[Closed] When home bike maintenance goes properly wrong

When making a low speed, tight right turn on my road bike, I managed to fall off. It turned out that I'd cut the brake housing along the bars too short, so when you turn to the right, the back brake locks on. D'oh!

Great thread.

🙂

I didn't get on with the Epic bleed kit for my 785's and ended up with fluid pissing out all over the place from under the top cap. Gone back to the old yellow funnel now.

My crowning moment of glory was a long time ago...my first foray into disc brakes involved a second hand pair of early Magura Louise's which turned up from eBay with slightly rusty rotors. Whilst cleaning them up I decided that a good squirt of WD40 would have the rotors as good as new and rust free in no time...

richmtb - Member

Managed to use the bearing press kit for a Blur frame the wrong way round. So after the bearing was pressed in the tool was basically trapped in the frame between the bearings I'd just pressed in.

This one will only make sense to people who've used XTR M970 cranks... Got the crank tool, failed to apply any thought to it, decided that rather than being basically a self-extracting bolt with a bit missing (simple) it was actually an extracting tool. Remove the centre bolt, tightened the tool into the cranks, which basically just bottomed it out into the crank. Crank obviously didn't come out. This needs MOAR POWAH! So I ground flats onto the tool, and turned it with a big spanner, til it was immovably stuck. Ended up putting the crank arm in the vice (bike and all) and fitted a scaffold tube to the spanner in order to remove it- bike maintenance shouldn't really need a 5 foot lever.

Easier to understand- decided to polish out a scratch on the motorbike. Reached for the tin of sprayable polishing compound. Accidentally picked up a tin of black hammerite, sprayed it onto the bodywork

Back in the day, when the threaded headset was king, who didn't enjoy that lightly indexed feeling of overtightened top cups... I certainly did.

Recently though, I seem to be in the habit of taking bits off, then losing them... ?

I changed the headset bearings in my Honda BlackBird. Fork legs out, yokes off, head bearings out and all back together. It was only when I braked for a corner on a spirited test run that I remembered I hadn't done the yoke bolts up. Legs of the forks shot straight through the yokes, smashing the sump into the ground followed by the rest of the bike.

There's nothing quite like watching the dash of your bike coming towards you at a rate of knots to remind you why you pay people to fix things...

Oh there's loads...

Epic no 1:

First time doing a lower leg service on my forks. Instead of filling the lower legs with 10ml of 15wt fluid, I put roughly 100ml in each leg. It took me a while to figure out why my fork was spiking so badly.

Epic no 2:

I managed to overtighten the headset bearings on my brand new Hope headset to try to cure an ever-present creak. The retaining cages on the bearings have sheared, but I simply packed with grease and refitted. The bearings are still in use and smooth, four years on. The source of the creak? My Pike forks had a steer steerer and my stem of course was made of alloy...cured with a dab of grease.

Epic no 3:

Trying to straighten the mech hanger on my Enduro. Only one hanger bolt loop remains on the frame. Whoops.

Epic no 4:

While attempting to loosen my X-Type cranks, I opted not to use a mallet and hit the allen key with my hand instead. The sudden slippage impaled my knuckles on the chainring, whereupon I now have an inch long scar.

Epic no 5:

Whilst test driving my VW Polo after replacing the spark plugs, I remembered that I'd shut the socket spanner and extension pipe under the bonnet instead of putting it away. The spanner fell off the top of the engine, lodged into the ground and left a 3" round dent in the underside of the car, which also lifted it momentarily off the ground. The spanner was absolutely fine, unlike my car.

This is one of the reasons I have such a good relationship with my LBS.

I've done under tightening resulting in interesting over the bars moments; over tightening resulting in broken clamps, sheered bolts and crushed bearings and have now learned that attaching a bottle cage is about the extent of my capabilities. Although having said that, I seem to remember detaching a bottle boss rivet while tightening a reluctant bolt once too.

