calyco

Last year, I had accident and my derailleur snapped off and chain twisted. I reinstalled a SRAM powerlock PC1031 chain. The other day, my chain dropped (my fault). So got me thinking, what else should I be carrying just in case. Specifically for the powerlock chain. Should I be carrying an extra master or more links etc. So far I have:

spare tube
tire levers
Park tools patch kit
Lezyne road drive pump
Crankbros 19 multitool (got chainbreaker)

FBinNY 

I take an opposite approach, and do what's necessary --- in advance --- to ensure that my bicycle does not break down on the road. Typically, I ride thousands of miles without anything except flat tires happening. I carry nothing but tube, tire levers and pump for anything 2-3 hundred miles. On longer rides and multi day tours, I might add a gear wire, spoke wrench, and folding hex key. Longer, multi-week tours call for some more capability, depending on where I'm riding, but not much more for trips within the USA, Canada and Europe.

Almost 50 years ago my BB loosened, since then and many 10s of thousands of miles between, I've broken2-3 gear wires and one pedal spindle, and had to true a crashed wheel (once). -- This doesn't include an experimental aluminum frame dating from the thirties that cracked a few times while I was still riding it.

Bicycles don't have to break down and shouldn't, so if you aren't seeing many, many trouble free miles, find out why.

bikepro

+1 Spend 10% of your time preparing for failure. Spend the remaining 90% preparing to not fail.

HillRider

Well, the accident that damaged the derailleur was just that, an accident. The subsequent chain failure could, and should, have been prevented.

What you carry should be sufficient but proper preparation should make it just extra baggage 99% of the time.

I carry just about what you do; two tubes, tire levers, extra master link or Shimano joining pin, tire boot fabric, a small multi-tool, tiny chain tool and a mini-pump. Except for the tubes, tire levers and the pump, the other tools have almost exclusively been used on other rider's bikes.

ThermionicScott 

I've been carrying less and less with me over time. Flat tires happen rarely, but just often enough to justify carrying a spare tube and pump. Beyond that, all of the components get adjusted and torqued correctly at home, so they almost never come loose or out of adjustment on the road. I have yet to need a chain tool on a ride.

I say that not to brag (well, mostly ), but as another example that a well-maintained bike shouldn't need a large toolkit to keep it going through a reasonable-length ride. For brevets, I'll carry a few more things like a patch kit, 5mm/6mm allen wrenches, spoke wrench, some duct tape, and a couple of cable ties, since the chances and consequences of something going wrong increase on those.

HillRider

I've never needed it for my own bike but I have used it a couple of times to bail out other riders. I carry a Ritchey CPR-5 chaintool which is very small and light and uses a 5 mm Allen key to turn the screw press. It weighs about 25 grams and fills almost no space. Certainly not a shop-quality tool but adequate for road-side use. Unfortunately these seem to be out of production so similar carry-along tools are either much heavier or built into a bulky multi-tool.

JonathanGennick 

The OP currently carries little more than that -- just a patch kit and a multi-tool in addition.

Mountain-biking is a different game, and multi-tools tend to be worth the weight. Crashes happen. Parts get bent out of whack sometimes, and a little improv is a useful thing. One memory I have is of catching a stick in my spokes and chain, bending my derailleur badly, essentially wrecking it. Bent the derailleur back good enough to ride, and locked the limit screws so as to hold the chain on just one cog -- making effectively a single speed. All this while being swarmed by mosquitoes, so no time to sit and finesse anything, just set the limit screws to hold the chain on a cog I could ride, and then ride fast back to my vehicle. $150 worth of damage from one stick.

Getting back to chain links. I carry the 9-speed and 8-speed SRAM links, and also a KMC link to cover the wider, non-SRAM chains that I sometimes encounter. I suppose these days I should throw in a 10-speed link of some sort. I'm not trying to be a roving workshop, but I do ride with people, and often with kids, and I've saved a ride or two by having the correct link on hand.

