Near miss/lucky escapes….

Kit related…

Recently returned from doing Vancouver to San Francisco on the tandem with SWMBO.

Whilst cleaning said beast (tandem not SWMBO), I spotted some very minor hairline cracks around a couple of the spoke holes on the rear rim. Took it in for the LBS to have a look and opted for a re rim as I have a few spares… just in case. When the spokes were removed, about a dozen of the inner eyelets dropped out of the rim. They’re stainless so not corrosion failure… Explains the cracking…

The wheelbuilder thought the freehub sound a bit off as well and found one of the 3 pawls had failed (venerable Hope Bulb). That could have been messy standing on a loaded tandem up a 25% hill…

Thus proving the value of regular maintenence and inspection, especially of highly stressed components.

mavic rims? I had a load of micro cracks around eyelets on atleast a couple of rims I had (517s iirc) never ran into trouble – I wasn’t riding a tandem tho 🙂

Don’t really ride mavic any more so dunno if it’s still an issue.

They’re stainless so not corrosion failure

Except that they’re stainless next to aluminium. Or, as some might call it “a battery” once you add a suitable solution between them. (they may still have failed in fatigue, but the corrosive environment won’t help that either)

DONK, I’ve heard about cracks on quite a few 517s. Never experienced it myself but I suspect this is down to running rim brakes at the time.

I’ve had a couple of mavics go like this, no sign of corrosion, I reckon fitting the eyelets creates stress risers or something similar.

With me it’s always some mechanical absentmindedness- forgetting to do up an axle or a bolt. I’m a pretty good spanner usually but a wee bit careless.

I’d accept galvanic corrosion if the eyelets had failed in contact with the aluminium. However, they failed where the two stainless halves are pressed into each other – stainless against stainless. As if the inner and outer eyelets have been pulled apart.

I do keep an eye on kit, both these problems occurred mid tour. Just goes to show tho, he who couldn’t give a toss could well come unstuck 🙂

With me it’s always some mechanical absentmindedness- forgetting to do up an axle or a bolt. I’m a pretty good spanner usually but a wee bit careless.

That first run down the hill after building up a bike is always a bit nervy 😀

That first run down the hill after building up a bike is always a bit nervy

That’s why I always make customers take the first test ride.

I’d accept galvanic corrosion if the eyelets had failed in contact with the aluminium. However, they failed where the two stainless halves are pressed into each other – stainless against stainless.

Hmmm!

I’ve (touch wood) never had much bother with rims despite having lots of issues with other bits of kit.

Nearest miss has to have been either the 2 stem bolts that snapped putting me in a ditch (luckily I’d decided my back was too rubbish that day to stand for long periods or I would’ve been going into town along busy roads to see CW games road race) rather than under a car/truck, or the stopping to check a bike that just didn’t feel right and finding a crack around >75% of the down tube.

With me it’s always some mechanical absentmindedness- forgetting to do up an axle or a bolt.

Sticking my bike back in the car after a fun ride, including some drops, I noticed my all the bolts on my 36 dropouts undone, I had obviously fit the wheel and screwed in the axle then gotten distracted and done the ride with none of the pinch bolts done up. 🙄

Despite claiming to keep an eye on things I have ridden with the front qr undone and on another occasion with the quill stem tightened bolt undone after a flight/YOU MUST TURN YOUR BARS situation.

The qr was on my tourer. I found this out when I lofted the front wheel over a small curb and ended up flat on my face 🙂 It could have been the mother of all Carry On takes as it was right next to a canal…

Sometime around 2003 I parked at the visitor centre carpark at the top of Sutton Bank (North Yorks Moors) for a cheeky loop with a mate on my way home.

Took bike from car boot.

Refitted front wheel.

Set off to ride down Sutton Bank (approx 1:4).

Realise about 100m down the road that I’d omitted to reconnect the front V brake.

Attempt (not very successfully) to scrub off some speed with rear brake.

Opt to take the left turn into the woods at the apex of the 1st hairpin bend and mentally prepare myself for trying to negotiate a very narrow gap to the side of the vehicle gate at considerable speed.

Discover that the telegraph pole vehicle gate that’s usually in place just inside the turnoff has been left open by some helpful forestry worker.

Eventually stop some way into the woods and refit front brakes.

I’ve been carrying out almost obsessive checking of my bikes whenever they’ve been unloaded from vehicles ever since.

Gotama – Member

That first run down the hill after building up a bike is always a bit nervy

Mine was worse than usual- down the hill, to the bike shop. Basically handed it in, said “please get rid of the scratchy bit in the seat tube, everything else is probably wrong but don’t fix it, I’ll get round to it. Also, don’t judge me”

I’ve had a few.
Prepping my FS for a BPW trip the next weekend, cracked chainstay noted. That would explain the creaking that I thought was the seatpost 😡
On same BPW trip on my HT I was looking at the rear brake trying to work out why the lever was getting closer to the bars on each run. Discovered the rear wheel wasn’t in the dropouts properly and the disc was only making contact with half of the disc pads. 😯
The most recent was I had an OTB going up a small incline which snapped the top 2″ off the steeerer on my forks. Quite glad as later the same ride there is some proper steep and fast stuuf (40mph+), so quite glad it happened where it did!
I though my rear disc brake felt odd, checked it and I’d lost 2 disc bolts, 1 had jammed just as it was just about to fall out and the remaining 3 were loose and unwinding themselves from the hub.

