FBinNY 

I guess I must be a relic from the Bronze Age, but I don't see the need to insure against every minor inconvenience. Cycling used to attract the independent and self reliant, but now that it's more mainstream, the community reflects the population as a whole.

Even if offered, I woudn't buy because the rates would reflect the bias toward those who would use and abuse the benefits the most. Nothing wong with insurance, but it should be for the unsustainable risk, not for every minor inconvenience.

Looigi

+1 on all counts, including being a relic, like me.

John Forester

In some seventy years of intensive cycling I had to have my bicycle carried home only twice, once with a broken back axle, once with a broken top tube. If I had had a spare back axle with me, which is not an item that one commonly carries, I could have repaired the bike beside the road. On the other hand, I consider it impossible to repair, meaning replace, a top tube (or any frame tube) with materials and equipment to be found along the road, but which I had at home. I have managed to repair all other malfunctions that occurred during rides, at least sufficiently well to return to home for a better repair.

genec

Have to tend to agree... with daily commutes typically between 10 and 15 miles it isn't as if a breakdown puts you too far away from anything, including home. Might I suggest a cell phone and the number of a friend with a large car or truck?

In all my years of cycling I have broken a chain once, and a rear derailleur twice and believe it or not, a BB spindle once... the spindle and one derailleur broke within blocks of my house. Breakdowns on long tours generally included spokes... and a bike shop was usually easy to find "in the next town."

The biggest breakdown seems to be flat tires, and I carry a kit for that on every bike I own.

howsteepisit

+1 from me on the independent nature of older cyclists - only things that ever caused me to hitch a ride home were a freewheel that fell apart and dumped the bearings, and a 6-inch snowfall. And now I think I could have screwed the bearing race back on the freewheel and rode it home sans bearings. I believe that this, what i will call old school attitude shapes a number of the opinions that are presented in these forums, and demonstrates why there are such widely held opinions. We are a product of our formative years after all.

FBinNY 

It's amazing how we were able ride hundreds of miles from home all these years without cell phones or other modern conveniences.

Now people are talking about paying $40/year just so they won't have to phone for help.

B. Carfree

I've broken chains, frames, spokes, rims, pedals, cranks, cables, racks, axles, freewheels and saddles. Somehow I always managed to limp the bike along until I could get a proper repair done. I guess I'm not likely to purchase a roadside assistance service.

Now get off the lawn.

genec

Well... careful now... before cell phones, I used to always carry a few dimes in my flat kit... and back then, pay phones were fairly easy to find. You'd find pay phones out in the middle of nowhere... if there happened to be some small business near by.

howsteepisit

While I carried a few dimes along, I never had to use them. Thats the point.