Weirdest trail side repair that you ever had to do.
 

Well?

For some reason I never took the stock lever blades out of my pack, which probably saved me from a walk back to the trail head today. Went down while descending and clipped a tree just enough to bend the rear brake lever blade. Tried to straighten it but snapped it off right at the lever body.:notamused: So when looking in my pack for something that will keep the plunger in the body, I stumbled across the stock lever blades. First time I've ever replaced a lever blade trailside. Got the stock blade onto the body and continued on with my ride. Once back to the car, I swapped the other lever blade out.

Just goes to show, ALWAYS carry spare lever blades.

Never anything too weird on the trail.

Tire boots from dollar bills and Clif Bar wraps.

'Retrued' bent rims by stomping/banging on a rock.

'Broke' a Scott CF handlebar once and tried to make a splint with sticks and zip ties, didn't really add any stiffness. Ended up bailing on forest road with bar spongy, but still held together with remaining fibers, good enuf to get out.

my buddies and i took a trip to northern wisconsin to my friend's cabin. we had two bikes up there (and a lot of beer :D ) . it was some of my favorite riding ever.

my friend broke the chain and bent the derailleur on his bike. he pulled a stick through his drivetrain. We didn't want to waste a whole day trying to find a bike shop. so we rigged it into a ghetto single speed and he rode it for the next week of vacation.

People used to laugh at me for carrying a full roll of duct tape in my camelbak everywhere I went.

Until a buddy's saddle broke in half. We were 20 miles out; so we fashioned a replacement out of two greasewood sticks, a cow pie and some handfulls of bunchgrass - - all held together with lots and lots of that duct tape.

Red Green would be awfully proud of ya, D.

^^ Shucks, that was an easy one.

One time, my son and I and two of his buddies did a creek-crossing one early spring. Water was low enough then; but a freak storm rolled in and swoll the creek to the banks by the time we got back. Had to backtrack 10 miles of trail to find enough litter, pop bottles, beer bottles and junk, plus the gas tanks out of a couple of hulk cars.

We drug all that crap back to the creek, assembled it all under a framework of sapplings and I lashed it all together into a raft with my trusty roll of duct tape. Good thing it was only a couple dozen yards across, 'cause a lot of the bottles and stuff started filling quick and the darned thing was nearly sunk by the time we floated to the far side.

Weirdest trail side repair I did was to "re-true" a taco-ed front wheel from a mate's bike so that he could ride out of the trail we were in. I had to do it by kicking the wheel back into shape against the ground and a fallen soft log. I got it to within half an inch wobble and disconnected (open-up) the front V-brakes so the bike would be rideable... that was the plan.

What was weird was when we got home I fine-tuned the rim alignment with a spoke wrench and you'd never know that the wheel was taco-ed! I must've fluke-kicked it all in the right places. This was all done without taking the tire off which held it's pressure throughout, haha :lol: It was a cheap single wall Weinmann rim that got thrown out later on for obvious safety reasons.

Moral of the story... don't take a "mart" bike to the trail.

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Lost center crank bolt. Lots of riding along and stopping to use a rock to hammer the crank arm back on. *sigh* good times.

Turned a wavy tostada into a taco by "brute truing" too far.

Two wrongs rarely make a right: flipping the bike over and backing over it with the truck again has never quite worked for me either :lol:.

In 1996 I was riding at Silver mtn – 12 miles off the backside, pretty remote area. I had a GT LTS – frame broke on each seat stay about an inch above the cantilever mounts. When I picked the bike up – the rear wheel was swinging below the bottom bracket, only attached by the main pivot. I found 2 sticks, whittled them down enough to fit into the frame tubing and used the little bit of duct tape I carried to hold them together – pedaled out just fine (had to go a bit slow on the DH though).

Sounds like the time I was being chased by some drug smugglers – I fashioned a rocket launcher out of a chocolate bar, dental floss, hand sanitizer and an empty GU wrapper. Mounted the contraption to my bars and took all the bad guys out – saving a bunch of orphans that were going to be sold into slavery in the process.

I was on a group ride where a guy went into a dip in the trail and didn't come back out the other side: his frame had broken. Someone taped the frame back together (duct tape!) and he walked/rode back down the hill. Needless to say his day was done at that point.

:lol:

I think I remember reading about that - - you were riding up north of Kettle Falls near the Canadian border, right? ;)

Duct tape is very nice, but in addition to at least one roll, you need to have on hand at all time at least 50 zip ties.

If you use the same truck it usually comes right :D



BTW, this is the best thread ever... I'm in stitches!


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have pulled bolts and nuts from one thing to fix other stuff.

SS'd things a few times over the years.

a rotor bolt can be used to replace an spd cleat bolt - the head is low profile enough.

replaced bolts on my and others bikes that have gone missing.

tore open my first generation pike fork and fixed the damping cart trailside once. that was interesting.

Wow, that was ballsy to do on the trail! but interesting to note that it can be done with pocketable tools :thumb:

Any recommendations as to which bolt on a bike could be used to replace the missing one on my head?

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i used some duct tape as a bandage holder on my hairy legs once... I should have just bled out it would have been less painful.

i used duct tape and a thick stick to fashion a god-awful pedal (mine had snapped off) that lasted all the way back to the trail head. that was interesting...

Ouch...

If you pour gasoline over the tape while peeling it off it comes off real easy.


Sorry DirtPedalerB, I couldn't help but joke about it. Your post reminded me of a prank my mates pulled on me when I gashed my lower arm and elbow from a dirt bike crash. They said in the absence of first-aid, gasoline is the best substitute... as they gently guided my arm underneath one of the gas tanks. So in a way, that was a trail-side repair of sorts. :D

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I've used a stick as a handlebar

two sticks a a crap load of electrical tape to hold together a broke chainstay

taped my saddle directly to the seat/top tube when my seat post snapped at the clamp ad I couldn't get it out (also snapped at the saddle clamp too, was one hell of a crash.)

And used a small stick as a brake lever

Sorry to bump this thread Dm, but I just recalled something you said and went back to it.

What on earth is a cow pie on your side of the hemishpere?? Where I come from a 'cow pie' is warm cow dung!

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I wondered why this thread came back from the dead :lol:

Well, technically, I should have said 'cow chip' - - as I was trying to refer to the dried version of said cow-flop. Just for the record, that yarn and the raft one were utter fabrications.