holden west

"CLUGGITTA-CLUGGITTA-CLUGGITTA-CLUGGITTA"
"What the hell?!"
"Oh, chain still on the seat stay chain hanger..."

I can't be the only one that's done this.

tjkwood

I have two that come to mind, the first rather more distant and less traumatic than the second:

1) Riding alongside a friend down a quiet alleyway, me on my gaspipe Puch, he turns to me and says "I tried to switch hands while cycling, and I fell off". What do I say? "No way, that wouldn't happen"... I don't blame him for laughing when I flew over the bars into a crumpled heap on the concrete

2) Couple months ago, I just finished my final university exams and could finally get riding again. The chain on my (fixed) 1935 Raleigh Sports looked a little slack, so I flipped the bike and pulled the wheel back. Spinning the chain, it still looked a little slack, but I wanted to make sure. Touched the chain while it was still spinning at speed, realised exactly what was going to happen before it did. My finger got dragged into the mech, impaled on the fixed cog and bent around the spokes. Had to be cut free and needed a 2 hour surgery. The bone completely shattered and the top half inch of my finger was hanging on by a thread. They saved it, but it does look a bit of a mess. Still can't use the finger, but the Raleigh is back in service (and now has a freewheel!)

noglider 

@tjkwood, that's horrible!

I was angry at myself for slicing a tip of my finger off four weeks ago while slicing stale bread. I'm almost completely healed now. Your story is sad!

tjkwood

I do still feel a little odd when talking about it, but it is healing up and the bone is refusing. Here's the full story if you're interested (with tame photos): https://velofellow.wordpress.com/201...nt-always-fun/

Rocky Gravol

So these helmets have little foam inserts inside, held on with Velcro,
that get old and flat with age.
So I replaced them with some inserts I removed out of my kids old skateboard helmet.
In doing so, I covered up that little vent.

It's been five months, I just noticed.

SJX426 

I try not to make a "bonehead" move by wearing a helmet. Today I forgot it at home! (I ride the metro in and ride the bike home - long story, has to do with DOT not supporting contractors access to showers).

gaucho777 

Does replying to one thread by posting in different thread count as a bonehead move?

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...omponents.html

gaucho777 

You're not alone. I did that just a couple months ago. At least it was an easy fix!

ksryder

As did I. Bent the crap out of the hanger. Amazing how mad I can get at myself for such a tiny little piece of metal.

obrentharris 

Trolley tracks.
I took my wife down with me on the tandem when I tried to cross the tracks at too shallow an angle; right in the middle of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf tourist district, right in the middle of the day, right in the middle of the summer tourist season this year. Three nurses on vacation came running to the rescue while we were still splayed out on the street wondering what had happened to us! After a few minutes of recovery we went on our way a bit shaken and sporting some brand new red and oozing skin that had been recently uncovered by forcible removal of the normal skin layer over it. The tandem suffered only a little rash on the rear derailleur.
Brent

CroMo Mike 

My boneheadedness is an ongoing thing. When a car, pedestrian, skateboarder, dog walker, or other road user violates what I consider my right-of-way, I tend to bicycle assertively, as if I were driving an old pickup truck and that assertiveness will make them do the right thing. To make things worse, I sometimes speak out and let them know what I'm thinking. Not a wise course of action when I'm riding what is a valuable and hard-to-replace vintage bike. I'm trying to stop doing it, but it's not easy. So far, no damage.

eschlwc

chain tool boneheadedness ...

so i get my new kmc x9.93 chain in the mail, my first 9-speed chain and first kmc chain. "huh, these pins look weird." uh oh. my little $12 chain tool doesn't want to budge a new chain pin to resize it. damn it!

so i spend a couple hours seaching the web, reading about my options, and calling a couple places in town.

right before i hop on a bike to ride to my lbs to spend $35 on a park ct-3, i think, "i wonder if just applying a dab of grease on my little tool's threads will make a difference ..."

like a charm, it did.

when in doubt, just apply lube.

eschlwc

man, i am really careful about any kind of track, always taking it at least at a 45° angle. sometimes i'm comically too careful about it.

i saw a cyclist coming to a stop the other day downtown, and he had pulled up to the sidewalk, about to dismount when his front wheel stuck in a sidewalk track and almost flipped him over. he had a bunch of stuff on his person that all came spilling out on the sidewalk before he caught himself. "not the phone!" i thought. crash. yeah, the phone got the worst of it.

a metal file comes in pretty handy for that... and maybe some 3m 600 sandpaper.

ThermionicScott 

For me, probably this one: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...rame-gulp.html

You know how sometimes curbs have ramps for wheelchairs/bikes, and sometimes don't? I was absentmindedly riding a sidewalk through my employer's parking lot at night when the latter followed the former, and I flipped in the air after hitting the curb at full speed. The story has a good ending, though -- my noggin was more or less okay, my buddies at the bike shop got to try out their ancient Park Tool frame straightener, and my bike is holding up 2000+ miles later.

autoteacher

1. Replaced a Shimano twist grip shift cable by removing and disassembling the entire assembly THEN watched a Youtube video detailing the simple procedure.

2. Cut the new cable 6 inches too short.

Sir_Name 

This is a great example of how I get my best learning done. I'd bet that lesson stuck.

autoteacher

Happy to help.

Luckily, we have two LBS in town that sell cables.

CMC SanDiego

Put me on the list for having done this, unfortunately the sound was very brief because the hanger broke off. :-(

CroMo Mike 

I usually forget to use the hanger. Some of my CV's have them and some don't. Something I do if loading the bike in the car without the rear wheel is to put a dowel or old spoke through or behind the dropouts to hold some tension on the chain. Kinda hard to forget to remove the dowel or spoke when reinstalling the wheel. I also have this yellow plastic thing that Nashbar used to sell that you use to hold the chain around the end of the dropout. Kinda nifty, but it gets all greasy and a PIA to store.

randyjawa 

Got married!-)

Chrome Molly

When I was in college and had no stand, my roommate had his girlfriend and some other eligible gals over. I was working on the drivetrain of my bike, while it was upside down resting on the bars. I had a certain interest in one of the guests so tried to quickly piece the bike together. When I had the cranks on, I turned it over and she noticed I had the cranks installed on the wrong sides.

Wythnail

I think its a law of the universe that everyone has t install something backwards at least once, fun story.

A few months ago I was riding to work and noticed on the other side of the road (it was on a hill) some construction had begun. I also noticed a huge amount of gravel piling up in the bike lane I'd use on the way home at the low point of the road. Of course it was dark by the time I got out of work and I forgot about the gravel completely, hit it while rounding the curve going as fast as I could (I can't seem to bike in a leisurely manner, its always all out) and went on a 15-20 foot slide on my face. dumb.

More recently I took a chance and bought a bike on ebay from a guy offering free shipping who had only ever sold dvds. A month later it still isnt here and he's gone silent.

Rocky Gravol

I've been calling my Peugeot an OU10,

I've just noticed it's an UO10.

Lascauxcaveman 

My big brother (who currently has my PH10LE on long term loan) would call it a POO-joe. I'm taking it back from him and loaning him my Bianchi in its place, to see if does any better on the Italian pronunciation.

etherhuffer 

+1