Unnecessarily fiddly bike parts

The two bolt USE seatpost. Fitting a saddle to one of those was a bleeding nightmare.
How more than one person thought that design was ok is beyond me.

Every Time I fit a saddle to a seat post I wonder if there is a technique I'm not aware of. They are all a PITA!

Fitting a bottle cage. Especially in small frames/frames with bags/other stuff in the front triangle.

Every Time I fit a saddle to a seat post I wonder if there is a technique I’m not aware of. They are all a PITA!

Exactly my thoughts - I'm sure there must be a better engineering solution.

I’m sure there must be a better engineering solution.

I-Beam.

Fitting a bottle cage. Especially in small frames/frames with bags/other stuff in the front triangle

Yeah, "ooh, I'll use my new fancy T bar hex keys to fit this new bottle cage.......oh, too long, where's that box of shit IKEA Allen keys....."

My Specialized Command post dropper always winds me up. Why not have the cable adjusting at the lever where its nice and accessible rather than at the bottom of the post? Nice one Specialized.

Every Time I fit a saddle to a seat post I wonder if there is a technique I’m not aware of. They are all a PITA!

Most 2 bolt standard 2 piece clamp saddles
- Undo the rear bolt fully, loosen the front bolt a few turns
- Slide out lower clamp part
- Slip saddle in backwards over the top clamp so its now in the right place to tighten
- re-insert lower clamp part
- re-insert rear bolt (If you're not cack handed you can do all this without ever removing the nut from the top clamp
- Tighten.

You can also remove the old saddle by doing this in reverse.

Yeah, “ooh, I’ll use my new fancy T bar hex keys to fit this new bottle cage…….oh, too long, where’s that box of shit IKEA Allen keys…..”

‘I know, I’ll use my mini ratchet! No, wait, can only get 100* of movement…’

Why is fitting a saddle to a seatpost such a fiddly process?

My first thought when I opened this thread was "I wonder if this is some-one also wondering why attaching a saddle has to be as awkward as it is"

See also derailleur limit adjustment screws that are annoying behind the cable when you need to adjust them.

My first thought when I opened this thread was “I wonder if this is some-one also wondering why attaching a saddle has to be as awkward as it is”

Me too.

And the reason why before I had droppers all my bikes had I-Beam posts/saddles, plus they were lighter (by cost) and the later 'flex' ones very comfy.

X-lite clikon seatpost made it simple as peas to put a seat on in seconds, muc-off  should bring it back or license the clamp design  out.

Fitting a bottle cage is easier when you use just the socket bit from a torque wrench set to get the bolt most of the way in with your finger n thumb on the knurled section then nip up the last turn with an Allen key.

Two bolts are far superior IME. Less creaking, more adjustment and stronger (have snapped a single bolt type on more than one occasion and I'm no heavyweight). They can be fiddly to install some saddles but worth it overall.

I've a dropper post that requires occasional pumping up with a pressure pump. To access the valve you need to remove the saddle 🤦‍♂️

Fitting and adjusting brake pads on a cx bike with cantilever brakes is very fiddly. My son's next cx bike will be getting discs.

Thank god it's not just me, thought I must be some sort of saddle fitting moron. We need a support group!

Also feeling it with the bottle cage bolts and allen keys.

Phew, I’m not alone. Definitely my least favourite bike job.
I’m sure it’s the real reason cut out seats exist so you can put something through the hole to hold things in place.

Are you people completely undoing the two bolts or leaving them done up but only by a couple of thread?. I used to undo them completely and yes, it was usually a total PITA to reassemble, but no problems just sliding it in if the bolts are still in.

Yup, dropper posts where you had to clamp the cable with fiddly grub screws, cut and finish the cable end without using 3 hands. Insert the post, fit the lever to the bars and then find the outer cable is too long, or worse, too short.

Internal cable routing of any description, but special mention to integrated road bars, stems and forks where you have less than 5mm tolerance in the length of the hose and you have to replace the hose and re bleed if needing to change the bars, stem, add a spacer.

Later versions of Shimano front mechs - an absolute pain in the hoop - even though I’ve done hundreds. SRAM and Classified doing the world a favour by getting rid of front mechs.

Anything that needs an Allen key smaller than 2mm

yeah leave them hooked on by a thread and its much easier. Still fiddly, granted, but way better than trying to engage a thread in a moving cam that's hidden

Probably too obvious - but internal routing. Especially of a rear brake! Why?! Who decided this would be a new standard?? whoever it was I'm punching them in the gob first, the rest of you can queue behind me.

Bottle cages - I just use one of these. Best tool set I ever bought:

Cable brake levers that have the reach adjuster angled towards the bars, allowing minimal access for hex keys, and minimal amount of rotation (usually needing to be wound in fully, too). I've resorted to buying a 1/4" ratcheting spanner, and 2mm Wera hex bits (don't buy Facom ones, they snap if you even look at them the wrong way) to fit into it, just to do this one simple job.

My dropper is a pain, two bolts and  cylindrical nuts to locate. Nothing is as good as my old bike's Dura Ace 7400 series aero seat post. One bolt, then a grub screw to fine tune the angle. Nip up main bolt, then adjust with the grub screw, then tighten main bolt. Easy peasy !

Probably too obvious – but internal routing. Especially of a rear brake! Why?! Who decided this would be a new standard?? whoever it was I’m punching them in the gob first, the rest of you can queue behind me.

