Ever have something break down on your ride leaving you stranded? If not stranded, then seriously compromised? Mad mechanical skilz often remains the difference between walking and riding home.

Today on a 40 mile ride with 15 miles to go, I began to feel unusual forward and rear play in my left pedal while climbing. It was serious enough that came to a stop and unclipped. As soon as my left shoe was free from the pedal, I heard clinky noises, looked down and saw pieces of the pedal on the ground. These Look Click pedals are less than 2 months old, so I was surprised there would be any problem. From what I could tell, the two spring loaded plates that provide the tension grip around the cleat had somehow slipped out of their holding bracket.

Looking at the right pedal, I was able to figure out how it was supposed to be assembled. Using a piece of stick, I was able to wedge the pieces back in place enough so that I was able to continue. I'm lucky those pieces didn't fall at some point along the road. Had they fallen out, I would have been able to limp home, as long as I didn't pull up on the left pedal.

Any other roadside fix stories?

good save!

hmmm. One time up in the crest I blew my sidewall. Thought it was a flat, so I changed it (and had a heart attack every time a white van passed me by) then realized there was a HUGE hop on the wheel and realized my wheel had a giant tumor. I think I folded and stuffed a bill in the tire and descended slowly. LBS gave me a free tire when I showed them what happened.

Good thread idea!

Had my chain bust and I have no experience fixing chains much less a tool for that. Luckily I was able to roll most of the way to my local bike shop. They fixed it on the spot.

Broke a Campy titanium BB about 30 years ago ..... and left crankarm developed a crack last year, so I soft pedaled home.

The best roadside fixes I saw were on a cycling training camp holiday on the Costa Blanca (Southern coast of Spain). It was the first day of the holiday and I was in a group of 20-odd riders about 25 miles from our hotel. Suddenly, from behind me, came the sound of catastrophic bike damage immediately followed by angry cursing in a strong Scottish accent. We stopped to investigate ...

It turned out that a young Scottish rider's budget Bianchi must have had a bit of knock on the flight over to Spain. The rear derailleur hanger had got bent so when he'd changed down into his lowest gear for a climb, the rear mech. had gone into the spokes of his back wheel.

The resultant damage was: rear mech. ripped off, gear hanger snapped, chain mangled, 2 or 3 spokes broken and the wheel badly buckled!

We pooled tools and know-how. First we removed the derailleur (it got a free ride back to the hotel in the Scot's jersey pocket). We then took the buckled wheel off, removed the broken spokes, whacked it against the road surface to take out the worst of the buckle and then re-trued it as well as we could. We couldn't get it absolutely true though, so we slackened the back brake off to stop it rubbing. We chose a compromise gear ratio (low enough to get up most of the climbs back to the hotel, but high enough not to spin out too much) and converted his Bianchi to a singlespeed bike!

The Scot limped back to the hotel, all the while muttering and mumbling about how his holiday was ruined, how angry he was, how was he going to get his bike fixed in time to ride with us again ...

But next day - a miracle happened! Scottish ex-top-pro Robert Millar was staying at the same hotel as us and he had a fleet of top-end bikes to test-ride and review for ProCycling magazine. It just so happened that the bikes were all the same size as our rider's wrecked Bianchi and Robert Millar lent him a different bike each day of the holiday in return for comments and opinions for the bike group review.

He got to ride a top-end Bianchi, a Pinarello, a Colnago, a Time ... (I forget the rest!) How lucky was that!

I had the chain develop a stiff link and shear the rear derailleur bolt off before... there was no fixing that on the side of the road.

Take the derailleur off, shorten the chain to fit one gear, and ride home as a single speed.

No chain tool, lower the seat, and ride the bike home like a hobby horse: push with your feet on the flats, walk up hill, coast down hill.

There's the MTB approach to fixing a taco'd wheel: beat it against a rock. Done it a couple of times on MTBs, and once on a road tandem.

Was riding up the last two mile uphill of my commute to work one afternoon on my monster-cross build. This is the one and only time I ever popped a chain, but it was because I didn't seat the pin properly when reassembling after a cleaning. I was stuck with about a mile left, when this dude on a really nice Santa Cruz MTB cruises up and asks if I need help. I told him my walk was only a brief one, but I had no chain tool and no way to get a replacement. Turns out he worked across the street at SRAM, so within ten minutes he had gone back to work and procured a PG-991 with the pretty, shiny links, power link and all.

