2702

The dealer that did that to my new Synapse gave me back my money in full. The collapse of the seatpost caused a crack in the frame.

upthywazzoo 

Wow. That is scary for sure. Did you end up getting another one?

zymphad

Good dealer, he could have said it was user damage.

2702

No, the bike was a 2012 closeout model and I bought a CAAD 8 instead. Whole new style of bike, me like very much.

The whole ordeal took less than one week to finish from buying new Synapse returning it and buying a CAAD.

bleui

it just never gets old

gaucho777 

Pinching pennies on tires.

Getting tubular glue all over the sidewall.

Not continuing to pedal while you stand up out of the saddle, thus throwing your back wheel into the rider behind you.

Using the wrong tool.

Picking the wrong gear to start a sprint--a more serious error in the days of DT shifting.

Assuming a drivers see you because they are looking right at you.

Washing genuine chamois shorts in a washing machine/dryer, and then trying to stretch them back into shape.

Getting into your car after a ride before removing the uneaten banana.

NoviceJohn

When I bought my first road bike, I attempted to get on the saddle like I did on my walmart mtb. Instead of standing on the peddles to get on the saddle, I throw my left leg up to put my ass on it. Also, when I stop, I attempted put both feet down to the ground for balance. Lets just say both noob mistakes resulted in me falling down.

danmc

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet (I'm too lazy to read through all of the posts), but you should practice changing your tires at home in front of the TV when you have some free time, and practice using your pump. You don't want the first time you use your pump and try to change your tire when you're on the side of the road, in the rain, and it's getting dark.

Even though I know this, I recently got a new Road Morph G pump and even though I tried it out at home first, I didn't know how to change it from Presta to Schrader, and sure enough out on the MUP a couple of days ago a guy with a flat and Schrader valves needed help, and I couldn't figure out how to convert the pump. I ended up using my CO2 cartridge on his tire. After I got home I looked up how to do it on the internet and it was simple, but not intuitive.

turky lurkey

If riding your mountain bike, wearing nothing but shorts and sandals on the highway while carrying a surfboard in your left hand, do not reach across with your right hand to change the left shifter. You might wipe out and mess up yourself and your surfboard.

I Should have put this in the riding solo is dangerous thread, but I just remember this incident that happened about 10 years ago.

hhnngg1

The main rookie error:

Suffering from upgraditis and placing disproportionate importance on the equipment rather than the rider.

It's ALL about the rider. Even for serious racers, once you get down to any drop-bar bike (so you're at least in teh same class of bike), it's 99% rider, and 1% bike (or less).

cellery

Oh yeah definitely. Also standing up on a climb without speeding up or signalling when you've got people behind you. Done that before, got yelled at.

Niloc

lol thanks for the tip. I guess in this situation you just need to pick a chainring and stay in it.

mlander

Riding can make a skinny guy faster, but it can't make a fat guy skinny? Wouldn’t weight loss and training benefit both riders? This post is bewildering and can only be perceived as totally unprovoked bashing.

Nachoman

Not paying attention to nutrition. In college, my friends and I would go bang out 70 or 80 miles with no food at all. By the end of the ride, I'd be ready to drop. In retrospect I was obviously malnourished and dehydrated. And I thought I was just a weak rider.

TMonk

No local cycling culture to impart wisdom? That was my experience.

capsisking

So... Newbie here... What should I do?

ConGrUenCy

Push it in with your thumb or stop and bang it in.

zymphad

For the average rider, but for serious racers? Please, at that level of competition, fitness and ability bikes make far more difference than that. Even a super expensive boutique Ti from Moots is no comparison to the Felt AR/Specialized Venge. It's 7 seconds slower according to Peloton Magazine on a course they use with mix of flats, descents and lots of cornering. They also said it takes more work to sustain speeds on a Moots than it did with carbon bikes they tested, the power transfer was clearly evident and felt. And the cornering and handling was also inferior, twitchy.

But for someone like me, a Moots won't be holding me back, I can agree with that. For someone like me, any good racing bike won't be the factor in why I was slower that day, but me.

coasting 

Stop. You must stop. Make sure you stop.

If you bang on the move hard enough, you might fall onto your face on the ground.

coasting 

Here's another one.

Do not put an over-ripe banana into a jersey pocket on a hot day and forget about it on a 6 hour ride.

hhnngg1

Again, as the post title says - what were your rookie mistakes?

It doesn't say what were your UCI PRO mistakes.

But even at the pro level, they're interchanging bikes regularly. There is no one superbike that everyone uses because it's so much better. I've made this analogy before, but compare to swimming where a speedo swimsuit (now illegal) caused so many world records to drop in the year it was introduced that it was banned. Pretty much every swimmer, even those sponsored by non-speedo company, started wearing those suits until they were banned. And the time gains were very similar to that of bike aero gear in terms of percent time savings (like tenths of a second in a short swim race.)

caloso

Cheaping out on contact points.

capsisking

HA! The fact that he was referring to banging in the plug while moving didn't even occur to me! Now I definitely understand, that would be bad.

RonanP77

I'm picking up some good tips here.

Doing 70km on my 3rd real cycle might have been too far, I'll keep it below 50km for a few more weeks.

I need to stop wearing boxers under my cycling shorts.

I need to stop changing gears half way up a hill.

Weatherby

Rolled a tire at close to 40 mph, got run over by the pack, but at least I won the Prime.

Stopping at a store for food and letting the bike out of my eyesight.....stolen.

Not properly maintaining the chain.

Running cheap or inappropriate tires.

Setting the BB cup and races too tight

Too loose on the headset = shimmy

Not watching the right riders for a break and being in the wrong position

Eating too close to a race or not taking a dump = same result....painful gut

Believing Eddy was clean, Lance was clean, etc.