If you call endless miles of economic downturn fueled sprawl "urban," then I guess so. However, the number of places to obtain a part/service for a bike are overwhelmingly outnumbered by places you don't want to so much as come to a stop on a bicycle, much less be stranded there. The roads are bad, and some of the neighborhoods are worse.

Self-sufficiency and preparation are key. Even if we're talking about plying the north SART, once you're on it, you're many miles from anything. I personally consider anyone riding in my locale without a fully outfitted saddlebag to be simply irresponsible.

True.

Plus N+1 for the Park MT-1 tool.

I'm a solid 80% happy with my Fabric Chamber Fixed tool. It small enough, has all of the bits I need, and said bits are nice and long, so I can actually reach the bolts I need to reach. The drawbacks being that in it's stock form, it's a slippery little beast in sweaty hands-- I dropped mine in the road the very first time I used it. The other is that the bits don't hold securely enough in the little molded insert-- so I have to be careful when taking out the bit I want so as not to drop the rest in the street. Performance-wise, no complaints. Takes up very little space in the bag.

Pictured is the ratcheting version, I opted for the much cheaper fixed model:

http://www.fitandforty.org/wp-conten...onstructed.jpg