Mechanical Oops'?

kaytronika

Retrobike Rider
Just reading the Sheldon Brown site glossary and some associated sites reminded me of an 'oops' I once had with my Timberline.

I'd recently repacked the rear hub on the Timberline in my signature. Sunday came around and I rode up to my friends house with plans for a big Rivington ride. The journey up there went without issue.

We set off and had probably got about 100 yards before I heard a huge crack and things started feeling just a bit odd with the bike.

On closer inspection I noticed the rear QR had sheered at the threads, the nut had presumably been fired at bullet speeds in to the garden of the house we were passing. I never actually found it!

What I assume had happened was that during my recent maintenance I'd
not tightened up the rear cones properly, friction somewhere had caused the locking nut to rotate and press against the frame, the tension that built up caused the skewer to sheer.

Ride over, lift home and that explains why my Timberline doesn't have it's original Alivio rear skewer.

I dread to think what would have happened had it gone when I was pedalling past someone


Any tales to tell?
 
It's scary when summat like that happens.

I broke a crank sprinting uphill once and still have the scars from 11 stitches in my head (nobody wore helmets in 1987!)

My closest recent 'just got away with it' was on the North Downs when I blew out a front tube on a downhill, shoved on my back brake and ground to a halt just as the front tyre had leaped off the rim and was trying to do a python move around my forks! :roll: :shock:
 
I was tightening up a raceface seatpost clamp after swapping saddles. Obviously did the clamp way too tight and a similar thing happened. Bolt sheared and nut went flying into sherwood pines car park. Don't think it hit anything.
 
Riding my touring bike from Wokingham to Reading.

While off my tits.

With the front quick release undone. I didn't know why my brakes kept coming on as I went round corners.
 
Assuming all my tools were in perfect working order as I put my bike in working order. Track pump pressure gauge had failed, resultant tyre explosion damaged tyre, rim and nearly took out my flats windows not to mention the ringinging in my ears for quite some time :oops: :oops:
 
velomaniac":19lhvsvl said:
Assuming all my tools were in perfect working order as I put my bike in working order. Track pump pressure gauge had failed, resultant tyre explosion damaged tyre, rim and nearly took out my flats windows not to mention the ringinging in my ears for quite some time :oops: :oops:

i have just had a tube explode at 60psi. i was outside and the bang made my ears ring. dread to think what its like inside.
 
I never learn! Just spent an hour, a tool and almost my rear cassette trying to transfer a freehub from a new Deore rear hub to my Avalanche's rear wheel.

Eventually I just stuck the 8th ring on the freehub, tightened my 10mm allen key in to my workbench and used a chainwhip round the 8th ring to get the thing off.

Why didn't I think of that in the first place? :oops:
 

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