The "I'm an idiot" Thread

[AlpiNord]

Definitely a dumbass move fumbling with my bike while closing a cattle gate, was inadvertently letting the rear rotor rest on my calf after a descent. The nice crescent burn mark looks to remain in place for a while.

[Wes Mantooth]

“Why is my stupid bike so creaky”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[toast2266]

Another one on "why is my stupid bike so creaky."

An assortment of unpleasant noises coming from the rear shock area. Took it apart to try a different rear shock on there only to find that one of the little spacers at one of the bearings had apparently fallen out the last time I re-assembled it without me noticing, so that part of the linkage had ~2mm of slop in it.

Fortunately that link only connects the shock, so it doesn't really get much horizontal loading. Everything appears to be fine, although I'm sure that wasn't great for the shock. Found a suitably close replacement spacer and bolted it back together. Quick hop around in the driveway seems quieter.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[Eluder]

I noticed my wife's rear hub was a bit crunchy last fall while packing it up for a 2-week bike trip. I wanted to investigate, but we were to leave in the morning, so I made a "mental note". Flash forward 11 months later while doing a tire change...

hmm, this cassette sure has some play... hmm, the lockring is tight... It turns out the outboard freehub bearing had totally disintegrated and only miraculously held on through a shit-ton of abusive riding in the Alps and a week-long Whistler Trip, among other things... Thankfully she's small.

[EWG]

I noticed my wife's rear hub was a bit crunchy last fall while packing it up for a 2-week bike trip. I wanted to investigate, but we were to leave in the morning, so I made a "mental note". Flash forward 11 months later while doing a tire change...

hmm, this cassette sure has some play... hmm, the lockring is tight... It turns out the outboard freehub bearing had totally disintegrated and only miraculously held on through a shit-ton of abusive riding in the Alps and a week-long Whistler Trip, among other things... Thankfully she's small.

Ha. My lovely wife also checks in on the low end of the scale, and it's shocking what you can get away with when you only weigh 110 pounds. I, on the other hand...

[singlesline]

Show up at the bike park and realized I forgot bike shoes.

duct taped slipons to my feet


worked ok. More foot fatigue but felt ok on flow trails. Felt pretty sketchy on bumpy tech trails.

good thing I had flats on this bike. Worked a lot better than when I accidentally brought hard soled XC style clippless shoes somewhere but grabbed bike with flats.

[VTskibum]

Lol, love the duck tape!

Carpooled to a big rocky/tech ride and forgot my clipless shoes, I keep an extra pair for this occasion but I didn't drive. Fortunately guy from a different riding group had a pair of flats I borrowed in the lot and rode with old/beat slip on vans, definitely agree w/ foot fatigue but made it work pretty well. I ride flats just enough to be proficient, but still gave me some pause. My mostly XC crew were surprised I survived.

[Andeh]

I noticed a weird rubbing noise coming from my front brake today. I took a look at in the stand, and looking from above, I couldn't see any gap. Huh, that's odd. I remove the caliper, thinking I needed to reseat pistons, remove the pads, and take a look at them. There's a 1.5mm high spot on the top of the pads that the rotor isn't hitting. That's weird. I'm using 203mm rotors on a fork with 180mm post, a (what I thought was) a 20mm Hope H adapter, and SRAM 1.5mm spacer adapters. I think, maybe these Hope adapters don't play nice with my new Maven brakes, so I grab a 20mm adapter that came with the Mavens, and sure enough they don't line up. So I swap over to the SRAM adapter, put fresh pads in, remount the brake, everything's good.

I walk upstairs and am starting to text a buddy ranting about weird Hope adapters, then I remember... I bought the 1.5mm spacer adapters to use on my Zeb (200mm native), and I bought the Hope H adapter (actually 23mm) to use on my Lyrik specifically so I wouldn't need to fumble around with 1.5mm spacers. When I swapped forks back from the Zeb to Lyrik, I must have forgotten that I was so clever, and moved the 1.5mm spacers over too.

I'm definitely guilty of out-clever-ing myself.

[toast2266]

360° of smart lands right back at dumb. I've been there, many, many times.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[jm2e]

As much as I love Shimano, I would stab the guy who came up with 203mm if I met him at a party.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[Andeh]

As much as I love Shimano, I would stab the guy who came up with 203mm if I met him at a party.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

I suspect there'd be a long line of people for that.

[XXX-er]

You people don't do metric anyhow so just think of 203mm as 8"

I seem to remember back in the day you could get your Hayes mags with 6" or 8 " so i think it might have been them guys

[toast2266]

Hayes might have started it, but shimano is the reason it still exists.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[XXX-er]

so should they be using 200mm ( 7.874 inches ) or 6" or 8" or some other arbitrary number ?

[toast2266]

Current standard rotor sizes are 140mm, 160mm, 180mm, 200mm, 203mm, 220mm.

I'll let you figure out which one should go away.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[XXX-er]

I think the unworthy will go away on their own without having to stab anyone

maybe just a throat punch

[waxman]

Show up at the bike park and realized I forgot bike shoes.

duct taped slipons to my feet


worked ok. More foot fatigue but felt ok on flow trails. Felt pretty sketchy on bumpy tech trails.

good thing I had flats on this bike. Worked a lot better than when I accidentally brought hard soled XC style clippless shoes somewhere but grabbed bike with flats.

Boa for ski boots prototype was the first thing that came to mind, I don't know why?

[jm2e]

I got new tires for the trail bike. Matching Magic Mary's.
Spent what felt like 5 minutes struggling to mount the front tire first before remembering that it's a mullet.
You get the gist.

[Roxtar]

I got new tires for the trail bike. Matching Magic Mary's.
Spent what felt like 5 minutes struggling to mount the front tire first before remembering that it's a mullet.
You get the gist.

That is AWESOME idiocy.
And I mean that with the utmost of respect.

[adrenalated]

Not bike related but wrenching related I'm an idiot.

Replacing u-joints on both ends of a driveshaft. They are different sizes at each end. Guess which dumbass pressed the small u-joint into the big yoke

[EWG]

Not bike related but wrenching related I'm an idiot.

Replacing u-joints on both ends of a driveshaft. They are different sizes at each end. Guess which dumbass pressed the small u-joint into the big yoke

Ummm...hmmm... you?!?!

[adrenalated]

Ummm...hmmm... you?!?!

[g_man80]

I installed $30 OEM fork stickers backwards! That is despite knowing they are side specific and having installed the same stickers on a different fork correctly just a couple months ago. In my defense I was exhausted at the time and should have packed it in for the night. I noticed immediately after put the first one on. I was too focused on getting them aligned correctly.

[plugboots]

^^^ Are you spancered?

[SJG]

bring back 185mm rotors LOL