gearbasher

This is a rip-off of the "Bonehead Moves you have found from Former Owners" thread. But, I had to start it. Because, I just pulled a bonehead move and I need to kick myself in the butt.

I'm overhauling my Guerciotti. I have a beautiful VAR BB fixed cup remover. Well, I'm pulling the fixed cup on the C-record BB with it and I forgot to take out the retainer w/bearings. I only hand tightened the tool to the fixed cup, but I managed to destroy the retained. Not a real big deal. But, a real bonehead move.

Make me feel better. Tell me your blunders. Hopefully worse than that.

Puget Pounder

not a bonehead move at all. I was hung over like crazy, but I screwed a fixed cup in on the non-drive side. Why didn't I stop when it got difficult? I don't know... I was hung over.

The BB was miraculously undamaged though.

Homebrew01

I built a new fork for my brother's bike, but cut the steerer too short. DOH !!

JReade

I can't tell you the amount of times I've gotten on a bike for a shakedown ride and didnt have the rear qr tightened properly. Recently I didnt tighten the handlebar clamp on a bike tight enough, it was just enough to hold the bar in place for wrapping and running cables etc. I go on a quick ride, on the hoods, and hit the brakes. Yep, bars rotated real nice, almost put me on my face.

Flying Merkel

Didn't tighten locknut on front bearings, snapped axle on Varsity.

Over-tightened derailleur mounting bolt on Super Strada, snapped off.

Cleaned up my garage, threw out two complete Chicago Schwinns & assorted parts.

Cross-threaded bottom bracket on a Gary Fisher.

-and-

Jumped off a curb riding an old Royce Union 10-speed while carrying a fish-n-chip lunch and wearing sandals. Foot went into the spokes, jamming the front wheel to a halt in mid-air. On landing, the right hand fork blade was bent severely, lunch went flying, and I broke my arm on the first week of summer vacation. Passed out from the pain while carry the bike home. 17 years old. We did stuff like that.

Buncha other swift moves that have become obscured by the mist of time.............

Pars 

A number of years ago, went to pull the Campy NR crankset... forgot to remove the bolt on the non-drive side first. Thought it odd that aluminum shavings were coming up as I screwed the extractor bolt down

Didn't strip all the threads and it is still usable, just a constant reminder to think a bit before acting.

lotek 

I opened my mouth and blabbed to the world about Zieleman frames, now the prices are quadruple what they were. . .
as a stupid teenager went riding down the street on the front rack of my buddies bikes. Rack broke away from frame but
was attached to axle, it pivoted really well. Needless to say I bounced all over the pavement and took about a dozen
stitches in the chin for it.

toytech

I put an isis crank set on an octalink bb once, made it exactly 1/2 revolution under power

SteveSGP

Pulling the cranks on my Raleigh, pulled the drive side just fine but the non-drive side wouldn't budge and pulled the threads out of the arm.

Yup, forgot to remove the retainer bolt. DUH.

Thankfully it did still have enough left to pull the crank after removing said bolt.

dashuaigeh

tried to remove a drive-side Sakae triple crank; forgot to remove the washer underneath the crank bolt. Threads came out nice and clean...

Ex Pres 

I'm best at not tightening things completely before short test rides, like JReade's handlebar incdident above. Usually happens when I get interrupted for a few days in a build.

But the worst thing I have done - I cut the derailleur hanger and BB cable guides off a frame. Now - it was unidentified and without an original fork - but it rides so nice that I wouldn't mind converting it back to a geared, if still unidentified, ride.

(The cut is so clean and filed you would never know it, though, as the frame's been repainted.)

gearbasher

Thanks. I'm feeling better. Sorry to say, but a few made me chuckle. Keep 'em coming.

Roll-Monroe-Co

My first time using my new crank puller, years ago. Got confused and just kept tightening the part that threads into the crank, destroying the threads.

