The "I'm an idiot" Thread

[bagtagley]

Upstate? I've had one too many Cream Ale's in my life...

No, West Virginia. I don’t think I had seen or drank any other beer from Genesee at that point in my life. The Summer Brew just arrived out of the blue one summer. You could only buy it by the thirty pack and it tasted like shit, but it was so insanely cheap that, for a couple months, it was all we drank. It was ubiquitous at friends houses and parties, then it disappeared forever (other than the leftovers that we could no longer bring ourselves to consume). 🤣

[m2711c]

and there we have it... the upstate / west virgina nexus.






fact.

[XtrPickels]

I legitimately though that Genny never made it outside Upstate. I'm genuinely impressed they sold as far away as Virginia!

[jm2e]

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[XXX-er]

did you do that on purpose ?

if the pedal ever falls out on the trail and the threads get damaged running a pedal in from the back will straighten them out so you can possibley thread the pedal in from the front, I've done that to some random strangers bike on the trail and it wroked well

[HotSchmoo]

Replaced my chain earlier this spring. I'm typically not so bad at adjusting my shifting but can't seem to get things to index quite right.
Id faff with it for a bit, get it working pretty good, but by the end of a ride would be all out of adjustment.
Got frustrated enough that i took it to two different shops near me plus a local independent guy working out of his garage claiming to be great. Same thing, they'd fiddle with it a bit. It would work pretty good but quickly need adjusting again. They all thought i needed a new cassette.
So I'm out on a ride about an hour drive from where i live. Make a quick shift down multiple gears to punch up over a steep outcrop and jam my drivetrain all the fuck up and the chain breaks. Itd been shifting fine just twenty minutes earlier.
Patch the chain back together and limp back to town to the local shop there. Guy throws my bike in the stand and ten seconds in he's like "hey the bolt holding the derailleur to the hanger is SUPER loose".
I buy a new chain. Don't even need to adjust the shifting WTF!
Drivetrains been perfect since then. 🙄🤦♂️

[EWG]

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I cannot count the number of times I’ve done this.

[J. Barron DeJong]

I cannot count the number of times I’ve done this.

Maybe just the technique I learned, but l can’t make that mistake my way.

Start threading the pedal in by hand, then while holding the pedal spindle (by hand, or wrench) spin the cranks backwards (freewheeling) to thread the pedal all the way in. Torque down.

Also helps you with figuring out which direction pedal threads are.

[frorider]

I cannot count the number of times I’ve done this.

I can count — zero times for me. But that ‘forgot O ring on external shaft’ thing posted upthread resonates hard for me.

Since I’m wrenching at home with relatively few distractions other than finding a cold beer, I’ve had pretty good luck in this dept but I look at my friends wrenching in smaller bike shops (answering phones etc etc) and I think Fuck that’d be hard doing real bike surgery with all those distractions. Guess that’s why bike monkeys earn $150-175k typically.

[XtrPickels]

Status check on the inspiration for this thread.

Still crispy.

[Dantheman]

Status check on the inspiration for this thread.

Still crispy.

Dude, Tegaderm that shit. Even this late in the game it will really help it heal up.

[Falcon3]

A couple years back:

Bleeding my brakes (like an hour before a ride of course), somehow pop one of the pistons out of a Shimano Deore 4-pot caliper. Can't get it to stop leaking. Shit, ok i'll just throw on a 2-pot caliper that works with my lever.

Install the 2-pot and I'm putting the lever back together, somehow strip the bleed port threading. And then scramble to get a full set of 2-pot brakes working so I can go on my ride. So in a basic maintenance action, I destroyed the caliper AND the lever of a nice brakeset in separate stupid mistakes.

[jm2e]

did you do that on purpose ?

For the sake of transparency, yes. This image is a dramatic recreation of a past event that happens maybe once every year or two.
For all the infallible wrenches out there, hats off to your superiority in being a human. I can tell you that this happens when I install the first pedal, then lean over the bike and do the other pedal while essentially upside down. Alas, many idiotic acts are the result of misguided stubborn efforts to do less work more inefficiently.



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[J. Barron DeJong]

For the sake of transparency, yes. This image is a dramatic recreation of a past event that happens maybe once every year or two.
For all the infallible wrenches out there, hats off to your superiority in being a human. I can tell you that this happens when I install the first pedal, then lean over the bike and do the other pedal while essentially upside down. Alas, many idiotic acts are the result of misguided stubborn efforts to do less work more inefficiently.



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Oh, I’m fallible.

Spent the evening cleaning rotors and putting in new pads because I had figured the microfiber shop towels I cleaned in the washing machine were grease/oil free enough to wipe down my rotors with alcohol after bleeding my rear brake. (Only bothered wiping down the rotors ‘just to be safe’, since I’d pulled the wheels before bleeding.)

Bleed felt good, but I ended up with contaminated pads and rotors.

But I haven’t made the pedal instal mistake. You win some, you lose some.

