Al Downie

I needed to buy a whole bunch of new kit for a trip, including a new stove which would work in very cold conditions, and in places where fuel might be dodgy or scarce. I'd spent ages in the shops, studying stove features and learning all about fuel types, ease of cleaning, stability, wind-resistance etc etc, and eventually settled on this little fellow, because it could burn just about ANY kind of fuel, including yak pee, and the guy in the shop had just sold a whole bunch of them to the British Antarctic Survey people along the road.



If it's good enough for use in the Antarctic, it's good enough for me! I'd read all the instructions religiously, checked and double-checked the method at home (sea-level) with unleaded fuel and it seemed to work pretty well, so I cleaned it, packed it up and put it in my bag, and forgot about it until the big trip.

So! For the first few days of the tour we went out on an easy road, just to get a feel for the climate and the environment. It was hot and heavy work and we weren't used to the altitude (relatively low, about 3,500m), so when we finally got to our destination for the day I was completely exhausted and really, really looking forward to a hot meal and my sleeping bag. I got the stove out and fired-it up, but couldn't achieve the nice blue flame that I'd seen at sea level a month before. Could be the altitude, could be dirty fuel, whatever. I persevered, and barely managed to boil water for rice after about half-an-hour of belching, yellow, smoky flames. Ulrike was very uncertain about the stove, but I assured her that this is what happens at altitude - there's less oxygen so we get a yellow flame, and water boils at a lower temperature so it takes longer to actually cook stuff, or something like that. The next day was the same - we tried to cook some lentils but they remained hard, and I was really getting a bit depressed about the prospect of heading off into the wilderness with only lukewarm rice to eat every day. Bummer.

Once back at base for a couple of rest days, I took the stove out to give it a good clean, and only then did I realise that I'd been using it upside down. Doh! It did improve after that, but never quite worked as well as it's supposed to...

zeppinger

I had a nightmare on my last tour during typhoon Dianmu that hit the Korean peninsula. During the night I had neglected to stake out my tent as well as I should have because I was in a bad mood. I also pitched my tent so that my head was in the narrow part where my feet would normally go because I was not paying attention to the lay of the land and its slope. One of the tent pegs came out during the typhoon when the dirt turned to mud, the tent was laying on my face during the nightmare and a VERY close by bolt of lightning woke me up, not by the sound, but by the shaking of the ground all around me. I have no idea what I was thinking but by the time I was finished screaming and my eyes had adjusted to the darkness I had already tore most of the door off of my tent. It was the second day of the tour so it was pretty depressing to have destroyed my most important piece of kit due to a bad dream. Luckily I found a tailor the next day that repaired it for me for free and all was well.

You can read all about it in my journal. I was later sexually assaulted by a middle-aged Korean man during that same tour on day 8: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/p...id=164805&v=8u

meyers66

Well there wasn't one thing that went wrong on my first trip but many:
1. On the way to the staging area I realized I forgot my rear rack. 2. After I was dropped off and well on my way I realized I forgot my money. 3. It started to hale then rain heavily. 4. Camped under a temple without the ability to tie down my Tarp Tent properly because of the tile floor. 5. Got bitten on the toe by a fire ant. 6. Stove didn't work in the morning. This was my 6th time using the MiniBull Gram Weenie / v8 can stove. The center screw wouldn't come out.
What I learned: Day before pack everything. Take your money and sense of humor.
I want to do it again because the next morning was fantastic after the rain. Need to take a light weight tarp because Taiwan's rain and humidity is tricky.

mev

More screw up than embarrassing but on past trips:
- installed the headset bearings upside down; it would mostly steer but loosened
- took off the chain for travelling, put it back on without noticing it was twisted; taking it back off again my chain tool broke
- ordered a tent online and took it on tour without setting it up at home first, discovered I had a one-person tent instead of two-person tent

