Cutting down the steerer on my new Pikes
Not in a “made a mess of it” kind of way, just hated doing it (first forks I’ve ever cut)
Current frame has a shorter head tube than a couple of frames that are on my “potential future purchase list”, by 10 or 20mm, but I didn’t want an ugly amount of spacers
It’s now done and I’m happy with the result
What job have you hated or dreaded the most?

Just changed all the swing arm bearings on my bandit. I’m selling that bike before I have to do that again.

Fitting mudguards

Full service on a reverb seat post. Three nights worth as i got frustrated and walked away a few times… almost binned it and bought a new one. Dreading having to do it again. Oil all over the garage floor.

I honestly enjoy cutting steerers down, seeing how straight I can get them freehand with a hacksaw.

Hate internal routing jobs.

Packing it back into a bag at the end of an Alpine holiday.

I seriously dislike cutting steerers. I might actually buy one of those guide things before the next one.

I also disliked the lower pivot bearings on my old Zesty. The actual idea of pressing out and in is fine, but failing to give you a flat surface on which to do so is just rude. If I ever have a bike with that sort of shape down there again, I’m paying someone to switch them.

Bleeding Guides, mainly as they use DOT 4 which is nasty, messy stuff.

Worse was changing all 11, 11 (!) pivot bearings on my Jeffsy. 🙂

Full service on a reverb seat post. Three nights worth as i got frustrated and walked away a few times… almost binned it and bought a new one. Dreading having to do it again. Oil all over the garage floor.

Just bleeding mine resulted in the same. Never again.

Fitting a stem. The torque is correct but it never feels tight enough.

The steerer cutting guides are cheap (at least my Planet X one was) and honestly make it trivial. Apart from the worrying about making it too short thing, which it can’t help with.

Yip, hacking steerers is possibly the most butt clenching job out there..

Not keen on bleeding brakes. Always end up with a good result but just don’t like doing it.

Worst job must be screwing the pins into Hope F20 pedals – awful!!

Deliveroo looks like the worst job you can do on a bike..

I also hate brake bleeding, apart from on Shimanos.

We need to get a maintenance swap-shop going on. Dibs on doing the steerer cutting.

Bearings on my Capra.

I loved changing them on my old mega, you knew you could change them with a lump hammer and a bit of wood.

muppetWrangler – Member

Deliveroo looks like the worst job you can do on a bike..

Yep looks bloody awful with that massive box badly attached to you or the bike!

A pipe cutter makes steerer trimming incredibly quick and easy. You don’t even need to remove the fork from the bike, which means screams of anguish from cutting it too short are very unlikely! 2min job, including removing and refitting the stem.

Just changed all the swing arm bearings on my bandit. I’m selling that bike before I have to do that again.

+1 especially the dogbone link, which doesn’t have a flat surface for a drift to sit on.

I can fix almost anything on a bike, except front mechs. Could never quite manage to set those feckers up so 1×10 was a blessing 😀

Reverb servicing is generally ok but frustrating that you only find out if it’s worked after putting it back together again and repressurising.

I might actually buy one of those guide things before the next one.

Pipe cutter FTW.

I also hate brake bleeding, apart from on especially Shimanos.

Bleeding brakes or shortening hoses. I seem to make a real meal of it and end up with oil evrywhere. Brings out the clumsy oaf in me.

Gear cables on my current road bike, internally routed and I think they require the skills of a snake charmer to get them done in quick time!

Curveball here: servicing a sturmey archer dynohub. You have to fit a special magnet keeper otherwise it shits itself and they don’t make them any more.

Pipe cutter FTW

Learning to use a hacksaw for the actual win. Lovely smooth straight cut rather than a bulged sharp edged bodge

How about bartape. I’m actually pretty good at it but i do anything to put it off.

Seized seat posts. Done a few, alloy in steel frames, vertical cuts (hacksaw blade wrapped in tape), block all the holes and fill with caustic soda.

Broken spokes on carbon tubular rims with internal nipples. Just unnecessary hassle.

Rebuilding Fox 36 talas forks, the designer deserved an award for squeezing in so many O rings and seals into one set of suspension forks.

Brake bleeding was a major hate thing for me – follow instructions to the letter, wrong, do it again, worse, do it a 3rd time – okay.

