Embarrassing Build Mistakes of the Mechanical Kind

I've had a few little "moments" that will never leave the shed but the big "doh" mechanical moment for me was when I bought a complete bike off a bloke from the US and after giving everything a careful once over, adjust, lube, check and check again to convince myself that it was safe to take for a blast I did just that.. it was mid blast and on a fast loose gravel decent I discovered that the goofy Americans run the front brake to the left hand! How I stayed upright I have no idea.

:facepalm:

On my first ever wheel build ; got the front all laced and tensioned nicely ; move on to the rear. Going great guns again but the rim ends up well off-centre.The truly embarassing part is that it took a mate to point out I'd failed to take dish into account :facepalm:

There have been a few on my part.
Ones that stick out are :
Building a rear wheel with the longer spkoes on the drive side.
Fixing a puncture without checking tyre or rim.
Fitting a side stand and clamping the gear cable with it.

What I can't get is how people can fit a left hand pedal in to a right hand arm (or vice versa), I've tried and can't :roll:

widowmaker":ahoxdtyz said:

Recently i used a crank removal too, but had not removed the bolt on the crank first :facepalm:

Screwed the tool in (ooer ) and grunted for a good few seconds (ooer ) until i realised the bolt was still in, lucky i didnt chew up the thread

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You've admitted it.. I will too. I did this last week!...I lost concentration, forgot about the bolt and fitted the crank extractor. The difference was I kept grunting until I ripped the threads off the crank :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:

At that moment, I was the tool holding a tool staring at the crank thread bits in my fingers :x

A few years back I decided to make use of the disc ready frame, forks and wheels on our tandem......by fitting cable disc brake with a 160mm disc. Just the one mind. I installed it on the front, where it should be but it was nowhere near up to the task of slowing a tandem with a total weight of nearly 200kgs.

After a few seconds of braking everything heated up to the point of sounding like all the spokes were being ripped out of the front wheel! Went to a bike show shortly afterwards to find a Cannondale road tandem with a pair of the biggest discs i'd ever seen on a bike. Then threw in the towel, took the disc off and went back to V's That'll teach me not to research before I start.

Regards

Marge

jimo746":1m3u42ws said:

Chopper1192":1m3u42ws said:

I once built an Activator. Awful mistake.

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We have a winner!

I don't think anyone can top that...

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Hmmm.

I managed to better it.

I then went on to rebuild a Rotorvator II. Once I realised what is done I only dared go out after dark so no one would see me.

coomber":1xmwfjov said:

had no tension in front mech. Couldn’t see why. Took me over an hour to realise the cable was through the shifter but not through the guidehole, and therefore every click of the shifter had no effect on cable. Then rethreaded it through.

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Been there. Last mistake I made before I admitted I needed glasses.

Kona-853":1xmwfjov said:

Set up a Front mech on a biopace chainset, not realising I had positioned it when it was at the lowest point of the biopace :facepalm:

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That's actually two horrid mistakes in one...

jimo746":3apaem46 said:

Chopper1192":3apaem46 said:

I once built an Activator. Awful mistake.

Click to expand...

We have a winner!

I don't think anyone can top that...

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Built and rode a few giants,pieces of shit full of cracks