gomango

Putting Veloflex Masters on Campy Neutron wheelsets.

Absolutely humbling experience.

I have RA in my hands and it took bloody thumbs and a week to wrestle these into place.

God help me when I flat on the road.....

I'm hoping they have stretched enough to take them off to fix a tube.

sloar 

I think they make the Neutron wheels smaller than other wheels. I had a heck of a time getting Continentals on mine. I broke about a dozen plastic levers, I finally had to buy metal levers.

Prowler 

I don't know about the MOST frustration but the most recent was this freewheel problem. Atom freewheel that had been on a Raleigh GP for 45 years and neglected in a shed for the past 30. Even the approach above did not work as the tool was damaging the FW body. I finally decided to just skip it, disassemble the FW in place, clean, relube and reassemble it and just ride. Then I went to true the wheel only to strip the threads on one spoke (later found a bend in the rim that those spokes were trying to straighten - no way, too tight). You guessed it, that spoke had to come out the DS so the FW had to come off one way or the other. This wheel had a nice high flange Normandy hub and excellent condition Sturmey-Archer chromed rim - matched the front wheel.

As I've posted elsewhere, I took the FW apart again and dribbled Liquid Wrench into the gap behind the FW body for a month and let it sit near the wood stove. I torqued it a few times to no avail and dribbled some more. On the last attempt I heated the body again with the hot air *** and clamped it in the vice (across the two spots where the pawls go) and torqued again. Ah the joy when the wheel does turn free. Is all back together now, straightened rim, replaced spokes, new nuts, dished, trued and spinning nicely.

Of course now one of the ancient Simplex jockey wheels has broken so I'm searching for those. Never ending story.

kunsunoke 

So many moments of frustration to choose from.

- Fixing the PX-10. God, what a disaster that was, in so many different ways. My wrists are still buzzing from the sander I had to use to get the (MIJ-non-death-type) stem to fit.

- Getting an old, corroded and three-quarters destroyed Shimano cartridge bottom bracket out of a battered Stumpjumper. I had to break the fixed cup loose, using a bench vise, leveraging the frame itself against the SOB. Oh, and the seatpost was stuck fast as well.

- Refurbishing a RockShox Quadra 21. The dead/crumbled elastomers had to be removed, using a screwdriver.

- Destroying one of two RockShox Mag 20 sliders, due to inability to get the cap out of the stanchion.

- The realization that a "minor dent" in 5056 aluminum needed repair - $350 worth of it, in fact.

tarwheel 

I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but my most frustrating wrenching experience has been dropping small bolts, nuts and other parts in the garage and then not being able to find them! My mechanical skills are limited to jobs like fixing flats, installing cassettes, putting on fenders, taping bars, replacing chains, etc. My near vision is poor, and I often have a hard time finding dropped parts and they always seem to roll or bounce a lot farther than I would think possible.

jimmuller 

Here are two quick hints for those of you who, like myself, tend to drop small parts, nuts, washers, etc. When looking for them, hold a flashlight very close to or touching the floor and sweep it back and forth. Also hold you head down at floor level as you sweep your eyes. Small things are very easy to see that way because you reduce the search problem from two dimensions to one.

Mechanic's magnet. Sweep it under furniture, cabinets, etc. You'd be surprised at the things you can pick up this way!

JohnDThompson 

I wear leather welding gloves for that kind of work.

SJX426 

Discovered this years ago. Great way to find things that have been gone for awhile!

nlerner

Good tips, but my basement floor is 160-years old. In places it's an inch or so of dirt/dust, and that's where I suspect most of those parts end up. I'm a little afraid what might turn up with the magnet technique.

Fahrenheit531 

As someone who's only now learning all this stuff, my most frustrating wrenching experiences have been a direct result of not having the right tool or, until recently, not having a repair stand. I've improvised and made a non-bike-specific tool work more than I'd like to admit, and head to the co-op when that plan fails. I'm slowly building my collection of bike tools though, so my frustrations are dropping at a pretty good rate.

