose bearing BB.

step83

Pedal body came away from the spindle, didn't notice till I unclipped an it fell onto the floor. Made the ride back a little interesting.

vrsmatt

Left hand crank snapped in the middle during a full gas sprint for the lamp post......big cut in my leg and road rash....was not happy

motogull

I thought my rear wheel needing triung because try as I might I couldn't adjust the brakes to stop them rubbing. After 100+ miles I gave up and decided to go to my LBS. On cleaning the wheel I found a spoke with 2-3mm fresh air all around it. LBS had never seen that before and told me I'd potentially got away with a biggie.

redvee

Had a left hand crank snap on me. Was slowing for a red light and rode over a sunken drain cover, approx 1" below road surface and next thing I'm lying on the road trying to workout WTF just happened.

andy9964

Had my first clipless moment in a pair of Aldi's finest. Thinking that I'd get something cheap to see if I would be okay with them.
As I approached a junction, I panicked. Pulling my foot sharply from the pedal, I managed to save myself, but something felt wrong. It wasn't until I went to move off again, that I realised what it was. The cleat and the steel plate (which gives the Aldi shoes their stiffness) were still attached to the pedal.
Turns out, the plate must have snapped due to bending down to lock the bike up every day, and in my panic I had ripped the whole thing through the sole of the shoe
A refund followed shortly after, buy cheap..............

neeb

Not actually a failure, but a definite WTF moment.. Unpacking my best carbon bike in the hotel room having arrived in Mallorca. Wheels and rear derailleur back on, bars and saddle correctly adjusted. Suddenly I touch what feels like a big long crack right the way along the drive side chainstay... Aaargh!! Five seconds of cursing later I realise it's just the edge of a completely transparent chainsuck protection sticker. Phew!

GedFoss

Fenix wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

I properly maintain my bike so have no such issues.

Do tell me how you can maintain saddle rails or similar ? Things do break if you ride them enough.

Presumably he carries out x-Ray crystallography on his components in between rides. The kind of failures we're talking about here have their roots in irregularities in the structure of the metal on the atomic scale, so short of utilising laboratory equipment of the kind used in the aerospace industry, I don't see how any inspection regime could identify all such faults before they reach the stage where they could fail on a typical ride.

Mapaputsi

Was in a mtb race last year and my front brakes started feeling a bit soft, they weren’t gripping, turns out they were long overdue a bleed. I ploughed on anyway because the back brake was working fine. Came down a fairly innocuous looking descent to a fire road and popped over a few big rocks. Heard a ‘Ping!’ from my back wheel. Had a quick look down and didn’t notice anything amiss. Next section was a slippery boardwalk section, so up I went and lightly tapped on the back brake into a corner… nothing. Slid off the boardwalk and sliced open my shin. Turns out the back brake pad had fallen out(!) and I was effectively riding with no brakes. LBS had only ever seen it happen once before.

Still have the scar :?

Tashman

Final day of term at uni many moons ago, went outside, unlocked the machine of the time, threw my leg over it and started riding. Something felt wrong, looked down to see fresh air between the bottom of the seat tube and the crank housing. Had rusted clean through! (Fortunately was only a cheap "racer" I had picked up after my shiny new mountain bike had been nicked during week 2 of term)

fenix

Not a failure on my bike - but a mates bike.

Offroad challenge - probably 40 or 50 miles on the route - not that technical but very hilly. Waiting for my pal to arrive after a big mountain climb - up and down - so we regroup at the base. Must have been about 30 riders doing the same - waiting at the bottom of the descent. Suddenly we see him hurtling down the track - much faster than most - and shouting 'OUT OF THE WAY - NO BRAKES'

He whooshed through the middle of us all - straight over a country road and stacked it in a hedge.

Later on we found out that he'd taken the bike in to have the brake blocks replaced and the saturday boy had put them in back to front. THey stayed in the shoes but there's very little grip that way.....

ratsbeyfus

darkhairedlord wrote:

ratsbeyfus wrote:

When getting out of saddle to climb a hill on commute home my FSA Gossamer crank left arm came off which in turn caused the right arm/chainset to also come out at the same time. The right arm got caught in rear wheel which rotated and slammed the arm and trapped it into the seat stays. All happened in a split second. Put everything back together and cycled home only to discover that the RHS carbon seat stay had actually been crushed. Repair would've cost more than new frame.

I thought your's was trashing the CAAD 9 on a turbo trainer?

Nah, that was just my biggest 'How f@$king dare they!" moment ever! Ironically, since then I've become a turbo addict and the CAAD10 replacement frame has coped beautifully with all the 'abuse'.

k-dog

Not my mistake but I've just had the pad replaced in 2 pairs of shorts. Spot the obvious mistake:

clickrumble

Don't wear those near any male baboons

thistle_

Mapaputsi wrote:

Turns out the back brake pad had fallen out(!) and I was effectively riding with no brakes. LBS had only ever seen it happen once before.

That happened to a friend while we were out riding. He'd just taken his bike to the LBS and got them to bleed his brakes and replace the pads. He was complaining on all the descents that his bike wasn't right, when we got to the end he had a look and was missing a pad.
I think they were Avid Juicy's and the pad and the retaining clip were missing. I reckon the LBS forgot to put the retaining clip back in when they replaced the pads.

webboo

I was out doing some intervals on an Alan cross bike, the head set seemed to be notching. So I went home as lifted the bike in to the shed, the front wheel with the forks attached dropped out.
Quite a common problem with those bikes as they had a glued on steerer on the front forks, which used to snap off.

lesfirth

Clickrumble wrote:

Don't wear those near any male baboons

navrig2

Milemuncher1 wrote:

Navrig2 wrote:

Broke my arm after my wife fell off her MTB knocking me off my MTB and us both landing in a heap.

Why did she fall off?

'Coz, I slapped her bum as I passed her.

High five.

Funnily enough she did not High Five me as she mopped the blood from her knee and complained that I had ruined our weekend away by spending 3 hours in A&E!