Your record for destroying new bike gear?

[bmeryman]

A customer at a shop I was at about 15 years ago purchased a brand new, top-of-the-line Jamis Xenith (his first fancy road bike), put it on his roof rack, and promptly drove home straight into the garage.

He came back to the shop immediately with the bike in the trunk - downtube and top tube broken in half. I felt so bad.

[TimD]

Rear HED Belgium+ laced to a DT 240S hub, built by Yours Truly about a week prior. Premium rim, not sure why but that's another topic.

Riding in the middle of a paceline, somehow the normally-reliable folks ahead fail to point out a crater. Slam. Flat and sidewall FUBAR.

Tim

[KevinC]

I have a few from my days in the shop

1. Freshly glued set of Vittoria sew ups.
Went to open the front door of the shop to roll my bike out for spin around the parking lot.
The sharp aluminum door corner slashed the sidewall trashing a 0 mile tire.

2. Customer we called super Goomba due to his propensity to break things.
Tune up on Specialized FS rig and install Easton Monkey Lite HB (against our recommendation). Roll the bike out to him and while finishing up the transaction, he grabs the grips and pushes down like he’s checking the front fork pressure. Lockout was on. Everyone in the shop stopped at the CRRAAACCCKKK noise!

3. We received a Colnago Master X for a complete build. Frame was hanging from ceiling hook waiting for build. Sales guy repeatedly pulled frame down to show everyone. At the end of the day, he mistakenly hung the frame from the plastic dropout spacer instead of the head tube. We came in the next morning to find the frame on the floor with a good size flat spot in the lower head tube lug. Oops

[zap]

Originally Posted by Robot870

2 min into a ride I double flatted a brand new set of Veloflex tubulars....... Had to activate calm mode quickly! lol

Mine lasted a little longer.....roughly 18 minutes.

Next on the list. Another fine cracktitanium product. An Italian made titanium saddle.......rails and shell. About 5 rides before a weld cracked.

[sg8357]

Originally Posted by Robot870

2 min into a ride I double flatted a brand new set of Veloflex tubulars....... Had to activate calm mode quickly! lol

Could have been worse, could have been Dugasts.

[d_douglas]

Ive ruined a few things, but nothing quite as extreme as what's been posted here.

My issue in my man-shed is that it has a gravel floor. I have dropped SO MANY little nuts, screws, etc., and once they hit hte ground, its pretty much impossible to find them. I was installing a dropper post last night and dropped a tiny little part specific to the clamp and there was no sign of it, thereby stopping my install and likely having to hope for the best for that part at an LBS or requesting a new one from PNW. I took a break on the search and did something else, then had another look and lo and behold, my iphone light reflects on something in the terrible light - I found the part - a needle in a haystack!

The moral of this story is that I need to blow $1000 and pour concrete on the floor of my shed. It would actually be very easy to be honest. I am just too cheap!

[mtbmoose]

Or, I don’t know, maybe put down a $10 tarp under your work stand? 😉

[d_douglas]

ha! My wife said that when I came inside last night b*tching about it. NO WAY!

Basically, there is a dirt and gravel floor and a 4 or 5 inch tall foundation all the way around - once I clear out the stuff (one hour), I could literally start pouring concrete - it is ready to go. I am just cheap, but I am also obsessed with doing things 'the right way' (which often contradicts doing things cheaply!)

[Matthew]

I didn't wreck anything but I crashed my brand new Meivici the first time I rode it. Was looking down and hit a cut out in the pavement for a sewer pipe. Hands came off the bars and down I went. Only suffered a scuffed shifter somehow. My pride and skin faired much worse.

[tellyho]

Brand new Rival RD on a bike I had just completely assembled from frame up. Out for first ride and had forgotten to set low limit on the derailleur...into the spokes. Had to get the spousal bailout and find a new hanger (always a challenge) and derailleur.

[bigbill]

If anyone remembers the short cage XT rear derailleurs in the late 80s or early 90s, they were easy to break. I was spending most of my time in the middle ring with the flowy trails, but I broke 3-4 derailleurs, even though they were set up with the proper chain length. A guy selling wheels out of the trunk of his car named Keith told me about using a Shimano Light Action with Bullseye pulleys so I did that and it was still on the bike three years later when I sold it.

[saab2000]

I slipped on a wet railroad track about 25 years ago and somehow the shell of a new Flite saddle pulled off the rail of the saddle. I couldn’t figure out how this happened and I couldn’t, no matter what I did, contort the rail enough to get it to pop back into the hole in the shell. It went into a dumpster at some point, which sucked because it was basically a brand new seat.

[Chris]

1985. I’m 15 years old. I save up and buy a cateye solar for my Peugeot. I wire it up (too tight) turn the handlebars and tear the cable to the speed sensor.

[Will_Elder]

Had my Look 585 serviced on Thursday 15 February, crashed into a kangaroo on Saturday 17 February, fork snapped. Frame possibly OK but who knows.

The just installed rear derailleur hanger still appears to be in perfect condition...

The groupset and wheels re-usable so new bike day coming up, bitter sweet.

(on a side note I still have not worked out how to upload an image that is of an acceptable quality)

[batman1425]

New to me set of ultegra hydro shifters. Cracked the hydraulic hose connection on the lever installing them. 0 miles in my hands.