Bike jobs that took WAY longer than you ever imagined

Which just made you need that toilet all the more! :oops:

I just used the bathtub when I needed to work on my toilet.
I could usually fix the toilet before I had to get a bucket out for number two.

If things got really bad, I'd find myself waking up in the 🛁 wondering what the hell happened to my 🚽. 😂

(I embellished most of that story, but I have whizzed in the bathtub while working on the toilet, and you can Wizz down the big hole in the floor once you get the old toilet off.)
 
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you can Wizz down the big hole in the floor once you get the old toilet off.)
As long as your aim is good. ;)

Like the sign over the urinal says:
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I just used the bathtub when I needed to work on my toilet.
I could usually fix the toilet before I had to get a bucket out for number two.
I don't have a tub. I put my old toilet in the living room as a backup. I filled the tank with a bucket so it would be ready to flush. 🥴
 
I started getting an intermittent rubbing sound. Applying the front brake would stop it for a while. It got worse as if debris were caught in the caliper. I removed the wheel and cleaned the rotor and the slot in the caliper with a paper towel. No change. The clearance looked good, but I realigned the caliper by loosening the bolts and lashing the lever to the handlebar. No change. I removed the caliper to inspect and clean the pads. With the caliper out of the way, there was no rubbing noise.

When everything was cleaned and aligned, the noise returned. I discovered that I got the noise with no pads, as if the rotor were rubbing the caliper. It occurred to me that each time I aligned the caliper by squeezing the brake lever, the caliper could move a little farther to the side of the faster piston. I retracted the pistons and found that the gap between pads was 0.8 mm wider than the rotor thickness. Before aligning the brake, I put a playing card 0.3mm thick, on each side of the rotor.

It still rubbed. Then I noticed that a few inches from the brake, the tail of a zip tie was rubbing the tire. I'd put that zip tie around the shock months ago as a record of how far bumps compressed the shock; when the shock compressed, it would push the zip tie up. I don't know how it got down below the fender, why the movement of the shock didn't push it back up out of the way, or why it didn't rub while the caliper was off.
 
I started getting an intermittent rubbing sound. Applying the front brake would stop it for a while. It got worse as if debris were caught in the caliper. I removed the wheel and cleaned the rotor and the slot in the caliper with a paper towel. No change. The clearance looked good, but I realigned the caliper by loosening the bolts and lashing the lever to the handlebar. No change. I removed the caliper to inspect and clean the pads. With the caliper out of the way, there was no rubbing noise.

When everything was cleaned and aligned, the noise returned. I discovered that I got the noise with no pads, as if the rotor were rubbing the caliper. It occurred to me that each time I aligned the caliper by squeezing the brake lever, the caliper could move a little farther to the side of the faster piston. I retracted the pistons and found that the gap between pads was 0.8 mm wider than the rotor thickness. Before aligning the brake, I put a playing card 0.3mm thick, on each side of the rotor.

It still rubbed. Then I noticed that a few inches from the brake, the tail of a zip tie was rubbing the tire. I'd put that zip tie around the shock months ago as a record of how far bumps compressed the shock; when the shock compressed, it would push the zip tie up. I don't know how it got down below the fender, why the movement of the shock didn't push it back up out of the way, or why it didn't rub while the caliper was off.

I think the caliper and zip tie conspired to flock with you.
I'd bet the brake pads were in on it too
 
I spent a good on and off half hour trying to use a zip tie to clear a blockage in between my brake pads while riding lsst week, the two of us were on to it, next step was pulling the caliper off.
It was a dried leaf stuck to the fork rubbing on the tyre.
When you look back its obvious.
 
I spent a good on and off half hour trying to use a zip tie to clear a blockage in between my brake pads while riding lsst week, the two of us were on to it, next step was pulling the caliper off.
It was a dried leaf stuck to the fork rubbing on the tyre.
When you look back its obvious.
Recently I thought noise was coming from my left pedal. It was a loose left BB shell. I thought the right-hand thread and the 35 Nm of torque were to prevent that. I reassembled it with Screw Glue. Yesterday I noticed that Park Tools recommends Threadlocker on BBs.
 
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