after building up about 15 bikes and whilst having a conversation about how stupid you would have to be to cut a fork steerer too short… cut a fork steerer too short by about 3 inches
Do you think carbon fork manufacturers factor Alex’s dilemma into their annual profit forecasts. I say yes.
Long ago I had a stuck bb on some steel road frame, didnt have the right tools but my father had an arc welder. So i welded a piece of steel bar to the bb and proceeded to use that to get the bb out. then had to paint the frame as it burnt the hell out of the surrounding area:(
I tried to install the bb the wrong way round on my Brother. I knew bb cups were meant to go in without much resistance but I impatiently ignored that fact for long enough to get one cup all the way in on the wrong side and the other cup halfway in. It was only when my pin spanner broke that I realised I’d completed fucked up.
Nick at Saint Cloud saved the situation and even managed not to laugh at me.
I once bought new cranks for my bmx. They came in the mail and I wanted to ride that night, so I rushed to get them installed. The crank arm was already on the spindle, so I got the crank extractor that came with the set and started winding it up. The arm wasn’t coming off the spindle, so I just put a bit more muscle into it and eventually realised it wasn’t an extractor, it was a tool to push the arm ON to the spindle! I tried everything to reverse my work, but nothing could get the crank arm off the spindle.
I ended up just buying another set of cranks and didn’t mention it to anyone else.
When I went back to my Mum and Dad’s I got my Dad to use his magic to get the arm off the spindle, which left half the spindle splines in the crank arm. Wasted set of cranks.
I cracked a very expensive 3t ltd post by over tightening
I was using a torque wrench but it must have not engaged at 4nm properly then just kept tightening, I thought it was odd but kept going and then a little crack,
Lesson learnt, if I think it’s over tightening I stop reset the torque and check it hasn’t clicked yet.
luckily this was a fork from a 61cm frame, just swapped it with the uncut fork from a 49 that i was building up straight after and was also the only remaining uncut fork… should have bought a powerball ticket
Back in the 5/6 speed days I had a wheel rebuilt at a prominent LBS (that shall remain nameless). When I got it back I couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t go in my frame right…it was dished the wrong way (NDS spokes in DS and vice versa).
[almost pro skate mechanic]
You know how the ends of your truck threads get wrecked? I used to just hammer the nut on until it got past the burred/stripped thread and then casually wound it up tight. Fuck knows how many times I got away with that.
I once screwed the Left Pedal into the Right Crank and the Right Pedal into the Left Crank.
I couldn’t work out why they were tough to screw in and weren’t sitting straight.
Threaded the crank arms ha.
I’ve taken the cranks off for some reason, chucked them back on quickly so I could go for a ride and somehow managed to have one crank not sitting opposite the other and I didn’t realise until I tried to clip in.
I was once took a crank bolt of to use on another bike and forgot to put it back on. I got through 1 and a half games of polo (fixed) until i suddenly had a crank hanging off my shoe. Luckily I drove to the courts that day as no shops were open because it was a Sunday afternoon. Would’ve been a long 16km ride home with only one leg pedalling
Stripped the lockring thread off a pretty nice Novatec hub (it’s no entry-level Formula or Origin8) when I nearly sat on the lockring. I was really pissed that I was never able to get the cog tight enough. Didn’t have grease on hand either. Problem is, I’m actually a mechanic. Patience is indeed a virtue.
this is one of my mechanicy worst fears, I always double check and second guess myself cos I am paranoid about screwing it up.
Wasn’t that big a deal. Bottom bracket went in fine. Later heard that it wouldn’t budge on removal and had to be cut out. Job well done.
for the last 3 months i had been putting off replacing the noisy headset on my road bike
today i replaced it, still noisy
a bit of pro link on the bit where the shift ferrules go into the cable stops on the frame and there is no more noise
well played me …
I ignored a creaking crank on my fixie and then while I was riding my crank fell off.
thought my cog was slipping when slowing on my fixie due to a delay in slowing and weird noise. Checked cog/lockring went riding again, same thing, then my chain ring fell off.
when was that?!
can’t remember. You were definitely not a useless cvnt though. Of that we can be sure.