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Two mechanicals in the last seven days, one ride curtailed, the other sacked off before starting.
Last week on the Tuesday evening pubride, 20 miles in and pulled in to a lay-by to wait for a straggler so we could all chain gang it back to the pub on a gentle descent. Go to set off a big crunch from the rear mech / cassette / chain. Gears were skipping dreadful. Limped to the pub then limped home.
I thought it was a bent hanger, classic symptoms, nope. Then I spotted the quick-link binding and creating a V in the chain. That was the cause of the gear skipping. Replaced the quick-link, still the same. Eventually spotted a tiny burr on inner link plate on the chain next to the roller. Removed the link and it’s now fine. Except the chain is too short. New chain time.
Last night, again on the Tuesday evening pubride, go to set off from the meet up spot, saddle and seatpost are twisting in the seat tube. The post has dropped about 50mm, get multi tool out, try to tighten, creak, crack, ping. I stop before I snap the bolt. Limp home stood up, strip it down and find the Hope bolt and teardrop has stripped the thread. Bolt buggered, teardrop looks OK except for the first thread. Try another bolt in the teardrop from the non buggered side, only goes in half a turn max.
Hope are sending me a new bolt and teardrop under warranty. My seatpost is scuffed to hell. Neither of these are down to ham fisted gorilla spannering skills. I was using a fancy new torque wrench too.
This is offending my Bike Tart sensibilities.
What have you broken recently?
I broke my dropper seatpost.
Just riding along: back end felt loose and so I stopped for a look.
I've given up on torqueing to small < 10Nm values, just go by feel. My carbon seatpost slips in the carbon frame with gripper paste if I try to dial it in to 7Nm as per spec so just tighten it up to what feels like 'pretty tight' and hope for the best....
What have I broken... well- laugh at my idiocy: I'm always many generations behind in bike tech as I tend to keep riding the same steed for as long as possible, so multi link rear suspension bearings are new to me. Decided to undo them all last year to measure them up so I would be able to order new ones when the time comes. So you know the deal with the bolts, you've got a torx bit hole on both sides. I just assumed the bolt is 2-piece with the bearing in the middle somewhere, or perhaps it's 2 torx bolts facing each other. So I've got a T-handle torx bit in one hand, and a socket ratchet with a bit holder and torx bit in the other, trying to twist the two sides apart. Blimey this is stiff. Let's get the longer handle ratchet and give it some welly. SNAP! There goes my T-handle bit. Scratch! goes the broken end of torx tool across the pristine carbon frame....
Ahhhh. You just undo it from one side? Why didn't anyone tell me?
Also had a dropper die on me recently. I was riding round Cannock with my son and in conversation said 'these Brand-X droppers are so much better value and more reliable than others I've had. Never have any issues with them'. Literally 2 minutes later it died! It's had relatively little use, though I do have one on another bike which is 4 years old and has been hammered. A £30 replacement air cartridge got it up and running again.
Whilst at Heaven of the South this weekend, noticed some juddering from my rear brake, only to find the rear rotor was very loose! A quick nip up of the torx bolts required!
I've noticed the Hope clamp on my Rocket only just gets thread contact, so this is pretty likely to happen to me one day soon.
The other day I got a flat because the little threaded bar on the inside of a presta valve stem snapped off without warning, mid ride. Not much I can do there.
I'm currently sitting in a Kincardine pub awaiting rescue by the missus. Toe overlap with the mudguard while cornering resulted in said mudguard shitting the bed and mangling around the wheel. Then I find out that the Topeak Mcguiver XT I've been packing as a multitool is actually more like a Swiss army knife with precisely zilch in the way of bike tools. On the plus side, it's sunny and I'm half skooshed
Last couple
Blew the engine up on the camper, had to cancel a long weekend riding in the Peak.
Got a twig in the rear mech whilst in Wharncliffe. Long push and scoot back to the nearest place to be picked up. SRAM don't sell the front part of the cage. Managed to get a replacement aftermarket from Ratio after a recomendation on here
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Mrs_oab's shifter imploded.
That cost a new bike to fix. 😱
Torque wrench, I've stripped a couple of smaller bolts since getting one! Gone back to tightening by feel and only use the torque wrench for bigger steel bolts such as bottom brackets and EBBs, where tight might not be tight enough.
Crashed on a fairly simple climb, completely my fault. Clipped in on my gravel bike, steep hill with a camber, I get in a bit of trouble, I unclip one foot and fall the other way! Yep I’m a pillock! Thankfully no one was around to see my slow motion fall!
Anyway EKAR hockey wheel stuck into my spokes. Pried it gently out but the gear changing is horrible. Not using the top half of the cassette at all and chunking and clunking when it does. Guessing the derailleur is caput. I’m useless with the spammers so it’s a job for the bike shop. Being EKAR I’m expecting it to be spendy!
