'what good bike parts have you broken' thread?

raveydavey

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Has anyone ever started one on here?
I laughed my socks of watching the video of the bloke who got his bike stuck on an electric fence on that social media site FB!!!
Which got me thinking about some of the amusing events in my cycling history, most of which involved me or my mates wrecking parts on bikes!
I'm pretty sure I've broken or forced into early retirement nearly every component on a bike in some way shape or form over the years and I can't be the only one, plus it might be fun to share amusing anecdotes with fellow Retrobikers.
I know the old quote 'strong, lightweight and inexpensive pick any 2' and have always followed this mantra, I'm not talking crap parts here I'm talking decent stuff from respected manufacturers.
I used to race XC in the Sport category in the late 90's, I don't do stupid stuff on BMX tracks - I just like to ride hard and fast and trust the parts on my bike are going to do what I expect from them.
I'm 6'3" and 14 stone so I'm no midget and I like to get the best out of my equipment, if something is designed it should be designed properly and built to last.
Here are a couple of examples:
snapped a USE straight handlebar pushing down on it testing some rockshox quadra 10 travel whilst not moving
rode some White Brothers SC90 forks in the rain
snapped the air valve on some Marzocchi Z2 X Fly's
 
Re:

took some blind air off a big divider/traffic blocking berm - which berm I had negotiated over many times before ... right into a shallow, freshly dug trench (bye bye Unicrown forks).
 
ibis titanium frame, after using it for about 16 years hairline crack - kind of a big part a frame huh? not really a crank or fork, just the whole bloody frame... anyway the good news is cos I loved it soooo much I sent it to Steve Potts and it is now in better condition than ever and still ridden.

generally I haven't broken many bike parts when I consider I've been riding so long, they've done a remarkable job of not breaking, mostly. seatpost bolts, carbon bars, gears/mechs occasionally and pace rigid forks but don't get me started on how crap pace were/are.
 
I broke the axle of a AC chub rear hub. Just by "normal downhill riding". :D
It was 3 months old back then. An I got a replacement axle no problem. I still have it until today.

One year earlyer I bent my trusty Wheeler 303 steel frame. Me and my frieds had a track through the woods that we called the race track. It was concrete tabs for the first kilometer to gain speed then 7 km gravel road with very few light curves. Plain down hill. Ended with a very sharp corner to the right and 5m drop if you would go straight.
We all had our fancy sigma speedometers. And we would go down that route as fast as we could. Then compared our max speeds. Problem was: right before you reached that sharp corner that was the steepest part of the track. The later you would brake the faster you would be.
At that particluar day, we were three guys. The fastest until that day was my buddy with his (non suspension) Schauff mountainbike. 75km/h max. It had been a few rainy weeks before the "event". And I had just mounted my newly aquired 52teeth front chainwheel. With that I hoped, I would be able to keep pedaling longer and thus get faster. And man I was. All went well until the point where I knew I had to really start to slow down. I did. I slowed down massively, the corner coming at me rather fast and then - I did not see it early enough, a 15cm deep groove, that had been washed out by the rain. My front wheel just fit in there. And it somehow blocked. I went over the bars, managed to land on my feet (as we had practiced countless times before) but couldn't maintain that "sliding" balance. I don't know how fast I still was, but it sure was frightening. My feet slipped in front of me and I was sliding on my feet and back desperately fighting to slow down and not start to roll. The corner nearing. My bike had somehow overtaken me at that point. I came to a halt right before the cliff, the bike fell down. I did lay there for quite some time, gasping. It was a miracle that I had some scrathes on my lower end and quite a few bruises on by back - nothing more. Glad I was wearing a thick jacket that day. And my gloves. No helmet, of course :LOL:
My friends recoverd my bike. The front wheel had lost integrety and the frame had sightly bent. But the speedo survived. It showed 92.3 km/h max! Made my day.
We kept on using that track until we left school and most of us went to university and we lost tracks of each other.

Some 15 years later, I revisited that track with one of my buddys. We both tried to get fast again. But we did not manage. At 65 I was so frightened, I had to slow down. I guess I wasn't stupid enough any more... :D
 
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Yay, good thread, this should run to a few pages :D

Not one of mine but rather a 'JRA' story, you know the ones; "I was Just Riding Along when all of a sudden......" I heard a lot of these while working at both John Atkins and on Service duty while I was at Pace!!
 

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Thias":3n25gl80 said:
I broke the axle of a AC chub rear hub. Just by "normal downhill riding". :D
It was 3 months old back then. An I got a replacement axle no problem. I still have it until today.

