Has your bike ever gone full-blown Maximum Overdrive Christine on you?

So, while riding Roosevelt west over Canal street and dealing with all of the semi-construction stuff -- the screw which attaches the saddle to my seat post, broke spontaneously causing my saddle to flip up (almost grievous harm to future progeny potential). This was compounded by my reaction to sit down on the now nonexistent saddle and have nightmarish thoughts about Matthew Long.

There is no rust as far as I can tell on the screw. I don't think anyone was trying to steal my saddle and I don't think anyone tried to sabotage my bike.

SO, just curious, has this ever happened to anyone else? And if not specifically a screw breaking on a saddle attachment, then some other act that had you wondering if your bike was possessed and out to harm you.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on October 13, 2014 at 2:41pm

Not an uncommon failure, especially if you have your saddle set to the extreme of fore or aft adjustment and, from the marks on your saddles rails, you have the saddle all the way back on the rails; was it past the 'max' mark on the saddle rails?

Permalink Reply by Matt M. 18.5KM on October 13, 2014 at 3:57pm

It happened to me too, just like Dug said.  

I'm alive....still doing my best or sorta best to stay safe.

Ride on, Johnny Blaze....

Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on October 13, 2014 at 4:50pm
Possessed. Well, we are nearing the Satan worshiping holiday. Maybe it's out to get you. BOOO HA HA ! Seriously, metal does fatigue (soften over time due to stress) and can fracture unpredictably. It can happen for no reason. Right, Satan?
Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on October 13, 2014 at 5:24pm

It did not happen for no reason, it happened because of leverage and an improperly positioned saddle.

There are bikes that have been on the road for a decade or more and have not had that bolt break.



Tom A.K. said:

Possessed. Well, we are nearing the Satan worshiping holiday. Maybe it's out to get you. BOOO HA HA ! Seriously, metal does fatigue (soften over time due to stress) and can fracture unpredictably. It can happen for no reason. Right, Satan?
Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on October 13, 2014 at 6:28pm
Improper leverage WILL cause stress, which will cause fatigue, which will weaken the metal, which will cause it to fracture unpredictably, which will cause some people to believe their bikes are possessed, which IS an improper (non) reason.
Permalink Reply by grayn8 on October 13, 2014 at 11:47pm
@Matt - crazy scary weird right? Maybe this is a good PSA.
@Tom ak - I'm going with Satan over physics, right?
@DUG - so that's the weird thing - bike has around 12k miles and I have never adjusted the seat from when I got it. Entropy, Boltzmann brains, yada yada, prolly caused the saddle to slowly keep moving forward. I guess I never realized by how much. There are no max lines on the saddle and it's just one of those things I've never routinely checked like derailleurs, chain, drive...etc. The metal snapped audibly when going over some construction mounds while I was out of the saddle. Nothing like this happened the past two winters. same bike. Crazy thermal stressed. So surprised it happened now and not sooner if weakness/force from position of saddle.

So - what other odd breaks should we expect or have you a good story of bike going possessed because Science!
Permalink Reply by JeffB on October 14, 2014 at 5:39am

I've had my seat post crack mid-ride, and then a couple years later the frame cracked where the top tube meets the seat tube.  I was riding on it like that for while and didn't notice until the seat post cracked too. Got a new frame out of it via warranty though

Permalink Reply by Larry Mysz on October 14, 2014 at 10:53am

I had saddle rail break right where rail is supported by the back end of the saddle rail binder.  Fortunately the saddle could be shifted forward an inch to where the break was in the middle of the rail binder.  It held long enough for me to get 25 mi to the next town with a bike shop.

Permalink Reply by A.K.A Paul on October 14, 2014 at 2:32pm
I had a seatpost fail a couple months ago. I was lucky and wasn't fully sitting on it at the time so I could stand up and recover. I was also lucky in the fact that it happened about a block from my house and just rode back and swapped it out for another.
Permalink Reply by Tricolor on October 15, 2014 at 10:47am

My bike fixed itself one time when some of my enemies bent the frame.  Then it killed them.

Permalink Reply by Blatherskate on October 15, 2014 at 11:49am
Were you listening to AC/DC "Who made who"?
Permalink Reply by mschaus on October 16, 2014 at 7:31am

Yes, this happened to me!  It was awful!  Had just gotten on my bike and crossing La Salle bridge.  Went to sit down and saddle provided no resistance, so I fell off backwards.  Knee landed squarely in the bridge grating; not pretty.  I ordered the highest grade stainless bolts of the same dimensions from McMaster to replace and now this joint is part of my standard pre-ride checks.  Ride safe!

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