I forgot to flick the little lever that tightens/loosens road brake calipers so you can take the wheel out.

Hadn’t noticed until i was trying to brake down a big hill and nothing was happening. Fortunately it wasn’t a windey hill, but carefully leaning down to do up the front one whilst doing about 45mph was scary, then steady braking and stop to do the rear up as well!!

40 mile per hour down a road on my MTB. 2 min later cycling along a canal path and the headset feels loose. Stop to check, turns out the Front Axele hadn’t been done up properly

The Propel has V-brakes (unlike every other road bike I possess). And they are undone to remove the front wheel. I don’t normally take the wheels off to put the bike in the car. When it has been in someone else’s car, however…

I can confirm that the rear V-Brake is excellent. 😳 . And I have confirmed it on more than one occasion. I mean, V-brakes on a road bike.

Boblo, remember me complaining about the periodic cracking noise from my drivetrain in Idaho, we suspected the bottom bracket bearings. When I got back home I checked it all out. The BB was fine but half a pawl spring in my Hope XC hub was found mangled inside the freehub body.

I wonder what the chances are of finding a replacement pawl spring in darkest Idaho.

Twice now on extended bikepacking trips on my El Mariachi the XT quick release skewers have worked themselves loose.

This happened at some point around the middle of a summer season in Whistler.

Naturally I carried on riding it for the rest of the holiday 🙂

Didn’t get any worse, and Giant replaced it, based on just a couple of pictures, can’t say fairer than that.

Back in the early 90’s i went to fit a new quill stem to my Marin indian fire trail, i loosened off the existing stem bolts and my answer hyperlite alloy handlebar separated into two pieces, i had thought the movement i had experienced for the previous week was down to a flexy stem front plate.

That last one could have been very messy for somafunk….

McMoonter your pawl spring and my pawl… Zero chance. I’ve spares at home mind… 😉 Now you mentioned it, I’ve been getting a clicking from ‘back there somewhere’ and again thought rear BB even though it’s pretty recent. Be interesting to see (hear) if the clicking has ceased.

boblo, I suspect i caused the damage to the bars a few weeks previous as i had attempted to launch out of a bomb-hole (at stupid showing-off speed) and snapped both stanchion tubes on my Manitou 2 suspension forks when i landed – i should have taken more care to examine the bars when i refitted the original rigid forks.

Descending on my road bike down a local hill.

30+ mph all the way.

Bunny hopping over about 10 funny little speed bumps.

Got home and noticed my front QR wasn’t done up from when I washed it the day before.

Promptly shit myself when I realised what could have been!

Similar to jimbob. Many moons ago (probably 2002), bought a 2nd hand raleigh mtb (one of those special works ones, I forget the name). First ride decided to take it to Hampstead Heath. Pelted it down road on Highgate West Hill (very long, steep and fast) to get to Parliament Hill, jumping speed bumps on way down. At bottom stopped at roundabout. When clear stood on pedals to accelerate and the handlebar snapped in two in my hands. The thought of what would have happened if that had failed 30 seconds earlier still gives me the heebie jeebies to this day 😯

Showing a mate around the peaks on a longbroute including stanage salt path, bamford and dore drop. At the top of stanage, he did a wheelie and his forks fell off. The steerer cracked around the crown race. Lucky it happened before the salt path

I once nearly bought a bike with a derailleur. 🙂

Riding at Glentress on the Red route some time ago, can’t quite remember where but below spooky somewhere – went to triple a part of the trail and came up WAY short casing the last lump and hammering the front wheel. Marzocchi Z1 soaked it all up and I continued down popping off stuff and hammering until the next firebreak where I noticed the front wheel was a bit loose. When I’d cased it the impact had bent the fork brace (3 piece lowers!) and twisted it causing the Q/R to come undone.
EEEKKK!

Years ago on a descent, the steering suddenly felt unresponsive, and then the front brake didn’t work either. Expecting a painful faceplant, I went into a bush, OTB, and rolled onto my feet without a scratch. Front QR had come undone.

That first run down the hill after building up a bike is always a bit nervy

Yes I did think this halfway down my first FoD downhill section the other day; I should have probably done a bit more slow speed testing on my recently fitted and bled brakes with new rotors….!

Oh well they seemed to work…!

Thing is only 1 pawl ever engages! But they obviouslY do fail.

But I fail to see how the eyelet separation really causes an issue, its still doing its job.

Not all stainless is created equal

I’ve had many; but the one that makes me think ‘what would have happened if?’…was a couple of years ago I was warming up before I was about to enter a cyclo cross race riding along the road when the steering suddenly went very stiff. I thought the headset had jammed at first. Untightened and re-tightened everything but still the steering wouldn’t budge. I then slammed the front wheel on the floor to see if something else was loose and the fork (a Planet X number)snapped in two at the bridge of of the crown and steerer column. 😯