Please check a friend’s bike today......

[TBLS]

Short story my wife asked me to wash her ride around the neighborhood bike. Being well trained I went to move it from garage and when I picked it up noticed a click. Thought is was the headset but no...looked at quick release and it was fully open with front wheel held on by lawyer tabs only....

Truly lucky as she says that the bike was making a noise ‘Last few rides’.

Should have been on my list to check her bike before but now it is

Pay it forward...

[fa63]

We run into this all the time at the shop; people not knowing how to operate their quick release skewers properly. Those lawyer tabs are great for this reason.

[ultraman6970]

Saw a couple yesterday, the girl had just the pad holders in the rear brake calipers, rubber was gonzo. U have no idea the noise that was making at the time to stop.

BF in a 6K bike... told him.... dude super calm looked at the calipers and said "they can be swapped"... and they left... I think the sucker did not know at all and probably he did not want to feel more stupid. In a real emergency that girl was going to be really bad problems.

Same ride yesterday... another one but with an a better bike than the other one... nasty noise coming from the rear... told him in a light, dude you have the dork wheel broken... the what??? the dork wheel is broken, cant u hear it??? .. he got off the bike to look, i left and since was the end of the road i thought the guy was going to show up a few minutes later, he never showed up. Think he called a taxi or something or went back home right there instead to getting to the end of the road (half a mile down). Was funny tho...

THis year aswell, dude in a mtb, nasty noise... was riding with a rear hub split in a half... then he said.. no wonder i feel the rear a little bit spongy and making too much noise.

Some just dont care... or the things really dont click in their head.

[vqdriver]

i'll ask...
what's a "dork wheel"?

[Bruce K]

Is that like sending him looking for keys to the batter’s box or striped paint?

He walks into his LBS and says “I think my dork wheel is broken!”

:rolleyes:

BK

[thirdgenbird]

I went on a walk with the family yesterday and a young kid went past us with his front v brake disconnected. I’m not sure if it was an accident or if his parents did it intentionally due to unwarranted fears of front brake use.

[oliver1850]

My guess is that the wheel was out of true, solution: release brake.

[thirdgenbird]

My guess is that the wheel was out of true, solution: release brake.

I didn’t think of that. Seems probable on an entry level bike with v brakes. Not the best wheels with minimal pad/rim clearance.

[alexstar]

My guess is that the wheel was out of true, solution: release brake.

I didn’t think of that. Seems probable on an entry level bike with v brakes. Not the best wheels with minimal pad/rim clearance.

This. I see this "quick fix" all the time, even on a co-worker's commuter. He didn't want any help fixing it, either :confused:

[unterhausen]

Only time i ever stopped another rider was to adjust his quick release. It was actually working okay, but it was about 1/3 undone, so I figured it could let loose at any time

I recently bought some through axle dropouts and the only option for the skewer required a hex wrench. I'm okay with that

[Dead Man]

i can remember jamming west-to-east across the saint johns bridge in portland, hauling bauls racing traffic.. came to the first expansion joint and gave it my usual enthusiastic bunny hop at around 30+ mph and heard/felt CLACK as i came back down on the pavement.. yup, front wheel wasnt tensioned.

and im in the habit of shaving my lawyer lips off, for faster wheel swaps .. dont actually recall if the anecdoted bike had 'em lips still on or not.

[josephr]

i'll ask...
what's a "dork wheel"?

the dork disk (aka pie plate, pizza pan, dork plate, spoke dish) is the plastic spoke protector that sits behind the cassette....they come on all new bikes along with reflectors.

[Spaghetti Legs]

I once went for a ride with a friends Dad, who was a regular, but casual rider for years. We met at another person’s house and I took his bike off the car for him and noticed about 1 cm of play in the headset. “You notice any shimmy or weird handling on the bike?” “Not much”.

[ultraman6970]

Seen that headset lose thing often aswell. One guy asked me in a stop like 2 months ago (forgot about that one), he knew something was wrong but did not know what was the problem, this dude was sharp tho... not long explanation he figured it really quick how to even fix it (he was not a bike guy).

He put a a new stem and the new stem stack was lower so he run out of spacers, the headset needed maybe an extra 5 mm headset to work fine.

The other one is the usual kid with this 24' mtb and the fork is backwards :D they cant turn, they can brake either because the cables arent connected :D

The next one is the helmet set up pretty much in the back of the neck.

[AngryScientist]

I remember our pal BumblebeeDave had a nasty wreck some time ago due to just this reason, front QR not tightened. It's always stuck in my mind since then as something to double check.

[C40_guy]

Is that like sending him looking for keys to the batter’s box or striped paint?

He walks into his LBS and says “I think my dork wheel is broken!”

BK

My daughter once asked a young guy behind the counter at our FLAPS for a can of blinker fluid, synthetic please.

He looked really confused and went off to ask for help.

