Always check your nuts before you ride. You too girls! I was just coming back from a lunchbreak ride on my fixed folder to the local Barnes & Noble and noticed a slight wobble with my left pedal/crank. Turns out the crank bolt somehow loosened itself off. Perhaps from riding in my trunk and absorbing all the road bumps and potholes? Luckily my crank decided to loosen itself off once I got back to work and I only had to pedal one-footed for about 50 feet.

So don't forget to check your nuts!

You mean bolts right?

This happned to me when I was drunk and working on my bike. I took the bike for a test ride and forgot to put the crankbolts back in past finger tight. About halfa block down the street my left crank falls off onto the road and I realize I'm an idiot. It was ISIS splined too so the splines on the bb and cranks are totally mangled. It wasn't a huge loss though. I also discovered the right crank bolt on my speedy bike comes loose after a few weeks. I was told this is because I'm doing trackstands on it but it also happened constantly on my BMX which is freewheel and ridden by my room mate who has no skills.

The problem with crank bolts is its really hard to tell how hard to torque them.

Edit: reading comprehension, folks

how many persons would be drawn to a thread titled "check your bolts"?

some older cotterless cranks use nuts that attach to threaded spindles, but those are pretty rare (and getting rarer). if you have cottered cranks, by all means check the nuts on the and of the cotters. but yeah, in general, to be on the safe side, you should probably check your nuts and your bolts before riding.

Well, In regards to my bike, I did mean nuts. But if you've got bolts, then just substitute bolts for nuts. heck, check your whole damn bike every now and again. Things are bound to loosen over time and well, I wouldn't want ya to crack your nuts cuz ya didn't check your bolts and you end up sliding into your stem or top tube.

I missed your original post but I assume it had something to do with the "riding in the trunk" part? Or am I just making an ASS out of U and ME?

thats why i tighten all my shiit til its about to strip.

You basically want it really ****ing tight. I mean, don't lean on the wrench with all your weight, but go just about as far as you can using your arm muscles. It's hard to strip out those big bolts. (Although it is easy to round off bolt heads, so make sure your wrench is on there nice and snug)

But you can screw up the cranks if you overtighten them. If you get them too tight, the nuts/bolts will bottom out and you will forever have crank wiggle. Just use blue loctite or grease ( i prefer loctite here because once the bolt starts to loosen, it gets worse very quickly and most of us don't carry a wrench big enough to fix it) and torque it to 35lb*ft. Borrow a torque wrench from someone to get the feel for the right amount of pressure. Tightening a fastener until its about to strip is a bad idea.

same happened to me! not on a fixie tho...

my singlespeed-modded 90s Specialized Allez Carbon had just gotten lifted, so my bro leant me his Rocky Mountain he wasn't using much (usually on his Al. Fetish Fixie) so that I could go riding with my girl. halfway out on paved trails i feel the left pedal start to give - look down and crank go bye-bye. had to hand-tighten it until i could find someone with the right sized allen key.

and to think i was gonna lower the seat on the Rocky so that my girl could ride the lighter bike that day, she said "don't bother". with only about 3 rides under her belt all year (the first year she's ridden in over 10 years) i don't think she would've been too keen to ride again after having that happen to her.

joe

I had just brought home a used Surly Crosscheck. It needed work. I removed the crank bolts, and discovered that they were Shimano Octalink and I lacked the tool to remove the cranks.

So I got on the bike and headed to the LBS to see if they had the right tool.

Notice any step missing?

I was almost there, about to cut through the Borders parking lot, when suddenly the right crank gave way under my foot. The next thing I know, I was standing in the road, with the right crank clipped to my foot, but not attached to the bike. Ever try to walk with a 53/39 crankset clipped to the bottom of your foot? Ever try to bend over to remove a 53/39 crankset from your foot while standing the other foot? Ever have this happen to you in the middle of the Borders parking lot at lunch time?

Note: If you live in Davis and were witness to this spectacle, please do not let it affect your opinion of Surly bicycles. They are fine pieces of machinery.

...and check axle nuts too. I once forgot to tighten the nuts on my front wheel beyond finger-tight, then went bombing down a hill at 30+ mph. I got to the bottom unscathed (and completely unaware), but when I got home and realized what I'd done, I about sh*t myself.

^I've seen a tallbike lose its front wheel after going over a speed bump.
The guy had plenty of time to make silly faces while s-l-o-w-l-y going over the bars.