Emergency repairs tips and tricks

ted1

I was coming home last night along the N11 when my freehub packed it in, I was lucky in that I could call my misses to collect me. But it got my thinking what I’d do if I was 60km from home with a dead battery.

My initial thought was I could cable tie the casette to the spokes to provide drive. ( have since put cable ties in my saddle bag) has anyone tried it?

What tips and tricks have you for emergency/ get me home repairs ?

koutoubia

I always carry a few spare chain quick links.

ednwireland

Chain quick links, hard piece of plastic in case I get a big hole in the tyre (tyre boot patch)

triggermortis

I have chain links, cable ties and a tyre boot in my kit. I've used an old crisp packet as a boot to get me home before.

Weepsie

I carry a new bike with me at all times, as I believe the correct answer is always a new bike.

Wishbone Ash

ted1 wrote: »

... have since put cable ties in my saddle bag) has anyone tried it?.....

Store the cable ties inside the handle bars - much more convenient than trying to get them into a saddlebag.

tomasrojo

I have resealable cable ties and the usual type. The resealable are just handy for securing stuff to trailers and racks; I don't use the non-resealable ones very often.

Like others, a tyre boot. I have a patch of old, cleaned toothpaste tube. Pretty good material.

One of Richard Ballantine's books had a load of disaster-recovery get-you-home tips. I remember one tip was to stuff the tyre with leaves or newspaper sheets if you just can't get the tube inflated, for whatever reason and cycle slowly. Another tip was to use a soft drink can to join two parts of a snapped cable together. I think there was another about making a temporary crank bolt by turning a piece of wood round the hole in the crank repeatedly.

I might try and track the book down here at home. It's interesting, even if the tips are not all that practical. I've never tried any of the weirder ones, so I don't know.

Type 17

Years ago, I read an article about two guys cycling around the world, and one guy's freewheel (it was before cassettes/freehubs) failed while they were hundreds of miles from civilisation, so they took a few spokes from the front wheel and used them to tie the largest sprocket on the freewheel to the drive-side spokes.

Pieces of soft-drinks bottles make excellent tyre boots - I used to use them as semi-permanent repairs on my BMX when I was a kid. However, after a few months, the edges of the patch wear a hole in the inner tube (even when the edges were sandpapered, to provide a feathered edge).

Wishbone Ash

tomasrojo wrote: »

...Like others, a tyre boot. I have a patch of old, cleaned toothpaste tube. Pretty good material...

That's what I take with me. A few rectangular sections with the corners rounded off. (A banknote also makes a reasonable boot).

tomasrojo wrote:

... stuff the tyre with leaves or newspaper sheets if you just can't get the tube inflated...

Grass also.

tomasrojo

The book was Richards' Bicycle Repair Manual, by R. Ballantine and R. Grant. Four pages of improvisations and bodges to get you home. I'll have a read and post some highlights.

tomasrojo

I don't think I can do justice to it. It features a lot of use of cable ties (such as to replace lost bolts and screws, or to stop the inner cable popping out of damaged gear levers), mending chains with bits of coat hanger to replace a lost rivet, improvising a spanner out of piece of wood and some string, using a bungee cord to keep going after the rear derailleur breaks, using pieces of wood as improvised pedals, tyre boots, stuffing tyres with grass, leaves, newspapers, and constructing a defribillator out of candlesticks, a microphone cord and a rubber mat.

tomasrojo

One of those things might be out of MacGyver, now I think about it.

CramCycle

I remember reading about one of the Audax UK crowd whose old steel frame collapsed in the middle of nowhere. The managed to get some branches out of a hedge and cable tie them to the bike to provide some minimal frame support. They then rode a few miles until they came across a garage that had a welder and they botch welded it together to go on and finish the ride.

Cable ties are like a cycling McGuyvers tool;s of the trade. They have got me home on many occasions.

Joe1919

Wheel repair. Broken and loose spokes. Spokes are tightened in pairs by binding together using wire. (Cable ties might do as roadside repair). Note also spoke replacement using shorter spoke plus chain link plate and tieing wire. Can also be used if freewheel cant be removed etc. Useful repair if spoke lengths are unavailable. The whole job is very unsightly but actually works very well. The wheel can be trued in this way and will last for years. Also especially useful if spokes nipples are rusted into spokes and will break off if turned.

Weepsie

Joe1919 wrote: »

Wheel repair. Broken and loose spokes. Spokes are tightened in pairs by binding together using wire. (Cable ties might do as roadside repair). Note also spoke replacement using shorter spoke plus chain link plate and tieing wire. Can also be used if freewheel cant be removed etc. Useful repair if spoke lengths are unavailable. The whole job is very unsightly but actually works very well. The wheel can be trued in this way and will last for years. Also especially useful if spokes nipples are rusted into spokes and will break off if turned.

Could've done with this yesterday when some spokes broke.

Lumen

tomasrojo wrote: »

The book was Richards' Bicycle Repair Manual, by R. Ballantine and R. Grant. Four pages of improvisations and bodges to get you home. I'll have a read and post some highlights.

Does it have any tips on how to repair a dog after you've rammed your bicycle pump down its throat?

transylman

Worst I had was chain jamming in rear derailleur. Derailleur hanger snapped, rear deraillleur badly bent, chain broke, and some of the spokes badly bent causing wheel to warp.

Was able to improvise fix with multitool of removing broken derailleur, and rejoining chain around granny gear at front and midway up casette at back (without derailleur chain will jump to largest gear it can fit on). Spoke tool plus loosened rear brake helped with buckled whreel, and was able to limp back to home, which was thankfully only 40 minutes away.

tomasrojo

Lumen wrote: »

Does it have any tips on how to repair a dog after you've rammed your bicycle pump down its throat?

I will never tire of this. It's so genuinely odd.

mp31

ted1 wrote: »

I was coming home last night along the N11 when my freehub packed it in, I was lucky in that I could call my misses to collect me. But it got my thinking what I’d do if I was 60km from home with a dead battery.

My initial thought was I could cable tie the casette to the spokes to provide drive. ( have since put cable ties in my saddle bag) has anyone tried it?

What tips and tricks have you for emergency/ get me home repairs ?

A most excellent idea. This sort of thinking reminds how wonderfully naive I am when I consider myself to be able to think 'outside the box'. I have had two freehub failures now and not once did I think laterally like this - instead all I did was get annoyed and then kick the freehub thinking it would free up the pawls inside and get me going again (it didn't).

The first time I was fortunate and only a few mins from home so I rang my wife to collect me but the second was 2/3rds of the way to work so I walked for 40mins the rest of the way - luckily I was going thru a phase of using flat pedals in a failed effort to try and work out why my left knee hurts (it still does) and so didn't have to clip-clop all the way on cleats.

mp31

tomasrojo wrote: »

One of those things might be out of MacGyver, now I think about it.

That must be the bungee cord trick for the rear derailleur - everyone these days knows how to knock up a defibrillator out of candlesticks etc.