wolfchild

There you go, public transit can make a perfect roadside assistance for a cyclist. Majority of urban cyclists who live in cities and use bikes, only travel very short distances, they never far away from anything and most of them never venture outside of city limits. It's very easy for an urban cyclist to use a public transit, or a taxi or uber or call a friend if they have a catastrophic breakdown. There is no need for any roadside assistance when you're within city limits... I had a crank arm break on my fixed gear bike one time on my commute from work. I pedaled home with just one crank arm for about 7 miles, I could of easily taken a bus if I wanted to but I didn't.

Machka 

+1

If you're in a city or a town you can acquire assistance with what's available ... public transportation, taxi, friend, hardware shop, grocery store, or whatever. Especially if you have some idea how to carry out basic repairs.

We've stopped in at a service station in a dot-on-map town, and picked up a couple tire patching kits when we realised we were down to our last spare tube. I've picked up tubes and other supplies in hardware/sporting goods shops in small towns here and there.

And I have taken both an emergency bicycle repair class, designed mainly for mtn bikers out in the middle of nowhere, but with tips a road cyclist could use as well in a pinch, and an intermediate bicycle repair class.



Where I might have made use of roadside assistance is on my really long rides way out in the middle of nowhere.

One particular route for a popular 400K and 600K I did in Alberta took riders into a 100 km long stretch where there was no phone service at all, and one small shop in the middle which, when it was open, didn't have much more than fuel, a small selection of snacks, and a few touristy bits and pieces (and no phone service there either). I don't know how I would have contacted roadside assistance, but that might have been a place where it would have come in handy should something have happened to my bicycle.

There were several other spots around Alberta and Manitoba where I was well out in the middle of nowhere, and where it did occur to me that if something did happen to my bicycle, I'd be rather stuck.


As for what could happen that would be so bad I couldn't fix it by the side of the road ... well, on my 3-month cycling tour of Australia in 2004, my freehub, which had been acting up for about three weeks froze solid. When it does that, there's no engagement. In other words, you can pedal for all you're worth but you go nowhere.
You can remove the freehub and try to get the pawls out so that there is some engagement but that isn't easy to do and doesn't last long.
You can ziptie your spokes to ... something (I'm not quite sure what because I was just told about that solution and didn't see it in action) making your bicycle into a fixed gear. But apparently that is fraught with danger because you can damage your spokes that way.
Or you can walk.

Fortunately and thankfully, in my case, my freehub decided to freeze when I was about 1 km from where we were staying and I was able to coast in. But it could have decided to freeze anywhere and we were in some pretty remote areas during the 3 weeks or so it was acting up.

Fortunately also one shop in town had a new freehub and they were able to replace mine and I was on the road again.

But those particular freehubs weren't very good ... and there I was riding a century in the middle of nowhere in Alberta about a year later, in preparation for a 600K, when it started acting up again. It knocks ... there's an odd knocking noise that tips you off that within a couple weeks something very bad is going to happen. Fortunately I recognised that, made it home and had it in the shop the next day where they replaced my freehub with something decent. But again, the potential was there I could have ended up 150km from anywhere in the middle of the night on that 600K ...


However, I do wonder ... would roadside assistance come out and assist me 150 km from anywhere in the middle of the night?

Roody

The biggest problem that I see with roadside assistance for bikes: Those who can afford it don't need it, and those who need it can't afford it.

Machka 

I wouldn't think that would be true. It's not expensive to get a membership with CAA in order to take advantage of roadside assistance ... or to take a bicycle maintenance course in order to be able to do it yourself.

I don't think the affordability would be much of a concern on way or the other. The greater concern would be how far roadside assistance would be willing to go ... within city limits ... 50 km radius around a city ... further ... ?

Roody

Well, I live fairly close to Canada, but probably a little too far for the CAA to assist me.

Machka 

AAA then.

wolfchild

CAA membership starts at around $100 dollars/per year for a basic coverage with very limited mileage... A coverage with larger mile radius and more services cost more. I am not even sure if they assist stranded cyclists, I just don't see a tow truck driver fixing a flat or a broken spoke or a cracked rim. I still think it's a waste of money for a cyclists who does most of their daily riding within city limits.

cooker

If they also have a car, this might be a cheap add-on that gives them a little more comfort trying out biking longer distances, and helps them get car-lighter.

tandempower

The last time I used roadside assistance, many years ago, they would tow your vehicle up to 100 miles, I think, if they couldn't fix it. Jump-starts are an example of a quick-fix that doesn't require towing, but I don't think tow-truck drivers even plug tires to avoid towing. I think they just tow. So the default solution for stranded cyclists will probably be a ride with your bike within 100 miles or whatever their mileage limits are.

Obviously there are more efficient options for bicycle roadside assistance, but those will probably only emerge if/as a culture of greater efficiency evolves within the population at large. For a long-time, we've lived insulated from social-economic pressures to increase efficiency simply because waste-spending generates more economic activity and growth. As population grows, this economic model falls increasingly short of what can actually support the population, so greater efficiency will have to evolve sooner or later.

winston63 

Yes, I'm currently a member of BCAA, and I find it completely worthwhile even though I've never used (or even thought of using) the bike roadside assistance. I'm hearing impaired, and I originally bought a membership because my audiologist partnered with CAA and offered a 15% discount on hearing aids to members. That worked out to be just about $800.00 off, so it was a no-brainer to pay the membership fee and get the deal.

I've since stuck with it because it really is a great resource for insurance, travel information and the like. And I like the fact that they offer roadside assistance: I may never use it, but I think it's pretty forward thinking on their part.

cooker

Do you also own a car and is that principally what makes it worthwhile, after the hearing aids are paid for, or are there enough benefits even if you don't own a car?

winston63 

I do own a car, but it spends most of the year uninsured and I've never used BCAA in connection with it. Personally I've found that membership is worth it for the discounts on car rentals, partner hotels, travel insurance and the like. It's hard to say whether or not that would be worth it to anyone else though.