Only time I've had to walk was when my rear dérailleur imploded at mile 98 of my first 100 mile ride... walked it home.

My emergency backup is my bus pass... or $2 I always keep in my bike bag if I don't have a pass...

Had to use it once a few winters ago... slid out on ice and bent my crank... walked a block to the bus line.

A true Fred has a pump, tube and wet patches (there's even a chain tool and spare links in the kit):

Check, check, check. (Check and check)

Just call me Fred.

Although you forgot zipties. No true fred would be caught without a handful on his bike and/or person.

Thanks for your reply. Actually it broke right at the crank, so it was not protruding, but could not be pedaled.

Had a platform pedal body fail on me during the morning commute 3 days after I ordered my first set of Wellgo WPD-823 pedals. 2 more miles to WalMart on the spindle, bought the cheapest 9/16" pedals they had and borrowed a 15mm wrench for two minutes to swap them out. (Invariably, during normal working hours at the local WalMart, there will be at least two trucks in the lot with big Lincoln welders mounted to "tradesman" beds with multiple toolboxes. Fortunately, the guy that was near his truck when I was looking had metric open end wrenches in one.)

Got to work, went most of the day with no shoes to let my foot un-cramp from the climb on the spindle, accepted a ride partway home, and rode the last mile to find the box with my pedals and shoes waiting on the doorstep. If I'd known that, (and that I'd get a ride most of the way home) I'd have suffered the last mile and a half to the office on the spindle and saved $11 for a set of pedals I eventually threw away with less than 5 miles on them. (Used them one more time to ride to church in dress shoes before I got my current Wellgo W-70s that work great with or without cleats.)

That happened to me too, about 7 years after this thread died but I was able to coast in. Top five rule, no walking the bike, and it's why I started carrying a chain tool. To set up as single-speed if my DR disintegrates.

I hear you. It is easy to get complacent when you have a long spell between flats. I went five years with no flats, including a short, 375 mile tour. I then had two or three flats within a short period of time on my commute. Thankfully, since my panniers are always on the bike, I always have two tubes and patches, and a pump. That being said, I bought new tires and haven't had a flat since.

Now I did push a motorcycle a little over a mile once after the as tank sprung a leak and I ran out about 100 miles from my destination and 200 miles from home. I had tried to get a motorcycle shop to help but they refused. Then I tried to get a parts show to deliver a gas tank repair kit, but their driver was out. I had made it to a gas station, and I ended up using a piece of rubber pressed up agains the hole, duct tape, and then, get ready for it, feminine hygiene pads over it to absorb any leak. I was three miles from the auto parts store. Great plan, except I didn't add gas at the gas station and made it only a mile before running out. A man pulling into his condo drove me to a gas station, where I bough a gas can, and gas, then to the parts store for some quick set JB Weld. I removed the tank, fixed it, waited for it to set up, filled the tank, then to the gas station where I topped off and left the gas can for the next poor soul, and went on my way. That repair lasted another two years.

I had a Sturmey Archer 3 speed with coaster brake, that I must have assembled wrong. When I had to stop rather suddenly, the thing seized up, and I mean, neither the crank nor the wheel would turn at all. I had to carry the thing home. Since then I've been nervous about putting that hub back on a wheel, even though I think that I now understand how to set it up.

When I got home, I loosened the non drive side axle nut just a bit, and the thing suddenly freed up. Since I had my wrench on the ride, I could have done that when it happened, and ridden home albeit slowly. D'oh!

I posted about this a while back -
THREE punctures this morning

Oddly enough, I've had a couple of punctures on Sunday rides and when out mountain biking, but not had a single puncture on the commute since I posted this (in the car today, but guess what's got to happen tomorrow now).

had a rear tyre explode on glass 1/4 of a mile from home, i walked back to home and got a project bike out of the basement and rode to work. made it on time! n+1 is the thing baby!

Hasn't happened yet, but mostly 'cuz when you commute on a folder, you can Uber home in any car. Woohoo! Having said that, there was one time heading to the train station I was running late and got a flat about a quarter mile from the station and my train was just a few minutes away. I jogged the bike over to the train and just caught it, and patched the tire on the train out.

If you patch your tubes, you have a good record of where on the tire your flat happened. Get two flats at the same patch (or an exactly equal distance from the valve in the other direction, you know just where to look for that little piece of wire.

Edit: I gotta start looking at the thread dates!

Ben

Blew chunks when I saw that, damn!