Viewing 39 posts - 1 through 39 (of 39 total)
  • Don't know my own strength and/or stupidity…
  • cjr61
    Full Member

    ….That moment when you decide to service your spare shock (to be useful) and you foolishly don’t realise it’s reverse thread…..so you apply some good old fashioned leverage and a little engineering sense thinking its just tight….

    …..so if anyone wants to buy a very unique shock with no bottom eyelet let me know!

    Oh well, live and learn. Engage brain before brawn next time.

    Hope everyone else has had a more productive day!

    If not then sympathise with me by telling your DIY cock up story….

    timba
    Free Member

    Realising that your torque wrench only goes “click” on RH threads; the other way it acts like an ordinary ratchet handle. Fortunately it was on a Shimano BB cup, and the wrench has a short handle

    So that’s what the big fat arrow etched into it means!

    pinetree
    Free Member

    Going to remove your rear brake for whatever reason, but being unable to find the snips to remove the cable ties, so you use your trusty Stanley knife instead.
    Yep, I need to order a new hose, please… Because I’m a muppet…

    spooky_b329
    Full Member

    Lying under the campervan about to remove a caliper or similar, did the usual mental arithmetic accounting for the fact I’m upside down and behind the bolt to assess the correct direction.

    Unable to budge bolt (including a test in the ‘wrong’ direction) before I go and get a big breaker bar.

    Further mental arithmetic required to get breaker bar into a position where I can get enough space to put some effort into it…ping!

    Bolt head comes off, brief panic that I would have to drill the stud out and that I need the van serviceable tomorrow, thankfully got the remaining part out and the new part came with new bolts 🙂 Surprisingly easy to take the head off a hefty bolt with the correct tools!

    I’ve also rounded off a V brake boss as I didn’t realise the ones belonging to the fork were shorter than those on the rear triangle 🙂

    cjr61
    Full Member

    Life is full of lessons learnt…and things broken along the way!

    PJM1974
    Free Member

    When building my own ghetto tubeless setup with a 20″ innertube, I decided to trim the loose, flappy bits of tube hanging from the tyre bead…with a Stanley knife.

    I put a 2″ gash in the side of a brand new Nevegal.

    I’m a tit.

    nach
    Free Member

    pinetree – Member
    so you use your trusty Stanley knife instead.

    Same, but removing a marsh guard that was rubbing on a brand new front tyre. It’s a very quick way to deflate a tyre.

    pinetree
    Free Member

    Haha! I just remembered one of the mechanics in my old shop’s greatest cock-up.

    Doing a custom build for a customer (fairly nice road bike) and wanted rid of the wee injection mould points on the tyre as they were flicking away on the stays.
    So, he cranked the wheel up to stupidly high speed, then held up a stanley knife to the side of the tyre.
    Clearly didn’t think this through as he took a dirty great big chunk out of the tyre, and the bang from it shook the whole shop!

    njee20
    Free Member

    I know of someone in a shop who was asked to cut a steerer down to x length. So he measured, very precisely, from the top of the steerer, and cut.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Going to remove your rear brake for whatever reason, but being unable to find the snips to remove the cable ties, so you use your trusty Stanley knife instead.

    messing about with a reverb last night and nearly did that, then thought “noooo got some scissors here somewhere that’ll do it” smart choice I think.

    Njee that’ll take some beating.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    I made a right arse of a lower service on my forks last week, why do I always start these things with roughly 75% of the time it should take and about 50% of the room. Anyway, gash in the seals and a bent rebound knob later they’re if anything worse than when I started.

    Still… I know a man, who is actually an engineer by trade, who’ll no doubt read this…

    A few years ago he was a proud owner of a 2006 Stumpjumper FSR Pro, as anyone who owned that bike with know it came with the infamous ‘Brain Shock’ (which made your expensive FS bike act like a HT bike on landings) anyway, he’s a big tall chap and likes to run a 200mm rear disc – which you can’t on that bike because of the ‘Brain’ so he took a file to it – he only needed a tiny few mill of clearance and sure enough… 30 mins later he stood in Mojo trying to explain how it’s pissing oil through a gash in the side.

    Saying that, he also lost the top half of a finger washing his bike.

    cjr61
    Full Member

    Haha…I’m glad I’m not alone!