Not sure he ever came back. :)

She did it with a straight face...I was so proud of her. :)

[C40_guy]

But speaking of laywer tabs and such...

Many years ago I bought a used (team) Motobecane track bike from International Bicycles in Allston. Harold had gotten three road and three track bikes from a team and was selling them.

Despite the fact that the silly thing was too large for me, I snagged a track bike and took it home.

When I took it out of the car, I figured I'd take a quick spin on it to see how it rode. Street shoes, no helmet, gloves, shorts, etc.

I get to the end of my street, turn right and go another 1/4 mile. Then I come to a red light. Stop in the middle of the lane, trying to figure out how to stop on a track bike...

I pick up the front end to move the bike out of the middle of the lane.

Damn front wheel falls out of the fork. Track bolts weren't even finger tight. It was literally just my weight holding the front wheel in the dropouts...

Yea, I check these things. Now. :)

[eippo1]

Remember to check your stuff as is being said here too. I never checked my post or saddle and during one ride 20 years ago or so heard a clink and a clunk. One of my teammates started cracking up and told me not to attempt sitting down because my saddle came loose and rattled off. Even though it was fine, we were unable to find one of the bolts, so I ended up riding the last 15 miles standing the whole way with the saddle in my jersey.

Another time I didn't retighten the front brake QR after putting my wheel back on and didn't have enough stopping power on a downhill curve. Didn't go down, but I did learn exactly how far I could lean my bike over and dig in. I was actually lucky for that curve slowdown because there was a stop sign at the bottom of the hill and had it been straight, I would have not been able to stop.

[Spaceman Spiff]

i can remember jamming west-to-east across the saint johns bridge in portland, hauling bauls racing traffic.. came to the first expansion joint and gave it my usual enthusiastic bunny hop at around 30+ mph and heard/felt CLACK as i came back down on the pavement.. yup, front wheel wasnt tensioned.

and im in the habit of shaving my lawyer lips off, for faster wheel swaps .. dont actually recall if the anecdoted bike had 'em lips still on or not.

But speaking of laywer tabs and such...

Many years ago I bought a used (team) Motobecane track bike from International Bicycles in Allston. Harold had gotten three road and three track bikes from a team and was selling them.

Despite the fact that the silly thing was too large for me, I snagged a track bike and took it home.

When I took it out of the car, I figured I'd take a quick spin on it to see how it rode. Street shoes, no helmet, gloves, shorts, etc.

I get to the end of my street, turn right and go another 1/4 mile. Then I come to a red light. Stop in the middle of the lane, trying to figure out how to stop on a track bike...

I pick up the front end to move the bike out of the middle of the lane.

Damn front wheel falls out of the fork. Track bolts weren't even finger tight. It was literally just my weight holding the front wheel in the dropouts...

Yea, I check these things. Now. :)

You two should make a YouTube video!

https://youtu.be/uhH9IRRx5ag

[C40_guy]

You two should make a YouTube video!

https://youtu.be/uhH9IRRx5ag

That's crazy!

[Dead Man]

You two should make a YouTube video!

https://youtu.be/uhH9IRRx5ag

hah! awesome

been workin on my roadbike wheelies lately too

[bikinchris]

At the end of a ride many years ago, a rider was putting his bike on his roof and I heard his front quick release was loose. He had the kind of rack that left the front wheel on. I asked him to let me adjust it. He blew it off and said he would do it when he took the bike off the roof.
The next week, he went to lift his front wheel over a pothole and his front wheel came off. The forks dug into the pavement and he broke his neck. He spent months in a halo.
Say something. Insist on it.

[rustychisel]

I once stopped a dude at the top of Montacute here in the Adelaide Hills ( ~ 8km downhill at 14% steepest gradient) and insisted on having a look at the front wheel.

Turns out I was right: the QR was open cammed and less than finger tight. Complete newbie had joined some friends for a ride: she was lucky it had all been uphill and I passed her right at the top of the climb.

[NHAero]

Both wheels on my sister's bike had the QRs insufficiently tightened when I went over it this past weekend.

[cmg]

I set the rear brake pad holders in the wrong direction and yes, didn't discover it until while braking the pad slips out of the holder. Campy brakes, open ended slots go in the opposite direction of wheel travel. Discovered a niffy trick for getting the pads off quickly. Once i told the group what had happened they made me ride at the front.

[C40_guy]

Had lunch with a friend of mine a few years ago. She had driven her '95 Audi urS6 (red, for those keeping score) 10 miles, some on the highway, to meet me.

We said goodbye and she drove off. I watched her go...and called her immediately.

Her car had been serviced by a good private mechanic. I guess the junior wrench was tasked with putting the wheels back on and he did...he just didn't tighten the lug bolts. I could see all four wheels wobbling as she drove away, before I stopped her.

She did say that the car felt a bit funny on the highway. Um, yea.