The "oh what a Wally I am" thread.

[Pat "5mph"]

Fitting a rear rack for the first time: what's the matter with this instructions, are they ancient Greek?
What's this bit? Let's discard it, probably not for this kind of bike.
Why is this blooming rack not wanting to stay put???
Five hours plus a you tube video later: aha, I see: the bit is meant to attach to the seat stays!

 

[Alan Frame]

Never carry a spare pair of forks in your hand whilst riding along. The resultant deceleration when the spare fork connects with the front spokes lacks a certain amount of modulation.

 

[summerdays]

First time I was replacing the chain ... laid the old one out next to the new one, counted links etc, counted again .... ok deep breath and shorten the chain to the right size. Tried to fit the chain on the bike ... realised I had left the chain with two male male endings. Had to remove one of them - so chain was now 1 link shorter than it had been.

However every cloud has a silver lining of course.... the bike actually seemed to work better with the shortened chain and so I have left it that length ever since.

And I always check where I remove the link carefully!!!

 

[dodgy]

Bout 6- mths ago I rebuilt my bike up upgrading the groupset etc and stripped/cleaned/lubed just about everything.
Having never ever lubed a seat stem in my life I took someone's advice and lubed it.
I still periodically ave to adjust it up even though I have cleaned it so many times!

So, stick with my gut instinct

Apply some carbon assembly paste, it's designed to ensure there's friction between delicate components so you don't have to use as much torque.

PS - At least you won't be posting a "my seatpost is stuck, how do I remove it" thread.

 

[MossCommuter]

I have never, ever, sheared a crank extractor in two by trying to remove the cranks without undoing the bolts.

No.

Never done that

 

[ColinJ]

I have never, ever, sheared a crank extractor in two by trying to remove the cranks without undoing the bolts.

No.

Never done that

I'm sure that nobody has ever been daft enough to do that. Just as sure as I am that nobody has ever half inserted a crank extractor and ended up extracting the crank thread instead ...

 

[youngoldbloke]

I have never ever, years ago, when building a bike up from bits, fitted tyres to wheels without rim tapes, and then I have never been extremely shocked when the tyres exploded very, very, noisily when taking such a hypothetical bike for its first run out. Honest.

 

[Ladytrucker]

Last week I was so worried about using my new clipless shoes/pedals for the first time, off I went and I did some clipping in and out a few times then settled into my ride. About 10 or 15 mins down the road I noticed I had no glasses, no water, no tissues and no computer. I decided to carry on I was not going too far anyway. I got back a snotty nosed, wind swept, dehydrated mess. They were all still sitting on the doorstep when I got back !!! doh.
I won't do that again.

 

[ianrauk]

When replacing a wheel on your bike with a brand new one under warranty. Make sure that when you spin the wheel after fitting, you do not knock a garden spade into the spokes.

I mean what div would do such a thing?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

With a fixed wheel bike adjusting the chain then doing the wheel nuts up with the big ring spanner out of the tool box, then finding you can't get the wheel nuts undone by the roadside with small open ended spanner you keep in the saddlebag.

 

[Kins]

I lifted my bike up the 40 odd steps on the back way up to my house after this evenings ride. Tip, when you tinker with your bike before you go out, remember to re-tighten your skewers, yep, the back wheel fell off as I sat it back on the wheels at the top.

What a muppet!

 

[MossCommuter]

With a fixed wheel bike adjusting the chain then doing the wheel nuts up with the big ring spanner out of the tool box, then finding you can't get the wheel nuts undone by the roadside with small open ended spanner you keep in the saddlebag.

Never done that, no, not even twice

 

[swampyseifer]

I think repeatedly forgetting when leaning to turn that I need to keep the inside pedal up is my worst thing!

 

[Alan Frame]

Managing to expertly catch an overhanging branch in an air vent on me helmet whilst ring along a canal towpath.

Stayed upright, gained some whiplash-like reminders of the incident and lost my front light in the canal.

 

[kerndog]

I usually forget to do up my brakes after taking a wheel off for any reason, thankfully it's not very often i take both off at the same time.

I did this the other day, was riding for 3 days before I realised