General Cycling Discussion - Brain Vomit and The Bike - Your Worst?

Friday afternoon, I was in a hurry coming home from work when I "forgot" that my Trek 5500 was on the roof rack as I pulled into the garage. Yep, you guessed, it didn't clear. Of course, I knew it wouldn't as I've carefully measured it and made a point to take the bike off the car every time before pulling the car in.

You can imagine the horror running through my head as I heard the crashing sound and sat there in the car imagining what had happened to the beautiful carbon frame. I stepped out of the car so mad at myself I wanted to hurl. But I got lucky. The bike sits in the rack without it's front wheel which saved the bars and frame as the saddle took the force of the blow. Outside of a few scratches on the seat rails, all was fine....with the bike.

Now the garage door is another thing. It's a newer lightweight aluminum roll up that was knocked off its track and now has a good 8" crease in the bottom panel. I can replace the panel for about $75 but then I'll have to get the entire door painted. Fortunately, I was able to bend things around enough to get it back on the track and make it functional.

So, tell us a bike related brain-vomit story.

55/Rad

Put your garage door opener in your bike's wedge!

So, tell us a bike related brain-vomit story.



I actually vomitted while riding once. Not sure if that green fluid came from my brain or not. I hope it didn't.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=1812


As far as doing really stupid things goes, this would be hard to beat:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=33206

I fractured my radial head (elbow) because in my haste to try out a new bike on a beautiful spring day I didn't check how the shop had set the tension on the pedals. I found out they were so tight I couldn't unclip the hard way.

Friday afternoon, I was in a hurry coming home from work when I "forgot" that my Trek 5500 was on the roof rack as I pulled into the garage. Yep, you guessed, it didn't clear. Of course, I knew it wouldn't as I've carefully measured it and made a point to take the bike off the car every time before pulling the car in.

You can imagine the horror running through my head as I heard the crashing sound and sat there in the car imagining what had happened to the beautiful carbon frame. I stepped out of the car so mad at myself I wanted to hurl. But I got lucky. The bike sits in the rack without it's front wheel which saved the bars and frame as the saddle took the force of the blow. Outside of a few scratches on the seat rails, all was fine....with the bike.

Now the garage door is another thing. It's a newer lightweight aluminum roll up that was knocked off its track and now has a good 8" crease in the bottom panel. I can replace the panel for about $75 but then I'll have to get the entire door painted. Fortunately, I was able to bend things around enough to get it back on the track and make it functional.

So, tell us a bike related brain-vomit story.

55/Rad

OK, Anybody ever done the dreaded quad? Ever damage your bike, roof rack system, car and garage door all in the same incident? When I did it (on a motel canopy), my car took all of the damage ($500.00).

My favorite story was told on himself by a guy from a different bulletin board. He loaded his bikes on his roof rack inside his garage on a rainy day and hit the garage door on the way OUT. Now that's some serious brain vomit!

I took a pretty hard crash, still got the huge scar on my ankle to show for it, because I was trying to be a sprinter or a guy in a breakaway and look between my arm and the bike while in the drops. Needless to say I looked up and then had an impromptu meeting with the curb and its neighbor, the sidewalk. I hate telling the story when people ask how I got that thing on my ankle, I feel like an idiot.

About 1 mile from the end of today's Chico Wildflower Century, with my legs and brain fried and the temperature a bit over 90 degrees, I was chatting with some friends and rolled right through a stop sign into the path of a car. Fortunately, Chico is a very bike-aware town and the driver wasn't going more than about 20 mph. It was a very close call, and one of the dumbest things I've ever done on a bike (my guardian angel was working overtime today).

Not me, but I heard of one guy who put his bike up on the rack,
got in and backed over his new High dollar front wheel (I think it
was Zipp carbons or Reynolds wheels) that he forgot to put
in the wheel rack.

Marty

Put your garage door opener in your bike's wedge!
Great thinking!

Not me, but I heard of one guy who put his bike up on the rack,
got in and backed over his new High dollar front wheel (I think it
was Zipp carbons or Reynolds wheels) that he forgot to put
in the wheel rack.

Marty

Hey, I did that with a Spinergy Spox that was only a couple of months old! After I stopped the truck and got over my fear of looking at the mess I just made, I picked up the wheel, checked it out, and it was still true! Couple of marks in it, but the wheel was fine. If only their customer service was as good as the wheel itself...

I was taking some bike repair classes from local builder. He told us about a gal who had done the bike on rack meets garage door trick some years ago with her steel Colnago. Asked him to fix it up like new. Doable but it took a new down tube, top tube & fork plus repaint. Large $. Couple months later she was back again with it all crunched up. Told him to just keep it! Point of his story was that steel can be repaired in most cases. Ride on.

My worst slip up was forgetting to re-hook up the front v-brake on my Trek after unloading it from my truck...a little scary on the first downhill section

buying an old specialized s works m2 and so far spending slightly over $160 just to make it beater worthy... now it makes a clacking sound whenever i push down on the left pedal... the harder i press the louder the sound... the rear wheel still needs truing and the selle italia turbo matic saddle really hurts my nuts... REALLY! i think a 21 inch frame is too big for me... so that may be some of the cause.... sigh.. don't buy used.

About 1982, nearly new Trek 613 (sport tourer, 531 frame) on whatever semi-cheap roof rack the LBS was selling back in the day, on a 1980 Pontiac Sunbird, going into my stepmom's garage. Remembered about one second too late! Damage report:

Garage: bottom edge of garage door mangled up; mostly straigtened with a ball peen hammer.
Rack: Two left feet totally collapsed; required new parts.
Car: Dents and scratches in roof; est. $400 to fix, but car was totaled a few weeks later by someone running a stop sign.
Bike: I think there was a little tear in the Benotto handlebar tape. Stem knocked out of alignment (loosen, straighten, tighten).
Dignity: total loss, not covered by insurance, took years to recover.