Fizzaly

My biggest mess up was last year, went for a 120 mile camping trip on idaho forestry service roads, so i put the good ole knobbies on the bike 26"x 2.1" and figured since my PB fenders said they could handle 2.25" tires i would be good. I made it about 15miles out, while coming slowly down a decent rolling about 8 or 9 mph hit a really rough patch so i let go of the brakes to gain some speed to help smooth out the ride which at that time im guessing the fender started to do the wobble that those good ole plastic fenders do and caught up on a knob, then the fender tried to go through the forks with the tire which ofcourse didn't fit. I guess i had some good traction because the bike suddenly stopped and went into endo mode with all 60lbs or so loaded on the rear rack coming over me, some how during all of that which happened in a split second i managed to unclip my feet and fall to the side. Amazingly enough after cutting the fender out of the forks and repacking of the rear bags i was on my way again only bleeding from a small cut on my nose from my sunglasses. So lesson learned no more of the plastic adjustable fenders period.... And heres a pic of the end result.

vik 

Riding for 2 weeks with 50-60psi in my tires when I didn't pump up tires after unpacking my bike at the airport. I was embarrassed because I didn't remember. The bike actually was great to ride - very comfy and not slow at all. That was my first empirical experiment that showed me pumping up tires hard only makes them uncomfortable - not faster.

https://www.bikequarterly.com/images/TireDrop.pdf

When I realized I pumped the tires up to my normall pressure [quite hard] and after a day of bumping down the previously smooth road I dropped the pressure back down until the smooth ride reappeared.

MichaelW

The plastic fender (above) was attached directly to the frame. The lesson to learn is always use a model with safety quick releases on the stays. They have saved me from an endo on several occasions.

Biggest screw-up: waiting all day for a ferry which never turned up because the summer timetable was out of date.
Not checking over a rental bike properly. When I get my first puncture, I find I have both types of valve but one kind of pump. Pushing the bike several miles with a flat tyre will wreck the tyre . I had to hitch to a town to get a new tyre.

mmeiser

Re: Optimus stove.

Laughing, because I made the same mistake when I first got my MSR dragonfly. I bought it used though ($10!) with the complete delux blacklight pot kit (+$10!) and a titianium sport ($1). It was in absolutely perfect, used once if at all, condition w/price tag, but had no instructions. Needless to say it works and still works awesome, planning on using it for a January ride down the Blue Ridge Parkway soon. BTW, this find was also unequivicably the catalyst for getting me into touring. It was a logical step as I was already doing at least one 100 miler a week so it just clicked. What's better then riding 100, 130, 190, 200 miles in a day? Riding 180+ miles in under 24 hours doing a s24o with a nice campfire and pleasant dreams in a tent. In three years I've gone from traditional panniers to ridiculously light rackless bikepacking setups like my sub-30lb road bike (that includes bike, stove, tarp, bedroll and everything for multi-day touring). My winter touring setup/off-road setup is not quite there yet, bike alone weighs close to 30lbs. I suspect it'll weigh in at around 55lbs. We shall see, going out on a shakedown tonight or tomorrow, will have to post a pic or two.

Anyway, I'm hard pressed to think of a huge screw up. I've made some horrible route choices, but other then realizing after a few blow ups that flashes of anger hang around like clouds on a tour that you control you... I rarely even get stressed about even the worst situations. It just doesn't help anything and that anger or stress if you let it does hang around for a long time. Not that you can't burn it by putting it back into your riding.

degan

I once forgot my sleeping bag on an overnight tour. I didn't realize until about 100 miles into the trip. I called and asked my roommate if it was at home and he informed me that it was resting peacefully on my bed. I decided to continue my ride and just buy something cheap in one of the small towns along the coast. I ended up riding around much longer than I had planned looking for some place that might have a sleeping bag, but was unsuccessful. I managed to buy a blanket that was not quite big enough to wrap around my body completely. It was pitch dark by the time I pitched my tent on the beach, and the blanket did little against the cold sand. I slept completely clothed, including shoes and gloves, and slept horribly.

