Worst piece of kit you ever bought

[pwa]

I too have had no problems with threadless headsets. The nicest I've had is a Hope one, which is very smooth with no play and no messing with fancy tools to install. But even the more affordable ones I've used have been good. One had a bearing that rusted after maybe eight years of commuting in all weathers and not greasing it, but I could have prevented that with maintenance.

[JohnW]

I was looking through some old junk in the garage last night and I came across a pair of wheels with Maillard Helicomatic hubs... What a nightmare they were, and pretty soon the supply of sprockets dried up completely making the wheels an ornament.

What's the worst thing you every bought?

I'm interested to know why you think that. I thought they were brilliant. They pre-dated the freehub (I think) and had the same massive advantage inasmuch as they moved the drive-side bearing to the outside. However removal only required a small lockring spanner that could be easily carried, which for a touring cyclist was a boon. Of course the lack of available sprockets was a result of the adoption of the Shimano freehub by the OE market. I had a sprocket board with all the Heliomatic sprockets.

Yes - for the short time that they were available, I liked them..............but Maillard bearings were not in the same class as Campag.

[JohnW]

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How ever we did we all survive?

The early 1970s,weren't they?
Not much else available at first, but other manufacturers soon learned.
We had a saying about noisy things : "it rattles like an Ever-Ready front........"

[JohnW]

I don't know about "worst" - I've a long time to look back on, but a Lidl track pump is certainly a contender - what a load of rubbish.

[Carlton green]

I’ve struggled with this topic, perhaps I’ve been lucky and perhaps I’ve been cautious about what I buy but mostly I’ve made whatever I’ve got work well for me. Eventually two items came to mind. I have a (second hand) narrow Brooks saddle that’s fine for short rides but a device of torture for longer - it’s now removed and in storage. I have normal Brooks saddles on other bikes and they’re great but the narrow one is something else. In the 1980’s I bought a SA five speed hub gear, despite my best and reasonably skilled attention it very much disappointed, the five speed SA was great when it worked but - unlike the AW - it couldn’t be relied upon to not break and I was very glad to go back to a five speed block and derailleur.

A runner-up in the contest is a Sanyo bottom bracket dynamo - it’s still in my store. The Sanyo is not really a bad item but, for me, not as good, useful and practical as the promotion it received indicated. My Sanyo was replaced with a sidewall dynamo that worked perfectly well for years.

[Paulatic]

CG reminds me of one of the worst/ short lived items I’ve had. A Soubitez BB dynamo was in a position to catch all the s*^$, soon became noisy and quickly stopped providing light.

[Cugel]

Over the decades I've bought and used all sorts of cycling bits, from a wide range of manufacturers. Whilst some were of lesser function than others, I can only recall two items that were beyond the pale, both tyres.

In the early 1980s Clement decided to offer high pressure clincher style tyres made in the same fashion as their well-regarded tubulars. They basically were tubulars without the sewing up of the carcass, leaving the opening in to which to fit a tube; and fit between the wheel rim beads.

The sidewalls were high-count cotton threads encased in the goo that supposedly kept them in place. They were supposed to emulate the riding qualities of supple-walled tubular tyres ...... . However, they were rather too supple. The first time I went out on them I got only five miles from home before the sidewalls began to bulge in many places, as their goo gave up it's ghost and the threads began to separate after hitting the rougher road parts. Eventually there was a BANG! as the inner tube pressure overcame the sidewall integrity and blew out sideways. I had to walk home, luckily down the shortcut of a canal towpath rather than via the wending road I'd just pedalled.

The other naughty tyres I bought and found wanting were some Specialized items of very light weight - 180 gms each, as I recall - with high-strength very fine nylon threads in the sidewalls. In the dry they were very good - fast because of the high thread count and supple sidewalls. However, the slightest bit of damp made them dangerous to corner on. The light weight was achieved partly by making the tread very thin but rather hard, to avoid fast wearing out. It had little grip, if any, in the wet so threw me to the tarmac more than once, before I accepted I'd been duped and rid my rims of the things.

What lovely fine smashing tyres we have now, in comparison, eh?

Cugel

[Richard D]

Easy one for me. Stolen Goat Orkaan jersey. Which was neither remotely water resistant nor at all wind proof, so managed to be too cold most of the time and too hot when it wasn’t.

[iandusud]

I was looking through some old junk in the garage last night and I came across a pair of wheels with Maillard Helicomatic hubs... What a nightmare they were, and pretty soon the supply of sprockets dried up completely making the wheels an ornament.

What's the worst thing you every bought?

I'm interested to know why you think that. I thought they were brilliant. They pre-dated the freehub (I think) and had the same massive advantage inasmuch as they moved the drive-side bearing to the outside. However removal only required a small lockring spanner that could be easily carried, which for a touring cyclist was a boon. Of course the lack of available sprockets was a result of the adoption of the Shimano freehub by the OE market. I had a sprocket board with all the Heliomatic sprockets.

Yes - for the short time that they were available, I liked them..............but Maillard bearings were not in the same class as Campag.

I wouldn't argue with you about Campag bearings. I was never a big fan of Campag stuff (but I wasn't into racing) but I recommended and fitted loads of Campag hubs (before freehubs became ubiquitous) and headsets. They were so much better than anything else available at the time (80s). The Maillard 700 series hubs weren't bad though.

[fixer]

Carradice saddlebag support, U shaped alloy tubing that fits to the seat stays. It was a long time ago, I think I couldn't get the bolts tight enough, anyway it didn't support the bag .

In defence:

Benotto tape; lasts forever if you don't crash, looks great, of course no grip and no padding.

Aldi and Lidl track pumps, utter bargains, works well enough.

[Nearholmer]

The current Carradice ‘bagman’ support seems to work well. It’s made from stainless steel bar. You do still need to make sure there is thread-lock on the main bolt though (it arrives with a good splodge), otherwise it will work loose.

[JohnW]

..........................Lidl track pumps, utter bargains, works well enough..........

Mine must have been a duff one then - it does happen - or perhaps another year's model.
I'm glad for you that your's worked well enough.
I've never had an Aldi track pump.

[Cowsham]

..........................Lidl track pumps, utter bargains, works well enough..........

Mine must have been a duff one then - it does happen - or perhaps another year's model.
I'm glad for you that your's worked well enough.
I've never had an Aldi track pump.

I bought the Lidl one recently -- good enough pump but could I figure out how to change from schrader to presta ?? Got fed up in the end and used the hand pump. Was in a bit of a hurry right enough but that's a footery thing -- changed it back to schrader when I got back home.

[JohnW]

..........................Lidl track pumps, utter bargains, works well enough..........

Mine must have been a duff one then - it does happen - or perhaps another year's model.
I'm glad for you that your's worked well enough.
I've never had an Aldi track pump.

I bought the Lidl one recently -- good enough pump but could I figure out how to change from schrader to presta ?? Got fed up in the end and used the hand pump. Was in a bit of a hurry right enough but that's a footery thing -- changed it back to schrader when I got back home.

.............all's well that ends well then

[rjb]

CG reminds me of one of the worst/ short lived items I’ve had. A Soubitez BB dynamo was in a position to catch all the s*^$, soon became noisy and quickly stopped providing light.

Me too. Mine had a plain brass bearing which seized up after 12 months use. I eaked another 12 months of use by machining the end cap and putting some sealed bearings in before it seized up again. Mick F had his for several years without issue and thought his had sealed bearings. Perhaps the later versions were made with cheaper brass bushes which weren't able to withstand typical British weather conditions.