loose bolts break stuff!

Sparky

Sparky

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So this past weekend, I took my project bike out for a ride. After a short spin around the block, something started making a loud clanky rattling noise.I immediately pulled over and started looking for a problem.:yikes: a sprocket bolt somehow backed out and caused some destruction. it caught the chain adjuster, bent it up and spun it around. it also caught the rear fender support and sheared the bolt holding it. It likely bent it up also. While waiting on my friend to show up with a sawzall, i used a chunk of metal i found and a rock to beat the chain adjuster back into place. the sawzall made short work of the ridiculously bent bolt. after that (fix?) i was able to ride it home with no further problems.

I'm not sure how the bolt backed out. i removed them some time back when i cleaned up the rear wheel, but i thought i had tightened them all down and hammered those little lock tabs in place.:doh: tomorrow i'll have some shop time, hopefully can start to disassemble and see what all needs fixin. while i'm at it im gonna pretty much check every other bolt that i've ever put a wrench on. this incident was only aggravating, but could have been much worse.

so, picture of carnage and moral- check your important bolts, safety first.
 
Yah man that sucks. Damn lucky it didn't cause more then that, like making you crash. no matter what bike I ride, I normally check most of the bolts every few rides, most of them are in with red loc-tite.
 
Red loctite is the proper thing to use for those bolts. Just need some heat to break them free. Another option is to safety wire all of the bolts. Pretty simple to do and its a very quick visual check on all the important bolts.
 
A good quality torque wrench, with the bolts torqued to the correct torque, wiil prevent bolts from backing out. On bolts for my sprocket and on my disc rotors, I use anti-seize only...........there's no need to use blue or red lock-tite.

The bent up tabs are just a back-up to proper torquing. You had a double failure............not torqued correctly and the tab not bent correctly.

I don't use the tab washers anymore, I just use split lock washers. I've never had any sprocket or brake bolts back out yet, in 22 years of riding.
 
i got into the shop today and got the wheel off. what i found surprised me. one other bolt was hand tight, and the other 4 were only "snug". the lock tabs were in place on all, in fact keeping that one loose one from backing out. guess i was in a rush that day.

Scary stuff. i'm going to find the torque numbers (im sure they are on this forum already), and hit these with a torque wrench this weekend. i think i'll also check anything ive ever put a wrench on on this bike. heres more carnage pics.


btw, on an vaguely related note, which way do those chain tensioners go? as you can see, i have the "washers" out, but i dont know if that is correct or not.
 
You might as well just give all critical fasteners a double check. I think that's something many people on this forum, including myself should probably do. Post the torque specs when you find em please, as I am about to replace my rotor and could use em.

Like mentioned, you're lucky it didn't lock the rear wheel.

A while back, on my first bike I neglected to check my rear brakes upon purchase...gave my little sister a ride to a friends house and about a mile back on the way home, the shoes snapped, and locked my rear wheel while crossing a busy intersection...I kept it up...barely...but was then stranded in the middle of two roads with a bike that wouldn't move. A guy stopped and helped me lift and push it on the front wheel to the side of the road...pretty scary stuff...would have likely been the end of my riding career if my sister had been on back when it happened....but we all know the potential cost of this passion.

Anyway glad you're alright and it's just some minor damage!
 
Not to dig up an old thread but I just had the exact same thing happen to me on Monday. One bolt back out, the other were hand tight. Weird thing is I never touched those bolts, had the rear wheel off and had a new tire mounted on the rim but never touched those bolts. I will in the future thats for sure. I had just been riding my bike, and had just pulled into my driveway, did a plug check and then went to back the bike back out onto the street when the rear wheel locked up completely. Same exact thing as your bike. I just have to ask, what could cause this? Would too loose, or too tight tension on the chain cause this to happen? Heres pics of my damage, luckily I wasnt riding when it happened, but five minutes prior and I would most likely be a stain on the ground somewhere, shudder........
 

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barelycompetent said:
Not to dig up an old thread but I just had the exact same thing happen to me on Monday. One bolt back out, the other were hand tight. Weird thing is I never touched those bolts, had the rear wheel off and had a new tire mounted on the rim but never touched those bolts. I will in the future thats for sure. I had just been riding my bike, and had just pulled into my driveway, did a plug check and then went to back the bike back out onto the street when the rear wheel locked up completely. Same exact thing as your bike. I just have to ask, what could cause this? Would too loose, or too tight tension on the chain cause this to happen? Heres pics of my damage, luckily I wasnt riding when it happened, but five minutes prior and I would most likely be a stain on the ground somewhere, shudder........
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with your chain.

What caused it?..................simple.................bolts not torqued to the correct torque!!
Tab washers and split washers are a second line of defence, but torque is the key here.

Check all the bolts on your bike.
 
looking at your pic it looks like you bent the tab up on a the point of bolt head. The tab should be bent up on a flat of the bolt head.
Leo
 
I'll just throw it out that this is a dirty greasy area of the bike, change a sprocket and you are going to have to spend some time with solvent and a paint brush til everything is spick n span before you put it all back together, wedge some greasy dirt behind the sprocket and torque specs are meaningless.
 
kopcicle said:
I have a simple mnemonic for common thread sizes and torque .
Common sizes are 6 ,8 ,and 10 mm
torque values are 8 , 18, and 28 ft/lbs
when in doubt however look it up
8 , 18 , 28

~kop
Click to expand...
That is close enough for gubmint work Kop. My service manual says 7.5 , 18 , and 27.5 . , so 8 , 18, 28 should be good and easy to remember .
 

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