Snapped my saddle off half way through a race in the Sidlaws, rode the rest of the race rather gingerly and was knackered from standing up for ages.

Got to the top of the Whites climb at afan, hit the first descent, i was loving it! heard a big and a loud thud, brother had hit the deck, front tyre and split, tube gone bang, very long walk back to the car! in the the rain, not impressed!!

I've had 2 DX frehubs go on me. 1st one I lost my drive & walked/scootered back to the car, next one the freehub locked up & wouldn't freewheel. i finished the ride but have you ever tried standing up & having to pedal down rocks when you really need to go a bit slower?

X0 rear mech and spoke interface. Mech bent badly then eventually sheared at the breakaway bolt. Bent hanger badly too. Two snapped spokes. Pretty textbook I hear you say…..it got better.

It was at the top of a day guiding a group in Les Arcs, mostly downhill back to the valley floor save some 'rolling' climbs.

For some reason that still baffles me the only gear I could get it to SS with the correct chain tension was third-from-top (44-13). Luckily I was carrying some Kevlar emergency spokes to bodge the wheel with…very time consuming though, took about 3/4 hour before it was rideable. Again, fortunately it was a nice day.

Once we got rolling I was determined not to let my mechanical detract from the group's two hour/1500m descent. Unfortunately this meant not letting my ridiculous gear ratio hold things up on the remaining climbs…one of which was a steady 15 minute spin in middle ring up a fire road. I covered it in about half the time on the verge of stalling with my knee cartlidge protesting loudly. I'd already told the group I would meet them at the top…which I did, still gasping for air and sweating like a hairy pig. The next rolling section had some shorter, sharper climbs in which couldn't be ridden so I ended up grinding up them as far as possible then jumping off and running along side the guests in my carbon-soled race shoes and 8kg guiding pack on in 30 degree heat.

It was a character forming day, that's fo' sho'. Fortunately the lads I was guiding were a bunch of legends and it only added to the day's fun 8)

the year we took both the whyte preston prototypes to the red bull 24hour race,
i lent the first one to the RAF team to try out,, they were riding at pallets without unweighting the front wheel, not normaly a problem, until one guy got the front wheel caught in the pallet and bent the forks, so that was put in the car and my ss mount vision was pressed into service

then jon whyte was out on his first lap on the other and caught the front wheel and ripped off the whole fork assemble and had to run half a lap with his bike in two parts,, another preston bites the dust

after that it was just your average 24 hour race

I had a rear hub seize on me on my way to the Mamore Lodge in Kinlochleven. I stripped the rear hub from the non-drive side using a Leatherman and was luckily able to complete the best ride I've ever done.

I too have had a rear mech rip clean off, luckily it was downhill to the car.

My worst in annoyance terms was a puncture on a quick ride where I didn't bring any patches or tools – 5 mile walk home

snapped my leg off had to go to hospital to get some TI bolts to put it back on

rear rim explode 20 miles from home

friend snaped his alpine stars 15 miles from home

but the broken hip was the hardest to fix

In my youth I had a lightweight Simplex derailleur of which I was very proud. The lightness was because much of it was built out of nylon. I spent a long hot summer riding it all day.

Then honking it up a steep hill out of the saddle in too high a gear, I had a TTITI event (Top Tube Interface Testicular Impact).

The nylon derailleur had snapped, most of the derailleur wrapped itself up up the chain and freewheel. I spent some time curled up beside the road clutching my personal damage. As I too far from anywhere, I removed the derailleur, shortened the chain, removed some mangled spokes, and rode home on my new single speed. I never bothered to put a derailleur on again.

So if anyone finds half a derailleur about 30 metres into a paddock off the A833 near Drumnadrochit – that's where I chucked it in my tantrum. The other half is 180 degrees in the opposite direction if you feel the urge to restore what is now a vintage part 🙂

The bairns towalong bike cracked my beloved barracuda(I was skint) jump frame in two one fine day.Luckily,the two of us made it back(slowly) to the car.So a 400 mm seatpost nearly all the way up(14" frame) and towalongs do not mix – you have been warned all you hardcore dads needing your biking fix,and hoping the wife won't moan too much when wee Jonnie turns up covered in what ever flew of you back wheel on that crazy descent.

