Daspydyr 

Finger nail polish or model paint makes good touch up paint. I also like that Electrician Tape comes in colors now days. I use it as a shield on my frame for where the cables rub.

Bikey Mikey

Hey, the Mythbusters skinned a small prop plane with Duct Tape and it flew fine.

NOS88

But would you want to make a trans-Atlantic flight in it?

Bikey Mikey

oldster

I use my metal lathe for making pool cues,along with other things,wood lathe does not make good cues,
Bud

miss kenton

A zip-lock sandwich bag. They fold up tidily, are waterproof, keep things clean and are often reusable. They can be used to carry a multitude of things including change, patches, band-aids, Dunkin' Donut coupons, and dirty hand wipes after a flat, not to mention sandwiches. They are useful for biking and life in general.

teachme

+1 ! Good place to put the camera if it starts raining...

lhbernhardt

WD40 is highly under-rated and does have a place on bikes, especially in the wet Pac NW. The "WD" in the name stands for "Water Displacement." It's not really a lubricant, but it obviously has some lubricating properties. I spray it on the bike's brake pivots and chain when I bring the bike in after a rainy ride. Water then starts dripping off the chain (be sure to do this on old newspapers!). Later, I come back and oil the brake pivots and chain. I'm not certain, but I think the WD40 facilitates the oil getting into the right places, allowing it to bleed into the areas the WD40 has penetrated.

Besides booting tires, ductape is also useful for repairing fenders.

And I use a ziptie to hold my taillight in place. I slip the clip through the loop that's at the back of most seat bags these days, but unless it's secured, the light will shake loose, fall off, and be lost. Not good if you've spent $20 on the taillight. So once the light is in place, I wrap a ziptie around the bottom of the clip and the body of the taillight. With both Planet Bike and Portland Design Works taillights, the ziptie will slide off, but it takes a bit of effort, so you can use the same zip tie over multiple battery changes. I really dislike the consumable nature of zip ties. I try to use as few as possible.

Luis

Gravity Aided

I don't want to make a transatlantic flight in anything, but Alcott and Brown, 2 British pilots, made the first Transatlantic flight in a fabric covered plane, I believe a Vickers Vimy.

Tom Bombadil

+1 I have two in my saddle bag.

lhbernhardt

This was actually the first nonstop transatlantic flight. Just two weeks earlier, the US Navy flew a Curtis NC-4 from the US to Portugal (US Navy vessels were strategically placed along the entire route in case of problems!). Good thing, because it had a mechanical and had to stop in the Azores before completing its last leg. However, the Alcock and Brown flight pretty much eclipsed this accomplishment.

And what does this have to do with bicycles? Those early airplanes were just full of bicycle technology. Bare tubes, open wires, all the parts out in the open. Bicycle wheels for landing gear, etc.

Luis

jbman100

550 cord as well.

Mort Canard

The plane in question was a BeLite ultralight plane and is forbidden by federal law from from carrying more than 5 gal. of fuel. Probably have to do a lot of rowing. Good luck with that!

https://jameswiebe.blogspot.com/2011/...roduction.html

on the path

I have 2 in my saddle pack. One contains my spare tube, the other has a bunch of quarters and a presta to schrader adaptor.

Bikey Mikey

Why would you have a tube in a sandwich bag?

Reminds me; I need to put in a couple of sandwich baggies in the saddle pack so I can stick my phone it if it begins to rain. I really ought to put some band-aids in a baggie(for me or for an injured cyclist I encounter).

on the path

The bag provides a level of protection against other moving and vibrating objects in the saddle pack. Also, inner tubes will eventually dry out and become brittle after extended periods of being exposed to air. The bag also contains the tube's size and keeps it as compact as possible.

miss kenton

Are you saying they'll dry out and become brittle because they will have been sitting in your kit bag, unused and unneeded, for extended periods of time? Optimistic, aren't you?

Bikey Mikey

@ Miss Kenton

At least he doesn't keep it in his wallet.

on the path

I have a couple of spare tubes that... aw, nevermind. I don't want to jinx it..

Wogster

Actually I do the same thing, for a different reason. It offers just a tiny bit more protection against other stuff that could be floating around in your saddle bag, like your keys for example. The other thing, I write on the bag the size of the tube. My spares consist of some that are on a shelf in the shed and one on each bike, when I get a puncture on a bike, I put the flatted tube on a nail in the shed and grab a good one off the shelf. One time I grabbed the spare off the shelf, and when I got the next flat, I found out that the spare I grabbed was a 27" tube and I had a 26" wheel. Only time in all my years of riding I needed to call for a SAG.

wphamilton

Sticky-back velcro belongs on the list. Back in the day there'd also be bailing wire, but I haven't even seen any in ... I don't know how long.