Workshop moments

[trailgumby]

Need to get something annoying or stupid you've done to yourself off your chest? Here's the place to do it.

Let me start the ball rolling...

Was changing my RD cable and housing, as it had died after a year's flogging in all weather commuting. Just enough time to get it done before hitting the hay to try and catch up on some sleep, as I'd really been suffering in this department the last few weeks.

Put the seat tube in the work stand, pulled out the cable stops, cut the new sections of outer to length and threaded through the teflon sealing sleeve, and was just about to put it all together and realised I was short one cable stop. After uttering several cuss-words and searching everywhere for 20 minutes with my trail lights to provide extra illumination, I resigned myself to fudging up a new one out of an old biro tube with one end melted closed and the other flared out. Took about 20 minutes to get it right.

Wasn't a perfect fit, but good enough to get me back on the road the following day.

Bumped the frame trying to push it into place.

The old one dropped on the floor.

[toolonglegs]

hehehe

[Mulger bill]

BTDT but I'm not 'fessing up

[find_bruce]

BTDT but I'm not 'fessing up

Do we need to send around Oprah, or would you prefer Dr Phil ?


Rather than point out my too numerous to list failings, perhaps I should just point out that the other weekend I replaced a hollowtech II bracket without damaging myself, the tools, the bike or the part. These facts make it a standout success in my book

[il padrone]

Was setting up the Rohloff gaer cables on the conversion of my wife's bike to Rohloff Speedhub 500/14. Anyone who knows of this will remember that the gear cable set-up for the EX box is fiddly. Very.

Measured and cut the cables. Fitted up and looking for the cable anchors in the shifter drum, did the first one - "What? No anchor in the second hole??"

"Oh no I've dropped it somehow"

Spent a good deal of time searching the floor. No joy. Damn it was so tiny, it's gone. Went upstairs and checked SJS website, they have spare drums, so I order one. Then I am checking the manual and see that the two anchor grub-screws go in reverse sides It was there all the time just the hex-key was the other side


Then I set up the cables finally. BUT I left the cable adjuster barrels out........ Luckily I was able to re-fit the cables (a notorious no-go for the Rohloff set-up)




And then, to top it off, the two cables are reversed No worries really, the gear shifting works, just to this day my wife has a top gear labelled as Gear 1 and bottom gear is 14

[Jean]

Measuring up a new seat post for a new frame, using the wrong column of my table of usual fitting measurements. The seat post seemed too long and was butting up against the seat tube water bottle mounts, so I whipped out the hacksaw and took some seat post off. I measured many times before I cut, but I soon realised that something was wrong. Looking at the table again I saw my mistake, and the trimmed post was now too short to do the job. So it was back to the internet for a new one.

A tip for young players: never do jobs like this when your kids are bouncing around you asking question after question and generally distracting you. This is the sort of thing that happens. I need to build a wheel today, but with my wife at work and me solo parenting, I don't dare start it.

[ironhanglider]

Hey Jean,

Is this the replacement rim for your dead Ambrosio? If the original is still built you do know that you can put the new rim next to the old one and just walk the spokes across to the new rim one at a time? You just need to loosen the all the spokes nearly all the way first and I do it with all the spokes on the near hub flange first and then the second.

Just hoping to head off another 'moment'.

Cheers,

Cameron

[WestcoastPete]

Trimming down a new Plescher twin leg stand for the Bike Friday. Trying to be conservative, citing and filling a few times to make sure I don't take too much off. Somehow with the last cut, I trimmed a fair bit too much off it. Still not sure how.

Just so you know; a bike won't stand up by leaning on just one leg on Plescher two legged stand.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Jean]

Hey Jean,

Is this the replacement rim for your dead Ambrosio? If the original is still built you do know that you can put the new rim next to the old one and just walk the spokes across to the new rim one at a time? You just need to loosen the all the spokes nearly all the way first and I do it with all the spokes on the near hub flange first and then the second.

Just hoping to head off another 'moment'.

Cheers,

Cameron

No the seatpost moment was last year when building up my new MTB. I forgot to mention that I compounded the seatpost drama by temporarily replacing it with a cheapie post from EBbay, which started bending from my first ride. I now have a nice reliable, non-bending Ritchey post and all is good in my MTB world.

[Saturnstarzz]

Servicing Mavic FTS free hubs, talking to my cat (who helps with bike maintenance be attacking my tool box) not paying attention and have the pawls and springs "take off" when installing and then fall down a 2cm crack in the floor.

Or not reading brake pads properly and installing them backwards

[twizzle]

Building up the new bike, clamped it in the work stand by the seat tube as it was the quickest option when I had the frame in hand. Rotated frame up to get at the BB cable guide area... the frame twisted in the clamp, rearranged all of the decals that Ribble stick all over their frames. I decided I'd just remove the decals - really fiddly, and when trying to get the glue off it turned out that the paint was easier to remove than the decals. I gave up at that point.

NOTE: This is a $120 frame, it's not like the end of the world.

[il padrone]

I decided I'd just remove the decals - really fiddly, and when trying to get the glue off it turned out that the paint was easier to remove than the decals. I gave up at that point.

Just whip it all off.... for that classic aged patina

[outnabike]

Kid 15 years old, sitting on the back steps with a 27inch wheel, refitting the tyre. Its well after sundown and he is looking at the top of the wheel against what is left of the sky line.
Suddenly on top of the wheel a movement, the biggest legs of the biggest spider are starting to move. Frightened the hell out of me, then I realized they were my own fingers......relief...