Once I had a friend in our group shift badly. She tore the sides off three or four links. A tool and a link and some knowledge saved the ride. I used the multi-tool to shorten her chain and remove the shredded links, and then to reset limit screw to keep her out of the big ring in front, and popped on a SRAM link to close her now shortened chain. We were miles from town. Saved the entire ride. We continued the ride, had a great time, and she ran for a couple weeks like that before she was able to finally get in to the shop for a permanent fix.

A SRAM link weighs nothing and it doesn't hurt to have one available when you need it.

Retro Grouch 

I used to go mountain biking with a group of guys every Saturday. We joked that, if we finished the ride without breaking something, we hadn't tried hard enough that day. Somebody within our group always had whatever we needed to get back to our cars. I pretty much gave up mountain biking when the things that I broke started including things like clavicles. You can't carry a spare one of those.

Today my bicycling is limited to riding on the road and trails. As such, I just carry enough stuff to repair a flat tire or two. I'm writing this from home so, whenever something more serious than that has happened, I've always managed to figure a way to get back.

Canker

Guy I was mtn biking with last week busted his chain and didn't have a powerlink, luckily I always carry a chain tool and a kmc master link or two. I've used my 9 speed ones on 8 and 10 speed chains temporally many times, last weeks was on a 10 speed. I don't carry one on my road bike but I should. It isn't like they take up a lot space or weigh anything.

Retro Grouch 

The last time that I did was on a solo mountain bike ride. Turned out, however, that the pin for my chain tool was AWOL. I lowered my seatpost and flintstoned my way out of the woods.

JonathanGennick 

lol! That's quotable Retro. Made my day to read that.

Drew Eckhardt 

I've used one two or three times over the last 20 years. I'm hoping new fangled chains with peened over flush rivets are more durable (Campagnolo used traditional chains through 9 cogs, and I didn't switch to 10 until 2012 so it will be a while before I find out).

dsbrantjr

I eschew multi-tools and instead carry just the hex L-wrenches needed for my bike. They are smaller, lighter and more effective. I do carry a small chain tool and a couple of master links and a length of chain left over from shortening a new one. I haven't used the links or chain myself but have helped out other riders with them. Of course a frame pump and patch kit, in addition to a spare tube. I wrap everything in a shop towel which keeps them quiet and can be used to wipe hands or face. Zip ties take up little space and can be used for many improvised repairs.

HillRider

I agree about the "Swiss Army Knife" style multitools with a huge variety of tools in a heavy, inconvenient package.

My multitool of choice is Park's MT-1 "Dogbone". It has 3,4,5,6 and 8 mm hex keys, 8,9 and 10 mm box wrenches and a small flat screwdriver that will fit limit screws. It weighs 40 gms, is 4-1/2" long and retails for about $10. The larger hex keys are positioned at 90 degrees to the length giving them decent leverage. I was even able to tighten the 8 mm crank fixing bolt on another rider's bike with it and got him through the ride. It and the 25 gm Ritchey CPR-5 chaintool cover about all repairs I'm willing to do at the roadside.

Retro Grouch 

Me too. My "aha" moment came when I realized there was no way I could orient a multi tool to tighten a water bottle cage. The first time that I mentioned that on BF, by the way, a bunch of guys laughed at me. The most expensive ones with the most tools tend to actually be the least useful because they are also the bulkiest.

I'm not totally against multi tools, I just think that you need to analyze your needs before selecting one. Our Kettweisel deltas have a couple of torx fasteners that occasionally need attention so I made sure to include one in the tool kit for our trikes.

dsbrantjr

Yep, water bottle cages are my acid test of tools. I have one of the Park "dogbones" mentioned by Hillrider, but it's a no-go for bottle cages. It's still way better than the jackknife kind.

HillRider

Hmmm, all of my water bottle cage bolts have 3 mm hex recesses and the "Dogbone's" 3 mm bit is at the very end and oriented just right to reach them. You can't get a lot of torque on them but you don't need much anyway.