Tools, I carry in the seat bag is a Park MTB3 minitool, cheap small Eddie Bauer folding pliers, Soma tire irons, Quik Stik, (I use to carry the VAR when I use to use Specialized Armadillo tires that were a pain to get on), pump (depending on the bike I take depends on the brand but I really like my cheapest pump the Topeak Road Morph G the best!), glueless patches, tire boot, a couple of fiber spokes, couple of zip ties, Super Glue (great for fixing stuff, sealing cuts from the outside of tires, even cuts on me), small almost worthless first aid kit. That junk all goes into the seat bag along with a spare tube, a ultralight folding racing tire, state and medical ID cards, $40 cash, spare button bat for computer, and spare AAA bats for tail lights.

Zip ties can be used for various things; one could be a rear stay breaks, find a couple of sticks and use as braces with one of each side of the stay and use the zip ties to tighten the sticks to the broken stay and limp home on the bike. You could if you had a enough make emergency "snow chains", I don't carry enough nor would I ride in the snow! Maybe a zip tie your using to tie down a computer wire or some other cable snaps you can secure it with a new zip tie. Creativeness can help you survive if you ride in remote areas as I do. Sure there's always the cell phone but even though I'm married I don't use her as a mommy, so I fix anything that may have broke on a ride and get home riding the bike not in a car.