Commuting - What have you lost off your bike?

Similar to the thread below, but the opposite.....

I was riding home from work after Halloween in which our company likes to dress-up. I had a witch's hat and wig tucked into the cover of my pannier but it must have come loose and I never saw it again........

Cheers
Ben
:beer:

My last wreck I lost my computer and a lot of peripheral junk. I recovered most of it (damaged) but lost a lot of parts to my lights and mounts (mostly screw and washers that were easily replaceable).
I also tried to take a drink from my bottle while roaring down a busy street. Someone honked, I flaked out and dropped the bottle. I watched it skid along until someone finally ran it over and it burst like a balloon.

When I was a kid I used to ride my bike to go fishing and once lost a very large catfish while returning home. In hindsight, it was probably a good thing since the lake I was fishing from was probably not very clean.

I was riding on some old logging trails in Canada last year and found a great bike pump on the side of the trail on the return trip. In fact it looked just like the one I had mounted on my bike. When I got off of my bike to pick it up and put it in my pack I realised it was my pump. It had popped out of the clip mount on a rough section of trail on the outward portion of my ride. It was a real stroke of luck that I found it on the return trip.

My most memorable one was when my U-lock popped loose while I was on the way to work. It bounced right into the rear wheel, broke two spokes, and clobbered the rim. My first thought was that something had fallen off a building on me. I

recovered the lock quickly enough, but the wheel required a healthy repair bill.

Paul

I lost a nice mini pump once. Went back looking for it but it was nowhere to be found. Someone got a good freebie.

My touring partner lost his sleeping bag. It fell off of his rear rack. It was wrapped up in a garbage bag at the time. We figure the garbage truck picked it up the next day and it is now in a landfill somewhere.

I've lost half a mini-pump ! after a ride took the pump off to clean the bike then noticed that it had come apart at some stage leaving the barrel still attached but the rest was missing:(

and I've lost count of the tyre leavers I've lost, for some reason I forget to pick them up when I fix a flat.

I just remembered.....when I moved from Australia to Canada, I bought most of my bike tools with me so I didn't have to purchase them again in Canada. I bought a new Mtb, attached the Zefel pump to the frame (the pump came across the Pacific with me), hit the nearest off-road trails and when I arrived home....no pump! So it had travelled 1000's of kms with me in my suitcase and then I lose it on my first ride!

Originally posted by CrocDundee
I just remembered.....when I moved from Australia to Canada, I bought most of my bike tools with me so I didn't have to purchase them again in Canada. I bought a new Mtb, attached the Zefel pump to the frame (the pump came across the Pacific with me), hit the nearest off-road trails and when I arrived home....no pump! So it had travelled 1000's of kms with me in my suitcase and then I lose it on my first ride!
I had a similar experience. I travelled to Canada for a ride through the Rockies ion 1992. I took a bunch of tools and spare tubes and spokes with me. I put my bike together in a back yard in Calgary and left all the tools etc in the bike box. I retrieved them after the ride before I headed back to Australia. I hope they had a nice trip half way around the world.

I once lost my lunch while riding. (No, I didn't puke.) I was on my way home with my Chinese take-out, and all that I ended up with was an empty container and a bit of sweet-n-sour sauce dripping off my basket.

I lost my eyeglasses one day when I forgot to zip my rack trunk; I must have hit a bump and they flew out. Progressive lenses, cost a fortune to replace. Very bummed. Cost over $100 to replace.

Needless to say, I've never made *that* mistake again!

RichC

Lost my entire wallet when I forgot to zip my wedge (actually, the zipper is going out when zipped one way - this is a double zipper).

It fell out and I rode blissfully on. I didn't realize it until I got a call at home from a person who had found it. I retrieved it and gave the finder a nice reward.

I had an old frame pump bounce off from the downtube, and under the rear tyre. It got squashed.
You know when you are riding along and hear a "ding". Something small and metallic has droppen off, but you dont know what. I start looking at the end caps of the pedals,

I went through a spell of losing water bottles, but mainly because I used to throw them at cars which got too close!!

I lost my virginity on a bike.

No, not possible!