Ooh, here's another good one: Riding my friend's nice new cross bike on a 10-mile ride. He's on the tandem with our other friend, who is blind. Brake on the cross is a little soft, so I go to take up some cable with the barrel adjustor. It doesn't seem to help, so I keep cranking it a little more at each stop. Can't figure out why it's not working, then I realize, I'm adjusting the rear derailleur. We swap bikes. Later he tells me (how could this be true?) that he took it to the LBS and they said that by making this adjustment, I ruined the cassette, which he expensively replaced. (If this is true, another reason to avoid modern equipment ... is it really that feeble?) True or not, I was very embarrassed when my friend told me. And I could tell that he no longer thought I was a bike mechanics god.

Flying Merkel

One more crank puller story:

Screwed in about halfway, and pulled out half the threads.

lostarchitect 

I have at one time or another, and not just on bicycles, stripped the threads on just about anything you can strip threads on. I have also broken the heads off numerous bolts and screws. Apparently I don't know my own strength.

Puget Pounder

I don't really understand what's happening here. Were you adjusting the adjuster on the downtube cable stops and somehow your sheer finger strength overcame the integrity of a hunk of metal? Tell us more.

mapleleafs-13 

the most annoying thing that i hate is when you accidentally chip paint while using a tool, i've only done this twice on my personal rides. One time was last year when this BB was sooooooooo stuck on my pinarello, i torque it , then started using a mallot. THe mallot usually works really well with medium taps, but i had to start hitting it harder and it came loose and so did the tool, making a small chip on the bb underside. most recently i was changing the seat on a seat post and the bolt feel out and made a small chip on the bridge stay on a pretty much mint bike, i was so mad at myself after. i like my stuff being really crisp and mint condition. I'm usually really careful with that stuff not to chip anything but when it happens i want to KILL someone....

lostarchitect 

Here's a bonehead move my motorcycle mechanic did: He was installing new kevlar brake cables on my Cagiva. He somehow slipped with the wrench and cracked my instrument cluster. Doh. And, guess what? You can't just replace the lens, you have to replace the entire cluster. $500. Shipped from Italy, if you can maybe get someone over there on the phone who cares. Sigh. I didn't make him replace it because he'd been good to me over the years. This was about 9 or 10 years ago. The crack is still there.

Zumkopf

Tried to unscrew a splined Shimano bottom bracket with a drift punch and a mallet. It disintegrated.

Robofunc

I snapped the clamp bolt on a NOS Suntour Seven FD last weekend. It was just going in smoothly, then "plink." Broken. What did I do?!

wrk101

Most of my blunders have been bikes I bought that I should not have bought. The last one was a Trek 510. Sure, I inspected it carefully, and the seat post was stuck. But I was ten for ten at freeing up stuck posts!! No problem!! Well, now I am ten out of eleven.....

I've bought and sold enough bikes that buying mistakes are par for the course. My goal is to reduce my number of mistakes. I figure if I not make any mistakes, then I am not taking enough chances on deals, so I miss out.

Roll-Monroe-Co

Heh. I don't know. It never made any sense to me. Who knows. My friend is a practical joker. Maybe he said that on purpose.

The cassette was aluminum. The way he described it, the chain being misaligned rubbed against one of the cogs, somehow ruining it. I was like: What are they made of? Coke cans?

lotek 

exactly one day after painting and letting my Trek 770 cure I dropped an allen wrench on the corner of the flat fork crown, nice cream colored paint showing a dark grey chip, the primer. . . sigh.

sykerocker 

Of course, that was assuming you can get an instrument cluster for a Cagiva anything. I was parts manager for Ducati Richmond a decade ago, and had enough trouble coming up with replacement bits for my (then) 11 year old 906 Paso. Cagiva? I'd just laugh, and then commiserate with the customer.

sykerocker 

It's called the school of "tighten it until you head a crack, then back it off half a turn". I've given post-graduate courses in it.