Botch repairs (and heroic bodges) on the trails

Kiblams

Had an awesome FTD ride yesterday evening after work with the OH, and half way round managed to snap my chain. Promptly repaired thanks to my 'boy-scout' upbringing of 'being prepared' and carrying all sorts of tools with me. 8)

But it got me thinking of things which break out on the trail that there simply isn't a handy tool for...

I'm not looking for advice on what to take with me :P but what I am interested in is everyone's stories of botch fixes out on the trail, the more novel the better

cgarossi

Frame failures generally mean game over. I dont think theres much you can do. Also pringled wheels can caused your ride to go south (litterally in some cases).

The last botch repair I did was when the pivot on my Juicy 5 brakes fell out, leaving me with a floppy (oo er) lever. So I fixed it by wedging one end of a alen key into the hole allowing me to make a makeshift pivot. Worked for the rest of the ride. Now its fixed with a bolt and nut and a washer.

VWsurfbum

cgarossi wrote:

Frame failures generally mean game over. (litterally in some cases).

i read on hear some time ago that a guy snapped the rear triangle and Bodged it together with a stick and some duck tape to get back to the car! Quality.

My bikes are genrally bodged together anyway!

bomberesque

filled a torn tyre with grass to finish a ride
raced on a flat front tyre to get back to the pits (the rim was fine, further reinforcing my confidence in wheels today)
converted a bike to singlespeed when the deurallier broke. chain was a bit slack, but it worked after a fashion

nver had to fix a broken frame on the trail, like the splint and gaffer tape solution though!

VWsurfbum

ahh the broken deraileur senario, seems like every time on the second day in wales i end up running single speed!
Last time i broke the chain on the wall and put it back on the outside of the front derailliur which meant i only had the outside ring!

.blitz

Never had to botch anything. I am mechanically very sympathetic, my bike is always maintained to the max and nothing ever goes wrong with it

ride_whenever

you can't actually fix a frame with a bit of wood, you need a field to fill a tyre... both are cycling myths.

You certainly shouldn't fill your forks with wood if you blow a seal...

bottle mount bolts work as cable pinch bolts and dics bolts in a push.

Just take duck tape, zip ties, bungee cords and you can fix most things. If you pringle a wheel you can normally get them straight enough to ride by jumping onto them. But it will shag the hub bearings if you're not careful so i tend to stand on it and carefully load my weight on. If you've snapped a frame, and in a group, forks will fit in most rucksacks, then use bungee cords, zip ties and straps to put the frames and wheels on the outside of the bag. Then the guy who's bike broke trail runs whilst the others carry the broken bike.

If you get multiple punctures and have no patches i'd imagine if you cut the valves of the spares you could more easily fill a tyre with inner tubes to keep riding.

Kiblams

ride_whenever wrote:

Just take duck tape, zip ties, bungee cords and you can fix most things.

Someone can't read so good me thinks...

kiblams wrote:

I'm not looking for advice on what to take with me, but what I am interested in is everyone's stories of botch fixes out on the trail, the more novel the better

nonnac85

I saw a guy who had filled his tyre with sand at Chicksands once because his inner tube had punctured and he had no spare. He then went down the race tracks - nutter!!

The Northern Monkey

Things i'm never without are..

Loads of cable ties in varying sizes
spare SRAM chain links
chain remover
a good multi tool.

I can't really take much else!

jmj

Snapped rear triangle repaired with zip ties, tape and a handful of metal tyre levers and allen keys.
Was ridable to get it back to the car.

Broken free wheel fixed (literally) by the application of a stick and some zip ties to make a fixie.

J

Northwind

It's BODGE, botching means failure, bodging means heroic victory

I was out on my brother's Saracen once and the front brake lever snapped. So I tied the cable to an L-shaped stick, and took the top cap off and stuck the stick into the stem, and any time I wanted to brake I pulled up on the stick Can't do that with hydros...

I came across a feller up in the hills, trying to inflate a rear tyre with a shock pump. Now that's heroic... He was up to about 10psi when I arrived, don't know how long he'd been going but he looked like he was about to die.

stubs

Got a big gash in a tyre sidewall and the tube bulged out. Wrapped a piece of plastic cut from a plastic fertiliser sack that was hanging in a handy hedge round tyre and rim then held it in place with zip ties got me back to the car just before the zip ties wore away

Tried jumping on a pringled wheel once Oh Flipp well I wanted a new wheel any way

supersonic

My rear wheel disintegrated on Wharny once, pulling out a load of spokes and cracking the rim. Wheel wouldn't turn, but managed to bash it back into shape, then loosen the QR and realign the wheel so it somehow went through both stays.

