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When you back up 2 yrs of photography work in RAW files in a 'saved pics' folder to yr portable drive, go for a coffee, come back, 'empty recycle bin' then later realised you actually backed up the wrong (identically named) folder twice.
Excitedly unpacking and rebuilding bike after having it shipped to our new house.
Wondering how the front tyre is on the wrong way around, especially after carefully fitting them before leaving the UK. Remove and refit tire to find that in fact the forks are turned around 180 degrees and I have fitted the bars like that.
I had wondered why the brake was on the other side.
Getting to the half way point of a ride, having a rest, and putting my helmet back on - odd I must have put it down somewhere else. After much looking around and puzzlement, the only conclusion was I hadn't ut it on at the start. Return home to find it on the table.
My Goddaughter loves Mountain Biking but doesn't have any decent riding near her so she comes to mine and either rides out with me or goes solo.
One Friday morning she had the day off college so rang me asking if I fancied a ride out. I was working so couldn't but agreed that she could come to mine, leave her car here and ride out solo.
She had rung me about an hour and half before I had to leave for work so I told her to get a move on as I wanted to give her a door key in case she got back before me so she can get cleaned up etc and she lives an hour away.
In her haste she loaded her knee pads, helmet, Camalbak etc but forgot her bike.....
I did take pity on her and lent her mine but checked every Mark on it first 😀
Removing a front wheel in the dark ,undoing the quick release too far (maxol) and all the bits fall into the shale/mud !!
I broke the chain on my road bike yesterday. No problem, I thought, and deftly removed the broken link and put the magic link parts through the two ends. Pulled together to join, the chain slipped through my fingers and the spring tension in the rear mech flung one half of the chain link into the roadside leaf litter. Ha ha blinking ha.
on a ride at llandegla about 18 months ago...
about 2 miles into the black route on a small descent i notice some clattering from the saddle. looking down i notice that the saddle is tipped right back. on closer inspection it turns out that the barrel nut holding the rear seat clamp bolt has snapped in half and the bolt wont stay tight rendering it useless.
i had to complete the rest of the ride with the seatpost and saddle stuffed in the camelbak...
Similar to Quirrel - Couple of years ago I did a 2 hour ride up on Dartmoor on some very wet, very rocky trails, falling off all over the place (not embarrassed to admit). I meet a park ranger halfway round and had a chat. He says "well at least you have a decent bike" which I think is strange thing to say. Despite this I enjoy my ride up on the tops (and notice a strange sense of freedom while doing so).
I hoon my way back to the car down the aforementioned rocky trail, pop the drivers door and find my helmet on the drivers seat 😯 D'oh
When you wake up with a really bad cold just as the weather is getting better.
Being 1 1/2hrs from home, with nothing bar your parking fee in your pocket, and everything else still in the van, isn't the best way to find auto-locking rear doors on your van aren't always the great idea you once thought they were.
Still, pales compared to the man who drove from Scotland to Cardiff to find he'd left the extra long Trek ABP skewer on his driveway. Pure luck that we had one left after a frame swap that we loaned him.
Going over the bars as I entered a rock garden on my first day out on my new bike, followed by the sound of hard rocks hitting soft metal. After picking myself up I found the stanchion of my shiny new BOSS forks resting on one of the larger rocks with a nice big scratch in them. Felt a bit sick and the words “O Bollocks” were definitely uttered
Doing a massive Scottish ridge walk solo. It starts on a road at carpark A and ends in carpark B.
So I drop a bike off at carpark B to save the 11 mile walk along the road at the end of the walk, and drive to carpark A.
Have a great day on the hill and get to carpark B pretty knackered just as its getting dark.
Where are the keys for the bike lock? Oh yes, they'll be in the car then, 11 miles up the road.
I think the phrase rhymed with "clucking bell".
When you forgot to lock your back wheel for the first time in years and some scumbag helps themself, last night, FFS
What I did last week. Rushing to do a bike-fixing job that didn't really need to at that instant, but I thought I could fit it into the 5 minutes I had before the school pick-up. Making a complete arse of the threads on the aluminium hub axle, rendering axle useless therefore wheel useless as Planet-X don't do spares.
It's that horrible feeling when the penny drops that it's going to be expensive.