One year earlyer I bent my trusty Wheeler 303 steel frame. Me and my frieds had a track through the woods that we called the race track. It was concrete tabs for the first kilometer to gain speed then 7 km gravel road with very few light curves. Plain down hill. Ended with a very sharp corner to the right and 5m drop if you would go straight.
We all had our fancy sigma speedometers. And we would go down that route as fast as we could. Then compared our max speeds. Problem was: right before you reached that sharp corner that was the steepest part of the track. The later you would brake the faster you would be.
At that particluar day, we were three guys. The fastest until that day was my buddy with his (non suspension) Schauff mountainbike. 75km/h max. It had been a few rainy weeks before the "event". And I had just mounted my newly aquired 52teeth front chainwheel. With that I hoped, I would be able to keep pedaling longer and thus get faster. And man I was. All went well until the point where I knew I had to really start to slow down. I did. I slowed down massively, the corner coming at me rather fast and then - I did not see it early enough, a 15cm deep groove, that had been washed out by the rain. My front wheel just fit in there. And it somehow blocked. I went over the bars, managed to land on my feet (as we had practiced countless times before) but couldn't maintain that "sliding" balance. I don't know how fast I still was, but it sure was frightening. My feet slipped in front of me and I was sliding on my feet and back desperately fighting to slow down and not start to roll. The corner nearing. My bike had somehow overtaken me at that point. I came to a halt right before the cliff, the bike fell down. I did lay there for quite some time, gasping. It was a miracle that I had some scrathes on my lower end and quite a few bruises on by back - nothing more. Glad I was wearing a thick jacket that day. And my gloves. No helmet, of course :LOL:

My friends recoverd my bike. The front wheel had lost integrety and the frame had sightly bent. But the speedo survived. It showed 92.3 km/h max! Made my day.
We kept on using that track until we left school and most of us went to university and we lost tracks of each other.

Some 15 years later, I revisited that track with one of my buddys. We both tried to get fast again. But we did not manage. At 65 I was so frightened, I had to slow down. I guess I wasn't stupid enough any more... :D

Truly epic! And you and the speedo survived it. Makes me think of the time I ended up pinned under my bike in a 4ft deep concrete drainage channel running downhill in the middle of nowhere in Mid-Wales, wondering "how did I get here?".
 
Bontrager Ti Saddle. At the time it was my pride and joy. I had a bad landing after my feet became un-clipped in the air, landed with my arse on the saddle and my legs in the air. Crushed the saddle rails. The saddle's a write off.

It's still got the price sticker on it from BITD when it was new: £39.99.
 
Broke alloy soider on xt cassette whilst trying to do a wheelie. Use seat post snapped and its replacement controltech that the shop said was unbreakable.
 
Re:

I bent a frame and fork once. I was riding down a very steep hill on my way to go swimming. I had my kit in one of those football boot bags which i had 'secured' via the strap to the bottom of my drop bars on my Raleigh milk race special. During the descent i felt pedalling had got easier which felt great until i realised the boot bag had jammed between the front wheel and frame, and i was actually somersaulting through the air. Eventually I landed in the middle of the opposite side of the road, my bike in a crumpled wreck, but somehow i was pretty unscathed despite not wearing a helmet and in shorts and t shirt.

Another breakage was a very expensive helmet. I was cycling slowly, about 5mph as it had just started to snow, i was mentally telling myself to keep slow and straight when suddenly the bike went from under me and i hit the deck. Sore, cut and bruised, i continued to work, and when i took off my helmet, i discovered that it has practically split in two. I'd dread to think what would have happened to my head despite going so slowly and carefully.

A couple of other incidents where somehow i and the bike survived unscathed, but the cars i hit or was hit by weren't so lucky:

I was hit side on by a Volvo and broke the windscreen with my head, no helmet. A few mm the other way and I'd have hit the window pillar rather than glass. My RTS 2 survived thankfully.

Whilst heading to meet a friend on my lovely Peugeot Aravis 531 road bike, the car i was behind stopped suddenly. I tried to stop but failed, and at the last second released the rear brake and performed a perfect endo which sent my head through the rear windscreen of the escort estate. I landed back down, feet still in the toe clips completely unscathed somehow, again no helmet as it was the early 90s.

Last but not least, again on the milk race special, i was speeding along a cycle path and saw a friend going the opposite way, i turned to wave to him, then bang, hit a lamp post. I think i knocked myself out, bike was ok, but i had a cartoon style lump on my head, and worst of all, I'd ruined my Peter shilton England kit.

Suffice to say, i now wear a helmet at all times as i think I've ridden my luck enough. I've yet to break anything else in any way shape or form, aside from a few punctures and some worn jockey wheels.
 

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