Cyclebum

Riding down the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota, I came to a gate with a lock and chain around it, fences on either side. Hmm.. how was I suppose to continue. Another fellow showed up. He also was confounded. We finally just lifted the bikes over the fence and went on our way. Several miles later, same situation, gate with lock and chain around it. We again hefted the bikes over the fence. Realizing that this was not making much sense, we did a closer inspection. The lock was not engaged. All we'd have had to do was remove the chain from the lock and open the gate. We both had a good laugh at ourselves.

How many times have I left food in the panniers, only to find it stolen during the night by raccoons. Too many.

SurlyLaika

wait, so using it upside down damaged it? or it just didn't perform as expected?

Al Downie

I think a combination of dirty Indian fuel and my misuse clogged it all up in a way that might need some more determined cleaning than I was able to do in the field! It works perfectly well now, I'm pleased to say.

Zeppinger - a friend of mine needed to buy a new tent for a rock-climbing trip up in the North West Highlands of Scotland (we were going to climb The Old Man of Stoer), so he took his own car so he could call into a shop on the way up the road on the Friday night, and join us later at the lighthouse where we were going to camp. The rest of us arrived at about midnight on a FOUL night - there was a real pea-soup fog so we had to drive at 10mph for the past 5 miles or so, and every time the lamp from the lighthouse would sweep around it would make the fog a blinding white sheet in front of us, dazzling us for the next ten seconds or so, and so on - it was a surreal trip! But we got there and set up camp, and then settled down. Shortly after that a wind picked up, and then howling rain, and at about 2am we were woken by the beam of Davy's headlamps as he arrived in his own car. The poor lad set about pitching his tent in the wind and rain, while the rest of us chuckled quietly at the non-stop stream of expletives from outside, mostly drowned by the noise of his flysheet flapping in the wind and the occasional snapping of poles. In the end there was an almighty scream of 'F**KIT!!!', and one last ripping sound, followed by only the continuous flapping of the flysheet which kept most of us awake for the rest of the night. When I peeked out in the morning, I saw what looked like a very baggy body-bag lying on the ground, clearly containing a person, completely soaked. Rather than admit defeat and climbed into his mates' warm tent, he'd just wrapped himself in this useless nylon bag and laid down for the night!

zeppinger

Sounds terrible. My tent didn't collapse or anything I just had to go out and restake it. The inside got pretty wet from when ti was partially collapsed and I was asleep. The worse part was that I was really upset about ripping the damn thing and couldnt get back to sleep. I tried to read but my head torch attracted every bug in the forest to my no-longer bug proof tent and so I just had to sit and stew in my own rage, in the dark, all night.

johnr783

I forgot my keys at a campsite in Missouri and didnt realize it until 7 miles out. Luckily, I was able to call the campsite and one of the people who volunteer to work there drove the keys out to me.

SBRDude

Someone needs to start a thread entitled "The Most Embarrassing Screw on Tour."

lucille

Riding for over 700 kms with a very annoying click in my pedals. The click was there, all day, every day. I couldn't figure out what it was, I tried to ignore it, tune it out, I even tried to enjoy it ;-), drove me absolutely crazy.
When I returned from the trip, I asked here on the forums, what it could be and decided to take the bike to LBS, as soon as I put it together again (folding bike, that was taken apart for travel)... When I assembled the bike, and put pedals on, I figured I'd go for a quick spin to check if anything else needs adjusting at the same time. Nothing needed adjusting, and the click was gone! I wish it would have occurred to me to take the pedals off, and put them on again. D'oh!

Cyclebum

Well. You got an story to tell here maybe. Inquiring minds.....