Trying to straighten the mech hanger on my Enduro. Only one hanger bolt loop remains on the frame. Whoops.

I think this is my favourite so far.

So horrifc, but I can easily imagine doing it myself.

I've (briefly!) done the bleeding the correct lever but the wrong caliper thing before. I'm hopeless at routing outer cables / brake hoses, and have been known to rejoin chains different sides of the chainstay 😐

Most recently was a fork service, replaced the damping oil (I JUST had enough left), next up - oil in the lowers, flip the forks ... oh ... it'd help if I'd actually put the damper unit back in, wouldn't it?

PJM #5 is my favourite so far.

I'm pretty good tbh, there's not much I can't fix but I still have my moments. Changing the drums on the rear of my Focus, and halfway through I took a break. Came back out and decided to move the car, jumped in, started it, realised [i]just [/i]as I let the clutch out that it had no back wheels and was on axle stands. It teetered around for ages like a massive rusty weeble

I tightened, instead of loosened a freewheel, with the wheel in a vice and using an extension bar. After various mates broke and bent chain tugs and scanners, I ended up borrowing a well known harbour side bike workshop's facilities, 4 people and 2 scaffolding poles, it creaked really alarmingly then there was a stomach churning crack and the freewheel was loose......

neilsonwheels - Member

Brand new chainset and I didn't do the pedal up properly and completely stripped the thread when I stamped on it.

Could have done a proper repair with helicoil insert.
Apparently makes for an even stronger thread.

Shortening a fox 32 float fork. Removed the air spring retaining clip without releasing the air from the spring...cue the spring fired at high speed, embedding 7cm into the ceiling, missing my eye by 2cm and spraying oil all over the newly painted ceiling. I hate painting.

richmtb - Member

Managed to use the bearing press kit for a Blur frame the wrong way round. So after the bearing was pressed in the tool was basically trapped in the frame between the bearings I'd just pressed in.

Had to hacksaw through the the bolt to get the tool out

That made me laugh a lot

brand new Cotic Soul frame, after midnight trying to get the bike ready for a ride the next day. putting an old BB in, I spent about 30 minutes just trying to get the thread to bite. when it finally did it just got tighter as I screwed it in so I just went with it... probably crossed the threads. that was a couple of years ago and the BB needs changing. I daren't unscrew it incase I've knackered the BB threads. 😥

Stripped caliper thread on KTM after torque wrench didn't click.

Let motorbike go onto it's sidestand, only I hadn't put side stand down.

Tiding shed and thought I could get a bit more junk onto the top shelf and watched metal junk on the other end of the shelf topple onto my brand new GSXR1000......

Tried getting a tubeless Bonty tyre to fit and seal properly on a Crank Bros rim, inflated tyre to 80 PSI and left it in the sun whilst I started bleeding the brakes on the bike. Got to engrossed in the brakes and 30 minutes later the tyre detonated behind me causing the dog to nearly shit himself in the house and the shock caused the rear spindle and freehub in the wheel to pop out into the grass.

It took me a while to calm down as well!

Cross threaded the bottom bracket on my carbon frame

Rounded torx brake disc bolt, tried to make a straight cut unto it with a dremal to 'make' a flat-head screw, didn't work, I ended up cutting off the rest of the bolt head (and parts of the disc, oops) removed the disc and used pliers to undo the left over thread which came out easily with no pressure on it, thankfully.

My fave so far!

Tried getting a tubeless Bonty tyre to fit and seal properly on a Crank Bros rim, inflated tyre to 80 PSI and left it in the sun whilst I started bleeding the brakes on the bike. Got to engrossed in the brakes and 30 minutes later the tyre detonated behind me causing the dog to nearly shit himself in the house and the shock caused the rear spindle and freehub in the wheel to pop out into the grass. It took me a while to calm down as well!

