You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Bike drivetrain service, took off the cassette to give it a good clean.
All back together and looking good.
Ride today, there's a lot of clattering...
Clutch is on. Yup.
Rear mech is attached properly, yep.
Ah, cassette is a bit wobbly. Ah the freewheel spacer. Oops 😁 not the first time either!
At least twice I've done a lower leg service and found the bottom out bumper sat in the counter once everything is back together 🙄
Not strictly servicing but I fitted a tyre the wrong way around today.
Again.
Must be the fourth tyre in a row.
That can be embarrassing if they're Maxxis and you've just pointed out to somebody that the tyre name is printed on the drive side.
Guilty as charged
I have had both cranks pointing the same way a couple of times
Lost count of the times I’ve nicked an inner tube when fitting them.
Strictly tubeless now
Forgetting to refit the travel indicator band during a shock service.
I am disappointment that pic of northwinds bike mid build has not been posted
almost wrapping a perfect bleed on magura's back in the day, then pop goes a piston as I forgot the spacer - again...
It's a tiny thing but I always forget to remove the plastic preload thingy when I'm taking a crank off and wonder why it won't move.
I am disappointment that pic of northwinds bike mid build has not been posted
I was wondering if anyone would post that 🙂
These are all things that would make a good bike maintenance FAQ.
I've done the tyre wrong way around more times than I care to remember, even after double checking.
Another one is chain too short, especially with modern wide range cassettes. I've had a number of chains in the past extended with another quicklink and a bit of the previously discarded chain.
I once read that a stack of 2p coins made a great load spreader for pressing freehub bearings home. Worked perfectly. Resulted in a well seated bearing, with a stack of 2p coins trapped inside the freehub by a lock ring that was nigh on impossible to remove as the cassette wasn't on. Took carefully applied mole grips and a lot of shouting to sort that one...
Only recent one has been when removing the shock from my Canyon Neuron and letting the suspension drop gently. Not an issue in itself but the first thing that touches is the chainring against the chainstay so it has a few gouges (thankfully just in the paint!) that stand out a mile (to me anyway). What's even more annoying is that the two times I've done it the gouge has been a few mm away from the first! My other bike has a linkage that touches before the chainring.
Once put DOT fluid in a Magura HS33. Quickly flushed it through and rebled it. Yep, DOT again. In my defence it was the only non-DOT brake I had over 3 bikes, the rest had Hope Mono Mini's and this bike had no rear disc mount. Doing the annual fluid change for them all in one go meant it was natural to just use one bottle of fluid on all of them so it became second nature to just reach for it.
Oh and I did it 2 years in a row! The third year I did that brake first then hid the mineral fluid in a cupboard to avoid doing the rest in the wrong fluid.
Try fitting it the wrong way, realising, taking it off, and fitting it the wrong way again.
My record is 4 in a row.
It’s a tiny thing but I always forget to remove the plastic preload thingy when I’m taking a crank off and wonder why it won’t move.
I took a soft hammer to the crank arms, took a couple of good whacks until I realised my stupidity.
Realised on the THIRD ride, honestly thought my hips were the problem due to old age.
It’s a tiny thing but I always forget to remove the plastic preload thingy when I’m taking a crank off and wonder why it won’t move.
It's not a tiny thing when it's a square taper crankset and a crank bolt you've forgotten to remove. Cranksets aren't very useful without the thread for the puller.
Shortening the cable outer with the inner in place. Twice so far, hopefully I've learned not to do it any more.
Pivot bearings, then find the inner spacer on the workbench
Once! I did it once, you ********!
Getting the chain on the wrong side of the wee tang thing in the mech cage is my weakness. Easy thing to do, I don't mind that, except that I've failed to notice a few times and spent ages trying to dial out the noise with cable tension and adjustment, and one time adding more chain links.
Me too Northwind. Didn’t realise for about half of a Strathpuffer, and spend ages trying to figure out what the bloody noise was!
Getting the chain on the wrong side of the wee tang thing in the mech cage is my weakness
This for me too, as well as not paying attention when joining the chain and ending up with it on the wrong side of the chainstay.
Oh and has anyone else loosened the handlebars to angle the levers for a brake bleed then forgotten until they ride the bike out of the garage to test the brakes? Been a few times I've nearly given myself an expensive dental bill with that.
Injecting sealant into a tyre via the valve and then forgetting there will now be positive pressure so I need to pull the syringe plunger back and remove the air that’s been replaced by sealant.
Sealant spurts out. Every. Single. Time.
Dropping one of the bolts on seatpost on garage floor, every bloody time i fit saddle...back it off as far as possible to fit saddle rails, lit bit more and it drops out and rolls away..
Fitting a new chain and not threading it properly through the mech. Cue terrible metal on metal noises on riding 🤦♂️
Forgetting to wind in the cable adjusters when fitting new gear/brake cables. Only notice after I've cut the cable and fitted the cable end crimp. Easily enough fixed after but does require a new cable end crimp, thankfully I bought a hundred of them years ago, just in case.
Getting the chain on the wrong side of the wee tang thing in the mech cage is my weakness
Also guilty of this one. I've done it many times and I am mostly disappointed about how long it took me to realise!
Wrapping bar tape.