willydstyle

My latest one was trying to use chain tension to secure a master link... with the master link on the bottom of the chain circuit. I was literally jumping up and down on the pedals (super bad for my poor Fuji, I'm sure), and sweat was pouring off my forehead, before it finally dawned on me that I was putting literally zero tension on the master link.

KC8QVO

The other day I was working on my bike. I was tightening up a stem bolt and a spoke fell off. So I laced it back up through the tire. Then I torqued the seat post clamp putting a kink in my rear brake cable. After that I pumped up the bar ends and greased the frame bearing.

hueyhoolihan

not a bike story, except it happened during my daily ride.

i stopped at the Starbucks for my habitual small plain coffee that costs $1.95. i pulled two singles and a five out of my wallet and layed down the two singles. the young woman quickly had my coffee, picked up the two singles and headed to another cash register to get my change. i walked after here, and and when she handed me my change, i had somehow forgotten, probably because i had been asked a question by one of the other customers, that i had already paid, and handed her the five.

she immediately squealed to her workmates, "oh, my, a five dollar tip!". then quickly put it in the tip jar.

after that, there was nothing for it, it was over in a flash, the damage had been done and there was no good way out of it. to make matters worse, she probably thinks i'm some pitiful old man trying to impress young ladies by over tipping. jeez!

hueyhoolihan

visions of Wile E. Coyote.

willydstyle

And now I realize just how flexy steel frames can be

kzin

5 minutes in the cold trying to thread a pedal in the wrong way.
In spite of correctly saying 'ok, THAT way to tighten', kept trying to install it the other way!

Rubato

I've mounted brake shoes incorrectly and shredded a brand new tire, tried to remove a crankset and missed the washer, mounted a bottom braket backwards so the rings hit the chainstay, cross threaded a bottom bracket, laced several wheels wrong, etc. It's all good stuffl-I'm a lot smarter now than I was before....

nfmisso

Destroyed a stem by over torquing the screws - the stem manufacturer even etched the proper torque range on the stem in a very visible location. It was on our tandem, wife not happier either, as it took almost week to get a replacement of the correct size. Also got a precision torque wrench so that will not happen again.

Lacing up spokes incorrectly - didn't figure out until the third of four groups of spokes that I had started one off, and there would be extreme difficulty in getting the pump chuck on to the valve......had to take it all the way back to the first spoke.

Scratcher09

Been working on cars and motorcycles for decades and recently got into cycling. While putting together my first modern bike with sti shifters, I thought I could break down an Ultegra 9 speed shifter to clean and lubricate it. Didn't take me long to realize I could not even begin to get it back together. And all LBS I went into would not touch it. Worst part is worked fine before I disassembled it.

Bandrada

Too many to name.

My most common mistake is having a few "extra" parts after a fork rebuild.

mstateglfr 

I typically don't have major issues when rebuilding bikes, just random mistakes that always come from not paying attention. I work on almost only 80s bikes, so its not like I have a bunch of difficult new tech to account for.

Just last night I was putting some components together while watching tv. I ended up installing a brake shoe/pad on the outside of the caliper. I actually looked at it for a few seconds confused because it didn't look right but I couldn't figure out why. That's how little I was paying attention.
I also installed the rear wheel skewer on the wrong side- the QR was on the drive side.

Just little things that I end up doing because I am not paying attention and catch right after doing them- I clearly cant multitask.

dr_lha

Latest random mistake: Installed the cable end on my rear brake cable, then realized I didn't install any donuts on the cable itself. Oh well.

FBinNY 

Gee, I hope this was a suspension fork.

Chesterton

Oh, this is probably a very common category of mistake! I was thinking of the time I changed my dynamo headlight, and suffered through the frustrating process of fishing the wire through the internal routing in the fork only to realize I hadn't remembered to first thread on the little rubber plug that seals the hole at the top of the fork. So I had to do the wire fishing all over again.

SalsaShark

First time I used a crank puller I failed to remove the larger plunge adapter, which was not needed for the crank style I was removing. Needless to say, after completely shredding the removal threads out of the aluminum crank, I had to resort to removal with some more archaic tools.

zebede

Hey this thread should be called the amaetuer Hour.....I love the bike mechanics forum and have learned a ton from the pros who take the time to share....NOW for my public confession (please forgive me it was a very long time ago).....

I installed my sons ashtabula crank backwards (and chain and wheel)..pedaling forward would engage the foot brake. "Daddy my bike won't work". Arggghh!

willydstyle

That got a good chuckle out of me. How I learn best is from my own mistakes. Putting on bar tape for the first time last night: first one looks like crap, second one looks great.

leob1

When I was 13-14 I decided to make my 'stingray' cooler by replacing the 20" front wheel with a 16" wheel. I put it on and went for a test ride. Hammering down the street I decided to pull a wheelie. The last thing I remembered after waking up from being unconscious in the street, was the front wheel bouncing away from me.

CroMo Mike 

I've been wrenching since I was 6 yrs old. Bicycles, mini bikes, go-karts, lawn mowers, outboard motors, motorcycles, cars, Army vehicles, my own cars (Jaguars), anything in the house that breaks. I don't expect to make any silly mistakes on a bicycle. The only recent one I can recall is, after spoking up a wheel, finding the label on the rim facing the wrong side, even though I had put some thought into making it face correctly.

Al1943

New Colnago C50 build, last bike I plan to buy, ever. Anxious to go for I ride all I needed to finish was to mount the stem on the carbon fiber steer tube. Stamped on the stem near the pinch bolts was "8 nm". With my new 1/4" drive Park TW wrench I gradually brought the torque up alternating between the two bolts. At 8 NM I get a loud pop and a 4 inch long crack. The new replacement fork was $800+. Lessons learned: 1) the torque value good for the pinch bolts was not good for the material being pinched. Mistake 2 was that I had not used the longer Colnago expansion plug but instead had used a plug that did not support the backside of the steer tube behind both pinch bolts. And 3, I had cut the tube 1/8 inch below the top of the stem with no spacer above the stem. Five NM is more than enough torque to mount a stem to a cf steer tube.
I know its a 10 year old story but one still worth telling.

TrekkingMitten

Used the wrong tool to pull the crank arms. Stripped the treads, and ended up spending $70 for a new one...what an DIY deal

willydstyle

That is an expensive frakking lesson.

scott967

My mistake was I had a bike with a square taper triple crank, and I wanted to swap it out with a double I had. But the chain line was wrong. I figured I could over come it just by tightening the crank a little farther up the taper. Never did get the chain line right, but when it was time to service the BB, nothing I did would get that crank off again. Final solution was to take an angle grinder to the spindle and then hammer the s--- out of the part left in the crank till I finally drove it out of there. Was planning on replacing the BB anyway so it wasn't really a loss, but I wasted weeks trying different non-destructive means of removing that crank.

scott s.
.

Bandrada

I am still uncertain which is the proper direction for the hub stamp. All I know is that both front and rear should be faced the same direction.

FBinNY 

The right direction is whichever direction you wan it to be. Since it doesn't have any mechanical implications, it's strictly a style statement and your choice. Hub stamp orientation is just one o those things that the OCD folks are trying to make a big deal out of.