Originally Posted by
noglider
I see hundreds of people on bikes every day, so yeah, I see this stuff daily. Some people are not attuned to their bikes. The most surprising thing is when these people are on high end bikes. I would have expected more awareness there, but I'd be wrong. Lots of squeaky chains on racing bikes.
Are you seeing the same ones over and over, or maybe just noticing the guy who's too fed up at the moment to fix a problem that popped up, and would rather risk a bit more damage and pedal harder to get home rather than walk the bike all the way to his tools? (Or to his favorite LBS, I guess.)
When I would ride my old IronHorse AT20 around Dallas, there were times I'd just ride a couple miles on a flat rather than fight with the non-QR wheels using a Crescent wrench, or let the brake or derailleur drag and squawk until I got home to do a proper adjustment.