hubcap

Let's see...plenty of flats in all weather conditions and caused by all kinds of different things, usual loose bolts, lights flying off, broken spokes, etc. Things that are par for the course and not exceptional.

Snapped a chain once, but my multitool has a chaintool on it - no problem. I ride single speeds too, so I carry spare links if necessary.

Pawls wouldn't engage on a freewheel once and had to call a cab (started showing some symptoms for a day or two on this problem but didn't deal with it until it wouldn't fix itself).

Stripped a freehub once right after leaving the train station to head home, bike shop a couple blocks away was open and I picked up a cheap 26" wheel, that wheel is still going strong.

Rack eyelet on my dropouts broke and the other one was already broken with the bolt through the rack keeping that side from sliding down the outside of the dropout, but with both sides now broken the rack would slide down until it was in contact with the tire. Had to call home on this one because I was not going to ride the 10 miles home trying to hang loaded panniers off of my drop bars. Fixed it using p-clamps as the mounting points at the bottom of the seatstays.

Mounting tab snapped off where the front fender connects to the brake. Disconnected the struts and slipped them and the fender into a pannier and carried it the rest of the way to work. Zip ties turned out to not be a very good permanent solution. Never have gotten around to figuring out how I want to re-mount it for good.

I'm probably missing some good ones. Noobs shouldn't think by reading this that you are going to run into problems left and right when bike commuting. I now put in 8 to 10K miles per year riding and this is a compilation of problems over many years of commuting. In my opinion, for what we ask of them, bikes are surprisingly dependable.

MEversbergII

Oh for sure. Most fiddly issues I've had are due to poor construction by department store employees. Learning experience.

M.

Grishnak

Ran over something sharp,it was submerged in a deep puddle.It cut the marathon plus right through everything exept the wire bead.Tyre went flat in a fraction of a second..

Rhodabike

My strangest mechanical failure on the way to work was a broken bottom bracket axle. One minute I was pedalling, the next the crank arms weren't connected to each other. I wasn't carrying a cell phone, so it was a 4 block walk to a train station to call home from a pay phone. The shop mechanic who replaced it cut the sealed cartridge open out of curiosity and found that it was twisted apart right in the center. He guessed that there was a flaw in the metal during manufacture. I was teased about my tremendous power, but yeah, unfortunately, it was probably a built in flaw.
I've had flats, but they don't usually take long to fix.

Leebo

Not that bad. 2 flats in 4 years. Easy fix there. Busted a frame at the seat tube and BB junction with 10 miles left in the commute. Amazing what 6 ft of duct tape and 2 zip ties will fix. Snapped the rear der. cable. A stick and some zip ties to put it in one gear for the remainder of the ride. Just be prepared with some basic tools and supplies.

zacster

After not having any flats for a few years on the road (I had a few after being off the bike at home), I've had 5 flats in the last few months, all on the rear. I've gotten pretty good with changing them, but I also have many years of experience doing it. The one issue I've had is with my mini pump, it just doesn't work well with fatter tires. I bought a Topeak Road Morph G because of that and the last flat took all of 5 minutes to fix. I was even on my way to a meeting and I made it.

cyccommute 

Flats aren't as common for me as other events. I have

- broken a pedal
-broken a crankset
-broken spokes
-slammed a bike into a curb at about 30 mph when I couldn't make the corner and folded a nice suspension fork in half
-broken 4 frames while riding to work
-crashed on ice and broke all three headlights on my bike
-been hit by a pedestrian
-been hit by a car

Stuff happens

noglider 

Wow! You ain't kiddin'! That's a lotta stuff!

lostarchitect 

It sure is. I feel pretty lucky. I get a couple flats a year, and once in a while I drop a chain. But that's about it, thankfully.

f4rrest

I break spokes, chains, and shift cables about as often as I flat -- about a couple times/year. Maybe I need to be gentler?

zacster

That really is a lot of stuff to break. I've been riding for 40+ years and have never broken more than a spoke or two, and had worn cables snap, except when I had my bad accident 8 years ago when I broke my fork in a head on collision.

Ron Harry

All these stories are great; as I read, brings back memories...been there done that [well, except for the crank arm breaking and falling into a ravene, LOL].

I was gonna start a new thread asking some questions about these CO2 cartridges, but looks like might be appropriate here. Also, some odds and ends on flats.

