• This topic has 90 replies, 68 voices, and was last updated 12 years ago by bonj.
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  • the worst bike maintenance jobs
  • simonm
    Free Member

    sothis job ended in my shoes being thrown across the garage in a proper spit the dummy fit……removing old cleats….any jobs on the bike worse than that ?

    simonm
    Free Member

    o,bleeding avid brakes and removing old pedals….

    benslow
    Free Member

    Scraping doggie poop from tyres, downtube and fork bridge after most rides this summer.

    Never had it so bad – maybe lack of rain to wash dissolve them is to blame …………

    Filthy.

    Simon
    Full Member

    Simon, when the cleats are worn, chuck the shoes and get some new ones. Problem solved. 😉

    russjp
    Free Member

    Fixing knackerd postie’s bikes every morning, bores the hell out of me

    thetabber
    Free Member

    agree with the doggie poop, scrapping it off the wheels with baby wipes and an old toothbrush before taking it to the bike shop on Monday was not a good start to the week.

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    Replacing and setting up the front mech. Im pretty good at it, but its STILL a PITA.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    Pre sale setup of BSO’s during Christmas week.

    rob-jackson
    Free Member

    bso?

    Simon
    Full Member

    Bike Shaped Object

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    Bicycle shaped object. The cheap things sold in box shifting sports stores and supermarkets that from a distance look like a bike.

    IamSam
    Free Member

    Setting up the new cleats, for some reason always takes me weeks to get it right. That and anything to do with chainring bolts hate them with a passion, whats wrong with glue?

    Daft bloody things 🙂 what use are they anyway.

    tang
    Free Member

    Dog poo, winter sludge in the cassette, front mechs are boring, avids pita but few years with shimano sorted that one. Getting cleats right in new shoes.

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Cleaning. Especially weeks worth of road grime, that horrible black filth that gets everywhere.
    Working on clean bikes is fine, there’s not much that I think “oh no I have to fix…” but actually getting round to properly cleaning the commuter bike… Ugh.

    nuke
    Full Member

    Servicing forks is pretty bad…so much potentially for messing up (scratching surfaces, dirt in internals, losing little clips/screws/etc) combined with the fact that no matter how careful, oil will get spilt.

    …I maybe just be saying this though as I’ve spent this afternoon servicing my Revs including ‘forgetting’ that I’d removed the MOCO unit before turning the forks upside down dumping 100ml+ of fork oil on the dining room floor. 😳

    crikey
    Free Member

    New cleats; just draw round the old ones…

    simonm
    Free Member

    arghh, this should be #1-Anything with Torx bolts

    motivforz
    Free Member

    Cleaning dissected slug out of a cassette between teeth. *gags*

    Coyote
    Free Member

    Bleeding brakes. Hateful job.

    jools182
    Free Member

    I suggest single malt and online shopping for new bike shoes

    couldashouldawoulda
    Free Member

    .removing old cleats….any jobs on the bike worse than that ?

    Smug response – sorry. Have you ever heard of Copaslip / Copper grease? When you get em out – grease em before you reinstall. A bit late now I know.

    My worse job is the winter daily / weekly cleaning of oily grit from the chain / drivetrain. Does my head in.

    tazzymtb
    Full Member

    You are sooooo wrong!

    I love working/fettling/building bikes it’s all good. it’s so much fun I even do other peoples for beer and cakes. ( the tricksier the problem, the happier I am)

    peachos
    Free Member

    chainring bolts def. always end up with big gashes in my fingers.

    rickmeister
    Full Member

    I dont think bike fettling is a chore but standing in a pool of semi frozen gloop for 24 hours at the Puffer takes the edge off things…

    And crispy dog egg debris removal, very gag worthy… especially in the workings of front mechs

    Militant_biker
    Full Member

    I hate doing cup and cone bearings. I hate them so much I refuse to buy hubs that use them. Much rather press in new cartridges than faff about with locknuts and cones and 👿

    Mainly because I suck at doing them mind.

    simonm
    Free Member

    I suggest single malt and online shopping for new bike shoes

    what a nice idea ! tonight I’ve opted for Red wine, Pringles, Beverly Hills cope while convincing myself I really need those £250 Rebas from onone.

    Will take the Dremel to the cleats tomorrow.

    bob_summers
    Full Member

    Alu seatpost stuck in steel frame.

    Frayed cable ends… any job is made worse when a strand of cable goes up between one’s finger and nail.

    simonm
    Free Member

    also, pulling crappy Presta compressor adapter off valve and scraping knuckles on discs every time.

    ahwiles
    Free Member

    …I hate doing cup and cone bearings…

    possibly my favourite bike job!

    i hate headsets though…

    getonyourbike
    Free Member

    Front mechs, Formula brake bleeding, dog poo and removing pedals.

    SprocketJockey
    Free Member

    Swapping chainrings…. never fail to bark my knuckles removing the old ones. Oh and trying to get the more gnarly type tyres off the rims.

    _tom_
    Free Member

    Taking apart and packing up the bike ready to be flown home – doing this now 🙁

    Gary_C
    Full Member

    If you use wankbrothers meatbeater pedals with their ‘made of cheese’ cleats, the cleat bolts will never get stuck in your shoes as you’ll be changing the cleats for new ones every 2 months or so.

    👿

    radtothepowerofsik
    Free Member

    All of it. When I’m as rich as Darcy I’ll have a man do all of mine

    radtothepowerofsik
    Free Member

    Taking apart and packing up the bike ready to be flown home – doing this now

    Didn’t find a job then? Wounder, sorry to hear that

    Klunk
    Free Member

    don’t think any bike maintenance job is bad, compared to cars they are an absolute delight to work on.

    martinxyz
    Free Member

    The new shimano 15mm bolt through front hubs.Not hard but a pain in the hoop compared to uncaged bearings when all you want to do is give it a quick clean out and regrease.. its just more time consuming.

    _tom_
    Free Member

    Didn’t find a job then? Wounder, sorry to hear that

    ‘fraid not, but to be honest with the bike park now closed Whistler is kind of boring especially when it’s raining all the time now it’s autumn. The non-bike park trails are ok but not really my kind of riding (not on a DH bike anyway) apart from a couple of north shore type trails which are really fun. Would’ve been nice to go back to Vancouver for a while but I’ve ran out of money haha

    Waderider
    Free Member

    Speaking as a cycle mechanic, the worst job is working on a bike that is so badly engineered that all the skills in the world won’t get it to a satisfactory condition. As mentioned above then – working on bike shaped objects.

    As an after thought, working on bikes that’ll never be used, or bikes owned by a-holes is pretty demoralizing also. Conversely working on bike belonging to customers who buy me doughnuts etc, is one of lifes pleasures.

    Personally and maybe irrationally – I hate bolting the back wheels into singlespeeds/fixies/bmx’s and the axle shifts in the dropouts as you torque the bolts. That rips my knitting. All bikes should have tugs, or what I call Ritchey style dropouts and eccentric BB’s. It’s the law round here (in my microcosm).

    Jujuuk68
    Free Member

    Trying to centre and get effective, my Dia Compe 890’s on my vintage BMX’s.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 91 total)

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