What is the worst mechanical issue you have ever experienced?
 

The worst, and actually the only, mechanical issue I have ever encountered that needed to be fixed on the road was with flat tires. I did lose spokes occasionally but it never stopped me from arriving at my destination. Towards the end of my first bicycle's life, I went a few weeks without replacing a few spokes. Other issues that I developed with the bottom bracket, with the crank, and other miscellaneous things that I can't really remember never really stopped me from continuing my rides.

I have a feeling that I might have been lucky or that because I rode fixed gear- I avoided a lot of issues. Now that I have a geared bike and that I have been getting into much longer riding, I feel like I might encounter more issues. I was curious as to what some of these issues might be and what is the absolute worst mechanical issue that you have ever encountered on a ride that needed to be fixed during the ride.

Several tandems blew out their rear Hugi hubs at PBP03, most of them DNFing.

I know a few people who've broken frames, splinted them and finished.

Have broken 2 frames and broken one fork.
Not exactly easy to fix on the roadside!
These are not exactly 'mechanical' failures but wear and tare.
However that is in over 300,000 miles of bicycling, so not exactly an every day occurence.

I've had several issues over the years:

- Broken rear derailleur cable: a couple of times. Haven't had one break in several years because I replace it yearly now regardless of its condition. Can replace the cable if you have one and can get the broken stub out, but easier to just adjust the limit screw in as much as possible to gain 2 or 3 cogs.
- Broken frame at bottom bracket shell: rode 20 miles home, rather gingerly, after looking down and seeing it ripped halfway around. Rather flexy on the pedals, discovered in a club sprint
- Broken seatpost clamp (sheared in half): rode 20 miles back to the car, standing, with the seat in my pocket. I've since had a friend who broke his seatpost clamp who inverted a bottle over the seatpost to allow a bit of a break. Another ziptied the seat in place to allow careful sitting.
- On our tandem while on a tour in Germany, our rear drum brake internal springs broke: miraculously a bike shop was only a couple of hundred yards away, where the owner was able to repair it even though he'd never seen one before and had to do some serious grinding to make room for the oversize spring he came up with as a repair.

Mark W

Worst was when the steerer tube on our tandem sheared right at the top of the fork resulting in the front wheel/fork suddenly separating from the frame. Not something that could be fixed on the spot (although the fork and frame were repaired about a week later by Colin Laing, a local frame maker). Nor was I in a condition to continue riding for a while after the incident.

Oddest roadside repair was when the lockring on the cassette of my single unscrewed and wedged against the inside of the dropout. Stopped my pedaling instantly and I coasted to a stop. Unfortunately the ring had become cross-threaded and was stuck so I could neither loosen nor tighten it. Finally found a big rock by the side of the road and pounded on it to try and get it level and no longer cross-threaded. That finally worked and I was able to unscrew it, clean out the threads as much as possible, and hand-tighten it (didn't have a cassette tool). It stayed put for the 50 or so miles remaining on the ride.

Broken chain: Twice. Fixed with my Crank Bros multitool.

Rear Hub Failure: Once. This one happened on a 7-day tour between Colorado/Utah back in 2004. Started having slight issues on the 4th day. By the 7th day I could barely pedal the bike, but I did manage to somehow finish. Taught me about the importance of good components.

The worst I've ever had was popping a couple of spokes while going uphill. I was 20 miles away from anything and in an area with really poor cell phone coverage and little traffic. I tried to ride with it, but the wheel was just too warped and rubbed even with the brakes open.

Putting the RD into the spokes is not good. Having an RD disassemble itself is not good. Many small parts to find. Broken RD cable is easy to fix: shove in a stick to hold it in one position, or tie off the cable. Then you have a 2 or 3 speed bike, and usually a very nice 2 or 3 speed bike, no problem.

In the 1998 BAM ride I sent my crew ahead to rest after changing bikes only to discover that my "lightest" tire/wheel combo - had a soft tire. I rode about 15 miles on a slow-leak flat down to 50 lbs - but still managed to win - riding 550 miles in 41 hours.....

Wow! I'm scared to go riding my bicycle now. Am I wrong to say that most of these mechanical failures couldn't have been prevented with better preparation? It seems like most of these are rather random and unforeseeable...

