[Closed] The 'joys' of a well timed mechanical... FFS!

Not quite that bad but I squeezed in a ride yesterday, I'd kind of written the day off because of the weather forecast but it turned out not so bad. Rode up the big hill wondering what the clonking was, started down the first descent and discovered it was a loose crank arm. Tried to limp it home, crank dropped off halfway down, scooted the rest. So about 1 minute of quality riding

Nooooooo!
😆

Hate that. What kind of crank, NW? Always like Shimano in that looseness can usually be sorted with a 5mm hex key.

so what happened to your pedal?

Cheap OEM squaretaper this George. And no tools because it was all close to home. Almost certainly my fault tbh!

big_scot_nanny - Member
...3 minutes in I dinged my right pedal off a rock and... FFS - where's my f'ing pedal gone! Bollocks!

I was 19 miles from home round the back of Ben Wyvis and had been doing a bit of hike-a-bike, or more accurately drag-a-bike through the heather along the non existent track marked on the OS maps.

When I was ready to get back on the bike, the lhs pedal was missing. I searched back for half a mile without luck.

My own fault, they're QR pedals and that was my road bike, so it shouldn't have been getting that sort of use. (The QR pedals have been upgraded since, and that can't happen anymore)

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I discovered one legged cycling with flat pedals is a bit wearing after a few miles. 🙂

I remember the first time I used a bike with an air fork..rode all the way to top of spooky woods with my mates as part of birthday day out. Befre the descent I decided to let some air out the fork, thought it was a bit like a tyre. 1 second later all the air had gone and I was freewheeling back down to the carpark

🙁

I had some time off work earlier this year due to a family bereavement. After some space to think and clear my head, I woke early and made the 2 hour drive to Llandegla for a change of scenery.

Plodded all the way up the climb and entered the first section of singletrack. Wayhey this is what I'd come for, round the first corner, over a jump ... thwack, a rock takes out my rear mech, it's smashed itself in half.

I then get freezing cold bodging a single speed fix, roll back to the car-park, cry, and drive all the way back home.

🙁

Great stories! genuine LOLs

Sad thing for me, I tend to chastise harshly my riding buddies who have mechanicals. Karma is a fine thing!

jekkyl - not sure yet- Shimano DX flatties, axle still attached to crank, but pedal body came off. Will have a squint, but have always had issues with the drive side pedal, and not amount of tweaking and regreasing seemed to make it 'just so', unlike the non-drive side.

Will report back!

not a mechanical, but i know of a guy who (years ago) booked the CwnDown uplift, got all his kit in the van, up at 4am, drove nearly 250 miles to Wales, opend the van and had forgotten his bike....

Happened to me a few weeks ago. Out with two mates on a planned 20 mile ride made up of plenty of uppy downy bits followed by a belter of a descent that I've only done once before. I haven't ridden much for the past month so this was going to be ace. 100yds into the descent and something didn't feel rught. Stopped to check the bike and found that I'd somehow snapped my rear maxle. Long push down to the bottom during which all I could hear was my mates whooping and laughing in the single track through the woods off to my right. Bastards.

Sympathies - with a rel new FS I am terrified about first real mechanical. I was just about ok with a HT!

Worst experience was seat post snapping off in the snow with a 90 minute cycle home. quite a test for the thighs!!

high street

Attempt 1 - arrived in car park - notice no chain on bike after paying for ticket...Lowey shamed me on here!

Attempt 2 get to top hike a bike bit - bad route choice- rear mech snaps after about 100 m pedalling - have to roll downhill and missed out on Ullswater and 3 hours riding.

Attempt 3 - its over rated isnt it but lovely views

snowdon, llanberis path just before summit, chain spits off and jams behind block - 3 broken spokes. i could of cried and still no idea why it happened other than the mountain gods being angry with me

not a mechanical, but i know of a guy who (years ago) booked the CwnDown uplift, got all his kit in the van, up at 4am, drove nearly 250 miles to Wales, opend the van and had forgotten his bike....

😆 😆

Another Snowdon one, but not me. Saw a guy with a massive dh bike , he had walked and dragged this big thing up the mountain. He left before we did from the top. Found him walking less than half mile from the top. He had lost his rear mech and the chain was wrapped up too. Also lost spokes which is why he wasn't just freewheeling down.