I had probs getting a maxxis to mount on my bonty rim in my first attempts at tlr and took it to my local tyre fitters who let me blow it up on their air line. Obviously thinking about it now how stupid I was that the scrader adapter on the presta valve doesn't relay the pressure back to his line so I told him to bang in 60 (stans fluid already in) and BANG! straight off the rim it went and stans fluid everywhere...... Oooops.

acjim and muckytee, look at it on the bright side imagine if the brakes were avids or hope you would've had that nasty dot oil all over instead!

I managed to strip pivot bolt tapered allen head on stumpjumper fsr and had to dremel cross section in it then used a large flat blade screwdriver to get it out.

brand new Cotic Soul frame, after midnight trying to get the bike ready for a ride the next day. putting an old BB in, I spent about 30 minutes just trying to get the thread to bite. when it finally did it just got tighter as I screwed it in so I just went with it... probably crossed the threads. that was a couple of years ago and the BB needs changing. I daren't unscrew it incase I've knackered the BB threads.

Did this with a 456 frame and my trusty raceface taperlock. Luckily the taperlock cups were made of aluminum so although knackered the frame was fine and i was only £15 down on a new BB.

Brilliant thread!

Once mounted a DHX shock upside down, went out riding and hear a big bang as the shock reservoir smashes against the frame. Somehow no damage done!

Rounded a rotor bolt so drilled it out. Realised this was a much quicker method than trying to undo the others so drilled the other 5 out!

Not an incredibly incompetent one - I overtightened the spokes a bit (these hubs are notorious for having weak flanges which don't take high spoke tension).

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...though I might be winning the most expensive mistake with that one - a replacement for that hub is >£1000

yep I'll add in new (second hand) heckler frame and BB crossed it, missus took it up the the LBS in the morning for a fix.

Also headset tightening mid train without slackening off the stem enough...

I too have done exactly the same as the OP.

Brand New XT caliper, shattered the piston whilst bleeding after shortening the hose.

Warranty replacement 😀

XTR Cranks are a PITA too!! That removal tool is handy though!

I fitted a lightweight front wheel to my time trial bike , the QR isn't made to automatically stop at any position so I cycled for about 1 second then realised the QR lever had fouled the spokes breaking one . The wheel was unrepairable and replacement cost was £1000+ I think . Fortunately it wasn't my wheel and the person who owned it was sufficiently wealthy to not be unduly bothered .

Things I've learnt about doing my own work:

Bike fixing job duration is inversely proportional to the available time.

Only put things down in predesignated lay down areas (usually the lid of a quality street tin)

At the end of a ride at CyB I noticed a couple of lads struggling with a broken chain. Being the good Samaritan I asked if they needed any help. They were packing up having not even ridden because they didn't have a powerlink. No problem says I, I can join the chain for you anyway... take chain, works magic and rejoins it. Hands joined chain back to confused lad who looked at the chain and then at the bike.

Lots of laughter from biking chums who were watching on.

nothing overly major...
managed to crack the flange on a ringle hub years ago simply by lowering the bike down off the joist it was hanging on and bouncing the front wheel on the floor
i've rounded off plenty of disc rotor bolts but have always managed to get them off eventually
snapped the bolt on a hope head doctor
stripped the thread on for one of the pinch bolts on my 20mm axle fork
stripped thread on the cranks a couple of times but there's still enough thread to remove it
screwed up a home paint job on a frame once, the paint started to fun so i tried to remedy it with some rubbing compound which made a mess of it all. ended up having to strip all the paint off and start again. when i finished it though it looked pretty good, even with the homemade decals!!

Obviously i've done the usual thing of rounding off shimanos cheddar bolts and assembling the uppers and lowers of your forks backwards but it's the brake fluid on the ceiling that takes the prize for me:

Reservoir caps off and injecting new fluid in the calliper then... ****

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bleeding a friends's Shimano's, did not put a block between the pistons, kept pumping to bleed and of course the pistons shot out, needeless to say oil all over the floor.... manged to sort it all out in the end!

