The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread

[T42]

On Friday I needed to split a frozen rack of marinated spare ribs in two.  I had a look at the concave side to get the lie of the ribs, then flipped it and scored it with my wee boning knife through the thick marinade on the convex side. I then thought that a good whack on a right-angled edge would break the rack through along the line of the score.

The working surface's edge wasn't sharp enough, so I hung a teak chopping-board over the edge and used that.  However, when the ribs lie NW-SE and you flip them over they then lie SW-NE, and that's the way I didn't score them.

I'll be heading over to the workshop presently to glue the board back together.

[andytheflyer]

I'll be heading over to the workshop presently to glue the board back together.

That's a relief, I was envisaging the recounting of a trip to the local A&E to have fingers re-attached....

[T42]

I'll be heading over to the workshop presently to glue the board back together.

That's a relief, I was envisaging the recounting of a trip to the local A&E to have fingers re-attached....

At the risk of tempting fate, the last time I maimed myself was in 1991 when the 2-franc trimming-knife I was stripping a wire with slipped and impaled my wrist, just grazing a tendon.  Lots of blood and off to Urgences, where I got to watch while a surgeon opened up my wrist, like that bit in Terminator, and checked all the bits before stitching up the outside.  I rather enjoyed it until the anaesthetic wore off. Still have the knife, too.

Tetanus booster due next year, come to think of it.

[Arminius]

I have a track record of doing things without thinking, and then realising it was stupid. Here's the most recent instalment:

Having attached some Xpedo cxr pedal bodies to the Favero Assioma spindles to get a pair of SPD-ready power pedals, I then clipped one of my shoes onto one of the pedals to see if I needed to trim away any of the grips on the sole of the shoe so that I could pedal and clip in & out without bashing the pod.

Sadly, I attached the right shoe to the left pedal*, backwards, and the pedal will not disengage from the pedal! Aaargh! Does anyone have any idea how I can sort this? I would rather not damage the pedal body, but I can't access the Allen key heads to remove the cleat from the shoe. The only options I can think of are trying to grind the cleat somehow (dremel?) or perhaps drill out the cleat bolts from the inside of the shoe (though the footbed is stuck fast).

* I should perhaps point out that the pedal wasn't attached to the bike. Even I'm not that stupid.

[Kim]

Attach the pedal to the bike and see if that gains you enough leverage?

I'm not sure how an SPD engages backwards, but you're probably left with trying to somehow prise open the spring of the mechanism.  Flathead screwdriver?  Get some string around it?  That sort of thing.

[Arminius]

Attach the pedal to the bike and see if that gains you enough leverage?

I'm not sure how an SPD engages backwards, but you're probably left with trying to somehow prise open the spring of the mechanism.  Flathead screwdriver?  Get some string around it?  That sort of thing.

Ooh, you were so close to winning the undisclosed prize. If only you'd had the courage of your convictions.

Panic over - I attached the pedal to the bike and that gave me enough leverage. 

I'm not sure how it engaged backwards either. It slotted in quite nicely, though.

Right, I'm off to attach them to the bike so I don't do anything else stupid with them...

[Tim Hall]

We had similar on an FNRTTC once. Someone lost as cleat bolt so were unable to unclip. After a bit of milling around on the edges of Horley, Leggy managed to get the message to me what the problem was, partly using words and partly through the medium of interpretive dance of a rider hopping around with their shoe still attached to the pedal. Fortunately I'd fixed the same problem just a week or two before and pinged it free using a 15mm spanner as a lever. Happy days.

[Kim]

There was also the one where StuAff had a worn cleat that wouldn't disengage.  He came to a controlled stop and was having little success with wiggling and harsh language, but managed to release it following my suggestion of turning his foot *inwards*.  IIRC he managed like that for the remainder of the ride, rather than attempting to swap the cleats round.

It was quite a confusing failure mode, as there was nothing obvious (at the roadside, in the dark) causing the problem.  No loose bolts, and the pedal worked fine with my cleat.

[Cudzoziemiec]

When I first started using SPDs, I found it much easier to unclip by twisting my foot inwards. I reckon this was partly due to my ankle not liking to twist in only one plane (it wants to move up or down as it twists side to side) and probably exacerbated by having my saddle slightly too high, as well as general stuff. Then I discovered multirelease cleats and since then everything's been happy. Mostly.

