tronnyjenkins 

I'll echo tight fitting tires or rims, whatever causes the tire to not go on, as well as the hub preload adjustment. It's almost impossible to get it "juuuust right".

I also hate when I have to adjust the seat post binder on a C&V bike. I posted about this the other day. Lately my record with those things is like 50/50 on if it'll break or not. I guess due to the previous owner over tightening.

CroMo Mike 

Good one! They already have the factory and the machine, and it's no secret how good cones are made. Why not just make good cones?

noglider 

For a while, when I worked at home, I would wear a hat to signify that I was "at work" and my wife shouldn't interrupt me. But she did anyway.

I'm with @fender1 on cable housing being the worst. It's not that I mind finishing the ends. I dislike measuring and installing them. To me, installing cables seems to take as long as the rest of the bike.

I'm also with @TimmyT that bacon is lousy. I don't like it in any context. I know I'm weird that way. But I do love truing wheels. I could do it all day. In fact, a hundred years ago or so, I had a job where I trued wheels almost all day.

Drillium Dude 

That is really cool

DD

engineerbob

Taping handlebars, particularly re-taping bars. I considered paying to have it done.

Bob

dddd

I knew that this one was bound to come up. ^^^


I finally took the pluge and rebuilt my new '73 Super Course bb last night, entertaining as usual!

Drive side cotter came out with the home-made press, took a lot of wrench torque on the poor iron casting but out it came, still straight!

The left arm cotter resisted budging, right up to where I could see the precious original cotter was bending!

So I stopped right there, took the bike outside into the cold, and blasted the knuckle of the crankarm for several minutes with the propane torch, with the press still in place and pushing hard.
I cycled the heat three times, re-torqueing the press slightly further each time only a tenth of a turn. Getting this original cotter out still usable would be a huge victory!!!

Then I applied one final full half-turn, the yielding still seemingly indistinguishable from that caused by the bending cotter, and I then removed the press to inspect the progress. I could see a line where the cotter seemed to have exited the arm by perhaps a half-millimeter, so I went back, re-installed the press and just tightened away, and the cotter at one point suddenly started moving more freely. Whew! That was a close one.

Then it was on to the bb, and the original (stamped Phillips, 2/73) spindle was found to be in new condition, so I repacked with new GR25 balls and waterproof grease.

Needless to say, this ordeal ate up the better part of my evening, but I was happy to get it all back together with the original cotters.

Btw, I didn't heat the end of the crankarm over about 300F, judging by the lack of any smoke that such efforts occasionally issue forth, so no harm done, no discoloration or weakening, etc.

The torch saved the day. May I never have to rebuild this one again.

dddd

[QUOTE=SJX426;18348600]

...Nearly all of the frustrations listed so far are overcome with repetition and seeing them as challenges to improve the process. I like accomplishments from my work, weather it is a build or a ride. For those who prefer riding over wrenching, I don't think my statement about repetition applies...

QUOTE]


Rule to live by. ^^^

Even applies to my approach to finding haphazardly-stored or lost bits, there is a process to be developed, most of it mental.

I once found a micro-sized bearing ball from an SPD pedal that I was rebuilding. By tenacity, I ruled out all possibilities, finally discovered it had hit the concrete, bounced up, then fell/dropped into the edge of the wall of an open corrugated cardboard box. Yes, it was found to have fallen down the length of a corrugation tunnel, and was retrieved.

By embracing the challenge...

dddd

I just had to chime in here.

Before de-torqueing quite to the point of damage, and after applying the penetrant, take a 3/4" wooden dowel and use as a drift punch with a good-sized hammer.
Apply blows around the periphery of the cap, which momentarily un-loads and thus un-sticks the threading!

I've done this maybe 50 times and only the plastic caps have incurred any further grief, when they break.

noglider 

I hate cotters, too, but I don't deal with them often any more, so I'm good.

dddd

I had to address this, the opening round of "what do you hate...".

As far as spiral housing, I nearly always make two cuts, the first attempts to get cleanly between two coils, the second involves rotating the housing so the nipper makes the end more flat, with the opening clear for the cable.