Mostly common ones for me inc 2 bent hangers that I can think of. One was a rock then the next was a stick one week later.

Recently had a freehub seize such that my pedals would spin around without moving anything so had to walk.

Have had a flat pedal fall off its spindle. After getting home spindle was jammed in position which required flats being ground into it to remove.

Have ridden 3 days in a row with a BB which constantly creaked and occasionally jammed until you pedaled backwards to free it up again.

Probably the strangest was snapping a chain twice on the same ride, which were 2 of 4 in total across 3 bikes on that ride.

Worst has been the rear shock (a noleen on a proflex, yup it was years ago) snapping in two at the top of the Firmounth leaving a two hour walk back carrying the **** bike after I'd just spent all that effort getting it up there.

Had spokes snap and wheels stop going round as a result. Ironically fixed it enough to get home offroad but not on the road (x2).

Not my mechanical strictly speaking, but my responsibility. 15 miles from the nearest town in Southern Ireland, three days into a three week camping / touring holiday with the girl I later married.

She did something odd with her gears and suffered the oft mentioned rear mech / rear wheel spoke interface. She managed to flag down a passing tourist bus full of (I think) Ukranians, who got her wasted on their national drink and delivered her and her bike back to the town we'd cycled out of that morning. I had to ride back – did I mention it was p1ssing down stair-rods?

Found a bike shop but the mechanic was away buying a pig. The old lady in charge didn't have a heat gun (the mech hanger was bent in about 60 degrees) so I sat on the pavement in the torrential rain, with a massive hammer and straightened it out on the kerb-stone, whilst my girlfriend, by now completely hammered on the Ukranian firewater sat in the doorway of the shop, weeping and mumbling about how sh1t her holiday was.

The next two and a half weeks have become one of my happiest memories though, so it all ended well 🙂

Light failure in the dark. P*****g down and no back up. 2 Hour walk down a hill. Never ever again!

Dropped off the bottle bank down the playing field car park on my brothers old Rickman Freestyler BMX and snapped the head tubeaway from the down tube. Hurriedly put it back in the garage. Not sure if he ever noticed, as I don't think he rode it again.

Light failure in the dark. P*****g down and no back up. 2 Hour walk down a hill. Never ever again!

I feel for you. My new p7 light decided to start cutting out in the snow today. Luck was closer to home though..

Mine was my front latex innertube exploding of its own accord at the very very end of a ride across Anglesey. I went from near 30mph downhill with a tailwind, to sliding on my left side to a stop on sharp new north Wales tarmac. I skinned my left side from shoulder to ankle, and ended up missing a good couple of cubic inches from my elbow. I wasn't wearing a t shirt coz it was a damn hot summers day and was told that under the missing skin, my shoulder had been given the equivalent of 2nd degree burns. Long time ow.

Winter Park Colorado 1990.

Epic solo loop of local trails. After 2 hours of climbing I start to finally descend. Get a puncture. No problem so start to fix it. OK where is my pump? Had taken new bike to bike shop for a tweak on the way to the ride and they had taken the pump off and not put it back.

1 hour of pushing bike downhill then had to hitch a lift back to hostel.

Not a happy bunny.

Snapped the rear dropout off my old Kona, going round a roundabout heard a crack, back end felt odd, rode to work and had a look. Got the fitters to mig weld it back on, it worked ok.

Also jumped off a kerb forks compressed and kept on going and stayed down, had a look and the push rods had broken through the bottom of the lowers, a set of Englund equipped Judy XCs. Fixed with some washers and araldite,

<<6 mile walk to car as they were v new and shiny rims and i couldn't face riding on them>>

i did the same years ago, but just packed the tyre with vegetation – bit lumpy but saved me a walk from pontesbury to bayston hill (shrewsbury)

rim and tyre were fine – vegetation was not lol.

Not my bike but this was what the guide did on Porcupine Rim, Moab. We fioxed it with duct tape and zipties (no joke!) and he rode the remaining 3 miles or so of descent. 🙂

My worst was probably when my BB seized then sheared inside the frame resulting in very wobbly cranks for the last few miles back to the car.

The result of getting a little zesty in the upper park in Whislter this year.

Fortunately as I hit a road crossing and the wheel popped, the bike patrol was driving past and I didn't have to walk down the hill!

