Waxed my chain for unbound, replaced it on my bike and struggled the whole race with it making noise/coming off when I shifted up hills(sorta important at that race). came home and discovered i had it over the tab on the tension pulley.
7 Likes
I used conical spacers when installing a caliper on a (new to me) SID fork. I applied torque with maybe 3 threads engaged and promptly stripped out the mount (previous fork was designed for 160mm rotors).
I also learned that day that magnesium alloy is not a particularly fun metal to install helicoils.
3 Likes
I have installed a MTB tire backwards twice in a row… Mounted many cross tires backwards, including some challenge HTLRs last week… I have raced a few seasons of cross and mtb with backwards tires due to total apathy towards it, same for road tires. I am an idiot apparently.
I sheared off a Ti bolt on some MTB brakes 2 days before a major race. Set the torque wrench to 3nm, well below the torque spec and the damn thing sheared before I even hit resistance.
I once installed a pedal on the wrong side of a crank on my fat bike, luckily noticed before I gave the crank a good spin.
Spent 2 days trying to index an XT derailleur, finally brought it to the shop and they noticed I hadn’t aligned that little keeper tab.
In a fit of rage with some MTB brakes I ripped the hydraulic tubing out of the frame only to find it was not internally routed and spent a week trying to fish it all through with a shop vac and string.
I’ve cut more derailleur cables and chains too short too many times to count.
Cracked some carbon bars tightening the lock on grips too much.
I’ve spent hours trying to get a brake to bleed well only to find the piston cracked in the caliper.
6 Likes
Will you be my mechanic?
2 Likes
When you have a fleet of bikes numbering in the teens, and replace one or two out of that fleet every year or two, you are going to make some mistakes. Between the wife and I it currently is, 4x cyclocross bikes, 3x road bikes, 4x mountain bikes, 1x gravel bike, 2x fat bikes plus a bunch of churn over the last 15 years.
When I wheel a bike into the shop, they are usually ready to laugh at me. Whatever I need, I know exactly what needs to be done, I just have spent 4 hours dorking it up so bad I am at a loss of how to do it.
Never remove the top cap from a fox damper, you will spend an aggravating amount of time putting it all back together. This summer I discovered on the grip sl damper there are 3x of the smallest ball bearings you have ever seen, and they need to be placed into the correct detents to make it all work, there are 6 options, only 3 are right. Fortunately, fox doesn’t publish any of the information on where they go. After I got it all resolved, I asked the shop what the correct way to do it is, I was met with, “well, now I will just call you, because we screw it up all the time and do what you just did.”
4 Likes
Was installing a new dropper post on my mtb with internal cable routing. After I cut the old cable out, I immediately pulled the housing out of the frame. I was planning to run a new housing, but really would have been nice to use the old housing to pull the new one in.
Probably took me an extra hour to fish the new housing in.
3 Likes
A few years ago I drove to an out-of-town cyclocross camp. I threw some new tires on the day before I left and ignored one of the cardinal rules of cycling, i.e. never mess with gear right before a ride.
When I got there, I rolled up to the coach for the weekend (a domestic pro), and he said “Nice to meet you. Your tires are on backward”.
I felt like an idiot - which sums up my CX skills quite nicely.
2 Likes
I’ve heard of someone using a star-nut in a carbon steerer tube. I am unwilling to name names however.
4 Likes
A few weeks ago I ordered a SRAM XX Eagle SL chain prewaxed from Silca.
I pulled off my factory chain and held them next to each other for length and counted the links twice.
I still proceeded to cut off one link too many. I’ll probably take a few more off and add in an extra power lock.
I have a 3rd chain the dealer threw in as part of my bike sale, but haven’t shortened it yet. Not looking forward to it.
2 Likes