SBRDude

Nope! Haven't toured yet, so I'm just looking for some sage advice on what to avoid. In truth, I'm getting the idea that any on-tour encounters are likely to be regretted more by the local participant.

fietsbob

Picked Pocket at AMS, took passport T.C's and cash ,
so had to hang out in airport while US Embassy sorted out
letting me board and fly back across the Atlantic
and re enter US with out passport , free for that . $60
BA found me a seat to SFO.
T.C's were replaced, so I was out a few Guilders and the $60 USD ,
.. met a few of the overnight workers at Shiphol.

icebiker76

I managed to kill a perfectly good notebook computer due to forgetting to turn it off completely, causing it to overheat in the panniers. Got sand in my camera killing that device on the same trip. Didn't realize how much i enjoy photography and keeping in touch with others while on tour.

indyfabz

Not my personal experience, but I like to tell this story involving an extremely directionally-challenged woman on my group X-country tour...The woman was in her 60s. She was always getting lost despite having a compass on her bike. It became the subject of much good natured ribbing. At one point in her life her sister had spent time as a missionary in China. Near the end of the tour, we were riding a lot on U.S. 1 north heading to Bar Harbor. One day the woman sees a store selling Asian gifts and decides to stop to look for a present for her sister. She comes out of store having bought nothing and continues riding. A few miles later she sees another gift shop and stops in. Still no luck. She gets back on the bike again and, in a few miles, sees another store selling Asian gifts. At first she's surprised to have encountered two Asian gift shops in such close proximity to each other. She then realizes that it's the same store that she had entere first. She had come out of the first store and inadvertantly headed south instead of continuing north. After exiting the second store, she again inadvertanly reversed direction and started heading north again. The woman confessed all this because she knew we would get a kick out of it.

On the first day of the trip, while we were loading our bikes outside the hostel in Seattle, I noticed my sleeping bag was missing. I figured someone must have walked by while I was bent over attaching my panniers and walked off with it. My plan was to find a sporting goods store en route to the first campsite and buy a new one. A few minutes later, I realized that the same woman had two sleeping bags bungeed to her rear rack. We had the same stuff sack, but still...

And the hits just keep coming....A few weeks into the tour it was discovered that this same woman had been wearing the shoes of a younger woman on the tour, and vice-versa, for almost a week. They had both left their shoes out to dry and the older woman had mistakenly picked up the shoes of the younger woman. I can't remember how the came to discover the switch, but the younger woman, who had larger feet, remarked that the mix-up explained why the shoes she had been wearing had started to hurt her feet. We determined that they had been wearing each others' shoes for over a week.

Philly Tandem

Years ago I filled the fuel bottle for my MSR XGK stove from a can in my shed. On the trip it didn't work well at all. I tore it apart and cleaned just about everything, but it still wasn't working very well. When I got home I realized I had inadvertently filled the bottle with paint thinner rather than white gas (the cans were the same shape and size and were near each other on the shelf). It's a testament to the XGK's burn-anything capability that it worked at all!

Tansy

On my very first experimental overnight bike ride to a nearby state park, I ran my bike into a pole leaving town, while avoiding something on the street. In addition to wacking a pannier part-way loose, I smacked the skewer on my front wheel. Of course, I didn't realize this until later on, after the wheel had a chance to work itself ever looser and more wobbly. At some point, in confusion, I lifted up the front of my bike, trying to test for a low tire and guess what? The front wheel pops off, rolls down a hill and across the road. Ruh roh. Another time my cellphone bounced from my handlebar bag onto a busy street and nearly caused a collision as it spun out into the road and a car swerved to avoid it. Both the wheel and the phone where retrieved safely.

The most uncomfortable moment was being woken up at 2am in a small town park by a cop and accused of being a vagrant. When he left, he told me he'd be back to 'take care of me'. He never showed up, but every ant-sneeze in the park that night made me jump. Close second was being mistaken -for- a cop at festival I passed by. Apparently my big blocky mountain bike looked a lot like a police bike late at night, to the eyes of drunken college guys, who included me in their general harassment and ridicule of the local law enforcement.

The worst humiliation ever, though, wasn't on a tour. It was way back on when I discovered for that I -wasn't- supposed to be riding around town on the sidewalks. How long have the roadbikers been laughing at me?