Let's see...anything from the usual flat tires...oh yeah, day after New Years last year got the flat tire and then the frame pump crapped out on me leaving me walking 12+ miles home. Fortunately I did manage to get a hitch for 3-4 miles of the walk but still had to walk the rest of the way home in cycling shoes/cleats. Yes, the cleats were pretty much destroyed as a result of the walk home.

Derailleur hanger twice broke on me. Once leaving me walking 5 miles home.

Crank arm bolt stripped out first day of winter last year. I was on an 'outboard(I think that was the term that was used) bottom bracket. In this particular case the crank arm spindle goes through the bottom bracket and the chainring side of the crank arm is 'permanently' attached to the spindle. If the other side comes loose you get slop in the chainrings(left/right) and can easily have the pop off on you. I had the crank arm bolt strip out and had to ride one legged for 15 miles to the LBS. Yes, rather fun. NOT!!:)

Mid January had the rear hub get loaded up with salt/sand from road plowing/sanding and I couldn't pedal. Wouldn't take me anywhere. Fortunately I wasn't all that far from the LBS at the time...just across town. Still took 30-45 minutes to walk there in cycling shoes/cleats.

Junk rear wheel from the beginning that finally failed on me completely and left me walking home. Wheel was waranteed out. Never have replaced so many darn spokes on a wheel in such a short period of time.

I think that is it. I had so much stuff go wrong over the past two years that it's all a blur. Fortunately with the new bike(now over 6000 miles on it in the past 3 months since I got it) I haven't had much of any kind of problems anymore. Just keep the chain changed every 2000 miles or so and it's running nicely.

Don't be scared. It's all part of the thrill. Just be prepared with the basics... How to fix a flat, chain, spoke (get a fiberfix). Carry a multitool, a pump and basic spares. Some of these could be very specific to your bike: spokes, chain link, tube. Building a bike with good, reliable components is important. Same goes with regular maintenance. Things will happen even with all this preparation. Always carry some cash/credit card to bail out. Don't think too much about it and have fun!

I dont have too many mechanicals anymore. In fact, since 1995 I have not DNF'ed any event because of a mechanical issue. I keep all my bikes in new or near new condition. Over the years I have had a few issues though. On PBP in 03 I had a nearly new (I did Climb 2 Kaiser on it) rear wheel break two spokes at once. Luckily I was only about 15kms from Brest. They rebuilt the wheel for me. Also on that ride my BB came loose. I had to bend a metal tire iron into a makeshift spanner wrench to get me to a mechanic. Other than that, I folded a chainring over on a 600k. Nothing I couldn't fix with a rock though. ;)

spokes are the worst thing, I finished the last 100 miles or so on PBP with a broken spoke. Not sure how much longer the wheel would have lasted, the rim buckled a little. That was a relatively new wheel, but I was unfamiliar with that rim, so it probably wasn't the best choice.

On my 2nd century (solo) I slashed my rear tire somehow. Bad enough that it couldn't be booted. About 40 miles from home, so it was near the apex of the ride. Luckily I was carrying a spare foldable tire. Installed it, and made it home.


On my way back home from a commute to work last year (40 miles round trip), 18 miles from home the rear wheel spontaneously detensioned itself; every spoke came loose. Kept trying to retension it every mile but nothing I did was good enough. Finally said screw it, rode on it until I got to the bike shop 10 miles from home, where they told me the wheel was toast. They gave me a ride home, thankfully, and built me a new one that is still true to this day.

On another commute home, coincidentally 18 miles from home, climbing a hill, I somehow stripped the threads from the cassette lockring, which caused the cogs to become nice and loose. Shifting was hilariously fun, so I tried keeping it in one gear in the back and just using the chainring up front for shifting. Bike shop was closed for the day already so I got home and brought the bike to them the next day.

On a casual 50 mile ride, about 15 miles in, I noticed a grinding sound coming from the back wheel, and it felt harder to pedal. I couldn't find anything wrong externally though. I was about 30 minutes away from the bike shop, and they were closing in 10 minutes, so I figured I'd just head home and see them the next day. They told me a pawl broke in the freehub and it could have been pretty dangerous to ride like that because it could have locked up the hub and essentially turned my bike into a fixie, which is dangerous if you're not prepared for that. Whoops.

Worst I've had was broken spokes (4 broken). Turned out the issue was that the rim was separating from itself. That was with about 4,000 miles on the wheel, so hard to predict.