I called SRAM the next day and sent an e-mail to HQ making sure Jeff got his due for the good deed. The chain tool is also now in my pack every time I roll away from the house.

I've had a few failures large enough to be memorable, which curiously have all happened in the last year:

The cleat on my shoe decided to shear off, leaving the cleat firmly embedded in the pedal. None of the tools I had with me could produce enough torque to remove it from the pedal. The road shoe was pretty slick on the pedal, which basically meant I had to ride the last 5 miles home with one leg.

I broke a chain last winter on my commute home and didn't have the tools with me to fix it. Even when riding in sub-zero temps I don't wear anything more than a t-shirt and a windbreaker, as otherwise I overheat and sweat profusely. However, I discovered this amount of covering is inadequate when walking at -6 F. I was pretty frozen after three miles of walking when I finally reached the visitor center of a local landmark. I was able to use their phone and call my wife for a rescue, then wait in the heated area. It was after this little stunt that my wife finally insisted that I get a cell phone.

My most recent incident was about a month ago. The tube in my rear tire exploded catestrophically. Sounded like a gun shot. I replaced the tube and continued to ride when it happened again. Both tubes had splits in them about 6 inches long, so there was no patching them. I discovered the tire had developed a split in the sidewall that would rupture the tube. I was out of spare tubes, so I used my (now) 6 month old cell phone to call my wife for another rescue.

Nothing that required much ingenuity. I broke a rear shift cable once. Used the limit screws to turn the bike into a 2-speed hi/low front shift only. Another time a buddy broke his rear der hanger on an MTB ride. Not a "fix" but I used my spare inner tube as a tow rope to get him out and back to the cars, prolly 6-8 miles.

How do you not notice this while replacing the tube?

Nah, it was easier to call someone to come pick me up (even if it meant walking a little ways while waiting for her to arrive).

I did notice it while replacing the tube, but I wasn't carrying a spare tire to swap out at the time. I gambled that my spare tube might last long enough to get me all the way home before it blew. It was either call my wife immediately, or put a new tube in and hope. Opted for the latter and it didn't work out. The second tube did get me about 20 miles closer to home.

Brand new wheel for the start of a 400km ride, and 60 km in, the back wheel had developed a wobble. Stopped at the RR crossing and all the spokes had backed off, with one of the nipples completely unscrewed and floating inside the rim. Now having never built a wheel this was an interesting dilemma. Locating the appropriate small diameter weed to insert the nipple and twist it back on the spoke was challenging. Then the frame became the truing stand while a coal train passed by.

Lesson learned, never attempt procedure on a pea gravel surface, very hard to find the nipple when you drop it.

Wow surreycrv, I had this happen last weekend.

A couple of weeks ago, I dented the rim on my rear Fulcrum 3. I couldn't get a new rim to Chicago in time to rebuild the wheel before my scheduled trip to Seattle with my wife to meet friends and do the annual Seattle to Portland ride. I located a Fulcrum dealer in the Seattle area who ordered the rim and rebuilt the wheel in the nick of time for the ride.

About 30 miles into the ride, in the thriving metropolis of Auburn, the back wheel developed a wobble. Stopped at the RR crossing and all the spokes had backed off, with TWO of the nipples completely unscrewed and floating inside the rim. I called the shop that did the rebuilt and they referred me to a nearby shop that would be open in an hour's time.

When they opened, the tech confirmed my worry that no, they could not repair the wheel. You see, the Fulcrum is a hollow wheel. You insert the nipples through the stem hole and move them around to the spoke hole with a special magnet and then thread them in with a special tool.

I called the bike shop in the Seattle again and filled them in on the situation. They promptly dispatched a tech with a loaner wheel, cassette tool and chain whip to swap me out and get me on my way. They're going to rebuild my wheel and mail it out to me in Chicago and I'll return the loaner when I it arrives.

Two morals of the story:

1) Don't leave on a 200 mile ride with a freshly rebuilt wheel (duh)
2) If in Seattle, do business with Velo Velocci on Mercer Island. They're pobably not the cheapest shop in town, but they have great service.

Best disaster save story ever!

I learned my lesson about not removing and re-installing any link on a hollow pin chain. I do shorten them to fit my gearing out of the box, but use the quick link. I once tried to salvage a damaged chain by inserting a piece of good chain. I used a chain tool, but one of the hollow pins didn't hold fast and the chain fell apart midway through the ride. It didn't break entirely, so I was able to spin the remainder of the ride, finally breaking on the last hill .5 mile from home.