nancy sv

The "who takes a spare" thread got me thinking about what we carry and why. A lot of it is based on personal experience - we didn't carry something until we discovered we needed it... Basically, we carry:

tires
spokes
spoke nipples
brake and shifter cables
brake pads
chain links
John has the brifter brake/shifter lever and we don't trust them so carry a bar end shifter to put on if it breaks


I think that's it for spare parts for us. What about you? What do you carry?

Erick L

Tubes
Chainlinks
Nuts and bolts
Spokes - they came with the Surly but I don't have the tools.
Camera batteries

I don't do long enough tours for cables and tires, although I had a fraying shifter cable break that broke right at the bike shop.

mev

Varies some with the trip but:
- tubes
- tires
- spare pump
- fibre spoke
- brake pads
- pedals
- sometimes cables
- nuts and bolts, e.g. rack mounts

For more than half of Canada I had a spare back wheel: https://www.mvermeulen.com/canada/fotox/jul12_04.jpg However, that came more because after my first rim cracked and the initial replacement was a 32-spoke wheel until I could get a 36-spoke wheel. Once I had the 36-spoke wheel (in Edmonton), I carried the 32-spoke wheel with me from there to Newfoundland.

The most extreme case of "spare" I did was on my Russia trip in 2007. A year earlier in June 2006, I did a shakedown ride through Ukraine and Russia and left behind my bicycle with friends. Plan was that it was a hot spare in case something happened with my bike. If worst came to worst, I could get on a train for a week or so, retrieve the bike and then continue cycling. Turned out I didn't need it and this year a friend is going to retrieve this bike and then tour further in Central Asia.

My motivation for having a spare bike came in my 2001 Australia trip when my frame cracked and I ended up briefly flying back to SFO and picking up my other touring bike. On my next year-long trip, I'll probably also have an older touring bike left behind at home just in case...

antokelly

spokes
tyre
tent repair stuff(glue)
brake/gear cables
various nuts,bolts
2 tubes
emm think that's about it didn't use anything as yet touch wood but i look after my bike like a baby 8f i think anything needs replacing i change it straight away.

Carbonfiberboy 

Same as you, Nancy, except that I carry FiberFix spokes so I can replace a driveside on the road, and now I'm considering not bringing a spare tire, since the votes were 3-1 against. Since I've abandoned my thinwall, high pressure racing tires on the tandem, and gone with ordinary fast tires, I've not flatted, much less had a ride-stopper.

Since your food thread, I've talked to my two friends who've done the Alaska to Tierra del Fuego ride. They said don't worry about the altiplano, except that it's cold at night, the roads are really, really bad, and there's a shortage of oxygen. Everywhere it's flat, it's washboard. But there are lots of little villages, everyone is very friendly, and there is food in the villages. There is a desert stretch in Argentina near the Salinas Grandes, but otherwise they found water all the way.

They tell a story about meeting a gaucho up there, traveling with several horses and dogs. In the evening, they'd be cooking rice and he'd be throwing meat to his dogs while they looked on hungrily.

nancy sv

Thanks for the info! We are passing through Bolivia at the driest time of year during the biggest drought on history. We will be sure to carry plenty of water!

Yan 

Mostly the same as above, but I also carry some bearings and grease. I carry a tube of SeamGrip, which works as both a seam sealer and strong multipurpose glue. I have a main knife and a backup knife. Finally I also carry two compasses; as well as a lighter, matches, and flint.

nancy sv

Wow! You are prepared! We carry a lighter to light our stove and, if we think it might be running out of fuel, buy another one. We've been caught with an empty lighter before! And no compasses for us at all!

Yan 

My cheap compass cracked in a crash in May, so now I'm only carrying one. Who would have thought redundancy in compasses would actually prove useful? Originally I brought a spare to guard against loss and doubt.

benajah

Im a nut about making sure I have plenty of knives and fire making stuff too. I was raised on the adage of "as long as you have a decent knife and you can make a fire, you will be fine"
I am talking about when touring and camping though, not credit card touring.

imi

spare guitar strings

+1 on some kind of back up fire lighter...
and a spare credit card in case the ATM eats it (been there :/

does having more than one condom count?

antokelly

hey imi do you really carry a guitar (what make) when would you get a chance to play it.

staehpj1

Tubes (2)
Spare spokes
A few spare bolts/nuts
Spare cables
Brake pads (if on a long trip in the mountains)
A few extra chain links

imi

hej antokelly. Yeah I've always had a guitar with me when travelling or touring. It's a standard nylon spanish classical guitar (Raimundo 104) in a hard case.

I find time to play almost every day, most often in the evening... (and no, I'm not one of those guys who plays half the night at campsites, I wander off and find a spot where I won't disturb anyone) And rest days of course...

I'm a singer/songwriter... here's my homepage: www.dewsongs.com

IMG_0476..jpg IMG_0937..jpg

LHT in Madison

The question was specific to spare parts, so I did not list tools. I also did not list spares that I bring on non-bike camping trips, like spare tent peg or stove spare parts.
- a few extra nuts and bolts and washers treaded into unused brazeons.
- tire.
- tube or two.
- spare brake cable.
- spare gear cable.
- spokes (I do not have a fiber fix so I carry full size spoke).

I am not sure if you consider these items to be spares, tools or what, I do not call them tools so listed here
- presta to schraeder adapter.
- small roll of electrical tape.
- some polyester whipping twine.
- pump.
- patch kit if I run out of spare tubes.
- plastic bag to go over the brooks in rain and the lycra cover that goes over the plastic bag.
- tiny tube of oil.
- piece of a tyvek shipping bag for tire boot.
- disposable gloves that I got from my doctor or dentist on my last visit to keep my hands (and therefore handlebar tape) cleaner after the repair.

The above is for up to 500 miles and traveling where I will likely be within 50 miles of a bike shop. Thus, I do not carry things like spare brake pads because if my pads are so bad that they might go in that short a distance, I replace them. No spare chain link because if I need to get to a bike shop with a shorter chain, I can fix it and only loose my lowest gear. In other words a spare that is not critical to keep going does not make the trip.

If I was going to the middle of nowhere, I would bring:
- more tubes and maybe another tire.
- an old friction downtube shifter in event of a shifter failure.
- since I have bent my front derailleur a few times due to chain suck I would bring a spare front deraileur because the one I have is on borrowed time.
- I read a biker story about running across another biker in Nepal or Mongolia or some such place, the biker had been stranded for many days with no pump. I would bring a spare pump and probably a second presta to schraeder adapter.
- seatpost clamp bolt (or maybe the whole clamp), I have read about people breaking the bolt and having a very bad ride back to civalization while standing on the pedals.
- maybe more than only one drive side rear spoke.
- expendables like brake pads.
- a bit of extra chain.

A lot of people disagreed with my comment in a recent thread where I said I bring a spare bike tire and although I have not had a flat tire on a car or truck for a few decades, I carry a spare truck tire in my truck too. So, I have a question for you tire experts out there that feel a spare bike tire is not needed - this happened to a friends bike tire on Thursday, we were riding a gravel road and he had his single speed bike. About 30 miles from his Jeep his bike tire started to look like this:



He lowered the pressure and tried to avoid bumps for 30 miles and made it back to the Jeep without failure. But the question is - what caused this? Tire is about a year old and probably has less than a thousand miles on it.

TimeTravel_0

poor tire construction / defect.