Bike parts coming loose while riding

Brad Marcus

I'll preface this post with the fact that road conditions in my area would stack up with the worst of them. It's gotten so bad that I've become proficient at bunny hopping my tri bike over potholes and cracks to avoid disaster. Now on to the question......Between last and this season I've had various parts on the front end of my tri bike become dangerously loose. Unfortunately, it usually happens at bad times (when I'm traveling at 20+mph, hours from home without the proper tool to tighten a bolt). I understand that this probably isn't all that uncommon, especially with the bouncing around that my bike gets on the roads near me, but here is a list of things that have come loose or broken: bar end shifter dislodged, arm rest cup broken/replaced and now gets loose every few rides, brake lever loosens up and pops out, and most recently one of my aero bars completely slid out while riding. Not to mention the dozens of bottles and co2 cartridges I've lost off my rear hydration system .

My question is if this is normal? I'm fairly certain I understand the cause, but does the team have any suggestions as to how I can alleviate this issue? It has not happened during a race yet, but I feel as though it's a matter of time. I now wrap the threaded section of my co2 cartridges with Teflon plumbing tape before screwing them on to the holder for training and this seems to work, but is it really necessary to do this with every bike part on the front end too?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Steve West

I thought I had bad roads up my way but nothing like that has happened to me yet.

Some of threaded items can be secured with Loctite blue.

http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/t_lkr_blue/overview/Loctite-Threadlocker-Blue-242.htm

Coach Rich

Wow, sounds worse than CA roads 

For training purposes maybe put your stuff in a behind the seat bag vs Co2's screwed into fancy holders that you really on need on race day. XLab Gorilla cages are very grippy. I put a 4th bottle in my jersey and your downtube is always the most secure place to carry a bottle. 

A combination of locktite (blue, not red) and lock washers should help with bolts

Brad Marcus

Thanks Steve and Coach R. I never considered locktite, but will give this a shot and see where lock washers can fit too. I only use the rear hydration + co2 holders for training and not racing to carry more bottles. I guess its finally time to bite the bullet and get gorilla cages. They would've paid for themselves by now!

kimmydct

Brad- I hear ya! The bike shop loosened one of my shifters but now it keeps coming super loose, resulting it what I call "phantom shifting"... I'll be climbing (of course that's when it happens!) and the bike will shift a few gears at random, causing me to nearly come to a dead stop and nearly topple over.
Some of those roads on the ride Sat. were brutal!