Bitd incident. Piled bikes in car for the trip from Ipswich to Epping. Got onto the bikes and rode about 200yds before a line change saw my mate run into the back of me, writing off my wheel. Off we went back home. 20 years later and still neither party accepts the blame.

daver27 - Member

not a mechanical, but i know of a guy who (years ago) booked the CwnDown uplift, got all his kit in the van, up at 4am, drove nearly 250 miles to Wales, opend the van and had forgotten his bike....

That#s brilliant (and awful)

@tpbiker

Similar one to you as well. 1997 or 98, went with a mate of mine to ride the south downs from Devils Dyke. Had a set of Marzocchi Z2 superfly air forks on at the time. my mate was riding rigid.
got the bikes out his Landrover, popped the wheels in, he walked over and decided to see what suspension was all about, pushed down on the bars and blew the air seals.
loaded the bikes back in the landrover and drove home! not a single pedal stroke, but some considerable mileage covered!!

Not quite a mechanical, but...

Camping before an epic day of riding . Mate was making the supper while I rolled a couple of "smokes" for after dinner.

It was just before we sat down to eat that I realised I'd forgotten the tent. D'Oh!

He still reminds me occasionally, 10 years later.

APF

Junkyard - lazarus

Attempt 1 - arrived in car park - notice no chain on bike after paying for ticket...

I did that at the vallelujah enduro. Had to buy a bottom end SRAM chain from the race support dudes for about £30. Then discovered I'd also forgotten my camelbak so found an ancient energy bar and a squashed water bottle in the car, stuck them in my jacket pocket, sorted. Had to refill the bottle out of a stream which was probably 90% sheep piss and 10% grit. Didn't entirely enjoy the day tbh.

If you're after some stronger pedals saints are good 😆

I did this to an xt crank arm in a crash on the quantocks, was doing around 30mph according to gps and had to look for the bike afterwards. Probably would have been rideable but I was a bit more broken than the bike was!

Other than that was the time I got a puncture less than a mile from the car on a ride I'd been looking forward to all week. Changed the tube and managed a few pumps of air before the head broke off my pump 👿 It felt like an eternity pushing the bike back to the car.

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not a mechanical, but i know of a guy who (years ago) booked the CwnDown uplift, got all his kit in the van, up at 4am, drove nearly 250 miles to Wales, opend the van and had forgotten his bike....

That brought back memories of following my impatient mate down the back roads of North Wales at break neck speed because he was cheesed off that we'd turned up at the rv point half an hour late.
After 90 minutes of driving I could see him looking frantically around in his car as he drove along. He suddenly braked hard and pulled into the side of the road. The look on his face was priceless. He'd left his back wheel on his driveway. 😀

Reminds me of fitting a pair of the first fox floats available to my bike and an eager zoom down the M4 to CwmCarn, got about 2 miles into the ride and the forks felt soft. Pumped them up and then noticed the air fizzing round the leg seal. Packed bikes away, phone bike shop and rant. Sent to Mojo, up the road and got a rebuild while I waited, although too late to go riding in the end again that day.

Another pedal one:

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PBJ??? Pre-Blow???

London to Brighton off road a few years ago, nearly home and knackered. Get a puncture. No problem, mend it, back on the bike 200yds another puncture. Shrug and curse my luck, change it. Back on the bike and get another 600 yds before yet another puncture. Nearly cry, eat jelly babies, all's well, change it yet again and finish the ride.

At a polaris in the Lakes, had my bike nicked overnight, so to avoid missing out we drove into Ambleside and hired a bike for the weekend. Wheeled it back to the car, packed it in, drove to the start to find I'd left the front wheel behind, drove back and it had gone, back to shop buy a new wheel, back to the car, back to the start and we only had enough time to ride to the overnight camp.

Expensive weekend that was.

Oooh, painful stories! I am shit scared I'll leave a maxle lieing somewhere at some point. Has to happen!

Here is the pedal - WTF happened (sorry, not a DX, a saint)? it, as mentioned, has never felt great. Always stiff and gritty compared to Left one. had it apart before and regreased then finely set up the cup and cones. Been running on it for about 6 months since last rebuild.
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If you're after some stronger pedals saints are good

Can I take back that comment now 😆

not a mechanical, but i know of a guy who (years ago) booked the CwnDown uplift, got all his kit in the van, up at 4am, drove nearly 250 miles to Wales, opend the van and had forgotten his bike....

