Originally Posted by
nubcake
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.
There's one problem with your argument here, Nubcake. Eventually, that limp-a-long bike, is gonna have to get fixed. It can't just limp along forever. According the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, with increase in time the universe experiences greater entropy. That's why everything deteriorates, given time. The more time, the more chaos!
Ya gotta take the time to apply the energy, and work to get your mechanical system, called
the bike, to operate according to expectations.
That's why you
NEED a spare bike...Just in such a case!
PS.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics demands that the N+1 Rule be obeyed without question! 