As for an actual bike-related frustration, I've been trying for a while to remove the pedals from my wife's '64 Collegiate for a while. I suspect they've been removed exactly never, and the bike spent most of its life in Portland. It's become a war of attrition.

noglider 

You need a longer lever.

RobbieTunes

I put a 2011 10-sp Veloce group on a Cinelli-made frame, including the external BB.
It went "on" quite easily, and I thought the spindle-to-L crank arm mating system was secure and fairly well-engineered.

Until it came time to remove same. The "standard" crank puller was a no-go, as the threads were wrong.
I read the instructions and it said to use a gear puller. What? On a bike? I didn't have one, so I put out the word, and BianchiGirll sent me one.
It was too big, or so I thought, and I couldn't get it to work. In fact, it seemed to make it worse; I could see the L crank arm flex.

The really frustrating part was having to take it to a shop. I hate that. Then it got better.
My friend works at REI and they are good wrenches in the Raleigh-Durham area, due to an excellent trainer who now builds frames.
Anyway, I let them break their gear puller on it. They ordered two more gear pullers from Park Tools, and broke those, as well.

I got the bike back, and was resigned to that Veloce crankset for ever.
Then, I sold the bike and the groupset separately, fully prepared to buy a 2nd crankset to go with the group.

As I morosely stared at the frame, lying there with a Veloce crankset, a melancholy came over me,
mostly at the departure of a true friend and frame, and some at my inability to solve a silly problem.
I was a little ticked at Campagnolo, as well. "Passion," my butt...

Anyway, this gear puller from BG was monstrous, and was taking up space on the shelf.
I figured "I have to buy a new crankset, anyway," and figured I'd give it a try, with no worries about damaging the crankset.
I decided to use the little Octalink insert that comes with those crank pullers to fill the gap a bit, maybe focus the gear puller's driver onto the spindle,
I dunno, I'd already had a beer, and what the hell, try something!

I mounted this whopping gear puller onto the L crank arm, balanced the plunger over the little Octalink insert, and spun it down.
It took maybe 10 seconds to remove the crank arm without a scratch. Forehead slap, beat against wall, open a beer. Thanks BG!
Your tool and my half a brain + 3 gear pullers at REI = success in the end.



I took in this Cilo, Columbus SLX and 2x6 indexed DA 7400, for $400.
Bought it for my brother-in-law (not going any farther on that one).

Anyway, the frame being Swiss, I had no clue if the BB was Italian or English. Damn neutrality.

I get everything off the bike, in anticipation of a repaint (and yes, it was chrome under the paint), and of course, the R BB cup was stuck, immaculate.
Nothing in my meager arsenal handled it. I take it to LBS, with the BB re-installed, in case they had a Sheldon-type contraption. They did not.
They call to say, "come and get it." I arrive, and the bike still has the R BB cup installed.
"We couldn't get it out."
"OK, I'll take it to a shop 45 miles away, the old wrench there can't fix it, no one can, and I'll re-pack the BB from the L side and re-use it."
"Uh, you mean you wanted to keep the BB?"
"Of course, it's a beautiful DA."
"Uh, we threw it away."
"You what? Are you #$@^%* me"
"Tossed it. Sorry."
Silently pick up the bike frame and leave.
Go to the shop 45 miles away, leave the bike, they call the next day, "bb is out, no problem, we had to do a little heating."
Pick it up, the BB is black with burned off paint. I buy an NOS BB for $50 and the bike gets new paint, new decals, the works, all original items back in it.
I went over budget ($400) by $50 on the BB, $25 on shop labor. Plus my time, gas, emotional scarring. For my brother-in-law.