Best excuse ever for n+1 surely 🙂

 

MarkB - I think your's deserve the praise, ****ing Nora that was some hit!

LMTTMark - never thought about a twig fix - genius!

Found an old pair of spare flats in the bits box, so back out tomorrow with the same plan. Wish me luck!

I don't know if it strictly counts as a mechanical as opposed to a crash, but I rode down Air's Rock at Laggan and my back wheel didn't survive the landing, so much so that it couldn't rotate, and that's quite a long way to carry a bicycle back to the car.

Although my favourite was when my friend tried to dismount at the bike doorway to the gondola at Nevis Range, and at that exact moment one of his cleat bolts broke, meaning the cleat simply spun on the shoe and could not be undone. He spent a good couple of minutes sprawled on the floor unable to either stand up or detach himself from his bike while dozens of competitors for some downhill race queued patiently behind him.

Amazing how long it can take in that situation to realise you can take your shoe off tbh

I think that's what he must have done, but he was still lying there as I vanished up into the clouds.

Not strictly a mechanical but as others have told stories about forgetting bits of bike...

I arranged to go to Glentress with a mate (driving up from mine in Lancaster). As she's driving to meet me, she realises she's forgotten to put the wheels in (having taken them off to fit the bike in her car).
No probs, she phones a mate in Morecambe to borrow his wheels, has to trawl off there to collect.
She eventually gets to mine 90 mins behind schedule. I assemble the bike to check and of course the disc rotors on the borrowed wheels aren't the same size as the ones on her wheels so the brake calipers are all out of alignment.
She just says she'll buy some new rotors, so off we go.

Half way there, chatting about similar stories of forgotten kit and she suddenly realised she'd also left her shoes.

So she bought new rotors, new shoes and new flat pedals (the shop didn't have cleats for whatever weird pedals she had so it was easier to just buy flat pedals). One hell of an expensive ride for her that one!

Several years ago when I was quite new to this whole mtb thing, I was riding a loop taking in Loughrigg Terrace with a couple of friends. Coming down (what seemed at the time to be a fairly epic) rock garden my friend dismounted with some style in front of me. I stopped to check he was ok, and he breathlessly waved me on.

I dutifully carried on to the bottom and stopped by the pub at the bottom with the other guys. About 15 minutes later (about the point where we were wondering whether we should go back and make sure that he was ok), he emerged from the trees carrying his bike. It transpired that he'd bent a disc rotor so badly that the wheel wouldn't spin. To top it off he'd lent his multi tool to another of us earlier in the day so he couldn't even take it off and wheel the bike down.

The sight of him jumping up and down on the rotor in a vague attempt to straighten it in front of a busy Lake District pub on what was a very sunny summers day drew more than a few bemused glances.

tpbiker

I remember the first time I used a bike with an air fork..rode all the way to top of spooky woods with my mates as part of birthday day out. Befre the descent I decided to let some air out the fork, thought it was a bit like a tyre. 1 second later all the air had gone and I was freewheeling back down to the carpark

I felt evil doing it, but that gave me a good chuckle!

I lost a chain on a DH run once.

When I say lost, it vanished. It must have snapped at some point so I retraced my steps up all the way to the top and rolled back down as well. The pixies must have had it away as no sign at all. Long push home that was.

On the way to the nightride snapped the chain, already had a dodgy link removed so was too short for the 42, now it was too short for anything lower than 32, did the ride, pedalled into the last descent and it went again. Chain in pocket freewheel down to a respectable strava 🙂 then a long push back up the hill to the house

On the forgetfulness theme.

With the white Room in 2014, I'd forgotten something for most of the days so as we were going to Pila I made s big effort, got all my kit ready and in the van and even saved a space for my buddies. Just cross over the col du petit St. Bernard and I got the sickening realisation that I didn't remember putting my bike on. Sure enough I turn around and it's not there! Followed by me frantically turning on my data roaming on my mobile and seeing what hire bikes were available. Every cloud though, spent the day riding a transition tr500 which was awesome and led to me buying a DH bike when I got home.

Also managed to leave my front wheel in the car park at rivington.

I'd lose my balls if they weren't in a bag!

That hill I rode yesterday is like my nemesis. I have had more falls and mechanicals up there than anywhere else.

