Jim246

Does anyone else ever make really stupid mistakes while servicing bikes? I just spent an hour de-spoking a knackered wheel before realising that I should have really taken off the cassette first!

It turns out to be a) rather hard to remove the drive side spokes from the hub with the cassette on and b) nigh on impossible to remove your (new!) sprockets from the hub without the support that a complete wheel offers.

Anyway, after much swearing and dodging of flailing spokes (not to mention several skinned knuckles), I managed to get it off, which at least saved me from the walk of shame to the bike shop in the morning!

Anybody else care to admit to anything similar?

coldfeet

Well, there was the time i installed a chainring on the wrong side of the spider, still find it hard to credit that I did it in the first place, but it's even harder to believe it took me so long to figure it out!

What does that guy from Mythbusters say? "People who claim not to have made a mistake, are not to be trusted. If they screw up, they find someone else to blame."

caloso

Cutting the brake housing with the brake cable inside it. D'oh!

Covalent Jello

running over new bike tires that had been set on the bumper, forgot to put them in the car
jamming brake pads in halfway and using them hard for two hours with the calipers halfway unseated
lost 1 out of 3 steel balls that hold in a shock cap, it works though
overfilling the rear shock with fox fluid, and or running it low on air, somehow a little escaped ?
not keeping the rear wheel tight enough but no biggie
and still trying to determine why ive gotten more than 15 flats in a couple seasons between 2 bikes
crazy times yo

Covalent Jello

niiiiceeeee i like your style

DieselDan

Trying to slide the hub over the brake shoes with shoes upside down.

Zef

I once replaced my bars with wider ones and also installed new cables and housing for my ergo levers. I brain farted and cut the housing the same length as the old housing reinstalled everything and wrapped the bars. When I went to set the height of the stem (quill type) I found the housing barely adequate in length due to the wider bars. Nothing like wasting time and money to do the job right the second time around.

-j

Jim246

Good to hear I am not alone!

I remember years ago installing my first new chain and leaving it to run over part of the derailleur cage. It took a surprisingly long time to realise what was going on!

End result was a nice groove cut in the cage and rapidly moving on to installing my second ever new chain...

zzyzx_xyzzy

Ruining my first threadless headset by tightening the top bolt as you would a quill stem bolt.

hairnet

set my torque wrench to foot pounds instead of newton meters and twisted the head right off the crank bolt.

reueladhikari

I ruined an almost new Shimano dynamo hub by trying to take it apart. The delicate light connecting wire that goes to the coil inside broke. I had to undo the wheel and buy another hub.

JonathanGennick 

Oh, yes! Those are the only kind worth making.

Three weeks ago. Fixing up some Huffy, 20-inch mountain bikes for a friend's three kids. Two of the bikes had the front tires mounted backwards. The tread was directional.

First bike: I pulled the front wheel. Deinflated the tube. Removed the tire. Turned the tire around. Put it back on the rim. Reinflated. Look carefully at rim+tire to ascertain tread orientation. Put wheel back on bike.


Second bike: It dawns on me that I can just turn the wheel around. No need to remove and remount the tire.

Stupid mistakes: the only kind worth making .

Retro Grouch 

There are two, and only two, kinds of bike mechanics:
Those who admit to having made some really stupid and expensive mistakes, and liers.

A better question might be: "What's the most expensive dumb mistake you've made?"

LarDasse74

When I started work as a bike mechanic at age 16, I made stupid mistakes but figured since I was a 'bike mechanic' I knew better than most and ignored my mistakes.
As I progressed I learned to check work I had done (or have someone else check it) to catch stupid mistakes... but I still made plenty of them.
As I learned further I got better at catching stupid mistakes and their frequency began to decrease.
By the time I changed careers, I figure I was finishing most jobs without making a stupid mistake, and catching most of the ones I did make. But I still made stupid mistakes from time to time.

My workplace now places a big emphasis on "Event Free Tools..." basically strategies for catching mistakes before they become problems.
The "Event Free Tools" are:
-Conservative decision making (if you are not 100% sure you are doing the right thing, make sure you are not harming anything or causing a problem.)
-Procedure use and adherence (read, understand, and follow an accepted set of instructions - for bikes the best online sources (IMHO) are Sheldonbrown.com, parktool.com... The instructions included with Shimano components are the last place I would look)
-Self checking (After you do something do not assume it is correct. ANd use the 'STAR' principal - Stop, Think, Act, Review)
-Pre-job brief and post- job review (make sure you and all team members know what needs to be done and what the potential areas of difficulty or hazards might be, and review how the job was done after the fact)
-Three Way communication (when communicating critical information check for confirmation that the information was received correctly)
-Verification (have someone else check your work)
-Safe practices (Dont put anyone or anything at risk unnecessarily).

The reason this is taught at my workplace is because everyone everyone everyone everyone makes stupid mistakes, but we need to work without blowing up ourselves or our equipment.

HillRider

You got off easy. At least a cassette can be removed from a bare hub using a vise to hold the lockring tool and a chainwhip.

Try removing the rim from a freeWHEEL hub, then trying to remove the freewheel without the rim and spokes for support.

Have I made any dumb or expensive mistakes? No, of course not. Or at least not that I'm going to admit in public!!!

FBinNY 

In my circle the only really stupid mistakes are the ones we've done twice. And yes, I've made my share of those too.

After all, if it's worth doing, it's worth repeating.

coldfeet

I'll just throw in another comment, "If the job went perfectly the first time, check it again."

HillRider

That's a variation on:

"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."

and:

"Experience allows you to recognize a mistake when you make it again."

wesmamyke

Myself and most other mechanics I know have cut a fork way too short once, it doesn't happen again after that!

oldster

My best was the other day...had the road bike in the garage leaned up against the table saw, which is next to where I have the air compressor temporarly sitting...needed some air for something and plugged it in...it started, and I hear a pop and hiss...didn't notice that the rear wheel on bike was touching main drive of compressor....Panaracer Pasella TG is trash.... DUMB!!!!!!Bud

dscheidt

Easy: use an air-driven impact wrench. If you don't have one, take your hub and the free wheel tool to an auto garage. It takes about half a second.

mrrabbit 

Was changing a tube once.

Started with 3 tire flips and a tube and an air pump.

When I was finished I had only 2 tire flips and an air pump. Looked everywhere, under my feet, my ass, literally everywhere within a 6 feet radius. Still only had 2 tire flips.

Was scratching my head...with the wheel slowly spinning on the bike...

"I don't remember there being a bump in my tire," said the customer.

I look, the shop owner looks...other crew look...

"Bet that's the tire flip," said the shop owner.

Started with 2 tire flips and an air pump.

When I was finished I had 3 tire flips and an air pump.





20 years later...we still laugh about that one when we talk about the good 'ole days.


=8-)

WilliamH

I soo like this thread! It makes me feel at home! Can we all blame these mistakes on "excitement" like I always do?

BikeNewEngland

I met someone who bought his $5000 dream carbon bike, put it on the roof of his car and 15 minutes later drove into his garage totaling the bike.

Gotta learn to laugh at yourself so you can join the crowd.

Gordon Harris
www.bikenewengland.com

WilliamH

you have got to be kidding?! wow! I guess we can all just be happy he's still alive since you've met him after the incident. It probably came with the best insurance coverage money can buy huh?