MrCjolsen

Did you every drop the chain on your fixed gear? Have a cog come off of a suicide hub? Other mechanical disasters that resulted in serious damage to your bike or face?

What happened as a result? (crash, broken frame etc)

What was the alleged cause? (bad chainline, loose chain, grease instead of loctite)

I once had an entire right crankset come detached from the bike, chainrings and all. I sat down, coasted to a stop and then walked around with the crankarms and chainrings clipped to my foot for a good couple of minutes (they were harder to get off than you might think)

teakwood

No crash or anything, besides just being unnerved as ****.

luvthemas

Crank arm came off my MTB once, still clipped in the pedal.

transplant

snapped the driveside crank arm in two on a fixed gear as i was going around a corner. as i was pedaling through i pushed down and it sheared off and my foot went straight to the pavement. somehow saved my manhood from the toptube and didn't crash. it was awesome.

mascher

On a geared bike during my first week as a courier, standing up and mashing through a yellow, my chain snapped and I caught the neck of the quill stem in the crotch, which happily kept me from flying over the bars in the middle of an intersection. I had a silver dollar sized bruise that radiated pain at the bottom of my pubis for a week.

On a fixed I um, dropped a chain because it was really worn. And once my rear wheel slipped pedaling uphill in freezing rain. Skidded once when trying to backpedal to stop quickly, that was no fun at all.

john_and_off

what kind of crank was that?

i'm making a mental note to stay away...

heebro

Snapped fork steerer on my Gunnar Street Dog.
Broken Paul Neo Retro front cantis: $100
Bent MA2 rim: $50
Dent in top tube: $0

Having your front teeth go through your upper lip, and showing up at the ER where you calmly deadpan to the admitting nurse "I think I should probably get this looked at": Priceless...

cingram

I've snapped my left crank-arm twice to date. Once on my single speed mountain bike during a cross race, right around the bottom bracket spindle (it was a quality crank too...some forged, RaceFace thing). I finished the last lap with one crank.
The other time was when I was working as a messenger in Boston. It just snapped, right in the middle. It was some old Shimano deal, and I was running too high of a gear ratio for the thing, but it did almost kill me (there was a bus coming straight at me).
Not the best storys, but still crap luck.

roadfix

Snapped a quill stem bolt during a descent and lost steering.....but this happened on my road bike. Likely cause: over-torquing.

kmart

Coolest thread ever. Keep em coming!

sashae

Sugino 75 Carbon pedals, left pedal sheared off at the spindle at full speed.

gargiulo.mike

once i was slowing down from like 21mph(rip cateye), and like my cog loosened or something and all this force was let loose and i somehow managed to go forward and i smashed my nuts and cock on the stem. long story short, my private part was like bruised blue for a couple weeks and it hurt so bad to piss.

EDIT: sorry, i dont have a pic...

DeafLamb

Thank god.

Accident

-I was going down a hill into campus and as I resisted to slow down the chainring folded (no brakes!) so I had to bomb the hill with a red light ahead. Students were packing the crosswalk so I just started to scream so they would move and luckily they parted for me, ala Moses, and I was able to fly by and use my shoe to stop without hurting anyone.

fixedfiend

snapped at about 26mph. skidding along like fred flinstone on one foot before slaming down.

Accident

damn! lucky to be alive for sure since you can descend deathly fast on a road bike

12XU

I have two pairs of the same pedals but fortunately I'll be alright since I'm not riding them on geared bikes.

vpiuva

Reading this thread hurts, but I just can't look away.

A geared story: My failure only hurt the bike and my wallet. My Campy C10 chain failed as I was climbing a nasty hill. Though standing, fortunately I didn't fall or damage any important human parts. The broken link pin grabbed between my rear derailleur cage and bottom sprocket, and my pedaling stroke yanked the derailleur up above the hub axle, so it looked like it was on upside down. I should have taken a picture. Had to replace the pulleys, derailleur pivot bolt, the derailleur hanger, and my dropout was bent so badly that I thought the frame was a goner (heat treated aluminum) I was lucky, though, judicious rebending of the dropout saved it.

Something is wrong when you guys can break cranks and bottom brackets. Keep the stories coming.

tbrtbx

i had an old threaded quill stem on a peugeot. I was going up a steep hill and really going for it when it completely sheared just above the head tube.

I'm just grateful i wasn't going downhill.

andrew young

Climbing a really steep hill on a stock '04pista, the chainring folds almost completely in half, on a cold frozen day in downtow Mpls. Had to call for a ride......

shogun17

I used a set of Shimano pedals to test ride a campy bike and they burst into flames.

Hocam

That's funny because I used a set of campy pedals to test a Shimano bike an they turned into sushi.

Serendipper 

Long time no see lurker!

So you're in my woods now, eh? See you 'round.

My story involves my loose ex-girlfriend and her ass hole benefactor, a 40-oz of malt liqour and a .22 pistol on a rainy night. Don't worry, only feelings were hurt and hearts broken--but damn. Catastrophic indeed.

p3ntuprage

catastrophic failure to engage brain before riding:

i forgot that i was in clipless pedals [not clips] and fell over at the top of the road. riding around for another half hour probably contributed to what's now a broken wrist. d'oh.

fsnl
sparky

kmart

That chainring looks quite worn. Did it come with the Sugino cranks?