The "I'm an idiot" Thread

[waxman]

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.

I'd be fucking surprised unless the mechanic is getting % of winnings from his riders like caddies do?

[Roxtar]

Especially since 99% of pro racers don't make anything near that.

[rideit]

I know for an absolute fact that the global team manager of the biggest bike company in the world was barely cracking 100k after 20 years with them. (Pre pandemic).

[TBS]

This is a lesson in ignoring experts opinions

Got new nobby nics after running Maxxis for years
Schwalbe MTB product manager lives in our little village
“What pressure should I run?”
“17lb” he says
“The tire sez min psi is 25”
“Run them at 17lbs”
“You trying to get out of warranty claims by saying pressure was too low?”
“Run them at 17lbs”

So I pumped them to 22lbs.

Ripped into a tight rocky corridor with no room for error. I’ve done this section at least 100 times.

Front tire hits the first rock and starts out of control pinballing thru other rocks until I go over the bars, landing on a waist high boulder. Major head/neck ache and much skin lost as these rocks started as lava and volcanic ejecta. At least I didn’t let go of bars and fuck up the shoulder that’s in rehab

Turns out they ride great at 17lbs…

[Dee Hubbs]

Ninno runs his at 16 psi.

[frorider]

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

JFC. Of course it was a joke. Insert obligatory ‘you new to tgr’ joke here.

[skaredshtles]

This is a lesson in ignoring experts opinions

Got new nobby nics after running Maxxis for years
Schwalbe MTB product manager lives in our little village
“What pressure should I run?”
“17lb” he says
“The tire sez min psi is 25”
“Run them at 17lbs”
“You trying to get out of warranty claims by saying pressure was too low?”
“Run them at 17lbs”

So I pumped them to 22lbs.

Ripped into a tight rocky corridor with no room for error. I’ve done this section at least 100 times.

Front tire hits the first rock and starts out of control pinballing thru other rocks until I go over the bars, landing on a waist high boulder. Major head/neck ache and much skin lost as these rocks started as lava and volcanic ejecta. At least I didn’t let go of bars and fuck up the shoulder that’s in rehab

Turns out they ride great at 17lbs…

Fuckin' Nobby Nics?? [emoji2955]

[TBS]

^^^ I do have to say they roll way better than any Maxxis I’ve been on

Ninno runs his at 16 psi.

Nino Schurter?
He runs Maxxis - prolly pumps them up to 25psi knowing they bleed down to 16 by end of ride

[jm2e]

Nino riding for Giant now? That’s a huge get for them!


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[BigHerm]

I was trying out the MTX pads and HS2 rotors that were recommended in another thread. (Really digging them after I did a second higher speed bedding process). I gave my Code RSCs a fresh bleed as well, including some cleaning of the pistons with ISO and DOT fluid.

Pretty quickly my rear lever would go to the bar on first pull, then would behave normally for the rest of a section of trail. I was really thorough with my bleed, rotating the bike, turning the bars, flicking the lines, pulling vacuum at the lever way too many times, everything I could think of to get rid of air bubbles. How did I get an air bubble so quickly!!

I also noticed a grabby spot in the rotor while coasting down to my apartment. I figured I did a poor job bedding the pads and so I was going to do it more aggressively on a bigger hill. Plan was to pull the pads with the wheel in the bike, scuff them with 600 grit sandpaper and then clean the rotors with ISO.

I go to pull the pads and only one pad along with the spring will budge. I pulled the wheel, and one of the pads was stuck to a piston. In my haste, I had not let the ISO on the pistons dry after cleaning them post bleed. The red paint on the back of the pads had fused to the piston. This lead to the piston staying advanced and the lever feeling weird upon first pull. 🤦♂️

I cleaned and dried the pistons, and sanded the back of the pads a bit. Went out and did several hill descents. Two weeks later the lever feel is still normal and I am very happy with the quiet and firm braking. Turns out I don't suck at bleeding brakes as much as I thought!

[XtrPickels]

I was trying out the MTX pads and HS2 rotors that were recommended in another thread. (Really digging them after I did a second higher speed bedding process). I gave my Code RSCs a fresh bleed as well, including some cleaning of the pistons with ISO and DOT fluid.

Pretty quickly my rear lever would go to the bar on first pull, then would behave normally for the rest of a section of trail. I was really thorough with my bleed, rotating the bike, turning the bars, flicking the lines, pulling vacuum at the lever way too many times, everything I could think of to get rid of air bubbles. How did I get an air bubble so quickly!!

I also noticed a grabby spot in the rotor while coasting down to my apartment. I figured I did a poor job bedding the pads and so I was going to do it more aggressively on a bigger hill. Plan was to pull the pads with the wheel in the bike, scuff them with 600 grit sandpaper and then clean the rotors with ISO.

I go to pull the pads and only one pad along with the spring will budge. I pulled the wheel, and one of the pads was stuck to a piston. In my haste, I had not let the ISO on the pistons dry after cleaning them post bleed. The red paint on the back of the pads had fused to the piston. This lead to the piston staying advanced and the lever feeling weird upon first pull. ��♂️

I cleaned and dried the pistons, and sanded the back of the pads a bit. Went out and did several hill descents. Two weeks later the lever feel is still normal and I am very happy with the quiet and firm braking. Turns out I don't suck at bleeding brakes as much as I thought!

