@pete asks:
I found myself stuck in my highest gear ~20km from home yesterday and so sought out as flat a route as possible to ride home, repeatedly hopping off to walk anything that got too steep.
Q7. What do you do if you find yourself stranded mid-ride? Call for assistance? Walk? Public transport? Set up camp and live off foraged nuts and berries?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A7: I mean, if my legs still work, I’m not stranded.
I took a bus home with a broken bike after a car hit me, once. I’ve limped broken frames home, twice, and pedaled home one-legged after snapping a bb spindle (more than once).
Calling home (and inconveniencing someone to come get me) is always a very last resort for me.
@nothingfuture @ascentale @pete @bikenite
A7. It has never occurred to me that because my partner doesn't drive, it would be no good calling home. And often I don't carry a lock if it would be easier to come home and get the bike later. I need to rethink things.
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A7 based on the two times I've had catastrophic breakdowns while far from home:
- take the bus as close to home as I can get. Unfortunately my e-bike is 1" too long to fit on the bike racks, so this is dependent on the driver being merciful and the bus mostly empty
- call my LBS for roadside assistance because it's really hard to pedal with only one crankshaft
Worst case, if I have a lock with me, secure the bike somewhere and call a cab.
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A7: Our busses carry bikes so it's mostly a matter of getting to closest transit. If that's a problem, I'd phone for help.
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A7. Twice I walked a few miles to the train (flat tire in one case, flat tire and two bad spokes in the second case), not great, but manageable and I try to plan my routes around having a fallback plan. Once it was worse and I was farther (about 130 miles from home), I called a friend of mine who lived 10 miles away from there who I was meeting anyway, who picked me up and took me home (and then I went to urgent care).
@ascentale @pete @bikenite I guess my plan for even remoter problems is probably to walk to the closest town and work my way back to civilization from there (they say experience weighs nothing, but a credit card weighs almost nothing and gets you out of a lot of situations if you can afford it).
@ascentale @pete @bikenite which sounds exactly like what Megan said earlier:
"If one has money and resources, unexpected breakdowns can be a moment to mellow out & accept things, notice/enjoy what's around you"
@djuber @ascentale @pete @bikenite for more remote trips I take enough tools that I can fix most things, even a spare brake cable if I have cable brakes or a gear cable if not. Plus a spare tyre as well as tubes.
I use them more often to help other people, but still worth carrying.
But that's remote as in cycle touring around Australia :) You can't always walk to the next town, and not all roads/tracks have enough traffic for waiting to be a good idea.
> (and then I went to urgent care)
OK, *that's* the real story. What happened?
@djuber @bobjonkman @ascentale @pete @bikenite
Wow, what a horrible experience. Glad you only had to have stitches and it wasn't worse.
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A7: I'm just going to be the smug Rohloff owner for a second if that's ok :)
Sydney trains take bikes and cover an area the size of The Netherlands so it's rare to be in an urban area *and* more than 5km from a train station.
With derailleur bikes I'll use the limit screw to get into at least the second-to-worst gear, or I'll wedge a stone or something into the mechanism to get into a mid gear. The spring tension holds it in place :)
@ascentale @pete @bikenite #bikenite
I bring tools and spares for some key parts on long rides so I can get going again if there’s a problem. Since I spend a lot of time away from reception, I also have a gps messenger.
As a last resort, I have AAA, which has a bike emergency pickup option in NY, though the one time I needed it they didn’t help since I was out of state. Re-assessing whether it’s worth it.
@ascentale @pete @bikenite
A7. The last time I broke down on a bike, I had broken the chain on my road bike. My wife picked me up that time. I wasn't carrying any tools on that particular ride.
For MTB, I carry a lot of tools, including a chain breaker, which totally saved me when I broke my MTB chain at Tamarancho in Marin County. That field repair allowed me to finish the trail circuit and avoid a long walk back to my car.
#BikeNite
@ascentale @pete @bikenite I carry a set of zip ties on my saddle bag for that reason.
