Originally Posted by
wrldtraveller
I am curious, Have it ever happened to you while you are on long distance tour? Do you carry spare parts with you, or you just keep riding hoping that the bike will hold together to the nearest town and hope that the town actually have a bike shop?
As BigAura said most failures are not catastrophic or sudden enough to strand you. Be prepared to fix a flat or do some minor repairs, ride a bike that is fairly well maintained, and don't worry. The worst case is that you will need to hitch a ride. Places where there are very few cars, a larger percentage of them will stop to help. In the cases where I know of folks needing to hitch a ride they typically waited 20 minutes or less. If it is obvious that you are broken down, folks will want to help. On roads where there is only a car every few hours most cars will stop, but how often do most of us ever travel on roads where that is the case?