Bicycle Mechanics - Scary reminder to check chainring bolts!

Midway through a 47-48 mile ride yesterday I started hearing a regular chain noise and thought I might have suddenly developed a stiff link. This didn't seem logical in the middle of a ride especially since it recurred at the same spot in the crank rotation rather than in time with the chain. Loose chainring bolt did cross my mind, but I didn't see how they couldn't have come loose so I kind of dismissed the idea. After quite a few miles I decided I really needed to figure this out so I looked down at my crank and, sure enough, at least one of the bolts seemed to stick out farther than the others. I pulled over to check and THREE of the bolts were so loose they might have fallen completely out in a few more miles. Another was somewhat loose, and one was still tight. Yikes! I tightened them all up and continued home. It was a little scary to see just how loose those bolts had gotten without my having realized it. So check those fasteners often just like all the books say!

When I first bought my new bike the first thing I did was to tear the whole bike apart and grease/oil/adjust everything. One thing I did was to put some lock-tite on the chain-ring bolts. I figured that this is one item that I don't regularly take off so I used the "red" lock-tite. No problems yet. Glad you caught it before the bolts fell off.

Even more embarrassing is having a crank bolt come lose during a ride ...

LOL, I remember the same thing happening to me, about 1/3 of the way from Spokane to Pullman. ALL the bolts were loose :eek:

Another bad one: having a derailleur-pulley bolt fall out and spill your pulley parts all over the road. Been there, done that :rolleyes:

Originally posted by mechBgon
Another bad one: having a derailleur-pulley bolt fall out and spill your pulley parts all over the road. Been there, done that :rolleyes:

Word! That bites in a big way.

Once it happened to me as I was starting a trail. It just went POP!! Took me friggin 30 minutes just to find all the pieces and get the thing back together. Then I had to hammer like crazy to catch my brothers who had started a good 10 minutes ahead of me(They have a knack for loading their bikes such that they can get theirs off first, and then leave me to locking up the car and stuff like that). There's no way I could let them finish the trail before me, no way. I caught them on the last climb.

Rainman,

I've noticed that chainring bolts are even more prone to loosening if not well tightened on a fixie. I'm since become very particular about chainring bolts on my road fix.

Dave

Dave,
I had intended to ask if this was more of a problem on a fixed gear. Thanks for answering the unasked question!
Regards,
Raymond

comes loose on my ss all the time i hate it! guess i will just have to tighten them periodically and live with it.

Remembered this thread before todays ride, one bolt was quite loose and the others needed to be snugged.