[Closed] Worst mechanical you've ever had?

Snapped frame i guess, tried filling it with grass and bracken to hold it together like they did in mbuk (with innertubes) but it didnt work

Not serious per se, but the repercussions were annoying...

I had an STI lever fail on my road bike, dropping me into the 11t sprocket on Christmas eve 2007, at about 6 o clock, while I was 35 miles from home on the wrong side of the South Downs. 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!

Never been stranded too far from home – yet. My left hand crank arm fell off on a commute a couple of weeks ago, a bit odd as it’s been on there for 11 months. Fell off coming across the moor in the pitch black, luckily the bolt didn’t go too far or I could have had an 8 mile walk home. Had a puncture and resultant inner tube issue that has meant a 2 mile walk/scoot in the pishing rain.

Split the rim on a bike with v brakes but my wife picked me up fater that one.

QR exploded on a mates front wheel when he was riding home from work – lost all the bits and had to walk about 10 miles.

Does being hit by a car count? I didn't finish the ride 🙂

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eggbeater pedal falling off spindle.

was able to limp home as the body stayed in my shoe and I could slide it onto the spindle and pedal gently.

still have a scar on my calf from the spindle end when it first came off.

None, just a snapped frame & long walk.
The thing with mechanicals is that I tend to know when somethings going, and I prefer to replace before it's too late.

Edit; An SPD once fell apart.

Second time I did Paris-Roubaix sportif someone road into the back of my bike and put the mech into the rear wheel. I walked to the end of the Pave section, borrowed a hammer to straighten the gear hanger and singlespeeded the bike. 53x17 or something similar. Then road the remaining 100miles and pave or so in a single gear and ended up about 5mins behind my mates.

An old X7 mech decided to wrap itself around my cogs when a stick went through the spokes. It was right at the top of the first climb on a Moel Famau epic. I stopped before the whole thing ripped off at the bolt. Amazingly we managed to bend it back into place and it survived the downhill back to the carpark.
Arsed up what should have been an all day-er. The other brave souls carried on without me.

Pulled the axle forward in the track end on the drive side of my track bike. I was about to enter the far banking at the Manc velodrome at the time, up on the blue line. The wheel jammed against the NDS chainstay, which locked it up, and stopped me feet turning in the process. I pointed it down the banking MTB-style, and managed to hold it until I got down t the concrete where I hopped off.

Big black tyre mark on the track. Big brown skid mark in my shorts.

@ tonyg2003 That would have made me mildly annoyed, probably to extent of cursing under my breath somewhat.

Snapped a few frames etc which are obviously serious, but i think my most annoying was having a sudden drop in temperature in the peaks and all the wet snow / slush on my bike turning to ice and freezing up absolutly everything including front mech, rear mech and freewheel.

Bolt came out of smallest chainring and wedged itself against the bottom bracket, the only way I could free it off was to remove the chainset......Guess what, no chainring removal tools......15 miles from home.......one Pi**ed off Mrs came and collected me from the pub!!!

I had a stick in the back wheel of my then 2 week old 853 Inbred. I was going at walking pace and the wheel did 1/2 a turn before I stopped.

Damage -
Knackered X9 mech
Bent chain, several links
And this -

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The hanger bent outwards, opening up the dropout and so far inwards it locked the cassette, so I coundn't even SS it. (On the left hand pic you can just see the silver gougw caused by the cassette on the inside of the hanger) 4 mile walk back.
I bent that straight again, filed off the burrs and sprayed it black.

Then sometime later to the same bike -

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Chiainsuck killed the chainstay. So I got Argos to put a new one in and had it resprayed.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I bent the hanger again, towing a trailer offroad. Not so bad this time! Bent it back AGAIN!

It's fair to say that frame has seen some action!

It's also fair to say, it's a keeper. I love it. 🙂

Well that won't get sold here secondhand!

ripped off the rear mech hanger earlier this year had to walk 10 miles home ...didn,t get in untill 1.30 am what a night ride that wasn,t.

6 punctures on one 18 mile ride. Fortunately exactly the number of puncture patches I had with me.

Oh and a snapped frame while just riding along at Strathpuffer.

Joe

Well that won't get sold here secondhand!

LOL! Fair comment, but it's had it's 15 mins of fame, so most people know that frame on here anyway. And it's been properly repaired. The hanger is fine..... 🙂 Not for sale anyway.....

The offending trailer, on the day in question! Trailer full of mince pies and mulled wine! 🙂

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Chain link started opening, somehow the derailler and hanger got bent around into the spokes:

Chain snapped
Derailler cage bent
Hanger snapped
Spokes broken
Walk home

🙁

When my frame snapped I just thought the bars had moved. Wasn't until I got off and looked at my bike and realised I had a 71 degree head angle, only 71 degrees the wrong way. A bit like a halfords built bike looks!

oldgit - I didn't mention. I was slowing down to avoid someone who had gone down when their stem snapped in half. PR is carnage at times!