I made it back home!

Kiblams

Northwind wrote:

It's BODGE, botching means failure, bodging means heroic victory

Happy now? :P (my understanding of the word 'botch' was a clumsy repair)

Nice work guys! Not had to do much out on the trails so far myself, just minor repairs that I usually have tools for.

Me and the missus are headed on a road trip next week up to Whinlatter and Glentress with a trip to Edinburgh to sort some more of the wedding plans, kinda got the feeling I may have jinxed us starting this thread... :shock:

bomberesque

ride_whenever wrote:

you can't actually fix a frame with a bit of wood, you need a field to fill a tyre... both are cycling myths.

wish I had a picture to prove it but take my word for it you're wrong.

joec1

Two interesting botches i can think off...

1. went to the Forest of Dean Fodca and a mates Trek Fuel (with Avid Juicy7's) experienced a lack of brake pads... the rears fell out (the caliper was faulty and didnt apply pressure correctly at speed, so the clip broke and pad flew out...

we botched it with an elastic band (one of the crappy ones that hold new innertubes together, and a slightly larger "postman" style one,) double wrapped around the caliper to hold the pad in place. (this worked well) and looked god on the trek... as it was colour co-ordinated haha.

2. (not really a mechanical repair) a mate slipped and put the chain ring through his leg,.... (12 teeth marks....) after a little hobbling and dumping of bikes on the uphill (about 2 miles int othe whites climb at afan) i whipped out my F/Aid kit and used a triangular to stem the bleeding (didnt have a dressing bandage as only took the bare essentials) free wheeled himto fire road and them drove to hospital and 18 sticheslater... good as new.



ps... 101 uses for a triangular bandage i will have you knoe lol...

(im a first aid trainer assessor)

Raymondavalon

Came across some youngsters at Swinley, one of them lost the deurallier oh his HT, the hanger snapped so they borrowed my chain tool to remove some links and create an SS

The chain wanted to climb up to the biggest gear on the rear cassette as this is what they're designed to do, so my mate used some cable ties in between the sprockets to stop the chain from heading towards the largest gear
We bumped into the youngsters about 2 hours later and it was still working away nicely.

A true bodge.. Mission accomplished

Skonk

Had a friends chain snap while out some time back.

We had no chain related tools, but one of the guys had a spare pin in his bag.

I found a small rock to use as a hammer, a larger rock to act as a sort of anvil and a small allen key.

I managed (after quite some time) to knock the old pin out and remove the broken link by holding the allen key against the pin and bashing it with the small rock, and (after lots more time and effort) bash the new pin in just enough to allow him to ride the bike home.

Was some distance away from home so would have been a chore if we'd have had to walk it (5 of us in total).

CraigXXL

bomberesque wrote:

ride_whenever wrote:

you can't actually fix a frame with a bit of wood, you need a field to fill a tyre... both are cycling myths.

wish I had a picture to prove it but take my word for it you're wrong.

I came across a guy stuffing anything he could find in his wifes flat tyre, they were very pleased when I offered them a spare tube on the promise they post a new one back to me. I was more pleased when they turned up on my doorstep a few days later with not one but two new tubes and some beers.

Steve_b77

Had a mate totalyl taco a rear wheel after a crash, so I smacked the offending bent rim on the deck nice and hard - low and behold it straighted it so there was plenty of stay clearance and he carried on with teh ride for another hour.

Ultimatley he needed a new rim.

Also single-speeded my old HT after ripping the mech off

VWsurfbum

CraigXXL
what nice people you all are!
+1

turpinr

supersonic wrote:

My rear wheel disintegrated on Wharny once, pulling out a load of spokes and cracking the rim. Wheel wouldn't turn, but managed to bash it back into shape, then loosen the QR and realign the wheel so it somehow went through both stays.

I made it back home!

a couple of weeks ago a young lad came of his brand new scott scale up rivvy and buckled his front wheel.his dad took the front wheel out ,pressed the QR (opposite side of disc) into the ground,a couplof pushes and grunts later it was running true again.
i was very impressed