Seeing as my dads old race frame had internal routing for rear brake and rear mech, i'd guess they're very much dead now. Seeing as he hasn't raced since the late 60's and the frame was built in the late 50's.

He was also riding a 1x driveline. I mean it was 1x5, but still...

And seatpins, it's just practice, and (sometimes) reading the instructions.

but internal routing

You know what? I don't mind it, it was shit in the early days fo'shure, but once you get you're technique nailed, it's never really that much of a hassle than you think it'll be.

For me, bleeding brakes or dropper posts. There's nearly always something I've forgotten, or haven't tightened, or is just out of reach of my 3rd hand, or I drop something teeny...I don't think I've ever done either of those without having to walk away, have a cup of tea, and a stern word with myself

Best tool set I ever bought:

They do look useful, where did you get those from?

Unnecessarily fiddly bike parts

There's to many of these to mention them all.

Particularly worthy of mention being SRAM's mechs with the silly little wheel as cable guide. The wheel turns a bit for the first five minutes then seizes, so it just acts as a static cable guide - which then starts to wear. It is also absolutely guaranteed to fray the end of the cable when threading it through. Shimano's loop of outer cable is far simpler and a better design.

Hope freehub main seals - as far as I can tell there is zero QA on these. Some flop in easily from new - then let shite in. Some take 20 minutes to get in, then wear, then let shite in.

Any crankset that is either non preload or is preload, but uses separate threaded pieces and collars to do the preload as they don't want to get sued by Shimano.

And why does every bolt, seal, pawl etc defy the laws of physics when you drop them 30cm and they ricochet like a bullet off to the side? Invariably under a kitchen unit or into nearby gravel.

I do hate the stupid little pin to open the bar mount hinge on Shimano brakes.

Dropper post saddle mounts are like that due to the quest for low stack heights.
Reverb AXS has the best saddle mount, with a single bolt to hold the saddle on, and separate angle adjustment (which doesn’t change when you remove the saddle), but they had space to play with as the battery and electronics dictate the stack height.

Every time I fit a saddle it reminds me how much I love I-Beam. I just fitted an old I-beam post and saddle to my jump bike (only seatpost I had in that size), it’s sat in my brother’s garage covered in crap and it went on like a dream. Never creaked, light, no fiddling with nuts, bolts and rails in hard to reach places. Easy to adjust and clean as well

They do look useful, where did you get those from?

Mine were from ebay, years back. Stuck a bid in and got them for £17! I think they do still come up on ebay

i’d guess they’re very much dead now

Dammit! Their offspring then. All of them

You can get the hinged keys from bondhus and (i think) wera do a set.

You can get the hinged keys from bondhus and (i think) wera do a set.

Most of those have got 1 pivot - I've got a set and never use them. The double pivot point is essential 🙂

bendy hex keys

Like that?

Or, in stock

More bending

The two bolt USE seatpost. Fitting a saddle to one of those was a bleeding nightmare.

Agree, you can't complain about seat post until you have used an original USE Alien with two 3mm Allen bolts.  Normal two bolt seat posts don't cause any issues for me so I am putting that down to bad workmen.

jimmy748

I do hate the stupid little pin to open the bar mount hinge on Shimano brakes.

That always bugged me. Bolt removed, I want the hinge to open. Bolt inserted, hinge can't move. There isn't a third scenario where I need some pointless little failsafe

I must be the odd one out here, I've not really ever had much trouble fitting a saddle regardless of the type of clamp. I've got a couple of those USE jobs and they're fine IMO, excellent for adjustment...

Are you lot trying to fit seats to frames clamped in work-stands? That's what I normally do, but you can always just take the post out and assemble the two together on a bench before adjusting the angle when it's back on the bike. There's no shame in simplifying a job to make it more achievable...

If I really find one a bit tricky I'll just reassess my method. Single bolt are most annoying IMO but that's because they rely on notched adjustment and I always seem to want an angle not quite in line with the ones available...

The main advantage of rails is that you can vary material and/or use hollow or solid form to Ballance off cost/comfort. The fact that they had to redesign 'I-beam' again to add flex no doubt highlights the reason for it's death. It was sort of a solution to a problem nobody was really complaining about at the time and most people looked at it and figured out it was going to be super stiff...

Like that?

£45!!! Ok, well I guess I'll just put up with being annoyed for the 30 secs it takes me to screw in the hex bolt on my water bottle cage.

Dropper posts with the clamp at the seat post end requiring you to remove the lever and feed enough slack through the bike to remove the seat post.

My new one has the clamp at the lever.

TBH, internally cabled droppers are a PITA regardless of where the clamp is.

I used to be into older Landrovers before i got into cycling - there are plenty of jobs on an 80's/90's Landy which have you wondering WTF they were thinking.  Working on Landrovers is also a good way to grow your tool collection because of the mix of Metric/Imperial and other random nonsense - including needing a special thin-walled socket to remove the prop-shaft UJs, and a 2" socket for wheel bearing replacement.

I get where you're coming from with bike though - the saddle always seems to move as i tighten the bolt!

Those little Hope  pad safety pins. They drive me mental,especially trying to fit on to the front in situ.

(Holding it with a small pair of needle nosed pliers is the solution)

Shimano’s loop of outer cable is far simpler and a better design.

Agreed. But that then bugs me that the cable exits and rubs in the extremes of lower gears