Some cutters make doing this easier than others, it's the shape of the blades.

Then there are the longitudinal wires in shift housing. These always are used with ferrules, which always have a plastic insert to allow some embedment of the wires, which enables a more-even support so that each wire sees a similar level of compressive stress.
The wire's sharp ends allow the ferrules to work as intended!

Any kind of sander, stone or abrasive wheel is going to massively contaminate the inside of the housing with abrasive dust of the type that necessitates the periodic replacement of housings on a well-maintained bike. If the dust gets in, it must be removed before installing.
Many of today's better housings are pre-lubricated with a non-thickening silicon-based lube, which would of course need to be flushed out in order to flush any dust out, so I don't use any sort of abrasive grinding any more these days.
And I used to use a Dremel cut-off wheel in the very early days, but man what a time-consuming mess it seemed to be. Like it was specifically meant to melt and contaminate at the same time, and as it wasted ten minutes!

I did use linesman pliers for a long, long time, and so lucky for me that I had a decent pair with good edge alignment and really hard metal.

The jaws of the cutters that I like best look like this:

arex

I hate adjusting SIS rear derailleurs. I can never get it right.

bici_mania

The only thing that really gets to me is the 'thing' I can't fix, for what ever reason.

For a while it seemed to be 90's era Trek's with bottom bracket cups to rusty to allow for removal.

Now, at the moment it is freewheels/hubs that cannot be repaired. But when working with old, often neglected bikes, that's all part of it I suppose.

Occasionally I find something that I am unable to repair because I don't have the right tool. That makes me angry and usually embarrasses me if the bike owner is standing there watching.

There is immense satisfaction in working with my hands. When I can repair something for someone or bring life back to an old bike someone previously decided had no value, I am especially satisfied.

Not being able to complete the repair or not having the tool undermines all of that.

top506

Really? Cabling is when a pile of parts becomes a living bike. It also is when you can place your stamp on a bike. I've never measured, and let eye and hand guide me.

Top

dddd

I sometimes allow cabling to take up near the lions share of the build time, but that is when using recycled cable/housing that needs to be measured (must be long enough to start with) and cleaned (inside housings and outside cables).
From there, I turn the bars full left, then right, to see where a too-short condition exists with housing that is test-fitted in place. I try for minimum lengths, but with non-aero brake levers the loops need to be aesthetically right and not interfere with the rider's hands.

This stuff requires much more time if you don't do it often. Don't sweat having to take extra time, it builds the learning curve.

On vintage builds where I am trying to squeeze in a wider 6 or 7-speed freewheel, I might similarly kill a lot of time trying to determine how short that the right-side axle spacing can be and still allow chain clearance and swift shifting to the smallest cog. This allows for a stronger axle and wheel when everything is optimized from the beginning.

Vintage-bike cabling can take extra time when modern housing necessitates using properly-sized (ID and OD) ferrules. Sometimes I have to search for just the right size of stepped ferrule, or search for a housing liner that fits in a vintage housing and still accommodates the inner wire without interference.
I keep bundles of varied lengths of used housing around for doing test-fits for the shortest practical housing lengths, and using shorter ones often reduce the flex in the cabling noticeably. Old rear derailers often require only a few short inches of housing, but often I see bikes with perhaps twice the needed length there, to the detriment of shifting accuracy.

What I kind of hate about certain older bikes is odd-sized cable housing stop ID's, where finding a proper-fitting ferrule might be particularly difficult.

gaucho777 

Rust.

No, bike thieves. They're the worst.

I don't mind cutting cables. While a dremel or clippers and grinding stone get the job done quickly, I find it more often than not creates a sharp edge on the inside of the housing. I've gone back to a metal file for finishing housings. Less heat to melt the lining and a smoother inner edge to the metal coil. Holding the end of the housing in a pair of good needle-nose pliers while running it across a flat metal file on a bench takes some of the work out of the operation. I object to cable drag far more than the extra effort of finishing housing.