...when its 9:45pm, pouring with rain, your on a bridleway at the point furthest from the road & you [i]just know[/i] your getting a flat.
Then, after thinking to yourself [i]its ok, you've a spare tube, pump etc, you'll just be a few mins late home[/i], you pull out said tube & realise you've grabbed a 20" tube for your kids bike.
Then, after defying the laws of physics, & stretching said tube into a 29" wheel, you pedal away & shatter the silence of a rain soaked winters eve with [i] the symphony of the exploding innertube[/i]
Then, then, after trudging along aforementioned rainsoaked bridleway, to the road, you realise good lady Wife cant actually collect you anyway, because the kids are in bed.
So, you beat your chest, stuff said tyre with undergrowth & ride gingerly home.
prior to the seatpost dying on the same bike...while using it to commute to work i got tat clunking noise from the rear mech then the chains started to jam and slip. then it snapped, but in doing so it snapped the cage of the rear mech clean off. the resulting bits went into the spokes and broke 2 spokes and pulled the rim out of true and the mech hanger was bent.
stood there in the freezing, pissing rain and i decided to rejoin the chain and try riding the rest of the journey into the office in singlespeed mode but after a few hundred meters the chain shifted up on the cassette and now was too tight and snapped again. so i rejoined it again with what was left of the chain. managed another half mile gingerly until it snapped again! so i ended up walking the remaining 2 miles into the work then had to stuff the bike in the back of a taxi on the way home...
Having your XTR mech go through the back wheel at the furthest point from the start on the Mary Towneley Loop, taking out the mech and singlespeeding not working, and having to run with the bike over Rooley Moor to keep up with your mates on the way back to Worsthorne!
When you have a presentation the next day that is worth quite a large % of that year at uni, but all your housemates are suffering from flu with sore throats and crippling headaches. Let's just say I'm currently drinking orange juice and avoiding them at all costs! 😯
realise you've grabbed a 20" tube for your kids bike
Done this. Had an unplanned walk as a result.
And, failing utterly to learn a lesson, subsequently done exactly the same with a 24" tube from the other child's bike. Fortunately a 24" tube on a 26" rim is get-away-with-itable and was able to (gently) ride home.
Being lazy and not putting the bike in the stand to tweak the front bake and put the bike upside down on the saddle and bars. Spin the front wheel, bike rocks and starts to fall and you grab the forks. To then chop your nail off in the spinning disc..........
Feeling smug because your notoriously snappy 120mm trailbike frame rocked its way through the fort william endurance downhill without missing a beat, while around it downhill bikes fell apart.
Then going for a gentle ride in the pentlands a couple of days later and the back end falls off while riding over an acorn
A few years ago, a mate and I did (for us) a tough winter climb on the north side of Liathach. Eventually got back to the road at the far western end of Liathach, with the car parked at the eastern end. Feeling fresher than my mate I volunteered to walk back along the snowy singletrack road, pick up his car and drive back to collect him. Got to the car eventually in the dark in a snowstorm to realise I’d left my glasses in the pack that was still with my mate (I’d taken them off whilst climbing as they kept getting covered in snow). Cue one of the scariest and slowest piece of driving ever.
My wife locked us out - yale lock on the front door. I broke back in by smashing the glass with a brick. The "oh bollocks" feeling was when I realised I'd hit the glass rather too hard, my arm had gone straight through still holding the brick, and I was now bleeding profusely.
When after a long day of filming you arrive back at the hotel to find the kitchen shut and a work colleague offering you soup and cold meats when what you really needed was steak and chips.
Bloody dishwashers.
First "oh bollocks" this week when it dawned that it died a death, following the recent death (and subsequent replacement) of the washing machine and the boiler, a 21st birthday to pay for and a cambelt job on the car.
Second "oh bollocks" when I drained the kitchen sink for the third time and only then remembered that I hadn't plugged the drain connection when I removed the dishwasher.....
Yesterday.. 10 miles into a planned 50 mile epic I came across a group of oap ramblers, about 30 of them,on the main track. Being a thoughtful caring kind of guy I shouted them to keep coming and I'll cut across the grass, 20 yards later I am covered in latex pissing from both tyres having been slashed by broken bottles in the grass!!! Bollocks...next time I'll plough straight into them.