[rideit]

Guess that’s why bike monkeys earn $150-175k typically.

I surely hope you are joking. Bike mechanics earn roughly $15-25 an hour, period. With maybe one percent earning over $40.

[alfajores]

I surely hope you are joking. Bike mechanics earn roughly $15-25 an hour, period. With maybe one percent earning over $40.

Not for long. My LBS said he cannot get a mechanic to stay for less than $28/hr and that is for someone with little to no experience. He is trying to poach teachers that make $50k with the guarantee of a flexible schedule and an extra $10k to make up for lost benefits. Times are crazy.

But I agree, $150k for a bicycle mechanic might exist in top-tier racing as the head of a race team, but I wouldn't imagine it at a LBS or big-box bike shop.

[EWG]

For the sake of transparency, yes. This image is a dramatic recreation of a past event that happens maybe once every year or two.
For all the infallible wrenches out there, hats off to your superiority in being a human. I can tell you that this happens when I install the first pedal, then lean over the bike and do the other pedal while essentially upside down. Alas, many idiotic acts are the result of misguided stubborn efforts to do less work more inefficiently.



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This is exactly how it has happened to me.

[Percy Rideout]

Replaced my chain earlier this spring. I'm typically not so bad at adjusting my shifting but can't seem to get things to index quite right.
Id faff with it for a bit, get it working pretty good, but by the end of a ride would be all out of adjustment.
Got frustrated enough that i took it to two different shops near me plus a local independent guy working out of his garage claiming to be great. Same thing, they'd fiddle with it a bit. It would work pretty good but quickly need adjusting again. They all thought i needed a new cassette.
So I'm out on a ride about an hour drive from where i live. Make a quick shift down multiple gears to punch up over a steep outcrop and jam my drivetrain all the fuck up and the chain breaks. Itd been shifting fine just twenty minutes earlier.
Patch the chain back together and limp back to town to the local shop there. Guy throws my bike in the stand and ten seconds in he's like "hey the bolt holding the derailleur to the hanger is SUPER loose".
I buy a new chain. Don't even need to adjust the shifting WTF!
Drivetrains been perfect since then. ����♂️

Buddy just did this. Shipped his bike. Not a bike mechanic, but smart enough to put a pedal bike back together. Talked to him over the phone RE: setup. He was confident he could put everything back together himself. You got this bro!

Assembled, he takes it for a test ride around the parking lot, instant catastrophic drivetrain explosion.

Deraileur hanger bolt was not tight. Bolt gave way under load and pulled the rear deraileur into the cassette. Carnage. New rear deraileur ordered that night.

2nd attempt at install worked great, and a lesson was learned.

[XXX-er]

For the sake of transparency, yes. This image is a dramatic recreation of a past event that happens maybe once every year or two.
For all the infallible wrenches out there, hats off to your superiority in being a human. I can tell you that this happens when I install the first pedal, then lean over the bike and do the other pedal while essentially upside down. Alas, many idiotic acts are the result of misguided stubborn efforts to do less work more inefficiently.



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well, good can come of it

[Roxtar]

Buddy just did this. Shipped his bike. Not a bike mechanic, but smart enough to put a pedal bike back together. Talked to him over the phone RE: setup. He was confident he could put everything back together himself. You got this bro!

Assembled, he takes it for a test ride around the parking lot, instant catastrophic drivetrain explosion.

Deraileur hanger bolt was not tight. Bolt gave way under load and pulled the rear deraileur into the cassette. Carnage. New rear deraileur ordered that night.

2nd attempt at install worked great, and a lesson was learned.

I'm constantly having to swap out clipless/platforms for my wife (depending on the trail) and have gotten a system.
-Put each "new" pedal on the floor under the corresponding pedal to be replaced.
-Lean over the top tube and break pedal loose with short end of hex wrench.
-Swap hex to long end, spin off pedal, leaving wrench sticking through crank hole.
-Pick up "new" pedal, insert shaft onto hex wrench and spin it on.
-Swap hex to short end and tighten.

-Repeat on other side.

[Dumbest Known Time]

In the past two weeks I've dropped both a bleed port screw and cable capture bolt into the abyss that is my filthy garage floor. Gone forever.

[homemadesalsa]

Oh I've done this one too many times. Sweep the floor before starting, then sweep it again when you drop your tiny bit.

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[XXX-er]

Don't look for the part you dropped, instead look at the floor, its different

[skaredshtles]

Oh I've done this one too many times. Sweep the floor before starting, then sweep it again when you drop your tiny bit.

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I've taken to throwing down an old sheet under the bike stand when I'm working on it... shit doesn't bounce quite so much when I drop it, and it's easier to see than it is on my filthy garage floor.

[Dantheman]

I've taken to throwing down an old sheet under the bike stand when I'm working on it... shit doesn't bounce quite so much when I drop it, and it's easier to see than it is on my filthy garage floor.

I use an old beach towel. Saved me numerous times.