Do you remember your first scratch?

[Easytigers]

Gutted...has the new bike for a few months now and have been completely anal in making sure it hasn't been scratched! I don't lean it on anything just in case...even wrap it up like a septic thumb if putting it in the back of the car...but today it got its first scratch. Me and a mate decided to take a ride away from our local routes and he said he'd drive. Packed the bikes very securely onto his cycle rack and put padding on all points of contact...got home to see that one had slipped and his pedal had scraped a nice line onto my chainstay...again...gutted

Do you remember your first scratch?
Russ

 

[Simba]

Why not cycle to the route instead of driving?

 

[irw]

Yes...Two days after I got my shiny black Subway 1 earlier in the year, before I'd got used to how it balanced itself with panniers on, I leant the seat against a post outside Derby travelodge whilst I went inside to check-in, and the weight of the panniers pulled it backwards and left a scrape mark along the top tube

 

[ianrauk]

My Spesh Roubaix. Wind blew conservatory door shut which caught the bike and took a smidgeon of paint with it. This was the day I bought it home.

 

[al-fresco]

I'm always a bit relieved when I get the first scratch - stops me worrying about it.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Oh yes, some numpty knocked my CAAD10 over during a, ahem, refreshment break during the Manchester to Blackpool this year, scuffed the top tube, (thankfully no dent), and tiny scrape on edge of seat

 

[Jonathing]

I stacked my first road bike on the way home as I'd never used drop bars or STIs before. It rather removed the worry about scratching it.

 

[lulubel]

My pump (on a bracket attached to the bottle cage fixings) rubbed against the frame and took the paint off. The cables rubbed against the frame and took the paint off. And recently, some idiot at the LBS has chipped the chainstay.

 

[Globalti]

Surely every bike has a top tube scratch from a wall?

 

[Baggy]

Went to the beach and carefully placed my new Pearson on its side, and somehow caught its forks on a big flinty pebble. A sad moment.

 

[Banjo]

All new bikes should have a scratch put on at the factory.

 

[moralcrusader]

Surely every bike has a top tube scratch from a wall?

Mine has, since last week. First one and all.

*grump*

 

[TheBoyBilly]

I have a 4 month old Charge Steamer and it is getting quite scratched now despite my best efforts. It is a weighty beast with a pretty useless kick-stand. The heavy front wheel has a mind of it's own so a slight breeze can catch it and have the bike over in an instant. The integrated rear rack takes the brunt and I have taken to using a black touch-up paint that really doesn't match at all. But it makes it 'my' bike' and, for a gentle pootle along to Brighton for a beer or lunch it is hard to think of a bike that I would enjoy my ride more on. I might buy a centre stand from Halfords when I think about it. Give it a year or so and my Steamer will be very tatty I would expect, but still a joy to ride.

Bill

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I remember my biggest scratch

I bought a death trap of an old Raleigh Traveller from a 2h shop

First, the handlebars came out mid-ride (how was I to know back then that there was a limit mark on the stem and the expander was only a few mm below the headset top nut?)

Amazingly I didn't come a cropper, managing to sort of jump off the steering-challeged velocipede quite deftly, if I say so myself

Then, riding through town, the rear mudguard mount on the brake snapped, and the guard followed the wheel all the way around, to come to a rest between tyre and tarmac, leaving me skidding along the road with sparks flying and all paint removed from the mudguard - my biggest scratch ever

It was probably quite spectacular - I wondered what the bloody hell was going on

I think that's why I rapidly began to develop maintenance skills and ended up with a saturday job in a bike shop (that bizarrely led me to where I am now)

 

[mcshroom]

Put the first scratch on my tourer in style. I slid out on diesel going round a roundabout. Ripped bar tape (and scratched bar underneath), scratched pannier rack and pedal, took a big lump of paint off of the bottom of the chainstay with the rear mech and the mech itself bears a big scar. Not worried that much about it since then