Annoyingly, I lost the screw-cap end to my pump, which renedered the pump useless. But because the pump was still happily in its frame I didn't realise.

Until I had a flat :(

Hooray for moble phones


Stew

I lost a water bottle out in the middle of nowhere. We were going 23 mph at the time so by the time we stopped and turned around it was nowhere to be found. I think it just slid into some bushes. Kind of like losing a golf ball in the rough I guess. I also had a glow in the dark water bottle stolen off my bike back in the good old college days. I wonder why they don't make them anymore (they probably caused cancer or something else I guess)? I also lost a front wheel once (tried to ride a wheelie as a kid and it just rolled off on its own course).

I lost my little red blinkie light! :(

In my case what haven't I lost. I have lost a few red blinkie lights, water bottles, air pumps, a wallet or two tools etc etc. I did lose my mind once, but I found it don't know if that is good or bad :p

My list

Red blinkie- lost on the commute where I had to fight a downed tree.
Cycle computer- popped out on a rough patch of road, didn't know it was gone till I was heading down hill looked to check speed, found it missing. Traced the route the next day found it imbedded in the fresh asphalt, glass cracked, and LED black.
The biggest loss has been pounds! At least 15 so far.

I lost my house key on a ride once, but it wasn't just any old key. It was one of those huge great monster gaol keys which was the original key to my 115 year old house.
About 6" long and weighing half a pound how could that have fallen out of my jersey pocket onto the road without my hearing it?
:(

I almost lost the SLA battery for my headlights when the water bottle cage failed. It made a kind of obvious noise and suddenly my bike felt lighter. Now I keep a few velcro straps on to dampen vibration a little.

In addition to numerous blinkies, lock, computer (twice but noticed it and still have it in working condition!), my most serious loss was the QR lever from my front wheel. This was on a trail in the bush a few kilometers in. Fortunately I noticed it before the wheel came off, and was able to (very gingerly) ride out and replace it. I didn't try any bunny hops on the ride out!:D

I very nearly lost one of the bolts holding my small (granny) ring to my crank. It had vibrated out to where it was held in only by the last half thread.

I lost my red flashing light off the rear of my bike, it just clips onto my rear seat wedge bag and when I went over a bump it fell off and broke the lens. It was the first time I had used it. I found out later you can't buy replacement lenses for them. I went and boughyt an el-cheapo discount store replacement, thought I might be able to swap lenses but it was a different size. This one has fallen off a couple of times but hasn't broken!

I lost my wallet once containing every single piece of ID that I have. There was about $40 cash in there as well. I had stopped for a snack while out on a big ride and forgotten to re-zip my bumbag and the wallet had fallen out (not the mobile phone or the half packet of peanuts...). It was too late (no lights) and I was too tired to back track so I just continued on home . I then rang the credit card companies to cancel my Visa & Mastercard and sent an e-mail to the others that were on the same ride telling them what had happened and asking if they had seen the wallet. I then jumped in the car and retraced the ride route to no avail. I got a phone call a couple of days later from a guy that found my wallet! Everything was still in there including the cash! I thanked him very much and gave him some beers and a couple of lottery tickets.

The worst thing I lost was a bottle of Jim Beam!:cry: It fell through the bottom of the plastic bag as I was riding along and smashed into a million pieces on the ground. At the time of the incident I was only about 100 metres from my mate's house where we were going to drink it.:(

MY FAVORITE HAT!!! actually, i've had two now. the first one a friend of mine suckered out of me; she was cold and had a long walk ahead of her so i let her have my hat. seeing as it is a great hat, she fell in love with it and that was that. so i got another one, which i proptly put in my bike bag and rode home with. problem is, when i got home it was gone. i'm starting to wonder if the powers at be do not want me to have a hat. so i'm going to buy one more before i call it quits...

E...

some sad loses indeed! i lost my new expensive mimi-pump(which i bought 50% off @a sale:makes you wonder about profit margins) It jumped out of the clip, i thought i had run over a bit of wood in the road! when i got home i noticed i had 2 broken spokes & no pump! ive gone back to the trusty & nearly useless frame pump with the addition of a velcro stap.i have also lost my nerve a time or 2 when dueling with logging trucks on our narrow harbour bridge!!