First, flatted on a twilight ride just last night [12/10]. No problems; was up and running again in about 15 minutes. But I have run out of co2 before [as one poster said], and blown tubes out etc...leaving me with that 'long walk of shame' home [my longest so far was about 4 miles clopping along on look style clips; that was before I carried a cell phone anyway]. I now try and carry tire boots and a mini pump [if my bag can handle it; I have several bikes].

Flats are one thing, but 'blow out's are another. Anyone ever riding on steep descents, this is what scares the most. Shouldn't ever happen unless the tube is pinched and can just give out; why I always check around tire bead full circumference of rim on both sides [pushing the tire edge inward to see if any tube protrubes]. If tube is pinched, it will usually blow out when one tries to bring it to pressure; but sometimes it 'delays'...and that can be dangerous [again, if in steep hills of any kind; or just going fast].
Also, weak points or tears in tire itself can be reason for a 'blow out'...which is why I discard any tire that gets cut or slashed to any degree. I've heard some people use shoe goo to fill in small cracks and cuts , but I'd be very conservative on what I deem 'savable'.

Now, on the co2...I have a few questions if someone might add some light:
I think 'Kenshibiker' might have hinted on this...but can these cartridges actually 'blow out' a tire [say a 120 psi rated tire]?

Which brings me to the second question [maybe the engineer can add light to this one]...what psi does a typical 16g cartridge hold and what would be the volume of gas be once released? I just want to know if these things can be dangerous. It is amazing how quickly they bring a tire to pressure...like 'immediate'. So, I get kind of 'gun shy' on overdoing it, and always end up with an 'under inflated' tire [but it gets me home well enough of course]. Would be nice to just 'let 'er rip' and bring the tire to full pressure [without blowing it out].

Finally, if one does not use the entire cartridge [I didn't last night for example], is it wise to store in a bike bag until 'next time' while charged on the inflator device [many co2 inflators have a switch of sorts, where you can lock the trigger].

JReade

Worst for me wasn't a real mechanical, but more of a dumb move on my part. I had some "Panniers" that I rigged out of Army/Navy bags and my rear rack. They worked pretty well for keeping a lock in, and maybe some other stuff. I got brave and decided to commute with them. Laptop in one, some clothes, etc. Riding to work, felt great, crossed railroad tracks, wire loop holding them onto the rack split and sent the bag with my laptop onto the ground at 15 mph. Thankfully, it turned on and worked fine from then on... but I promptly bought real bags after that.

cooker

Here's a story I posted a few years back in another commuting thread:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last night riding home in the cold (5C, approx 40F) rain I hear ssshh...ssshh...ssshh with every wheel revolution. Yep, its air escaping from a hole in the tire, making noise each time it hits the wet road. I ride a hundred feet and then it's too flat, so I walk for a few blocks until I pass a store that's empty and for lease, and has a covered alcove at the doorway.

I can't get the whole bike in the alcove out of the rain so I take off the wheel, pry the tire and pull out a section of tube. I spot the hole right away. I check the outside of the tire and pull out a 1/4 carat gem of glass. Damn wet rubber - too easy to penetrate.

I don't have a spare tube but I have a very old patchkit with glueless patches. I rummage around in the trunk bag and find some old glue too. I buff the tube and peel a glueless patch and stick it on. Absolutely no adhesion! Too old, or too cold? I don't know. I glue it and it still doesn't stick. I roll it like a dube, vigourously for a few minutes hoping the heat and pressure will bond the rubber. The corner won't stay down, but the middle seems to be stuck. I doubt it will hold but I stuff it in, pump it up, mount the wheel, and ride in the direction of Curbside Bikes, since I'm not sure Bikes on Wheels is open late. Amazingly, it holds. I buy a tube and some new patches with filthy hands, and scoot around to the alley where they have air and top it up a bit more. I'm not expecting to make it home, but I do. I figure it will probably be flat in the am, but I'm cold and tired, so I set the alarm a few minutes early so I can replace the tube before work.

I come out in the morning and check the tire. Hard as a rock. Was last night a dream? Nope - there's the new tube and patchkit from Curbside sitting right there in the trunk bag.

BobbyG

Bang! fweee! Clatta-cling, clatta-cling, clatta-clingng! Big nail rear tire. I think the most difficult one was an issue three years ago with my left crank arm coming off a few times (replaced it). Also broken shift cables, broken chains, tire delamination, frozen cables, broken spokes. Luckily I've got a wonderful wife and bus fare tucked away in my kit.

rumrunn6

my worst was having to detach, clean out & reassemble my rear derailleur cable housing in subfreezing temps in pitch black darkness due to having used water to clean bike the night before. yeah that was no fun.