Shimano s are at least easy and consistent for me.

I hate Shimano cup and come bearings (don’t all scream at once) I dislike anything that needs to be done by feel, it just doesn’t compute for me, I need a number to hit, none of this woolly shit.

Actually firget all that the worat job is cleaning a bike.

Worked as a pro mechanic for 3 years, servicing and building up to 6 bikes a day but by far the worst job was re-cabling a mate’s Cervelo S2 It was an early model with unguided internal routing. The upper cable stops were housed on a triangular plate which sat just behind the steerer tube where the cables entered the frame and were almost impossible to get at. Getting the cables under the bottom bracket without crossing and causing excessive drag was equally frustrating. The process took over 4 hours and put me off Cevellos for life.

Attempting to change the pistons seals on Hope Mono M4 calipers. In the end it was quicker to post them to Hope, shout ‘take my money’ and let them do a proper job.

+ many for the pipe cutter for steerer tube job. Easy peasy with one of those.

The one time I tried a pipe cutter for a steerer (and I’m very good with copper pipe) the cutter flared the tube and I had a seriously puckering moment of ‘new Pikes bye bye’ before getting the files out and making a right mess of the top of the steerer so I could actually get a stem over it.

Never. Again. Definitely Team Hacksaw going forward, but with a guide not just tape next time…

Worst job must be screwing the pins into Hope F20 pedals – awful!!

Oh sweet jesus, yes. This ^^^.

Like loads of people, I’ve bled all kinds of brakes, serviced lots of forks and shocks, done frame bearings, laced wheels, serviced hubs, cut steerers, cut carbon bars, removed and pressed in headset cups, pressed in press-fit BBs etc…

Buy far the biggest PITA was the Hope F20 pins, I’d totally forgotten about that! You get one pedal done, and you really really can’t be arsed to do the next.

The only other thing that comes close is poorly done internal cable routing, sanding down the outer ends, then gorilla taping them together, I get a bit of a sweat on when pushing the new outer through.

Mudguards. There is no worse job on a bike than fitting mudguards.

Just fitted a new fork last week.

Found tapping the star nut in at least as terrifying as cutting the tube to length.

Made a driver for it out of an appropriately-size socket but gawd knows how many goes it took to get it to go in straight.

Hope v twin service.

worst job I’ve done on a bike has to be a paper round.

Fixing the pieces of junk that SWMBO mates fetch round. Kids “bikes” that live in the garden. Hateful.

Mudguards. There is no worse job on a bike than fitting mudguards.

Fitted some SKS Raceblade Long mudguards to my wife’s bike and they went on a treat in about 20 mins. Pretty sturdy once they are on too, so can recommended.

Kids “bikes” that live in the garden.

Urrgh, yes. Cheap BSOs – absolutely horrific to work on.

Otherwise, I don’t really have nasty jobs. I used to dread frame bearing changes, but I’ve now got a decent set of presses and various tools for extracting the old ones and I find that I can romp through most frames pretty quickly.

Here’s one for you, especially regarding road bikes with BB30 BBs – creaking cranks. What a bloody nightmare!

BSO’s – hate them. A friend whose bike I serviced asked if I could look at a friends bike – it was a cheapo MTB that had been sat unused in a garage for 20 years – tyres had perished, the chain was rusty, all the grease had dried-out and spokes the tension of wet spaghetti. The trouble was it wasn’t worth any money, so only point in doing the absolute bare minimum to make it safe – it still took 3 hours and was still a heavy lump of pig-iron. When I worked in a shop the attitude of people who’d bring in some rusty pile’o’cr@p and tell them it wasn’t worth 4 hours of workshop time to resurrect, thinking we were screwing them – better off taking it to the dump and buying something out the paper.

had a mare removing some chainring bolts from a new Zee crankset as i changed the ring. Didn’t have that stupid lugged tool thing for the back side as my other chainring bolts are allen.. they must have been air gunned on. had to use a corded drill as a screw driver to cracl them off. hateful things.

+1 on the Hope Tech M4 caliper seal service, the amount of fluid it takes when the wrong piston comes out and you have to start again…
Satisfying when the job is done correctly and the brake is back to full efficiency.