[Mr Larrington]

My grate frend Mr Sheen once reported his mate Jamie clipping in bass-ackwards while showing off his l33t riding-a-Perfectly-Good-Gentleman's-Mountain-Bicycle-while-sitting-on-the-handlebars 5k1llz in a pub car park.  Much screwdriverpoken later he was freed.

Then he did it again

They leaned him up against the wall and trooped back inside for another, rather leisurely, pint.

[Mrs Pingu]

When you folks are saying turning your foot inwards. What part of the foot? (Cos the opposite end will go outwards)

[Kim]

My normal releasing technique is heel outwards.  Heel inwards is trickier, as there tends to be more bike in the way.  Probably moreso if you've got big feet?

[andytheflyer]

My normal releasing technique is heel outwards.

^ What Kim says.  Works for me too. Riding a recumbent you really, really want that foot to release just when you ask it to.......

[Cudzoziemiec]

Heel outwards is the better way IMO. Heel inwards was the only way I could get it to work when I started with them. Yes, it did occasionally result in heel contacting spokes but never with any damage to spokes or heel. Luckily.

[SoreTween]

I can do either on the right and neither on the left.  I have to stand on my right foot and twist my body to disengage the left.

[matthew]

My Time atacs will release both inwards and outwards, only the angle and therefore the strength of release to go inwards is greater. You can actually swap the handed cleats if you want the firmer grip.

and yes I have once had a cleat bolt come out resulting in a shoe that wouldn't disengage. Fortunately it was the right shoe (in both senses) and I habitually stop with my left foot down I had to undo the shoe and remove foot to dismount and investigate.

[Auntie Helen]

I had to undo the hoe and remove foot to dismount and investigate.

excellently unfortunate typo!

[Basil]

My Time atacs will release both inwards and outwards, only the angle and therefore the strength of release to go inwards is greater. You can actually swap the handed cleats if you want the firmer grip.

and yes I have once had a cleat bolt come out resulting in a shoe that wouldn't disengage. Fortunately it was the right shoe (in both senses) and I habitually stop with my left foot down I had to undo the hoe and remove foot to dismount and investigate.

I had the same happen to me when a bolt dropped out of an SPD cleat.  I had to undo my shoe to get off the bike at the pub, and then caused much hilarity amongst the on looking drinkers as I proceeded to beat the shoe off the bike with large log that was to hand.

[Paul]

My Time atacs will release both inwards and outwards, only the angle and therefore the strength of release to go inwards is greater. You can actually swap the handed cleats if you want the firmer grip.

and yes I have once had a cleat bolt come out resulting in a shoe that wouldn't disengage. Fortunately it was the right shoe (in both senses) and I habitually stop with my left foot down I had to undo the hoe and remove foot to dismount and investigate.

I had the same happen to me when a bolt dropped out of an SPD cleat.  I had to undo my shoe to get off the bike at the pub, and then caused much hilarity amongst the on looking drinkers as I proceeded to beat the shoe off the bike with large log that was to hand.

"What's he doing?"
"Dunno. He just got off the bike and started hitting it with a stick"
"I know just how he feels. My round?"

[The Family Cyclist]

Oh yeah that was it. Remember thinking nearly me for this thread over weekend but could t remember what it was

Then remembered. Saturday chucked the eldests bike on roof carrier and youngests bike in boot. Off we went to a disused railway and mini BMX pump track about 20 minutes by car. Normally park at the station or on the road but driving past the green that has the pump track see loads of cars coming out and spy a space. Thankfully I remembered the bike on the roof rack seconds before going under the height barrier. Wife ejected from car to watch and with much laughing from the driver of the car waiting to come out I crept forward to offer it up and no it didn't fit

[quixoticgeek]

Just discovered I've ordered the wrong components for a circuit board. Write values, wrong size...



Amazingly I had managed to get the too big cap to fit, but the too big resister is a non starter...

Bugger.

J

[Kim]

Fit it to one pad at 90 degrees to the correct orientation, and jumper the other terminal with bodge-wire?

That's more or less what I did when a current sense resistor turned out to have the contacts on the long edges rather than the short ones.   

[SoreTween]

Don't bother with the middle pads?  Solder the R&C end to end and the pair to the outermost pads.  Maybe.

Assumes there's no hidden vias, the only visible track just connects the two.

[grams]

Scrape some of the solder resist off to make the pads bigger. Won't be pretty, but it'll work.

[quixoticgeek]

Thank you for the suggestions, but given this is a prototype that will be modelled for EMC, I kinda need to use the correct components.

J