I was once on a tour in France with three American friends. We were headed from central to southwestern France one day, and at the top of a low pass I heard a loud cracking sound behind me. The seatpost bolt had snapped on the bike of one of my friends. We were in the middle of nowhere and had a long downhill all the way to the next town. He stood up the whole way. When we got to the town, Maurs, I rode around the town looking for bike shops. There were three. I selected the one which appeared to be the most "serious" shop and entered with my friend and his loaded bike. I explained in French to the shopkeeper what happened. (my friend doesn't speak any French, and I was pretty damn pleased with myself when the shopkeeper confirmed that "boulon de la tige de selle" was indeed the correct name in French for the broken part.) The tricky thing was that it was an American part (Avocet), therefore he didn't have a replacement. The man proceeded to machine two new seatpost bolts while we waited. I asked him why he was making two. He said that since we were on tour, he wanted my friend to have a spare (perhaps because my friend was a big guy??) in case the replacement bolt broke. It never did. Amazingly, the shopkeeper didn't want to charge my friend anything at all. We insisted and he finally accepted a token payment.