BobbyG

Actually, the worst mechanical failure I encountered during a commute was not my bike, but ME! At 48 years of age after a frustrating work day I was a mile into an aggressive ride home when I felt a tight clenching pain in my left shoulder. In less than 2 seconds it felt like a shark biting my shoulder. Heart attack? No, the pain isn't radiating down my left arm. And then THE PAIN BEGAN RADIATING DOWN MY LEFT ARM!!! I was halfway across a major intersection with another few seconds to go. Sweating? No. Shortness of breath? No. Got across, stopped, stood up and the pain stopped, at least temporarily. Turns out I had a bulging disc in my neck between C3 and C4 that as pressing against a nerve bundle. Took a month before I could sit at a desk and work. Took 6 months to get back on the bike, and another 3 before the pain left completely.

gna

A few years back, after I started commuting, I was riding home on Friday evening one fall day and it started to sprinkle. I had seen other cyclists cutting through the parking lot near the U of M football stadium, so I foolishly tried to take a shortcut. The Gophers had played a home game on Thursday night (I think), so I flatted my rear tire on some broken glass I picked up, no doubt from a tailgater.

The rain started to come down harder and harder as I changed the tube. I grabbed my pump--and found it didn't have anything to depress the schrader valve! The short hose would screw on, but nothing inside would depress the valve, so no air could get in. By now it was raining harder, so I walked my bike a couple of blocks to a gas station. They had air, but it cost 50 cents, so I had to go inside to break a bill...when I got air, tried to be careful and not overfill my tube, but I may have got the tube folded or pinched when I walked the bike over, or I got too much air in.

I got a couple of miles down the road, and I started to hear a whup whup whup sound, so I slowed, but before I could stop, suddenly, BLAM! The rear tube exploded. So my original tube was cut, my new tube was shredded, my pump wouldn't work, it was getting dark and it was pouring down rain. I gave up. I called my wife and she came to get me.

Since then, I got a new pump and used Schwalbe Delta Cruisers . I've only had a few flats and broken spokes, but nothing too bad.

vol

Wow, isn't it amazing that none of the problems mentioned by each poster above didn't cause being hit/run over by a vehicle at the moment of the bike failure?!

AlTheKiller

dang, not sure how so many of you avoid flats so much. If I went six weeks without a flat I'd consider it a damn miracle. my most frustrating was when work kept me late on a day I was supposed to leave early to get my house ready for a party. was about three miles from home and decided to pick up a four pack of beer and threw it in my very old backpack.

got a few blocks from the store and the zippers on my pack failed and the four pack was destroyed. another half mile and I got a flat. changed it, but I must've not inflated quite enough because crossing the railroad tracks gave me a pinch flat. changed that. got home late, tired and stressed.

countless flats to and from work.

riding my fixed gear on a road that you basically have to mash and pretend you're a car. in the rain. had to cut across a few lanes to get into the center turning lane to go left. right as I cut across I hit a pothole hard enough to drop my chain, locking up my rear wheel, which just put me into an extended skid on the slick roads that was unnecessarily long, until I came to a stop and casually put my foot down. that one was fun and only took a second to fix.

noglider 

AlTheKiller, you must be doing something wrong to get a flat every six weeks. Do you inflate your tires to an appropriate pressure? Do you check the pressure periodically? What tires do you use, and what do bike/cargo/rider weigh?

Darth Lefty 

I've had two big ones in the last year. Both have required abandoning the ride.

One was chain suck due to the old cheapo crankset wearing out on my commuter MTB, leading to chain getting stuck and kinked. Still not entirely fixed, haven't had time to get the crank off since the crank puller threads stripped, so haven't had a chance to put the new ring on. And I'm not entirely sure I'm not putting lipstick on a pig just by bothering to fix it. Not happy...

The other was my own fault for being stupid. Dangled a plastic bag into the front spokes, over I went.

noglider 

Ouch. How unfortunate in both cases. Once I was riding a friend's fixie bike down a big hill. The bike's owner and his friend were way ahead of me. The chain jumped the sprocket and wedged between the sprocket and the spokes. I had no tools and no way of fixing it, so I shouldered the bike and walked a couple of miles ahead. After a long time, they came back to find me. We continued another mile to the bike shop where they allowed me to fix the bike for free, since I worked there the previous summer. I've heard of the perils of loaning your bike out, but I hadn't considered the perils (or folly) of borrowing a bike. It was not well maintained, and a fixie can be pretty dangerous in certain circumstances.