    Chopping the steerer is an epic fail!

    richmtb
    Full Member

    Pressing bearings out of the upper link of my Blur with the tool the wrong way round. So once the bearing was out the tool was stuck inside the frame.

    Had to hacksaw the bolt in half to get it out!

    mintimperial
    Full Member

    I know of someone in a shop who was asked to cut a steerer down to x length. So he measured, very precisely, from the top of the steerer, and cut.

    D:

    I nearly deafened myself with a Maxxis Minion whilst trying to get the damn thing to seat properly, when I’d somehow fitted two tubeless rim strips at the same time (don’t ask how I managed to do that, I don’t even know).

    Things I learnt: it took about 100PSI to make it pop, blowing it off a rim at that pressure will kill the bead on a brand new tyre, and the bang will leave your ears ringing for hours.

    munrobiker
    Free Member

    Trying to remove a seatpost stuck in a road frame I clamped the top tube and twisted the saddle vigorously from side to side. And put two massive dents in the top tube where the clamp held it. Complete stupidity, had to get the customer a new frame…

    tuskaloosa
    Free Member

    Eager to start my new build recently, decided against investing in a headset tool and went with my old bolt and washer method on a 1.5 tube.. true to form the cups went in lopsided …panicked borrowed a rubber mallet and went to work on the misaligned headset using the arm of my wife’s parent’s antique sofa as support…Yep broke the arm (and I’ve been happy preaching to the kids about doing things in haate and using the wrong tools for the job)

    Njee…ouch

    amedias
    Free Member

    Float spring service in a Fox 36, remember to let the ALL the air out of the chamber first, or you will end up with oil all over you, and if you’re really lucky the pushrod won’t embed itself too deep into the ceiling

    Scapegoat
    Full Member

    Getting hold of two lengths of hose, one 100cm for the front, one 200cm for the rear, then measuring very, very carefully and cut the correct length for the front brake…..from the 200cm length. Late on Saturday night on a Bank Holiday weekend with a big ride planned. New build, so the ride didn’t happen.

    My LBS owner treated himself to a new fork and cut the steerer to 175 having failed to take all of the stem and headset stack into account. It looked great flush on his Van Nic. head tube 😀 fortunately I’d just bought an Mmmmbop, and it fitted perfectly, so I got it at cost!

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    the bang will leave your ears ringing for hours.

    Not strength but stupidity. I was trying to fine a hole in an innertube. Pumped it up a bit but couldn’t find it. Pumped it up more. Still couldn’t find it. Really pumped it up and looked really closely at the tube. I found the tiny hole where the air was rushing out and looked at it closely. All of a sudden the tiny hole gets much bigger and there’s an almighty bang as the innertube tears itself apart. Pat my shants.

    northernmatt
    Full Member

    Not bike related but I was changing the plugs on a 1.3 Fiesta, I didn’t have a spark plug spanner but luckily my extending wheel wrench was the same size. One was a bit stubborn so I put it at full length and yanked on it. Cue snapped spark plug and me looking a bit sheepish at the local garage after having to drive what sounded like a steam engine over there.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Please stop! The lol is killing me! Ritchey titanium stem bolts have a low torque rating. Lower than Ritchey’s own mini torque Allan key.

    It drilled out from the back ok.

    cjr61
    Full Member

    Haha quite proud my stupidity has started something rather funny!

    belugabob
    Free Member

    Not bike related, but I was once plumbing a washing machine overflow into the u-bend pipes under the sink.
    Had the whole u-bend dismantled, with a bucket underneath and popped down the shed to get my bag of assorted plumbing joints. Came back to find my wife merrily rinsing some dishes under the tap – did a slow motion “Noooooooo!!!” lunge across the kitchen and turned the tap off, just as the water level in the bucket reached a few millimetres from the top.

    Huge sigh of relief from us both, as we realised what a near miss we’d had.

    I then promptly emptied the bucket – down the sink.

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    I then promptly emptied the bucket – down the sink.

    Outstanding

    CalamityJames
    Free Member

    First pair of Fatbars I ever bought were 780mm, so wanted to cut down 20mm from each end. Cut the first side. Pefect. Turned them round to get a better grip for the other side only to realise afterwards I’d cut another 20mm from the same side.