Weird, wouldn't have thought that would happen.

[jm2e]

That’s the price you sometimes pay for the undeniable speed of red.


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[Boissal]

Weird, wouldn't have thought that would happen.

I've had this happen as well, the paint on the MTX pads comes off real easy and sticks to everything. Got a drop of DOT fluid on the back of a pad and it stripped the paint off, rinsed the pad with IPA, put it back in, and it got stuck to the piston.
Strangely enough the gold paint seems more resilient and doesn't come off. The gold pads are $$ if you need even more bite than the reds and a compound that basically doesn't wear off.

[BigHerm]

Did you also experience any lever throw inconsistencies?

I might go with the gold in the future. Reds bite hard enough so far.

[stuckathuntermtn]

We have "Training Advice", "Ask the Experts", and "tools that belong in an F1 garage" threads. But let's be honest, we're a bunch of idiots riding around in the woods.

What dumb thing have you done recently that either prevents someone else making the same mistake or at least inspires a chuckle.

To kick it off:

I had a small "off" on a low speed corner - put a foot down and bumped into a tree. No big deal, but my bars were a little tweaked.
So, I got off my bike and stood over the front tire to put my bars back in place...

... and gave myself a nice half-moon brake-rotor-brand on my calf....

because I'm an idiot.

I've done this twice, so what does that make me?

[XXX-er]

“You trying to get out of warranty claims by saying pressure was too low?”
…

That is SO American !

[Boissal]

Did you also experience any lever throw inconsistencies?

I might go with the gold in the future. Reds bite hard enough so far.

I haven't had any issues with lever throw that I could relate to the pads. My issues with the Dominions were with the stock pads.
I used to run reds in the front and gold in the rear with Shimano brakes, reds felt like they gave a bit more modulation in the front while gold were perfect to lock the rear and slide it around. Now that I have brakes that aren't so on/off I'm running gold front and rear, gives me a bit more time between pad swaps. Not much difference in terms of bite, and my hands fade well before the red or gold pads heat up enough to affect braking.

[Roxtar]

I haven't had any issues with lever throw that I could relate to the pads. My issues with the Dominions were with the stock pads.
I used to run reds in the front and gold in the rear with Shimano brakes, reds felt like they gave a bit more modulation in the front while gold were perfect to lock the rear and slide it around. Now that I have brakes that aren't so on/off I'm running gold front and rear, gives me a bit more time between pad swaps. Not much difference in terms of bite, and my hands fade well before the red or gold pads heat up enough to affect braking.

Hey hey hey. Keep your smart shit out of the idiot thread.

[Meconium]

For someone who has been at it since 1987, thinking about and watching skills videos makes my brain hurt. I've been in the mood to open up and think about working on skill/instructions. Feeling like an idiot, it's like watching a video on how to swallow water a newer way are you just end up dry heaving and revert back to just drinking the water. I've always said I'd never ride a chairlift with a bike. Guessing I should try it. Maybe? 4hrs on a repetitive high speed magic carpet probably be more beneficial with another human. Guess I had a coach in 1990/91 but his background was local track racing and fist fights. Mostly just riding single track and aggressively trying to knock team members off bike to crash if push came to shove on DH mass start xc races. It was more like hockey.

[singlesline]

I'm going to count this as being an idiot. Serviced my freehub before the big local gravel race yesterday.

Maybe I overdid it a bit because I made that thing dead silent...

In an event like that, I really prefer to have some hub noise so people know I'm behind them, especially on the fast descents. I even chose a relatively noisy (but not Hydra-loud) hub when I had the wheelset built because at that time I did a lot of riding on a busy shared-use path and it was nice to have some built-in audio feedback instead of having to ring a bell or call out to people (which half the time causes them to get startled and move the wrong direction).

[Andeh]

I was rebuilding one of my Hayes calipers last night (due to a separate idiot move on my part). The instructions have you remove the caliper and separate the halves, then use compressed air to blow the pistons out. After the 3rd time I shot a piston across the garage, I realized maybe I should turn the pressure on my air compressor down from 150 psi.

[EWG]

Went and did White Rim with 6 people, and me as the only real wrench. I was smart. I bought both an extra chain and a master link, just in case.

Sure enough, it happened, and then after I sat in the dirt for 15 minutes fixing someone's busted chain I realized that the chain and the master link were two different widths. Cause I'm an idiot.

[jm2e]

I wish I could blame this on the LBS. I also wish I could say I caught it before doing several rides.


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[dannynoonan]

Way back in the day, my buddy and I were drinking a lot of beers and rebuilding his Manitou somethingorother fork in the living room of one of our gf's. We managed to get it all back together without spilling any fork oil on the carpet, except that our drunk asses put the lowers on with the arch in front. Like a normal fork would go together not a backwards-ass manipoo.

On the do-over to put the lowers back on the correct way, we dumped fork oil all over the carpet obviously. It was not well-received.

[John_B]

It's turning into the end of the season and my rear tire stopped holding air. Since today may have been my last ride before hunting season is in full swing rather than adding a bit of sealant I decided to pop the bead off the tire to take a peak and look if I really needed to add some sealant. I managed to knock the tape out of place bad enough that I had to retape the tire. Then my lazyness kicked in and I threw a tube in as a problem for future me to deal with.

All to save 4 bucks of sealant.