Originally Posted by
Slaninar
That is true in that PARTICULAR case. There are breakdowns that make bike not rideable and if you can't find parts quickly, or at least not at a decent price, a backup bike comes in very handy. You can SURVIVE without a backup bike, but it is a very, very, very useful thing to have and doesn't cost much. Just like a second pair of jeans.
The point I am trying to make is that those things are extremely rare and chances are if you have some decent mechanical skills you can get by till parts show up. Those cases are so rare that it is in no way common enough to tell people they MUST have a back up bike if they want to commute, that is a very quick way to turn people off from commuting.
Even a crash that would bend the hell out of a wheel can usually be beat on the ground enough to clear the frame and bikeshops will always have wheels around, freehub fails you can use zip ties to tie the cassette to the spokes and make a fixie (just remember not to try and coast), bend a fork and you can usually force it back enough to limp home, etc. There really is very little that will hurt a bike so bad you can not limp it along. Those things are so rare that they are in no way enough to call them justification to tell other cyclist the NEED a second bike, second bikes are NICE but in no way a NEED. I do not mean to rant but one of my big pet peeves is people confusing the words need and want.