Mar 13 2010
Tool Up to Ride: Be Ready for Roadside Repairs
You’re 50 miles from home on your bike, enjoying a day-long ride through the countryside, and you’re on your own. And then your bike fails you. Maybe it develops a persistent knocking sound with each revolution of the cranks. Or the front derailleur cable snaps. Or you hit a deep pothole and snap a spoke on the drive-side of your rear wheel. What do you do? Pull out your cellphone and call someone to come and pick you up? Is there cellphone coverage where you’re likely to break down? A five-mile ride down the road from where I’m typing this I enter a dead zone with no cell coverage, and it stays that way for another 25 miles. Moreover, there are no other services in the area. There aren’t even many houses. But it’s a great place to ride, with paved roads and wide shoulders, gentle and challenging grades to give a good workout, not much traffic, and beautiful scenery with wildlife-rich woods, wetlands, and mountains—even the occasional foraging bear. But it is not a great place to break down on a bike.
In the other direction, heading toward civilization (such as it is), the roads are just as pleasant to ride, but a breakdown wouldn’t be any more convenient, since there is no public transportation, and no bike shop worthy of the name. And calling someone to haul me and my bike home just isn’t my style. So I always ride with basic repair supplies in my saddle bag. I’ve written about my saddle bag kit before, but here’s a review of what’s inside:
- • Spare tire tube
- • Self-adhesive patches
- • Tire levers
- • Hex wrenches
- • Spoke wrench
- • Chain tool
- • Multi-tool
- • Vinyl gloves
- • Cotton rags
The saddle bag is all I really need for local trips. For longer trips, though, when a walk back home would take me more than an hour or two, I carry extra tools. I call this my roadside repair kit, and I carry it in my handlebar bag.
Is my roadside repair kit heavy? A bit, but it’s not any heavier than a large, full water bottle. I can live with that small amount of extra weight, especially considering the peace-of-mind it provides. Here’s what’s in it:
And here’s a run-down of what’s on display:
- • Tire patch kit
- • Combo Phillips & slotted screwdriver
- • 8mm Allen key
- • 8mm and 10mm combo open-ended wrench
- • Cone wrenches (13mm-15mm and 17mm-18mm)
- • Combo wrench (31mm & 36mm headset spanner & 13-15mm cone/pedal wrench)
- • Lifu mini crank extractor
- • Stein cassette remover
- • Spare brake and derailleur cables (not shown)
- • Inner tube sections (padding to keep tools from clattering)
- • Vinyl gloves
Most of these will be familiar to cyclist-mechanics, but there are two which aren’t so common—a mini crank extractor (on the left) and a cassette remover (on the right):
The Lifu mini crank extractor cost me less than USD5 and came from Biketoolsetc.com. In conjunction with an 8mm Allen key or 14mm open-end wrench, it makes use of the securing bolt to remove either crank from a standard tapered spindle. The cassette remover by J.A. Stein works by preventing the cassette’s lockring from turning. A splined inner plate fits into the lockring, while an outer plate is secured by using the wheel’s skewer. Turning the cranks in low gear then forces the lockring to break free, which in turn allows you to remove the cassette. The Stein tool can also be used to tighten the lockring when reinstalling a cassette. It’s made in two versions: One fits Shimano cassettes; the other, Campagnolo. Mine is the Shimano model. Instructions are online if you are interested in seeing how it works.
Not shown in the photos above are…
Spare Cables I carry spare brake and derailleur cables in a separate part of my ‘bar bag. I don’t keep them with the tools because I don’t want them to be deformed. Properly speaking, a cable is the combination of a sheath or housing with a wire running through it. Colloquially, though, the wire alone is called a cable, so that’s how I’ll refer to it here.
Brake and derailleur cables are not identical. The shaped metal bits on the end (the “heads”) are designed to fit inside wire-head sockets within brake levers and shifters, and not all heads are made alike. Some are barrel-shaped, some cylindrical, and some look like mushrooms. Moreover, brake and derailleur cables aren’t the same diameter (aka gauge). Because the heads and gauges differ, brake and derailleur cables are not readily interchangeable. You’ll need to carry one of each in order to make roadside repairs.
So-called “universal” derailleur cables have a barrel head on one end and a disk head on the other. You cut off the end that you don’t need. Make sure that the one you cut off is indeed the one that you DO NOT need. It’s easiest to do this at home, by the way, using a cable cutter that doesn’t fray the wire. Brake cables are available with barrel heads (this name is needlessly confusing, because these look just like the disk heads on derailleur cables) or mushroom heads. Some universal brake cables are available, too, and as with a universal derailleur cable, it’s best to cut off the head you DO NOT need at home rather than on the road.
Confused? Here are some photos to help clear the fog:
The derailleur and brake cables in the picture above are teflon-coated, which is why they’re black. Note that the brake cable is thicker than the derailleur cable. The brake cable is for drop-bar levers—the mushroom head won’t fit in the wire-head sockets of mountain-bike brake levers. For those, you’ll need a brake cable that looks like the one shown in this photo:
These cables are not teflon coated, so they’re silver. The barrel head on the brake cable fits mountain-bike brake levers. (The head on the derailleur cable is identical to that in the preceding photo, despite having a different code stamped on it.)
To repeat what I said earlier: If you buy universal brake or derailleur cables—the ones with a different head on each end—be sure to trim off the unneeded head at home using a good pair of cable cutters. If you ever have to cut a cable on the road with the wire cutter on a pair of multi-tool pliers, you’ll see why it makes sense to do the job in advance. Not only will you get blisters in places you’ve never had blisters before, but the cut end of the cable is almost sure to be badly frayed. Good luck in threading that through the housing!
Is all of this a lot of trouble to go to just to prepare for an unlikely breakdown? I don’t think so. It’s just part of…
Being Prepared Routine pre-ride checks and post-ride inspections help prevent nasty surprises on the road, but not always. Stuff happens, and when it does, I prefer self-sufficiency to dependency. In conjunction with the tools I carry in the saddle bag, my roadside repair kit allows me to meet almost any emergency—tighten loose pedals and cranks, adjust cones on pedals and wheels, tighten the threaded headset on my mountain bike, replace a spoke (I carry spares), pull a crank so I can tighten or service a bottom bracket, and tighten or loosen any of the fasteners on any of my bikes. Best of all, if I’m near a convenience store when I finish the job, I can use the bottle opener in the center of the combination headset wrench to give myself a well-deserved cold refreshment.
You Can Do It! If you can change a flat tire, you can learn how to maintain and repair your bike. You can’t always phone home, and it’s probably best not to rely entirely on the kindness of strangers. That’s why learning how to make your own roadside repairs makes sense. Not only will you be prepared if something goes wrong with your bike on a trip into town, but you’ll be able to take longer rides in more remote areas without worrying about breakdowns. Just be sure to tailor your roadside repair kit to your bicycle when you tool up to ride.