    Nothing as serious as some of the above, but at the time was bouncing with rage.

    cjr61
    Full Member

    Reminds me of some the Darwin Awards books…thankfully the outcomes are so ‘final’!

    scotlandthedave
    Free Member

    trimming gear cable outer, with the gear cable still attached.

    using the stupidly expensive chris king hub service tool to service a stupidly expensive hub. miss out a single component and you’ll knock bearing inner out of the race, leaving you with a lovely expensive paperweight. had to dismantle the wheel and send the hub to Oregon for that one.

    trying to remove (in the dark no less) dtswiss240s rear hidden bearing behind the freehub. the lockring wouldn’t budge so i applied a bit of welly, then a bit more, then a bit more with an alu pole for more leverage. Crack! Thats it freed off then. Hold on, its still tight. cue torchlight revealing the hardened steel tool cracked in half, stuck on the bent axle also cracked in half and ovalised. c.£100 to repair that one, plus a new tool as they wouldn’t warranty it due to “misuse”

    i’d hate to add up the cost of all my mishaps. Now i insist on having the right tool for the job (not that it always helps) and researching the work and taking time to plan and do it properly.

    I_Ache
    Free Member

    munrobiker

    Don’t you have one involving a rock? Or am I getting mixed up?

    bencooper
    Free Member

    I once managed to install a threaded bottom bracket backwards. Thought “this is getting a bit tight” and got a longer lever for the spanner. Got it all the way in before I realised. Luckily it was my own bike.

    Ro5ey
    Free Member

    Belugabob and his bucket are straight through to the final… brilliant

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Things I learnt: it took about 100PSI to make it pop, blowing it off a rim at that pressure will kill the bead on a brand new tyre

    indeed!

    don’t do it in your office, your colleague will not be amused

    (had mounted it on the compressor in the workshop was just “topping it up” with a track pump to pop the bead onto the rim)

    dazh
    Full Member

    Posted this before, but when setting up tubeless with a faulty track pump (which I discovered after the fact), I’d finally got the tyre to seal and was feeling very pleased with myself. Looked at the track pump and it said 10psi. So I kept pumping, and pumping, and pumping til the guage said 30psi. Something didn’t seem right so I bent down to have a look at the tyre, before I got a chance there was an almighty explosion, I went temporarily deaf and was covered head to toe in a thin layer of latex. Turned out the track pump was reading 3x less than it should and I’d pumped up the tyre to about 80-90psi. Trashed the tyre and the rim.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    I then promptly emptied the bucket – down the sink.

    I have done this several times, last time I did it twice during the same DIY disaster job!

    cjr61
    Full Member

    Bucket down the sink is my personal favourite so far!

    munrobiker
    Free Member

    Don’t you have one involving a rock? Or am I getting mixed up?

    Ah, no, you see that was because Superstar didn’t know their stupidity and sent out a crank with an ISIS style spline on the arm and a Shimano HT2 spline on the axle. This was a warranty set they sent out that arrived on the morning of a race and no tools were available other than a pen knife. Anything and everything was used to make the crap cranks fit for use and we won the race. Lost the fight with Superstar who didn’t understand that they’d made a mistake.

    So we burned their warehouse down, or something. Anyway, the moral is Superstar are a bunch of ginger dickheads.

    nickc
    Full Member

    trimming gear cable outer, with the gear cable still attached.

    Building a bike with a mate, I managed to do this to the front cable, after much laughing and pointing from my “mate” he managed to do the same to the rear about 10 minutes later.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Bucket down the sink is my personal favourite so far!

    I lolled at that – partly because I had an idea what was coming from the build up – which is mainly because I’ve done it myself!

    whitestone
    Free Member

    The bath had a dripping tap so I went to replace the washer, without turning off the supply or draining the system (private water supply with 50 metres head) …

    Attempt #2. Changing the washer took a minute, cleaning up a little bit longer.

    ahwiles
    Free Member

    servicing a Gravity dropper after a filthy ride:

    being a dickhead, i thought i’d just remove the spring-plate from the bottom.

    this worked so well that the spring-plate and spring fired upwards out of the seatpost, along with about 3 gallons of filthy black oily water. Producing a lovely, large, splotchy pattern on the ceiling.

    (quite impressive really, just how much filth ended up on the ceiling, and just how little on the floor)

    good job it wasn’t a really nice holiday rental with massive damage deposit…

Viewing 39 posts - 1 through 39 (of 39 total)

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