[drubie]

The worst of mine:

#1
Bought a set of 2nd hand ergo shifters from this very forum, went to fit them some months afterwards only to discover one of the plastic parts that fits between the bars and the lever is missing from the shifter. Much swearing and cursing of the seller followed by an order to bikewagoncat on ebay for the missing part.
2 months later, cleaning out the shed, I look in the bottom of the empty post bag to check something isn't in there. Guess what I found?

#2
Building up a single speed MTB for fun, was suffering a bit from insomnia so I figured I would rattle around in my bike shed for an hour to put me to sleep rather than disturb the rest of the family with the TV. Went to install the crankset cups and damned if they wouldn't screw in. I tried force, lube, figured maybe the stupid salvaged frame from the tip was in fact italian threaded (OK, that must have been a hallucination). Of course I was trying to fit the cups the wrong way around. Went to bed at that point.

#3
Put the teeth of a chainring through the bottom of my palm trying to remove a stuck pedal. The scar is a beautiful little triangle.

#4
Carbon frame starts making a horrible cracking noise when I ride it. Take it to the LBS in a panic. $60 later they inform me the headset was a bit tight, which I should have simply checked myself if I hadn't panicked.

[WestcoastPete]

#3
Put the teeth of a chainring through the bottom of my palm trying to remove a stuck pedal. The scar is a beautiful little triangle.

Pretty sure you're not the only one to have done this one (or any of the others I guess). Mine didn't scar up though; I'll have to try harder next time...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[trailgumby]

#3
Put the teeth of a chainring through the bottom of my palm trying to remove a stuck pedal. The scar is a beautiful little triangle.

Pretty sure you're not the only one to have done this one (or any of the others I guess). Mine didn't scar up though; I'll have to try harder next time...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Had a near miss on that one myself

[drubie]

#3
Put the teeth of a chainring through the bottom of my palm trying to remove a stuck pedal. The scar is a beautiful little triangle.

Pretty sure you're not the only one to have done this one (or any of the others I guess). Mine didn't scar up though; I'll have to try harder next time...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Had a near miss on that one myself

You don't want to do it. For one it really, really hurts. Then, cleaning the grease and sand out of the wound is bloody torture. Still not as bad as the time I once accidentally needled myself with sheep vaccine (wow did that swell up!), or cut the side of my finger on a glass doing the washing up.

[__PG__]

Well last night I was cutting my flashy Yokozuna brake housing for my flashy new bike..

..except that I had the flashy Yokozuna cable in the housing at the time

[jasonc]

Well last night I was cutting my flashy Yokozuna brake housing for my flashy new bike..

..except that I had the flashy Yokozuna cable in the housing at the time

don't stop there. oh. wait.

[m@]

My old 'workshop' was a deck built between the house and sloping backyard; dropped a few things through the boards over the years, but the worst was the plate the rear derailleur bolt screws into from my Repco Traveller. I was planning on a ride so leaving it there wasn't an option even if I knew where to get a replacement... Took me the best part of an hour of rummaging through dead leaves, gravel and spiders in the 50cm tall space under the deck to find the bugger, by which stage my back was so sore I couldn't ride anyway

Also may have been a bit over-enthusiastic when pruning the bars on my Anthem, though at least I haven't clipped any trees lately

[Saturnstarzz]

Cutting cable ties of my mountain bike one sat night ( should have been inside as it was around 9pm) to much force on the swiss army knife, goes straight through the cable tie, glances off my frame and straight in to left index finger knuckle deep. Nurses had great fun degreasing my hand and stitching me up.

[kukamunga]

Spent dozens of man-hours over numerous weeks dismantling, modifying, re-building and force-fitting a non-dismantlable, planetary-geared, left-hand Shimano '3 speed' Revoshift lever.....

^ .....onto a set of old steel drop-bars for my Project Kuwahara Cross Coaster

Finally get the bike altogether and running and wonder why the shifting aint quite right

Ooops! I should've fitted the Nexus 3 Revo-shifter that came with the Nexus 3-speed hub instead!

Ends up the Nexus shifter is quite simple to dismantle and fit and takes all of an hour or so to get right

[bychosis]

#4
Carbon frame starts making a horrible cracking noise when I ride it. Take it to the LBS in a panic. $60 later they inform me the headset was a bit tight, which I should have simply checked myself if I hadn't panicked.

Similar with MTB, horrible crackling noise from frame when pedalling, spent ages going over the frame with a fine tooth comb, checking the bushes, loading it up from every direction etc (didn't get to the LBS tough). Gave up, rode it again, same noise. Finally I dropped the chain off and spun the cranks - not smooth. New BB ordered. One cup off, test it, felt OK. Next cup off, test it, felt smooth. Apparently it dosn't take much of a rumble in the bearings to sound like your frame is falling apart.

[CXCommuter]

Building a new bike up this weekend, installing the headset in the backyard i beautifully cleaned all surfcaes involved and then lavishly greased it all up and installed the bearings and put the forks in place. Not thinking I hauled the bike upright to install the spacers and stem by grabbing the frame only , naturally the forks fell out and both bearings shot across into the only area of open dirt within 5m. Everything now covered in dust and sand/dirt (i.e. start again). Stupid me being too eager to wait for the new bike stand winging it's way here from the UK.
After all of this I discovered the bottom bracket needs retapping for which I don't have a tool and needs booking into the LBS.