HAMMER MAN

Easton carbon seatpost broke in half about 10 miles out on a ride. Basically i had to stand and pedal 10 miles back home. That was pretty tiring. since then, all of my bikes now have tompson seatpost on them

Jiggle

Pedal flew off the spindle. Used muscle force to keep it on until it popped off my shoe and was lost. Thumbed a ride home.

That's pretty much it. I use thread locker now on all fasteners, keep up with maintenance, and buy quality components.

CliffordK

I was touring in Italy, and somewhere around Abetone, my bike rack broke.

So, I found a small welding shop (probably on weekend off-horus) that welded it back together, and I was off again.

It has been a few years, but I vaguely think it only lasted another 100 miles or so, but it was enough to get me close enough to the end of my ride.

RoderWrench

My worst mechanical failure was caused by my foot. In 1983, I found out what toe overlap was the hard way on my new Huffy Aerowind. My right foot got caught in the wheel at about 15mph and felt like it was going to break in half when it hit the fork. I didn't have time to worry about that though because I was going head first into the pavement followed by the bike with my foot stuck in it. Miraculously, the only thing broken on me or the bike was a dozen spokes on my front wheel.

cthenn

Shifted my chain into the rear wheel...Zipp 404 to be exact. Insta-fail, though amazingly the carbon rim wasn't damaged. Spokes were all toast though. That was a fun and expensive repair...

Muffin Man

I had my chain break twice, the rd cable come completely loose, and my brake caliper move enough that I effectively didn't have a rear brake anymore all in one mountain bike ride.

Also had my crank arm come off when I was commuting once.

Monkey D.Luffy

I'm also a victim of the chain getting stuck behind the cassette. I shifted from the large front chainring to the small ring at 1 mph and the chain got stuck automatically. I had to walk the bike back for 5 miles and ended up getting the tools for cassette removal and learned some more skills.

pdedes

i've broken two nds crankarms (dura ace and sram red) as worst and requiring call of shame. also broke a pedal, rode home single footed, several chains (one call of shame, the rest I learned my lesson)

corrado33

I broke a rear dereaileur hanger once. I had let a LBS service my bike (free tune up after purchase) and had them replace a chain while it was there. They left the chain two links short and I accidently shifted into big/big (it's a double, it's not as much of a sin there.) and I ripped the derailleur off of the hanger. Luckily, I was mostly uphill from my house so I just held the chain/derailleur out of the way of the spokes and drifted home. Actually, I had my GF with me at the time and she rode home to get the car, but I was only a half mile behind her anyway.

Tickstart

I've snapped a chain and sheared off a rear sprocket. It's all that torque.

Brian Ratliff

I've had lots, but the worst, for me, means hopping a ride; I've had two. One was a broken non-driveside spoke. No fixing that on the road (very difficult to loosen enough driveside spokes to compensate for the lack of a non-driveside spoke and I was not terribly experienced yet; not even sure I had a spoke wrench); took a bus into work and walked to a bike shop to fix the spoke. The other was when I ran over a razor blade. Only time I've actually had to call my wife for a ride. Tire was cut cross-wise all the way to the rim.

I've had others, but I've always been able to limp home from them or they were in races on closed courses. Fortunately, nothing that's actually put me on the ground.

Worst experience on a bike was this one time, I was commuting and it was pouring raining both in the morning and at night. I got a flat in the morning; no big deal; spare tube, pump, etc; 5 or 10 minutes late to work. Coming home, I got three flats (note: I had two spare tubes total and one was already used from the morning's activities), all different pieces of debris, in the dark, in the rain. After the last one, a construction staple, I was about a mile from my car and I just hoofed it rather than breaking out the patch kit a second time.

AMusingFool

I had a jog wheel fall off in the middle of a climb. Tried to set chain so it had some tension, then coasted down hill. Started walking home in road shoes, quickly got irritated and took shoes off. Jogged towards home with bike beside, coasting down hills when possible. End of last hill before house, coasting, chain gets caught (lost tension, hit ground, and was pulled under the wheel, I think), wraps around cassette and RD, and I come to sudden stop. In front of pick-up truck who was paying attention, thankfully.

RD looked like a bomb had gone off on it.

Carried the bike home the last quarter mile or so, and was happily able to get RD replaced that day (did first century next day).

Was very glad of the heavy hiking socks I habitually wear, as they were fine with the three miles of jogging to get home.

Montag311

This thread is absolutely harrowing. I had to stop reading. It's enough to make a person stop riding and become a product-liability attorney.

PaulRivers

Don't start reading about car accidents then...

TGT1

Snapped an almost brand new chain up on GRR about 30 miles from home.

Had a chain breaker and a link so it was a couple of minute fix, but when I got home I found two more cracked side plates.

That would have been a long walk home!

I'll never buy a low end SRAM chain again!

awunder

Ripped a chainring in half. Somehow, a chainring bolt had dropped out. I had been mostly just spinning in the big ring and when I went to hammer up a short hill, the whole thing just got ripped out.

After the initial shock wore off, I was sort of proud of myself.

CliffordK

I'll have to remember that story the next time someone starts pontificating about the evils of foot retention.

I'm still not quite sure how one could get one's foot caught in the front wheel... perhaps you'll have to do a remake for YouTube

RPK79

I guess you are too new to have lived through the multiple toe-overlap threads. Give it time.

CliffordK

I guess so.

I've bumped my tire a few times, but perhaps only enough to cause a slight swerve. I'm still having troubles imagining getting ones foot in the spokes...

And, it was a HUFFY... 36 spokes? Not one of those new wheels with 16 or so spokes and really big gaps.

JimF22003

Happened yesterday ironically. Dropped a chain somehow, which is usually not a big deal. But it managed to do something to the rear derailleur. I'm not sure what exactly yet. Maybe the chain is twisted, but the chain keeps dropping off of the jockey wheel into the jockey cage. That mean I couldn't pedal the bike at all, not even without shifting the RD. Fortunately I was only four miles from the ride start, and it was mostly downhill. Kind of makes me wonder what I would have done if I had been fifty miles away instead of four...

RoderWrench

I was a long time BMXer at the time, so I had a habit of riding with the arch of my foot over the pedal. They were slippery platform pedals that should have had toeclips(duh), I think I slipped while accelerating.

I'll have to decline the video reenactment.

Bob Ross

During a low speed JRA I had the right half of my alloy handlebars snap clean off right by the stem. Fortunately the brake cable remained attached so I was able to stop...although dismounting was more awkward than you might imagine.

Nachoman

Not me. But kind of my fault because I'm in charge of maintaining the family bikes.
My son threw an overshift sending the rear derailleur into the spokes.

Wilfred Laurier

Broke a BB spindle once - didn't crash
Broke the pedal eye on a crank in half - did crash
Multiple broken chains with various results
Skipping chainring resulted in knee violently removing shift lever from handlebar

mzeffex 

I crashed and cracked a frame once.

Another time while mountain biking my chain got hung up in the chain guide, pulled it hard, which threaded the bottom bracket. Then I had a bottom bracket and chain guide that were use, and had to ride home, pulling over every few minutes to put the chain back on.