A few weeks ago, I was riding with a lady who leaned her bike against a building. It fell over, bent the rear derailleur hanger. When I tried to straighten it out some, it snapped right off. That ended her ride.

A co-rider broke a tandem crank. They sagged the stoker in, he moved a stoker crank up front, and finished the ride solo.

I've seen a shift cable break on a ride, and now carry a spare.

My legs fell off once...wait, that probably doesn't count.

Just a few flat tires for me, and one broken spoke that required me to open my rear brake's QR. But then I haven't been doing this for long at all, so I'm sure many misadventures await me!

Last year I was riding on a bumpy road, hit a big pothole, my foot slipped off the pedal, and hit the tire, causing me to go over the handlebars. I only had a few scratches but it, destroyed my fork, and my rim was bent beond repair, the stem and handlebars were so scratched up I ended up replacing them, cycling computer destroyed, gloves destroyed, derailer bent. 300 dollars later I was able to ride again.

In 40 years of riding, I've amassed quite a few. I've had six frames break underneath me (no crashes, and three of them were Chinese titanium frames being sold by Performance, one warranty frame after the other, which is why I don't think much of Ti as frame or saddle rail material), one of them at the worst possible time, during a provincial masters road championship on a course I had won on the previous year. Another time I had a handlebar break while I was on a solo break during a race. I've also broken six cranks (Shimano and Campag, both high- and low-end), back in the days when I wasn't washing off the cranks religiously after riding to work and back in the snow in Vancouver. The salt would build up and get into/weaken the aluminum, and by the next fall, the crank would either crack or just break completely, sending me over the handlebars. Oh yeah, every Ti-railed saddle I've ever owned has broken (except the current one, a warranty replacement being used on my track bike).

But I think the worst mechanical that can befall you is much more mundane. I think that puncturing in a cold rain, while your hands are too frozen to even push down on the tire to feel how hard it is, has got to be about the worst mechanical to endure. You spend forever trying to replace the tube with hands that are incapable of doing even the simplest things, like unscrewing a tight valve, and by the time you're finished, you are so cold that you start to shiver once the bike starts moving. That's gotta be the toughest thing.

Luis

The worst was probably when I wore through the rims on my commuter, I knew they were getting thin and I had actually ordered a new set from the shop a few days prior.

I have ripped off my derailer on the mountain bike, plenty of flats, broken spokes, broken chain, broken freehubs. Most problems can easily be solved road side with a multi tool and some creativity and many can be prevented with maintaining your gear and proper riding technique (the broken chain was from shifting under load, something I know better than but I was tired and not thinking)

Worst? I've broken three frames, broken two spokes, and completely taco'd a rim due to Rhode Island DPW idiots leaving an open hole that they cut in the pavement unmarked or coned off. I tried to bunny hop over it and ALMOST made it. It was a big hole. I was 12+ miles from home and had to walk and drag my bike home, since the rear wheel was completely rubbing on the chain stays.

My friend DNF'd at mile 165 in a very tough double century because of a broken RD cable. The mechanic had a spare cable, but they could not figure out how to route the cable through the downtube (CF frame with internal routing). The problem was that the next climb was about 1500ft with over 20% sections, then a 600ft climb with 20% sections, then a lot of flats and rollers. There was no way to find a compromise fixed position for the RD. We were running short on time for the cutoff, which I made with 5 minutes to spare.

Worst mechanical problem I've had on the road happened when a small stick got stuck in my chain, sucking my rear derailleur into the cassette and destroying them both along with the chain and severely bending my derailleur hanger (which is part of my steel frame, not a separate piece). Fortunately, it didn't destroy my rear wheel and I was not hurt. However, it was a brand new frame (maiden voyage), new ultegra RD, new ultegra cassette, and ultegra chain. :cry: It's the only time I had to call for a rescue ride home.

What double century were you doing? I rode 25+ miles of the Terrible Two double century in a 39/11 gear because I didn't know I could tie the cable in an easier gear. That was lots of fun. A dnfing rider donated a cable off of his tandem at the base of the Fort Ross climb so I was able to finish the ride.

Yeah, you just tie it off. Unreeve it, take it to the nearest frame junction, pull it tight, and tie a knot. Usually takes a couple of tries to get the gear you want. Works with either RD or FD. Having a helper is nice.