Originally Posted by
Rowan
It's really quite funny. I have a reasonable set of workshop tools, plus the tools that normally would get me through on a tour, but Machka hardly touches any of them. I have stood back occasionally and let her do the tube change, however, just so she can keep her hand in.
But... and this is one of the points that has already been made... the need for in-field repairs really has been quite minimal for us other than punctures. And that comes back to maintaining our bike in good to excellent condition, and changing stuff out before it has started staggering on its last legs. It comes from the need for reliability in randonnees.
Things can also happen without you really knowing it. On a 400 randonnee, the touring bike I used started to shift oddly, even overshifting the chain into the spokes. I couldn't figure out what the problem was, because the cassette and chain were new.
When I got home and removed the wheel, a piece of the the right rear dropout fell out. Apparently, it had broken after the bike blew over in a gust of wind and the acorn nut on the QR somehow took the impact...
The drop-out was sheared and was held together for the event by the skewer, rear axle and the rear rack.