Last time up was a night ride, slogged all the way to the top with 2 mates, managed first to lose one mate in the woods at the top - cue much shouting and light waving. Then 2 minutes after that my wheel and rear mech decided to make sweet love and completely ate each other. That was a long walk!

Good news though! Spare pedals installed last night (blackspire I think - grippy buggers!), same routine this morning, but without the mechanicals (though different, slightly bigger hill) - and it was AMAZING! yay! Still buzzing 🙂

Not bike related, but my exhaust just more or less fell off while driving to the MOT centre 😆

Those broken pedal spindles are not reassuring - where's the load, to snap at the locknut threaded end area? I think of Shimano as at least having quality metallurgy but know two different folks who have broken newer DuraAce road crank arms while pedalling along, no crashes at all! Medium large guys, but rando riders, not at all racing thigh masters.
Always carry extra chain quick links and tool.
Had a freewheel suddenly freeze on a multiday White Rim trip; at home I'd serviced the wheel but that freehub fixing bolt I'd neglected to use Loctite on. On the ride, the bolt loosened and it jammed the outer hub bearings solid. Still hate that design.

Up early in the long gone summer, decide upon Reeth for a cheeky jaunt before family duties. Throw everything into the car and arrive at 7am.
Can't find helmet, o well I'll bimble along the river. Can't find front wheel and its too early for the dales bike centre.
Two hours of driving for zero riding. Apologys to the old man for the swearing 😳

Had a day like this today-First day out on the new bike,bought it running tubeless so ordered some Stans fluid to top up with from CRC which didn't arrive in time,never had a puncture in dozens of rides here so decided to ride anyway , drove the 30 miles plus bridge-toll got 3 miles into ride only to have first puncture in years with spare tubes stored safely in my van in the car-park.Long walk back to the car park cussing my own stupidity and lesson learned.

Me and a friend were getting close to the top of Stanage saltpath. We planned to go down that and onto Bamford Clough and eventually Dore Drop.

Well, just before the start of Stanage Saltpath, one of the stanchions debonded from the crown whilst he did a wheelie. I shudder to think of what would happen if it happened later on. The timing was good!

Yep.

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I entered the Kielder 100 in 2011, along with 2 mates. One of whom decided to change his pedals the night before driving up. He discovered he'd cross threaded it when the pedal fell off as he rode to the start line. The damage was done and so he just shrugged his shoulders, packed up his tent and went back to Derbyshire.

Given that it rained all day, was utterly grim and neither of us finished, the other guy and I still wonder whether or not it was deliberate. He did less damage to his bike than we did that day !

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XTR shouldn't look this! 3 hour walk back to the car

These are funny and despair inducing in equal measure. Love the pedals and whole bloody cranks still attached to SPDs. Must admit, the crank axle snapping is a pretty major mechnical! WT actual F?!?!

Standing on the start line for the SXC race at Dalbeattie a few years ago twiddling the adjuster knob for my Hope C2 front brake and it came off in my hand. Had to race with no front brake, which meant running a lot of the steeper descents, so I missed the fun bits and came last.
.

not a mechanical, but i know of a guy who (years ago) booked the CwnDown uplift, got all his kit in the van, up at 4am, drove nearly 250 miles to Wales, opend the van and had forgotten his bike....

a couple of years ago at llandegla with my mates...got up the first climb and then headed into the woods...then followed the black route and carried on for another couple of miles before i heard/felt a rattling form the saddle. i stop to find the saddle has tilted back because one of the twin bolts had snapped and the barrel nut holding it in the clamp had cracked open so another bolt wouldn't go in.
i zip tied the saddle into place and rode on another mile very gingerly before the ties snapped and the saddle went flying off along with the rails clamps from the post. i managed to find most of the other bits but had to finish off the remaining 7 miles with the saddle and seatpost stuffed in my camelbak!!
got some funny looks from some riders that day... 😛

a few weeks later we introduced a new member to our group at Gisburn...he was lent a Marin and all was good until we got to the boarded section when the non drive cranks came off...bolt nowhere to be seen...hang on i;ve got a spare bolt in my bag...oops its not there!
a 2 hour walk back to the car park on his first outing on an mtb

Must admit, the crank axle snapping is a pretty major mechnical! WT actual F?!?!

thats the awesomez power of beardy tattooed singlespeerists 😉