Yesterday I did a bit of work on a bike I haven’t used for a few years so that I can sell it.

I heard a rattling in the bars so I took the end caps off and out fell 3 or 4 almost perfectly round balls. Initially I thought they were ball bearings but they appeared to be mud.

I had end caps in both ends of the bars but the only explanation I can think of is that I must have lost one at some point, got some mud in there and the constant jostling around in a round bar made it into round balls. Any other ideas? Or anyone else had the same?

First photo shows them crushed, the white bits are quartz or suchlike.

Old secret Malteaser stash, or you have a pet dung beetle?

Old secret Malteaser stash, or you have a pet dung beetle?

Funnily enough, both those things occurred to me!

We dumped a few 1/4″ bearings in a mate’s handlebars when his bike was in for a service. He was so fussy about his bike that we were convinced he’d be back in minutes, but he rode it for weeks, and we removed them without him ever noticing. Very disappointing.