Zip tie the derailleur body in some kind of middle gear
@baloo @ascentale @pete @bikenite I saw this setup on youtube earlier today, in a pinch you need maybe five zipties to set the right tension between the chainstay and the seatstay, set a loop for the chain to ride through, and another pulling the bottom section of chain up to an appropriate tension.
Me, I would hope to never do it, but it's useful to see it once and know it's possible. My "adventure" is never more than a few hours walk from a town, but there are people going wild.
@djuber @ascentale @pete @bikenite I’m not sure I visualize what you’re describing. But I got home mostly fine with two zip ties on the derailleur arm where the cable ties it when the derailleur cable snapped (essentially what the derailleur cable does).
Happened to me twice on two different bikes.
@djuber @ascentale @pete @bikenite it gets you home. Usually with the chain somewhat skipping and making noise.
I also Jerry-rigged something similar on an enviolo when one of its cable snapped.
A7. I mostly ride around town, and mostly the plan B if something strands me is to park and lock the bike and then hike out to a bus stop. The buses around here do have bike racks but they don't like to haul e-bikes.
The last time I had a tire with a blowout I was fortunately only a few blocks away from a bike shop! But I know that wouldn't always be the case.
#BikeNite A7: Last year my rear wheel seized on my way home, some 15km out. I was still in the city, so I took the bike back to the office on the bus, then had to take a cab home (no rural night transit out here). Next day took the bus back to the office, then walked the bike to the LBS, transit back home, then used the car to pick up the bike when it was fixed.
I'm the only driver in my family, so no convenient pick-up for a broken bike for me...
@ajft @ascentale @pete @bikenite
A7. And just as I read this, Tom Wait's Broken Bicycles started to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nadKt9BaFZ4
Coincidence? I think not.
@ascentale @pete @bikenite #bikenite A7: Just walk / hitch / whatever out, I guess. I did have to remove the derailleur the other day to get it back to rollable but at least it was only about 3km back to the trail head.
This is why I carry a lock on the bike though, if I had to leave it I could at least lock it to a tree ... which wouldn't stop a determined thief but might at least dissuade a helpful "oh look an abandoned bike" person from salvaging it before I got back to collect it.
@ascentale A7.
I take tools and spares so I try not to get stranded. I make sure my bikes are in good working order with nothing loose, malfunctioning or worn before every ride.
Only once I had to call for help (Wife+car) when a spring in my rear mech broke 30km from home. There are some friends I could also call for help.
All of the above if required. Whichever is easiest!
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A7: Around Boston, transit is a pretty good rescue option, depending on if you can put your bike on the bus racks. If it's harder to get transit, call, either for repair help or rescue
I have had 2 occasions where I've called for rescue, one or 2 transit returns, and 2 walks (one because it was entirely too late at night)
@ascentale @pete @bikenite #BikeNite A7. I've had to call my wife to come get me a couple of times due to double flat tires, where either the spare tube was faulty or I got a 2nd flat due to not pumping up the tire again.
On trail rides we've walked out riders due to injuries and mechanicals. If we're far enough out on the trails we try our hardest to fix things, which is why we carry various spares and zip ties and tools, etc.
Lately we've been having a lot of battery problems with electronic drivetrains where it isn't just the battery not being charged, but the contacts or electronics themselves. Starting to wonder if those systems are not reliable after a certain age or due to riding in the rain, which we've had recently. No fun riding essentially a single speed in hilly terrain.
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A7. It's happened a few times when I really needed to get home for daycare pickup. I generally hoofed it and took MARTA (which was already part of the plan anyway) or called an SUV ride share/taxi to take me and the bike to where I needed to go. I've never been stranded SO far, though. Maybe like 5km.
A7. Mostly just walk my bicycle, if it's less than 12 kilometers. When I had access to public busses with bicycle racks I would use those.
Over that, and now, I would call my spouse. An understanding friend when she can't.
I've been lucky with strangers helping me out when the bicycle wouldn't roll.
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