Rocky Gravol

Riding the bike home at night after a few beers,
came to a fork in the road, couldn't decide which road to take.

So I just went down the middle.

Ended upside down in the blackberry brambles,
with a shoulder injury, that still hurts.

Paul W.

After years of riding platform pedal mountain bikes, I test rode my first road bike. Learned that my favorite rolling dismount, swinging my leg over the real wheel while braking to a stop doesn't work with toe clips. I ended up on my back, still attached to the bike on top of me. To this day, my friend still reminds me of my thorough test drive, even riding it upside down. I still have that bike. Best, if not the most humiliating, $200 I ever spent.

IcySmooth52

Wouldn't that be interesting: A left side single speed. Why couldn't it be done?

eastcoaststeve

This one still makes me shudder....


about 15 years ago I was over restoring a ratty Bianchi, and was polishing every aluminum part to a mirror finish with my bench grinder, (I had taken off the guards to have better access to the buffing wheels)...all went well until I got to the big chain ring...holding it gently as it started to polish up, it caught in the wheel, whipped around in a fraction of a second, and hit me square across the bridge of my nos,e at 100mph. I'm pretty sure it knocked me out for a couple seconds...when I came to, there was blood everywhere and three extra holes in my nose. It hurt like hell, but looking back I'm lucky it didn't hit me higher or lower.



Steve

busdriver1959

It can.

Kobe 

^ Even the cat looks confused by it.

tricky 

Knocked a tooth out and a tooth loose with loose nuts (of my own doing) on the front wheel of my BMX when I was about 12. The dentist (who was kind enough to answer the phone late at night) told me to stick the missing tooth back in my head, which I did. It held on for about 17 years. Not bad!

ppg677

I just made a huge boneheaded move. I snapped the quill stem bolt on a Cinelli stem by over tightening.

Somewhere on this forum I read about loose quills. With a hilly ride this weekend, I decided it was time to "properly" torque it to the Park tool recommended torque. Out comes my cheap/big torque wrench. I hear no clicking so I keep going. SNAP! :-(

Luckily Yellow Jersey had one in stock. But it wasn't cheap. A $40 bolt.

I'm such a bonehead.

Little Darwin

Two in the past few months... Both dealing with the drive trains of two bikes I built for friends.

Put a cassette on a wheel an mounted the wheel, chain etc. and couldn't figure out why the cassette was ruccing the frame even though I had spread the frame to the proper width. Ended up that I hadn't tightened the lock ring.

Next, on a different bike I was putting the chain on, and wound it through the derailleurs and snapped in the master link. As I worked the pedals, I received some resistance, and based on my previous error was looking closely at the cassette, but it looked ok. After checking that things were aligned (visual check) I finally discovered that when I threaded the chain through the rear derailleur, I went outside of the cross piece that I think is there to help retain the chain in the RD... So, fortunately an easy fix.

Back in the 70's, my biggest problem was broken rear axles because I rode rough... And it was made worse by the fact that I frequently tightened the axle bolts too tight and stripped the axles when mounting the wheels. I sometimes was able to use washers to get the axle nut to a non-stripped part of the axle.

I remember once hopping on a bike that I had done a lot of work on, and realized that I hadn't tightened the stem.

And, speaking of stems, I have to admit my biggest weakness in working on bikes. Any time that I replace or adjust a stem, I don't think I have ever been able to finish my first ride without realizing that the stem is offset to one side or the other. Now, I tend to blame it on my progressive lenses distorting things, but I have to admit that it has happened my whole life, even before I started wearing glasses.

mountaindave 

It's not just you, I feel the same effect. Either it is offset, or I think it is offset and have to mess with it some more. Last time it happened I couldn't shake it until I realized that I my handlebar tape ended at different distances from the stem making the bar appear asymmetrical. I'm going to have to re-wrap it soon.

nesteel 

I got over eager and didn't let the paint on my Merckx cure long enough. I now have a perfect imprint of the front derailleur clamp on my seat tube.

Fahrenheit531 

Okay, so a minor bonehead move. Still irritating:

Putting new tires on my Univega, I noticed the label wasn't on the drive side. Weird. Thought I checked that. Went to flip it around and oh hey, labels on both sides! Okay I'm good.

Later, stopped at a light, I noticed that the tread didn't seem to look right. Confirmed later, yep, the rotation arrow was pointed in the wrong direction. Crap. How about the rear? Dammit. 50/50 shot at each and I got 'em both going the wrong way. Curse the marketing genius who asked "how come we're only branded on one side of the tire?"

Yeah, I know this "tread" has no real impact on anything. But I still flipped both tires around. And oblivious often means twice the effort.

3speedslow

Yesterday, building up a bike and got real excited about using some neat 90's bar tape I had found. Focusing on that I did the wrap only to realize I still had quite a bit of messy work to do. Tape was a nice blue fade to white. I must have stopped twenty times to wash my hands before I could grab the handle bar while finishing up.

mountaindave 

I just did exactly the same thing. I mounted a tire, realized the label was not aligned with the stem, reinstalled and checked for rotation. Somehow I got it backwards even with checking - on two wheels!!!

sloar 

I bought this! I'm a sucker for bikes that need saved, I'm hoping it will clean up enough to make a nice rider out of it.

Fahrenheit531 

...Paramount?

eschlwc

^ buying that is not 'boneheaded.'

gaucho777 

I recently made a similar mistake. (Dugast labels their tires on both sides, too.) Just be glad in your case it wasn't a tubular.

himespau 

Oh, is it the anodizing that does that? I have a new Nitto post that's supposedly the right size but I can't get it to stay in place without using that carbon paste stuff that has the grit in it.

sloar 

It is a Paramount, stated frame damage from a crash. We will see if it was a bonehead purchase. I think it will clean up to a nice rider. He did throw in the original Cinelli stem and bars, original Campy tools that came with the bike and some extra Campy tools. Cinelli Allen wrenches and unused Mathauser pads. I don't see any frame damage and he said it tracks straight. So for the price either way I think it's ok purchase. Just going to be a ton of work.

sloar 

Not sure what happened to the font there?

jimmuller 

But don't flip it over left to right. Flip it top to bottom.

There are plenty of moves I don't even think about trying because I just know it will end up bonehead. And some things you learn by doing, like unscrewing the headset from the top then lifting the frame to flip over, all the while watching the fork fall out from the bottom and a zillion 5/32" bearings scatter across the floor.

gearbasher

When I leave my house in the morning, I balance my bike by placing the rear wheel between two bars in the wrought iron railing at the top of my porch. This is right above six brick steps. Once when I turned around to lock the door, my Guerciotti decided to go down the steps by herself. I cried. But to add insult to injury about a month late my Masi did same thing. You think I would have learned a lesson. I still do the same thing every morning.

OldsCOOL

I think the winner is the story of the guy removing the plastic dork disc with a propane torch. It's in the roadie and mech forums from a few years back.

SloButWide 

Opened the garage, wheeled my bike out and leaned it against the side of the garage. Walked into the house, stood in the dining room putting my backpack and helmet on, looking out the patio door at the garage, and walked out 3 minutes later. In the interim, my bike had been stolen. My gf's first comment, "You left your bike unattended?"

Morning commute, after a 4-6" snowfall. Major roads have been plowed, but not the bike path. Crossing a busy intersection, I miss the curb cutout and find the curb under the snow. No endo, but I fell over into the roadside slush, probably amusing the drivers waiting on the light.