Here we report a particularly stark demonstration of the ability of the mechanical bond to alter the kinetic and thermodynamic stability of a bound metal ionthe serendipitous isolation and subsequent investigation of a remarkably sterically congested di-nuclear Cu I complex based on a [3]rotaxane ligand. This complex appears to form under kinetic control during the Cu-mediated alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction that captures the mechanical bond, which is supported by DFT modelling, and thus represents, to our knowledge, the first direct observations of a di-nuclear intermediate in this important synthetic methodology. Not only are the two Cu I centers chemically distinct, linked to their different roles in the bond forming step, their removal takes place under orthogonal conditions and over many days rather than seconds to minutes as in comparable systems. Intermediates of the demetallation process were characterized crystallographically which allowed us to comment in detail on the origin of the robustness of the interlocked complexes.