1st time building a bike bought a set of 2nd hand raceface cranks, didn't realise it needed the crank bolt, was hammering away at the arm trying to get it fit... checked, rec-checked you tube, instructions, finally dawned on d-uh me that I needed a crank bolt... !! 😳

Again, too many to mention.

One thing that always strikes me as poor is when a manufacturer produces a lovely product but then uses bolts that seem to have boltheads made of lead. Hayes brakes were the worst - ended up having to hacksaw a screwdiver slot into one and replacing it with a bottle cage bolt after the little sod had rounded at the sight of an allen key.

My favourite 'spiralling out of control' sequence was going to replace a broken spoke in the rear wheel to find that the cassette has chewed into the freehub body and wouldn't come off. Eventually the freehub body, cassette and all came off - to reveal that the pawl springs were broken as well. It was only a bloody spoke - ended up having to replace a freehub as well!

Over 20 years ago I had a VW Scirocco and decided to change the oil in the gearbox.

Drained oil out and refitted the gearbox sump plug.

All I had to do now was put the new oil in which did but straight into the clutch inspection hole! It was only when I saw oil running onto the drive that I realised something was wrong.

Cost me a new clutch which back then was over £200!!

richmtb - Member

Managed to use the bearing press kit for a Blur frame the wrong way round. So after the bearing was pressed in the tool was basically trapped in the frame between the bearings I'd just pressed in.

Had to hacksaw through the the bolt to get the tool out

Pushed too many pistons out of the caliper during bleeding to remember..
Fortunately with magura they pop straight back in with no ill effect.
cleaning the fluid up off my shoes or the garage floor is more annoying..

Calliper rebuild on my Avids. Pumping the pistons out using a track pump... the piston shoots out of the calliper hitting me in my head [i]just [/i]above my eye, a bit too close that. 😕

Had a bespoke frame built, but the seat post only went in 2 inches. Rather than return to the builder I borrowed a reamer from the machine shop at work. I didn't get the thing vertical and made one side of the seat tube as thin as tin foil. That was 20 years ago and I still wince at the thought.

Decided to change my headset on my bike the day before I was going to the Alps as stripping it down saw the headset in it was rusty inside. Removed it no problems, nice sunny afternoon, on the driveway. What could go wrong?

Got my trusty old parts bin bike out and went to remove the Hope headset in it. Hitting down with the headset removal tool took the bottom cup out nicely, hitting up was another matter as the cup and bearing went flying.

I searched everywhere for them and eventually found the cup in the bushed next door but no bearing after about an hour of frustrated searching.

With not much time to spare a new headset was sorted and fitted.

The bearing was found the next Christmas, in the gutter on the garage roof!

Satisfying wheel build on the kitchen table with my new Wheelpro book that advised I should put a drop of oil on each nipple.

Followed the instructions, built wheel, trued it and have it a spin in the jig feeling rather pleased with my accomplishment

Line of motor oil up the kitchen wall and right across the ceiling! Nice..

Great thread, putting a smile on my face after a tough day 🙂

I came home from work one day, and my neighbour popped over to say he just bought a new compressor.

'Great! I need to pop on a ghetto tubeless tyre on my spare wheels'.

I was confident the tyre would go up first time, so popped in 100ml of lovely white Stan's sealant, attached the compressor and away I went.

Got to about 50psi, and the compressor wouldn't switch off; it just kept going and then....... BANG!

Latex went everywhere, and I had not changed out of my new work shirt and trousers.

To this day, I can only wear that shirt with a tank top as it looks like I took part in some dodgy car park session after dark.

Another friend on here .

Had a land rover - like mine

Wanted to change oil only had no filter spanner - next best thing - stab it with a screw driver ......

Stabbed it wouldnt turn - they were notorious for siezing to the casting.

- iill drive it to the garage ------ no prizes for guessing how quick the sump emptied with a direct path .... May be wrong but i think the oil goes through the filter at 70 psi....

Think he got a short distance before engine siezed.