Going down the bumpy hill at the end of my paper round when I was 14 one side of the handlebars broke off. I wobbled a lot and almost held it but then hit one of the big potholes and binned it painfully.

1993, a big race down Dorchester way. I was top 20 out of about 300 and three quarters of the way round the first lap when one of my jockey wheels fell out on a narrow bit of course. I eventually found all bar one side plate and got going again but not before I'd dropped to nearly last. The bike (and LX rear mech) was only 6 weeks old.

I've snapped a saddle off 10 miles from home on a road commute, twice.

I've snapped a carbon crank arm about 5 miles from home in the Alps.

Turns out you can ride up Bury Hill in a 39/11 if you really really want to. Luckily it was the less steep side!

Presumably no tools to set the lower limit screw then?!

Went off a dropoff at Sherwood rather too fast – had been sprinting holding the bar ends to get the holeshot at the trail (it was an NPS XC race). Flat landed, both bar ends snapped off the carbon bars on impact, cue me going knee first into a tree. Rode the last 1/2 lap very gently – luckily as it turns out as when I got home the bars were cracked 1/2 way round by the stem clamp too…

Needless to say I don't use Maxm bars any more 🙂

GB

Had a few, most irritating probably being a ratchet ring in an acient Middleburn hub bursting through the hub body on a climb in derbyshire, leaving me with a 6 mile walk back to the car,
Snapped seatpost in SITS a couple of years ago after just starting a lap, so had to complete the lap stood up or with a tear in my eye.

I've had a few incidents over the years and many a long walk. Top of the list would be:
Many years ago having a set of rigid mtb forks collapse – on a road & fortunately only a mile from home.
Old style Sram rear mechs – snapped several of them at the composite knuckle.
Had a QR snap & fortunately got a lift home.
Snapped a brand new USE alien post on 1st ride out, had a 10 mile stand up pedal home. (The replacement USE post decided to let the head rotate freely on its 1st ride & I went straight to LBS to swap for an Easton post.
Snapped said Easton post at Nant-y-arian. Crashed as a result. Completed Continental route from Hippity Hop with saddle at least 6inches too low. Legburner certainly was that day!Last carbon post for me
Put XTR rear mech through spokes. Trashed 8 spokes, resulting in rim so tacco'd it too was rubbish. Gear hanger, rear mech, new UST wheel build & a new chain, plus taxi ride home as couldn't even push bike.

The front wheel flipped a length of broken fence wire up and the big ring grabbed it.

Boom!

Bike stopped dead and stayed stood up hung on the wire. I went over the bars and landed on my chin hands and knees.

A snapped chainstay left me with a 9 mile walk in the Black Mountains. Other than that some serious chainsuck left me with a walk home. Even splitting the chain didn't work. Luckily I'd only just set off and was just the other side of town. I take that little plastic star key thing for my HT II cranks now, just in case like.

Snapped bars going down the pentlands. Off the bike sliding past couple having a quiet picnic on their tartan rug screaming, whilst avoiding being run over by mates in close persuit!
Ripped sidewall stuffed with crisp packets and gingerly riding 10miles back on the road.
Another sidewall explosion forced a 5 mile retreat somewhere in the hills above callender.
Snapped seatpost on a motocross track
105 rear mech destroyed on a river crossing in Glen Ample, ss'd it for a bit, but kept locking the whole drivetrain up before the chain gave up and snapped
Elastomer stack from my mach 5's blew out straight into my chest on the inaugral ride on my 8spd drivetrain, bah!
Same thing happened a year later, cue searching around in leafy undegrowth for 30mins looking for missing elastomer stack.
Loaned old bike to a friend, went for a ride, lots of creaking halfway, 3/4 if the dia of the downube cracked, oops!
Oh happy days!

broken wheel

not the worst by far, but a good one captured on video. Shows the benefit of riding with a club that carry spares for every eventuality.
Fixed with toothpaste tube, steel tyre levers, duck tape, and lots of string and a few zip ties.

Not the worst, but I was actively considering pissing on my freehub this morning when it seized up. Unfortunately it was in the middle of the city so might have got some funny looks

I have snapped fair few mech hangers. one was 2-3 miles from home so i single speeded it to get it home. not something i would advise doing too many miles with.