Top 10 Most Annoying Bike Problems & How to Fix Them

10. Front Derailleur Rub

This problem is so annoying. If you haven't messed around with front derailleurs very much you might end up in derailleur rub purgatory, a never ending loop of limit adjustments and derailleur tweaks that never fix the problem.

How to fix front derailleur rub

9. Fork/Brake Chatter

If you really want to experience this one, ride a cyclocross bike with canti breaks and a flimsy fork.  After riding for awhile it will feel like you've been jackhammering all day, not the good kind. This is something that affects me personally, so probably that bias put it on the list.

How to fix fork chatter

There ain't shit on youtube about it, so it's probably not that common. It's definitely more of a cyclocorss thing because it results from the long brake cable length down to canti brakes and a mushy carbon fork. Two things you can do are get a stiffer fork, and try and shorten the cable distance for the front brake with something like this Tektro Front Cable Hanger Black Canti Fork Mount.

Installing a new, stiffer fork helps too

8. Cars

Fucking cars.  I don't own a car so I might be a little biased, but so what, I fucking hate them.  It's depressing to watch people sit one per car like semi-autonomous drones driving in and out of San Francisco every day. Kind of hard to fix this one though...

Cars and other shit in bike lanes with Casey Neistat

7. Roadies/Hipsters

These two had to be lumped together since it's the same concept.  The gear head roadie who's got a $3,000 set up but rides maybe once a month, and when he does he'll ALWAYS have an excuse for getting dropped.  Right up there with him is the fixed gear hipster who think's he's a fucking champion because he rode a few alley cat races, now he's pretty much ready to ride against Lance (I'm looking at you MASHSF).

Example of fictional annoying hipster

Actual annoying hipsters who think they're Lance Armstrong, Look at that fucking CADENCE!!!

Annoying shit roadies say, Do you even Carbon brah?

6. Squeaky Brakes

SQQQQQUUUEEEAKKK, this is almost as bad for the people around you as it is for you.  Sometimes they're really hard to get rid of.

Fix squeaky bike brakes

5. Bottom Bracket Creak

At times you'll feel like this is life's greatest mystery, even greater than questions like, "Whatever happened to Kevin Federline?", "What exactly did Lance say to Oprah?" and "Justin Bieber?". You've taken your bike to the god damn mother fucking bike shop at least 50 times and it STILL creaks. Are you too fat? Is there a gremlin in your bottom bracket, was it cursed by that stupid hipster who almost hit you on his fixed gear? For the love of god stop creaking!!

Replace a Bottom Bracket

4. Chain Suck

Both front and rear derailleur.  This is when your chain gets sucked into a variety of places, none of them good.  The worst is the rear derailleur, because you're guaranteed a fist full of grease that won't wash off for at least 3 days and will ruin all your dates, or at least that's what you tell yourself...

3. Broken Spoke

This one especially sucks if your wheels don't have many spokes, it might be a ride ender then.  Eithe way it's a pain in the ass to fix, you have to take off the damn tire and tube and if its on your rear wheel behind the sprocket you just decide to throw the wheel away and get a new wheel set.

Fix a Broken Spoke

2. Broken Chain

Definite ride ender, unless you were riding uphill for the last two hours and it broke just as you summited. But let's face it, you're never that lucky. It broke 20 minutes into your ride on an amazingly beautiful day, right after some smokeshow just passed you up and smiled at you.

Install a Chain

So.. to fix a chain you'll need to have an extra master pin along if you're riding shimano, or a chain tool for SRAM.

1. Flat Tires

The quintessential bike related annoyance. It's not a ride ender, but it's ahead of broken chain because it happens way more.  There's also that moment when you walk into the garage all charged up to get out there and hammer the pedals, grab your bike and see you've got a flat tire.  Well fuck it, I'm going to watch some more Saturday morning cartoons, then you realize there are no more Saturday morning cartoons and you just start drinking.

Fix a flat: