Turnin_Wrenches

You're kidding, right? It's a bottle cage bolt, not aerospace equipment. Road vibration can (and does) cause bolts to come loose over time. General stress from regular use is also a contributing factor.

If you're comment is actually intended to be taken seriously, am I to assume you never tighten any bolts on your bike(s) for any reason other than faulty design or improper installation? Good luck with that.

Eric F 

Hmmm...I don't remember the last time I found a bolt on my bike that had worked it's way loose.

asgelle

Got it. You don't know what proper torque is for a fastener.

DangerousDanR

I work in the Farm Machinery space. Bolts don't come loose on our stuff, because we engineer and test them to withstand the level of vibration that they will encounter in normal service, with a very healthy margin. And if they come loose in the test lab, my team has to fix it in software...

bruce19

Understood. But, Greg wasn't the only ones to accuse him. Check out thee Andreius. A little more info: https://road.cc/content/news/13749-l...it-greg-lemond

Then there is Specialized which sued a small LBS in Canada because it called itself the Roubaix bike shop. They claimed the shop used their name without permission. So, they created the name Roubaix? Oh, wait.....

terrymorse 

Not kidding. Bolt coming loose is a fail, whether on a satellite or a bicycle. The claim that bolts regularly come loose is just an excuse for poor workmanship.

And no, I don't have to periodically go over my bike tightening bolts, because they were installed correctly. I know they were installed correctly, because I installed them.

terrymorse 

LOL. Having worked on both the hardware and software side of a project, I must say that is an excellent joke.

tomato coupe

Ummmmm ... you're dreaming. USADA (The United States Anti-Doping Agency) banned Armstrong from competition and stripped him of his titles. The UCI accepted their decision.

indyfabz

You’re obviously determined to make me go to my desktop computer and post the photo showing that a front rack bolt not only came loose but fell out somewhere along a hilly, rough stretch of road in MT. I didn’t even know it until we got to camp a couple of miles after the photo was taken. I had installed the rack after picking up the shipped bike from a LBS in Missoula. I was sitting under a bridge to keep out of the rain and worked in a hurry. Bolt fell out on the 5th day of the tour. I’ve never made that mistake again. I could have gotten seriously messed up.

Eric F 

Glad you didn't get hurt. What did you do the second time to make sure it didn't come loose and fall out again?

indyfabz

Screwed it in tightly. Fortunately, I had a spare, but not a spare 1/4” spacer, so the rack was a little off, but not enough to affect handling. I now periodically check my rack bolts when on tour.

Eric F 

Do you think that the bolt may not have been properly tightened the first time? With your riding conditions (loaded touring), double-checking things on a regular basis is probably a really good idea. $#!+ happens, and sometimes not at convenient times or locations.

indyfabz

Total operator error. As noted, I was under a bridge because of a shower. Ii looked like it was going to get worse, and the GF and I still had to shop for dinner groceries and get back to camp. Plus, we had been up since 3:00 am east coast time and had been traveling all day. Cab, flight, layover, flight, cab, check in at campground, cab to LBS.

DangerousDanR

Big fan of Nylon insert lock nuts for things like racks. I might point out that the worst trouble I have had on a bicycle was the <expletive> French Bottom Bracket on my Peugeot. Clearly a case of poor design.

shelbyfv

Over the years I've been witness to a number of cage bolts loosening. Those of others and yes, a few of my own. I think people are hesitant to wrench down on them due to the variety of materials involved. You can be pretty safe in tightening a stem bolt to 5-6 Nm but a carbon cage might have a spec of 1Nm for a bolt just one size smaller. Throw in Riv-nuts, butted tubing at its thinnest, etc. and general absence of published specs. Anyway, if folks are plagued by loose cage bolts, I'd suggest blue Loctite.

Trakhak

There's a reason that the phrase used in English to describe a notably casual attitude toward, e.g., design specs is laissez-faire. My first racing bike, a Helyett track bike that i got in 1964, had a habit of chewing up and spitting out its pot metal T.A. chainring bolts, for example. (I can see the engineer who came up with the design thinking, "I could spec better metal, but, la!, the centimes! It might fail, but what would you?," clapping his beret on his head, and, with a Gallic shrug, making for the door.)

Pot metal wasn't used exclusively by the French, of course. The drilled cable carrier bolts Balilla supplied with their centerpull brakes were cunningly configured such that the difference between a slipping brake cable and a snapped bolt was about 22 degrees of nut movement.

rsbob 

Had my water bottle bolts torqued to spec too, but rode several miles of gravel, so the bike got a good shaking. Heard some banging and one bolt was gone and the top most was just hanging in there. Locktite to the rescue.

wheelreason

LOL. You will never convince me LeBlanc wasn't filled with helium...

seypat

On top of that, he gave that pep talk to Vince Vaughn in the Dodgeball movie. That was the last straw. Hard to support a cheater when he's spewing BS like that.

3alarmer 

...many people do not know that this is why the French invented Loctite.

calamarichris

Personally because Trek financially massacred Lemond (and his Legacy) at Arm$trong's request.
It's a long story, but I lived through it. I still cherish my pre-Trek Lemond bike.
F-word every Lance fanboi who called Lemond a crybaby, or claimed Lemond ever doped. Lemond was the ONLY champion (in the history of professional cycling) who advocated for increased doping controls WHILE HE WAS WINNING.
I've seen dozens of Armstrong fanbois in this forum attack Lemond and claim "they're all dopers anyway". Eff them and eff the Treks they rode in on. Cycling was a better sport before Armstrong and Trek, and it will be a better sport once it's cleansed of both.

calamarichris

I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.
Trek rode the Armstrong train, and that train wasn't doing sportsmanlike things. Truck feck and every Armstrong fannyboi who called Lemond a crybaby and every Armstrong lawyer who brought up Lemond's childhood. Utter reprehensible and unforgivable.
I shook Floyd Landis' hand (and he narrowly beat me at L'Etape du California). And I'd been in a Cat-2 USCF criterium against Armstrong near Austin (he had a cute shirt saying "I <3 my mom", but if I had the opportunity again, I'd spit in his face and try to punch him back then.

Atlas Shrugged

What I like most about cycling is how it brings people together regardless of backgrounds or interests the bond is our love of riding bicycles. Except those “effers” who ride Treks!

Atlas Shrugged

Perhaps,some counseling would be helpful.

calamarichris

Reading is fundamental. Never claimed all Trek riders were effers, child.
Only that the Armstrong apologists were and are. And that Trek is still a known associate. Kudos to you for seeing the difference. /s