stevo9er

Anyone remember a blog post where a guy fixed his derailleur using fiberglass out in the middle of nowhere?

jolly_ross

I have wired the big cog on a freehub to the spokes once. This made a very coarse "fixed" cassette - you couldn't coast - you could change gears (but had to keep away from the wire mess) - it would carry very little load. You had to push the bike, jump on and start pedalling *very* gently, also had to walk up steep hills. A proper limp home job.

Juha

Pretty much the same here: replaced inner tubes, broken spokes (always rear, always drive side ). Once a bungee cord got tangled, it wrapped itself snugly in between cassette and rear hub. I was close to my accommodation, so I very carefully rode multi geared fixie for the remaining short distance and dug the cord out at the end of the day. I've also stopped to patch a tube for a fellow who didn't have spare tube, patch kit or pump with him.

On one of my early tours I concentrated on putting a cold Coke PET bottle in the shade, instead of watching where I was going. Gotta have priorities. I hit a bump with bottle in one hand and handlebar in the other, promptly lost control and crashed all over the road. My handlebar bag and one of my rear panniers disengaged on impact, handlebar bag in particular was a torn mess after it came to a halt. Took a lot of duct tape and quite a few zip ties to get everything back together. Had to saw and tear off a section of my damaged front fender too, to avoid rubbing. Fortunately I had my Gerber multitool with saw blade and pliers, turns out SKS chromoplast fenders are hard to cut.

The road rash I couldn't really fix, except to clean it up and let it dry. Cuts weren't deep enough to warrant duct tape and/or zip ties . I was quite a sight for the next few days.

cyclist2000

I have had to fix

flats
broken chain
fix brakes

the worst is when I broke my tent poles twice on two separate tents. my first had a fiber glass pole and it shredded into long fibers. I fixed it well enough with electrical tape and was able to complete the tour, the second was on my new tent that had aluminum poles, the end of the pole crack and I used a swiss army knife to score the end and break off the end so the other end could be inserted into the end.

dwmckee

I have four:

(1) on my first 1000 mile tour from Pittsburgh to the real Portland (as in ME), I ripped apart an old clipless Sampson Stratics composite pedal and was stuck riding with the cleated shoe perched on a tiny spindle only. I saved the major pieces and limped to a hardware store where I bought some tiger hair bondo (fiberglass reinforced), and some sandpaper. I shaped a replacement pedal body on the axle using the old pedal pieces and bondo and sanded it until I could get the cleat to engage. Then rode it for a couple of days until I could get a replacement. Worked okay, not good as original, but serviceable for a few days.

(2) Tacoed a wheel once about 2 inches out of plane. really bad. I put the high part of the taco between two cinder blocks and jumped on it until it was close to original. Made it home at least without having to walk it.

(3) Bent a chain about 30 degrees when it got in a bad place between crank and frame. Not sure how, but link stayed together but thankfully it did. Was on Great Allegheny Passage. I used a small set of vice grips and a crescent wrench to just bend it back. Lasted a day or two until I got to a shop with a replacement (Frostburg, MD).

(4) way back had a 3-speed internal 'English Racer' style bike. Top tube separated from steer tube from failed brazing. I rode straight (and carefully!) to a friend's house that could do gas brazing and had him braze it back together. I was riding it again safely after just a couple of hours down time. Had to repaint bike afterwards, but got a couple of more years out of it.

pamaguahiker 

I was reading this thread a few days back but was at work with no time to chime in. There are some great examples of fixes here. i want to add one of the most annoying field failures that i have ever encountered.

A snapped seat binder bolt! Unbelievably annoying. i was about 10 miles into a Rail-trail route when it occured. i have 6 miles til my next destination and i did not pack a huge amount of items since it was merely a quick out and back. i managed to find a railroad spike, and using some bar tape. i lined the spike part down near the rear binder area between where the binder goes and fastened it on with the tape. It was a good enough fix to get me to the next town which had no bike shop but they did have a hardware store and i purchased a better fix til i got home. What a pain though.

djb

I've snapped seat bolts by overtighening, which is kinda dumb, but live and learn....
I had a spare for the bike I took on a plane last year if my hamfistedness returned.

I'm impressed with your resourcefulness.

djoelt1

Trip from SF to Ecuador:
Repaired sidewalls of Town and Country tires with dental floss and some found leather
Broke headset race on bottom of frame - just drove with annoying centering feature for a month
Bottom bracket ball cage destroyed itself and seized the crank
Stripped freewheel removal tool while doing maintenance - had a local welder weld on a piece of pipe so flats were not needed
Broke seat rail - replaced seat
Rear rack braze on broke off the frame - replaced with fabricated steel part that fit around the quick release shaft
It was a very rough trip

pamaguahiker 

Thanks djb, resourcefulness can often be seen as desperate measures at times. i didn't have much choice and my legs were very tired of standing and pedaling, etc. So i found a solution. One of the first items i added for my small little tool kit that i put in my touring bags is a spare. i have snapped them overtightening as well so i join the dumb category.

Now dental floss and leather! That's resourceful! I also have to add that i have ruined a freehub body once, it would engage...then stop, then engage and then stop. After awhile of this riding, which sucked, it finally died. i took all the zip ties i had on in my possesion and zipped the freewheel to the spokes at about 8 places and gently spun my way to the next shop. No long or tough uphills...but i worried about destroying my wheel the entire time.

Djoelt1. That makes for a very long trip. I try and think of every possible detail when approaching bike touring but you just never can think of everything! An actual frame breakage would be my first thought for nightmare! I have only ever had one frame failure in my years and it occured in a pack sprint on a lightweight and it snapped at the chainstay where it connects at the bottom bracket. Bike turned into a wet noodle!