Dreadful clunk on my SolarisMax commuter so as I’m off work at the moment I dedicated far too long yesterday to trying a dozen variations of cranks and chainrings to try and isolate the noise. Nothing solved it.
Then I checked the Bottom Bracket… which was loose of course 🤷
Rear wheel bearings/pre load of on my Camber (to be confirmed), came on very quickly at start of my ride on Tuesday. Back to the car and home after a mile as it felt horrible and I was tired and not ready to deal with an evening of what if it gets worse going round in my head.
Fixed four punctures tonight, on different bikes.
Rear GRX brake caliper started leaking so replaced it with Hope RX4 to match the already replaced front. Managed to split the lever diaphragm when bleeding it. New one ordered but took a week to come. All bled and sorted. Went to fit the wheel and then realised that the RX4 caliper is for a 160mm rotor (GRX is for 140mm). New rotor ordered to match the front. 😔
Road bike hasn't been ridden for a while. Managed to puncture the rear and break a spoke in the front on the club ride at the weekend.
Why is it that so many things break in quick succession? 🤔
Blew the engine up on the camper, had to cancel a long weekend riding in the Peak.
Ughh! That's rotten luck. Can I ask, what engine & what went bang?
Not ride ending but very very annoying.
Half way down a hill, on the absolutely not techy bit, the stone I was riding over moved, a lot.
Otb and dust bath, dead leg from the saddle, which rotated 90 degrees when I belted it, ah well, easy fix and no harm.
But, as I go to move the bike realise theres one bloody big rock on the hill and my forks have found it.
Still, glorious day for it.
Actually, last week was the first time for years that all 4 of my bikes were in full working order. And in the last fortnight I have been out on both tourers, my MTB, and my flat bar road bike.
Past ride killers have included bent gear hanger. Shit happens. Broken saddle rail. Luckily it broke 100m from the house rather than 30 miles away. Most annoying one was the puncture on a rural road where I had a screw on pump and every time I unscrewed it the Presta valve unscrewed,
I didn't have a phone with me and was resigned to a long push home but a good samaritan stopped and shoved me and my bike in his car and took me home. The pump got tossed in the bin. All my pumps are now varieties of Topeak Road Morphs with the clamp on head.
On my USA tours the only mechanical I have had apart from punctures was a broken suspension seatpost. My fault for having it on a touring bike in the first place but I had been having lower back pain issues. Luckily though I was nowhere near a bike shop a guy in a nearby small town gave me a post from one of his own bikes.
@Davesport 2015 Ford transit 2.2. Doing 65 on motorway in cruise control. Engine went into limp mode with no previous symptoms and lost all power. Blew a hole in piston. We are told it is a problem on this engine, an expensive one, and is caused when an injector is over fuelling.
Van has done 53k and had every service by Ford
Been having trouble unclipping my right foot recently, so kept thinking I really need to have a proper look at the pedal to see what's wrong.
Set off for work on Monday and got off to walk up the first steep hill and the cleat stayed on the pedal. It was the cleat loose on my shoe all along.
@Davesport 2015 Ford transit 2.2. Doing 65 on motorway in cruise control. Engine went into limp mode with no previous symptoms and lost all power. Blew a hole in piston. We are told it is a problem on this engine, an expensive one, and is caused when an injector is over fuelling.
Van has done 53k and had every service by Ford
Really sorry to hear of your woes with the camper engine. Hopefully this can be fixed & the overfuelling issue located & fixed. :o( Are Ford picking up any of the bill? It would have been handy if it had gone into limp mode before it blew.
Hope you're sorted quickly.
@Davesport New engine is fitted and we are now out and about in it. A couple of weeks to go to our Northern Alps trip so keeping the fingers crossed .
The van still needs some body work repairs from the heat damage in last years wildfires. Good news is all the parts are now in the country and it should have been done but the engine problem has now delayed that.
Due to its age its out of the warranty and Ford have declined any discount event though its a known problem and they have updated the software to try and sort it. They didn't have a recall to do this which is disappointing.
I'm told that this engine isn't just fitted to Fords and other manufacturers have had similar problems
Except the chain is too short. New chain time.
Just fit another quick link.
Not ride ending, but had this annoying grind on the Scandal that I was sure was the BB - it's at least a 2 year old SRAM DUB after all, but no, taking the cranks off revealed a perfectly smooth and free spinning BB; cool, bit of lube, all back together. Go for a ride, still annoying grinding graunching noise. Get home, start to go over every bolt on the bike and find that bolt has just loosened enough on the mudguard and it allows the nose of the mudguard to rub on the seat-stay; can't be that surely..?
Yep. Bike is silent again.