Yep I was mildly annoyed.

chain snapped and rear mech went into spokes:

bent mech hanger (steel frame)
bent dropout
Collapsed freehub
bent chainring
snapped chain (obviously)
twisted rear mech
and a cassette that, although I could never quite pin point the issue with, never worked quite right afterwards.

That was my first, and last, SRAM chain

I think I was having issues with my 853 at the same time, all logic was saying it can't be the frame, but it was that flippin tight clearance at the chainstay that or the colour.

tonyg2003
Always next year though 😀 🙁 😡 👿

I think I was having issues with my 853 at the same time, all logic was saying it can't be the frame, but it was that flippin tight clearance at the chainstay that or the colour.

It's the clearance, no doubt about it. The slightest chainsuck caused HUGE problems. I used to replace middle rings a lot too...

The new stay is a different shape at my request: Straighter! No more chainsuck since. None at all even on really worn rings. 🙂

oldgit. Didn't stop me. I've done it twice more. All 275km. Strangely addictive.

That's good news.
BTW that camouflage doesn't work.

PeterPoddy - my inbred (vert dropout) cracked in exactly the same place - it hasnt gone all the way through - about 5mm left - is it worth repairing? What is approx cost?

PeterPoddy - my inbred (vert dropout) cracked in exactly the same place - it hasnt gone all the way through - about 5mm left - is it worth repairing? What is approx cost?

I'll not lie, it's not cheap.
Mine was all done to the highest standard at Argos cycles in Bristol
New stay, £70. Paint, £120. Transfers (Under the laquer) £20......

Never had a truly calamitous mechanical, touch wood.

Completely seized a rear hub once in the Pentlands, wrecking it (how the **** do you do that?). It was only a mile walk and a phonecall to the missus, though.

My very first ride with UST was a disaster - at Glentress with a pair of Hutch scorpions IIRC. The bead wasn't seated right and once on the trail kept slowly losing air. Super tight to get the tyre off, so ended up pinching both spare inner tubes in a cack-handed attempt at fix the problem. Was new to Scotland at the time, so didn't know Glentress at all. Took me about 2 hrs to get back to the car from the bottom of Deliverance because I didn't know the way.

That was in 2002, and I've not had a single problem with tubeless since. Guess I got them all out of the way in a oner - quick way of learning that sealant is a good idea.

My square taper cranks decided that the wear and tear of many miles and the falling of the crank would be justified 15 miles home which did not impress my mate.

The worst I'v had so far is ripping a rear mech off and having to single speed the bike for the remainder of the ride

does a femoral neck fracture count as 'mechanical'?

Riding London to Brighton a few years back and my rear wheel had some exceedingly loose spokes that I'd noticed the night before. Did nothing about it and throughout the ride coudl hear various pinging noises, which were spokes releasing themselves from their nipples. Bent and tucked the now free spokes back into the wheel thinking I can make it...

Anyway, bottom of Ditchling Beacon, another spoke goes, catches the rear mech and pulls the whole lot including the mech hanger into the rear wheel. Cue major wheel explosion and lots of swearing from me.

Stood there for about 3 hours waiting for apickup to take me to Brighton. Eternal thanks to the house that I was stranded in front of for giving me tea and biscuits and to my riding buddies who welcomed me with a cold beer when I finally made it to Brighton!

Gibbon snapped his st4 on the Transrockies with more than 50k to go, still finished the stage though.

Was within sight of home after aprox 25k ride stick caught in xo mech snapped cage and ripped out top jockey wheel also bent mech hanger. Walked home to unsympathetic wife who couldn't believe price of a new mech!

Probably the worst is the time I sharted 5 miles from home. I will spare you the details...

On skyline descent at afan on my vp free, went slightly wide on a turn going a bit too fast, hit a tree stump, would normally have been okay with 7" of suspension, however it snapped the steerer of my triple clamp manitou shermans off at the stem, large stack with bike bouncing down hillside followed.

Pretty much a total write off. Was very very unhappy until I found out my insurance covered me.

Paid for my shiny nomad.

Snapped 2 bmx frames when i was younger a diamond back and a huffy (did'nt notice the huffy was snapped for a few days just thought it was handling a bit odd). Also snapped bmx forks inside the steerer and severely bent some redline bmx forks and destroyed an acs z rim.
On a mtb I hit a little terrier dog at 30mph ish on the road and bent the forks quite badly, but apparently did a great superman impression.

Broke a front wheel when I was about 14 and broke my hand in 2 places, and disclocated the other wrist... But I'm not sure that counts as a mechanical, and more a moronical.

Most annoying one was having a jockey wheel wheel fall out about 2 jumps into Spooky Woods- couldn't fail in the damn car park, could it? Or perhaps 1/10th of the way up the climb? No, has to work perfectly all the way to the top then instantly fail completely for the descent. Tried to bodge it with a stick but it wore through, tried to singlespeed it but it kept shifting up and jamming, so eventually rode it down with no chain. Which was actually pretty fun, in a weird "Won't do that again" way.

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 ****ing 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!

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. 🙂

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.