Seat post. I'm with my bud in 1986 and we go into LBS and he orders a 1987 Ironman Master, yellow and white.
Fast-forward to 2011 and I offer to "restore" it for him. He brings me the bike at a triathlon, by boat from across the Pamlico Sound.
I put it on the triathlon rack, and his wife pulls me aside.
"Throw it away," she says, "we've had that thing in the way for 20 years."
"OK, I say."
I take it home, take it apart, except for the seatpost, which is stuck, holding a faded, worn Turbo, and store it.
Fast-forward again, to 2014.
My bud is recovering from cancer, in good shape, and after consulting with a couple of folks, I decide to get the Ironman out and go at it.
I soak the post in PB Blaster, WD40, Yuengling, and Texas Pete's. Nothing moves that seat post. I attack it from the top, the bottom, you name it.
I call his wife.
"I thought you threw it away," she says.
"Nope, decided to re-do it for him."
"Well, don't spend any money on it," She sighs, "bike people."
Shucks, that rules out the cutting, stripping, repaint and re-decal. I put it in a bench vise, upside down, and turn the frame. It moves the bench.
I take it to a body builder friend who works on bikes. He has a 16' bench, and a vise. We try again.
When the frame flexes, the vise mount breaks, we decide to leave it alone.
I find an NOS Turbo on eBay and hope the fit was already good.



Routing cables through a PDG Paramount, D'Arienzo, Kestsrel 200, Kestrel Talon.
Quickest-about 10 minutes, first try. Longest-about 3 hours.



I once fought an RD for 2 days, could not get it to be right on every cog.
I swallow my pride and call BF member drrobwave.
He comes over, we run it through the gears.
He reaches down and loosens/tightens the RD cable, runs it through the gears, reaches down and turns the cable adjuster about 3/4 a turn.
It's perfect. He just looks at me.

"Get out of my garage."



Just about any tire onto a Campy Eurus 10-sp rim.
Go. Mango. Not For The Side of the Road.

RobbieTunes

I bet you Felt different about it.

Tried that. Inhaled several very dried-up bugs, but I found that headset bearing.
I actually think something crawled in my ear.

Fahrenheit531 

Give me a long enough lever and I'll move the world!

ezln64

couldn't agree more. I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've broken out a 'hammer and chisel'

also internal cables can lose about 15 minutes on an hour of work with a strong magnet! especially if you don't care about the paint

Roger M

The only thing that I can recall being a pain in the ass, was installing some fenders last year. Not real difficult, but the time involved vs. my patience threshold...

However, my worst wrenching experience ever: A while back I had to replace a heater core in a Volvo 240. I believe replacing the whole drivetrain on that car would be much easier..

Flying Merkel

That picture just about made me cry. Like replacing the water pump on my Plymouth Voyager 4 cylinder did.

CroMo Mike 

I've got plenty of car repair war stories I won't bore you guys with, but related to the discussion about lost parts above, there was the time when I was reinstalling the 24-valve DOHC 6-in-line cylinder head on an early 90's Jaguar XJ-6. I accidentally dropped a washer that I never heard hit the floor. There was the real possibility it went into one of the 12 open intake ports. I couldn't find it anywhere, not in the ports, not in the intake manifold, not on the frame, not on the floor. I never found it. Buttoned everything up and she ran fine for many more years.

fender1

Did this to an almost new,1982 Trek 710.

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Post was stuck, I let soak in the usual stuff for about a week. Gave it a twist and it moved to the right! Yay! It got stuck again so I put the post in a vice, to use the frame as a lever. As I started to twist it back the other way, what I thought was "seat post motion' was actually the seat lug splitting.......

burnfingers

definitely finding square taper spindles to run in bikes that came with cottered BBs. I've tangled with that beast a few times, you'd think you could just hit up eBay and find a spindle with the right dimensions and raceway width but it seems like nobody bothers to measure spindles when selling them and when they do they are often wrong! I bought 5 for a '68 Chiorda before getting one that actually worked and I'm waiting on the third one I've had to order for my '64 Mercier. Uhg. totally worth it in the end, a vintage frame with the original cups but modern crankset options is a beautiful thing.

there was also this one time that the crown nut on a bike was way bigger and way tighter than it had any reason to be, had to chase down a janitor to raid his tool box for a pipe wrench to get the bugger off >_<

EDIT: forgot about the time a MTB with caged barings somehow ate the cage. like literally, the cage separated from the barings and was half ground up by the barings and what was left of the hub raceway... what a mess.

noglider 

@fender1, what did you end up doing with that Trek?

