Worst piece of kit you ever bought

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Dingdong
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Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Dingdong »

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?
pwa
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by pwa »

A B&M rack fitting rear light that ran on AA batteries, or was meant to, but it didn't stay on. It relied on flimsy copper connections that became slack with use and thereafter failed to maintain contact with the batteries. So the rear light would go out, without me knowing, over cattle grids and the like. The switch was a piece of ill-fitting Christmas cracker plastic and the whole thing oozed cheap and nasty rubbish. I binned it within a month of purchase. I've had a few poor rear lights over the years but that was the worst. Current B&M battery rear lights may be improved, but they look too similar to that piece of rubbish for me to give them a try.
Last edited by pwa on 9 May 2022, 9:21am, edited 1 time in total.
rotavator
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by rotavator »

A cycling jacket from Aldi. It looked like a bargain at £29.99 and fitted OK when I tried it on in the shop. It so happened that I was off to Scotland on holiday a few days later so I took it with me. The trouble was that its fabric had insufficient stretch so it dug into my armpits and generally felt horrible when riding my bike so after a couple of outings I decided it was no good and it did not return from holiday. Since then I have been very wary of cycling bargains in Aldi and Lidl. Their rear LEDs that die permanently if they ever allowed to fully discharge were another waste of money at ~£10 each.
iandusud
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by iandusud »

Dingdong wrote: 9 May 2022, 6:07am 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.
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Paradiddle
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Paradiddle »

'Pure' wet lube. Basically a goopy syrup which attracts dust and dirt in both dry and wet conditions. Use it in winter and leave it for more than a month and you risk turning your chain into one solid piece of metal and dirt. I use Fenwick's wet lube or any dry wax now.

Also my sonder carbon bike is on a close 2nd at the moment, but I've got a whole thread on that.
Jamesh
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Jamesh »

rotavator wrote: 9 May 2022, 7:45am A cycling jacket from Aldi. It looked like a bargain at £29.99 and fitted OK when I tried it on in the shop. It so happened that I was off to Scotland on holiday a few days later so I took it with me. The trouble was that its fabric had insufficient stretch so it dug into my armpits and generally felt horrible when riding my bike so after a couple of outings I decided it was no good and it did not return from holiday. Since then I have been very wary of cycling bargains in Aldi and Lidl. Their rear LEDs that die permanently if they ever allowed to fully discharge were another waste of money at ~£10 each.
I like my Aldi jacket ideal for pootling around in .

I have a boardman one which is a better fit for faster rides though.
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Sweep
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Sweep »

pwa wrote: 9 May 2022, 7:18am A B@M rack fitting rear light that ran on AA batteries, or was meant to, but it didn't stay on. It relied on flimsy copper connections that became slack with use and thereafter failed to maintain contact with the batteries. So the rear light would go out, without me knowing, over cattle grids and the like. The switch was a piece of ill-fitting Christmas cracker plastic and the whole thing oozed cheap and nasty rubbish. I binned it within a month of purchase. I've had a few poor rear lights over the years but that was the worst. Current B&M battery rear lights may be improved, but they look too similar to that piece of rubbish for me to give them a try.
You mean the german light manufacturer rather than british discount store?
If the former, agree - I think I have one somewhere.
Bought it as one of the few rack-mountable battery lights around at the time and I like AAs. And it was German - must be good?
Memories of a fraught Dunwich Dynamo by the side of the road - found some discarded cardboard on a pavement and spent some time jamming the battery compartment with it.
Oh and what sort of nit designs a rear light with a cover that fastens with a tiddly screw?
One false move on a nightime mid-ride battery change and it's blackout time.
Now of course I use a variety of excellent cateye lights on their eminently practical rack-mount bracket.
Sweep
pwa
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by pwa »

Sweep wrote: 9 May 2022, 9:11am
pwa wrote: 9 May 2022, 7:18am A B&M rack fitting rear light that ran on AA batteries, or was meant to, but it didn't stay on. It relied on flimsy copper connections that became slack with use and thereafter failed to maintain contact with the batteries. So the rear light would go out, without me knowing, over cattle grids and the like. The switch was a piece of ill-fitting Christmas cracker plastic and the whole thing oozed cheap and nasty rubbish. I binned it within a month of purchase. I've had a few poor rear lights over the years but that was the worst. Current B&M battery rear lights may be improved, but they look too similar to that piece of rubbish for me to give them a try.
You mean the german light manufacturer rather than british discount store?
If the former, agree - I think I have one somewhere.
Bought it as one of the few rack-mountable battery lights around at the time and I like AAs. And it was German - must be good?
Memories of a fraught Dunwich Dynamo by the side of the road - found some discarded cardboard on a pavement and spent some time jamming the battery compartment with it.
Oh and what sort of nit designs a rear light with a cover that fastens with a tiddly screw?
One false move on a nightime mid-ride battery change and it's blackout time.
Now of course I use a variety of excellent cateye lights on their eminently practical rack-mount bracket.
The German light manufacturer. I was expecting something nice and got something not fit for purpose.
borisface
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by borisface »

A few years ago I bought some of Aldi's cheap shorts for turbo use for under a tenner. They were hilariously bad. You expect two things from a pair of cycling shorts a) the waist doesn't fall down and b) the legs don't ride up. Unfortunately both would happen within about five minutes of starting riding and I'd end up looking like I was wearing a pair of particularly low cut swimming trunks.

Weinmann 500/600 brakes from the 1970s/80s were very poor especially in the wet but then so was pretty much everything else!
Dingdong
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Dingdong »

I bought a Lidl track pump. As a former proper track rider, I've been spoiled by all metal Italian track pumps that can put 100psi in your tyres in 4 strokes of the barrel! These plastic Lidl jobs though, absolutely useless piece of old toot. Not even worth the tenner I paid for it :lol:
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Sweep
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Sweep »

Dingdong wrote: 9 May 2022, 8:31pm I bought a Lidl track pump. As a former proper track rider, I've been spoiled by all metal Italian track pumps that can put 100psi in your tyres in 4 strokes of the barrel! These plastic Lidl jobs though, absolutely useless piece of old toot. Not even worth the tenner I paid for it :lol:
+1 to that. My Lidl one, bought from an Italian bike-shop, burst on first use.
I do have an Aldi one that doesn't feel as nice as my cheap but very good thing from edinburgh bike co-op (possibly made by Gio). But the Aldi works.
But worst ever - a spesh metal thing I paid over £60 for.
Developed a fault - went in a spesh "concept" store asking about getting a new simple bit and they pretty much laughed in my face on the basis that it was over a couple of years old.
Won't be buying ANYTHING spesh ever again.
If the Edinburgh bike co-op one fails (can't really complain if it does eventually) will get some sort of Topeak Joe Blow,
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Dingdong
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Dingdong »

Weinmann brakes were bad, but Mafac centre pulls were the pits. Mines squeaked and squealed till eventually I consigned them to the bin and bought a proper pair of Modolo. Best kit ever made, Italian of course!
Dingdong
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Dingdong »

In piano black... 8)
Dingdong
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Dingdong »

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Nearholmer
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Re: Worst piece of kit you ever bought

Post by Nearholmer »

Muddy Fox MTB shorts, of which I bought two pairs in a sale because they looked ideal for a short tour on the summer.

The legs are stupidly baggy so get caught on bottle cages etc, and the click-fast padded-bum inners are so badly made that the seams cause severe soreness.

In fairness, the fabric is actually very good, and if you don’t actually want to ride a bike in them, they’re ideal summer shorts.
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