I guess most people have, at some point, broken a bit of their bike they weren't carrying spares for. What's the worst failure you've had and how close to civilisation were you?

(Prompted by a seat post clamp failure yesterday, just 100metres from the house, this was the 1st time I had used that bike since the wc2c 2 weeks ago - i am so glad it didn't snap in the middle of nowhere on that ride).

A broken seat clamp can be fixed with something as simple as a stick.

Within the last week I've had a frame and a hub go. Waiting for number 3, preferably before the Highland Trail...

I was just about to mention something about your hub Ian - terrible news.

My worst was having to strip down a cup and cone hub on the trail as it seized. It took a Leatherman and a Topeak Alien, but I got through the ride in the end.

Fifteen miles from civilisation, midway into my route.

Probably my best trail side repair was to bleed a Hope brake with a short length of camelbak hose and an energy bar wrapper. There was just enough fluid in the system to cycle oil through the system into the bad wrapper sand then refill the reservoir with oil. Repeat until all the air was expelled from the system.

I had a rock jam between the rear hub and disk at speed in the peaks and it smashed the hub flange, and 6 spokes became detatched. Disc trashed, took it off. Wheel had little strength and rode 10 miles with tree bark taped to the chainstays to stop the rubbing tyre trashing the frame.
Funny that was a 5 year old hope hub, sent if off for a new shell, and they fully repaired it FOC even though I told them the full story.

Sheared a crankset on my way to work once...

http://twitpic.com/adeuyi

Had my pedal come off the spindle, on a techy descent near Ben Alder. Rode the stump for a few miles to get back to the car
Turned out I had smacked the pedal at some point, no external damage but inside bearing races were damaged which ate the bearings

Managed to knacker derallieur and a wheel.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34565309@ ... otostream/ (I can't work the imbedding )

And I broke a blackburn rack on the way to Cape Wrath but it held up okay!

mech hanger went on the last wrt. I rode a bodged single speed full suss down to afan trail center where I called a taxi company to take me back to Stu's farm.

£55 taxi ride which could have been avoided for a £15 part. I now carry 2 spares in my pack just in case.

On the WRT

I had 2 major problems

First was I realised when leaving the field that my littlest ring was knackered (tooth bent over and sucking chain, no amount bending and filing would fix) meaning middle ring for the rest if the ride.

Second failure was my legs which broke on the first climb

Yesterday while checking out the Commonwealth Games XC course at Cathkin Braes I snapped my chain.

Simple enough to fix apart from I could not find the chain!!

It had flown off into the distance somewhere never to be found again despite my best efforts.

Luckily it was only a short walk back to my van. Another one where I was glad it didn't happen on the HT550.

Seatclamp went on me yesterday up at Dunkeld, not too far from the car thankfully and glad of no damage to my week old ti seat post. It was a Hope FWIW.

https://twitter.com/frsrmc/status/463303676833300480

Not really a freak, more due to my own inexperience many years ago. I let a front rim wear too far and it split on me on the first lap of a race, this in turn punctured the tyre/inner tube which literally went off like a shotgun shredding the inner tube, put a hole in the tyre and made half the field s**t themselves. I did consider running back to the car to fit the wheel off my wife's bike but the car park was a fair way off and I would of had to adjust the v brakes to the new rim so I quickly realised my race was over.

Some good near misses for me...

After weeks of winter night rides on the cross bike, the face-plate of my stem broke off on the way to the curry house. 5 minute walk from home.

Just after doing a gap/drop with about 7ft height difference, I was chatting to a friend and one of my cranks fell off.

And, obviously, having my Ti frame crack and then get repaired by Kent Eriksen during the Divide.

Seatclamp failure 20 miles from home, rode home stood-up (single speed, so not that different to usual apart from the spinny bits..)
Pump head failed fixing a flat 30-odd miles from home and 50+ from a destination .. carried and pushed the bike 3-4 miles to a village and found a bloke with a trackpump. Not bought a fancy/complex pump since!
Broken Ti saddle rail 5 mins from home a couple of weeks before going away for a longer ride, lucky.
Not had many other random non-crash related failures but I do carry a spare seat clamp of sorts in my tool kit on longer rides now. Bikes are pretty reliable, thinking about it.

seatclamp of sorts?

Just a nut and bolt to fit in case of a stripped clamp thread, or a complete cheap clamp in that bag of bits that lurks in the bottom of the rucsac. I did think a 25-40mm range jubilee clip would be a useful spare for longer trips but that's getting paranoid ) or like the P-word, risking a frame tube going!

jameso wrote:Just a nut and bolt to fit in case of a stripped clamp thread, or a complete cheap clamp in that bag of bits that lurks in the bottom of the rucsac. I did think a 25-40mm range jubilee clip would be a useful spare for longer trips but that's getting paranoid ) or like the P-word, risking a frame tube going!

Or just choose a seatpost of suitable material to form a galvanic reaction with the frame so it's permanently stuck there

Weight saving tip, won't need a seatclamp at all then....

Ah , fair enough, had to use that bodge with my last Hope clamp when heading off for a ride miles from anywhere in the NE highlands. This latest failure rather more terminal. :/

Switching brands now...

vorlich wrote:Switching brands now...

I have a Straitline bolt on clamp on the Kite that is rather nice. Tempting to switch to those across all my bikes, as I have a broken Hope one on the bench too.

Salsa clamps all the way :)

Ian wrote:

vorlich wrote:Switching brands now...

I have a Straitline bolt on clamp on the Kite that is rather nice. Tempting to switch to those across all my bikes, as I have a broken Hope one on the bench too.

I've heard a lot of people doing this... initially I thought it was just the people as it was my friends who are renowned at being baboons with spanners and Allen keys... But seen a few from note competent people too now.

The previous Hope clamps (with the ball-end lever) were notoriously bad. I've not seen so many issues with the newer version.

Something seems to fail everytime I go near a bike at the moment. Last few rides has seen chain, tyre, spoke, bb in a big way, forks locked out for a while yesterday...

It was happening so often that I've stripped the HT550 bike completely and now found this



Dammit.

Dave,
you on a 26 inch wheel or 29? If a 26 I have a couple of good rear wheels you can borrow (but try not to break them!)