Velocivixen

YES! I have done this. I have started sweeping the garage floor more frequently since it's a lot easier to find tiny parts when there isn't "stuff" already on the floor.

jethin

Lbs scratched the clear coat on the nice, original paint of my 35 year old winter project last week, leaving jaggies on the seat tube. I'm still sick about it.

Velocivixen

About a year ago I got the itch to learn how to build wheels. I've never even seen it done. Last summer, my mechanic friend, invited me over to tutor me on wheel truing. She has all the "official" equipment, and being a very exacting person, has those dial gauges to get the wheels extra true. I enjoyed learning, and was even more committed to learning.

I scoured CL over the past year and had amassed the tools. A new in box TS 2.2 Truing stand, a Park dishing tool, bought a new tensionometer, and for the holidays even asked for a nipple driver and spoke wrenches! I bought a used copy of "The Wheel" by Jobst Brandt, and read it. I was set. I just need a bike that could use new wheels.

Then came along the 1955 Phillips. Front wheel had a big flat spot and the chrome was eroding off the rear, so I decided to go for it. Ordered the CR18 rim and bought spokes, brass nipples from my favorite wheelbuilder, and bought Linseed oil from my favorite hardware store, got a good nights sleep and awoke excited to get started.

If you've read Brandt's book you know that he instructs you to put in the spokes in four groups. I won't go into detail, but it took me 45 minutes to lace (it would have been quicker, but the first 8 had the nipples on backwards!). It was a 3X and I was thrilled. I followed the directions, and by the end of the weekend I had my first ever wheel. I was beaming with pride. It had finally all come together. I was on my way.

I couldn't bear to have two different wheels on my Phillips, so started scheming about the rear wheel. It has a Sturmey Archer Dyno-Three hub, with 3X on non drive side and 4X on drive side. Ordered the rim, picked up supplies. Asked wheelbuilder and my mechanic friend if there were any tips they could offer - anything "special" I should beware of. Other than knowing that the tension on the drive side would be higher, everything would be the same.

After a a good nights sleep, a hearty breakfast, I arranged all my parts on the dining room table. Installed the first group of four spokes. Flipped the wheel over and could not exactly figure out how to start the next spoke....called mechanic friend....texted photos. Decided to completely lace the 3X on NDS...at least that would narrow down the number of holes I had to deal with on the other side. Brandt's book did NOT address what to do or how to figure out wheels with different crosses on each side.

I laced the the drive side THREE TIMES, with each resulting in spokes too long, too short...I called my friend, she offered to drive over (she's about 20 miles away). In the meantime I finally got every spoke on the drive side into a 4X AND all the spoke lengths fit! After 3-4 HOURS I finally figured it out. I was relieved and proud that I muscled through....but something didn't look right...

There was no space above the valve to inflate the tire, there were two spokes in a row from the same side of the flange....How could this be!? My friend finally arrived. After some observation, she was able to see what needed to go where and she instructed me. After about 5 HOURS the wheel was laced. I took her to a cafe and bought cocoa and sandwiches and we discussed bike wheels.

The day was gone and it was evening. I figured that the truing part would be excruciating. Surprisingly, however I trued the wheel in about 2 hours. Lateral, radial, dish and tensions were all great. I finished!

My my mechanic friend will teach me the technique she learned which involves putting ALL the spokes to begin with, then lacing from there.

radeln

Most recently, trying to remove an old bottom bracket from a mid-1990s mountain bike. With a big breaker bar, it went PING and launched some part across the room, then came out. No idea what, never found it. Turns out this was one of the Shimano cartridge bottom brackets where they got the bright idea of swapping the fixed and removable cups.

Cantilever brake pad adjustment, thirty degrees of freedom that all affect each other and must be adjusted at the same time. Half an hour of riding, and the toe-in is wrong.

Also, watching someone grab a saddle and twist it back and forth to adjust height, leaving that unfixable zigzag scar on the post from the seat tube burr which nobody ever smooths down.