Fettling atrocities

[Deano]

Your own, or other people's.

I'll try to remember some of my own, but I'll start with Col's story.

My mate Col lent someone else a pair of lovely Campagnolo wheels with deeep sections for a TT.

The someone else had a puncture, but his only tubes had short valves.

Was his solution:

a) buy more tubes (approximate cost £5)

2) buy a valve extender (approximate cost £2)

iii) chop a section out of the rim to fit the valve (approximate cost - one friendship)

(click to show/hide)

Yep, he really mutilated that wheel, then returned it to Col - i've seen it in Col's workshop as he can't bear just to hoy it out

[Torslanda]

I hope he gave him such a kick . . . That's horrible!

The one that jumps to mind is a local lad who has a Cannondale full sus with a BB30 bottom bracket. The LH bearing has lost its circlip and he calls in occasionally to borrow the rubber mallet to smack the chainset with when the bearing pops out on the drive side.

It's been going on so long the LH crank has pretty much worn thru the chainstay. I've refused to have anything to do with it...

ETA Tis a 2016 Habit 6. About 1500 quidsworth of scrap.

[hellymedic]

Both long-stem valve tubes and valve extenders can be hard to find and ignorami might be unaware of their existence¹.

It is still inexcusable to act as hidden by the spoiler tags.

1) I don't think David knew about these before he moved here.

[Kim]

Stands to reason that if a deep-section rim exists, there must be (or at least have been) a suitable workaround for the valve length problem, or perhaps a reason why it was a non-problem, and a little research would make things a lot easier.  But I'm probably thinking like an engineer.

Of course, some people don't think like that.

Some people are just incomprehensibly ignorant^[1].

Other people know it's wrong but like or need to perpetrate obscene bodges anyway.



_{[1] I'm reminded of barakta's sister and her dim ex-boyfirend who famously tried to adapt a PS/2 keybaord to an Apple serial port (or possibly vice-versa) by cutting away the excess pins in the connector.}

[T42]

It's been going on so long the LH crank has pretty much worn thru the chainstay. I've refused to have anything to do with it...

About 12 years ago my friend René bought a NOS Specialized from an LBS I've never used. René had been a top amateur in the area and was happy with its 52/39 chainset even though he was in his mid-60s. The LBS bloke suggested, though, that he take a somewhat easier cassette than the 13-23 (I think) the bike came with, and he ended up with a 14-tooth small cog. Maybe the thing was a Miche, I don't know. Anyway, some months later the chain had worn a hole in the seat-stay.

René never complained to the shop: he reckoned that, as a competent cyclist, he was responsible for setting the thing up, and nobody else. The stay held long enough for the bike to be pinched about a year later.

[Karla]

Your own, or other people's.

I'll try to remember some of my own, but I'll start with Col's story.

My mate Col lent someone else a pair of lovely Campagnolo wheels with deeep sections for a TT.

The someone else had a puncture, but his only tubes had short valves.

Was his solution:

a) buy more tubes (approximate cost £5)

2) buy a valve extender (approximate cost £2)

iii) chop a section out of the rim to fit the valve (approximate cost - one friendship)

(click to show/hide)

Yep, he really mutilated that wheel, then returned it to Col - i've seen it in Col's workshop as he can't bear just to hoy it out

What.The.Actual.F*&k?  That guy is a genuine moron.

[Cudzoziemiec]

What's shocking about Col's ex-mate's behaviour is not the ignorance – ignorance is inevitable and should be educated not condemned – but the callous disregard for other people's property.

[ElyDave]

That is tantamount to to criminal damage

And there was me getting miffed when someone borrowed my newspaper and filled in the crossword without asking

[hellymedic]

What's shocking about Col's ex-mate's behaviour is not the ignorance – ignorance is inevitable and should be educated not condemned – but the callous disregard for other people's property.

Indeed.
Finding 'a man who can' would be a reasonable way to tackle this problem if stumped.

Acting as he did is almost unforgivable.

[The Family Cyclist]

As Ray Mears says never lend a knife. A broken knife can mean a broken friendship. Or Ray you killing you with his bare hands and him having a new knife.

[JonJo]

Late eighties and I have a beautiful Bob Jackson Silver Jubilee edition racer. It took me a year to save for the frame, another year to buy all the parts for it and ten minutes for me to knack it.

I'd convinced myself that I needed a titanium bottom bracket as the 30g weight difference would allow me to keep up with the fit lads on the hills and I could maybe start winning some races. Can't remember how much it cost but it was enough that I couldn't afford to have the shop fit it too so I had a go myself.

When I took the resulting atrocity back to the shop the mechanic said it was the first time he'd seen a bottom bracket both doubled and cross threaded and told me I must be pretty strong to have forced it so far into the frame. The bottom bracket was a write off and the frame had to be stripped so that it could be rethreaded. I think I cried at both the price and the fact I'd be without my bike until I'd saved enough money to pay for the totally avoidable repair.