The McGyver Guide to Bike Emergencies
Axleuk
Posts: 81
After reading one of the responses to a previous post I have decided to start this thread in the hope that someone will remember something from it that may help them get back on their way.
So...do any of you old hats have any advice for those of us that may find ourselves in a spot of bother on the trails?
I once saw a video clip where a guy had a puncture and no spare tube or puncture kit to repair it. He cut the tube and tied up each end and put it back in the tyre. He then stuffed the tyre with grass and leaves were he had cut to try and fill the gap. Pu8mped the tyre back up and was able to make it back home.
These are the types of fixes I would love to hear and perhaps if we get enough great suggestions we can coalate them into a sticky.
So...do any of you old hats have any advice for those of us that may find ourselves in a spot of bother on the trails?
I once saw a video clip where a guy had a puncture and no spare tube or puncture kit to repair it. He cut the tube and tied up each end and put it back in the tyre. He then stuffed the tyre with grass and leaves were he had cut to try and fill the gap. Pu8mped the tyre back up and was able to make it back home.
These are the types of fixes I would love to hear and perhaps if we get enough great suggestions we can coalate them into a sticky.
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At Swinley last year we bumped into a kid who broke his rear mech hanger and the derailleur went round the cassette and destroyed itself.
His mate loaned my chain breaker to make the bike a temporary single speed and I reminded him that a cassette has teeth designed to push the chain up to the larger sprockets so the chain will snap. As a workaround. My mate had cable ties in his Camelbak and ee fitted four cable ties between the cassette sprockets keeping the chain in front of them. The adjacent heads of the cable ties stopped the chain from crawling inwards. Eureka! It worked. We bumped into the kids about two hours later any my mate's Heath Robinson fix was still holding up well.0 -
Raymondavalon, what?
I've had to remove my rear mech and ride home single speeded several times, ad never had a problem with the chain trying to shift up.
I think maybe the cable ties were an amusing but uneccesarry engineering accomplishment.0 -
Well... I recall reading that the rear cassette is designed that the chain moves into the lowest gear. Taking this into consideration we used the ties to prevent this from happening and also bearing in mind there was a little bit of slack on the chain too.. perhaps this is what (can) cause/s this to happen?0
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Raymondavalon wrote:Well... I recall reading that the rear cassette is designed that the chain moves into the lowest gear. Taking this into consideration we used the ties to prevent this from happening and also bearing in mind there was a little bit of slack on the chain too.. perhaps this is what (can) cause/s this to happen?
Chains never shifted on it's own on a cassette for me either (when singlespeed without mech)0 -
I'm pretty sure the teeth are designed to help shifting, to make it easier to go from one gear to the next than with uncut gears, but I'm also certain that they don't make the chain move sprockets.0
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i found that when i did ghetto singlespeed on my old raliegh. once it shifted into a larger sprocket that the chain wasn't long enough for, so it snapped0
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hbrashaw wrote:i found that when i did ghetto singlespeed on my old raliegh. once it shifted into a larger sprocket that the chain wasn't long enough for, so it snapped
+1
I also have had this happen on a 'ghetto SS' when the chain gets slack0 -
Someone told me if you run out of puncture repair patches and find one of those plastic 4 can beer holders you can melt it with a lighter onto the hole (providing its say a thorn sized one) and it will seal it temporarily.
We attempted it at the weekend until we realised we didn't have a pump, so the lad rang his parents :roll:0 -
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I actually had to do this a couple of weeks ago. If you bend a wheel behond repair (like i did going over the bars at about 20mph!) a few sharp smacks on the ground will get it straight enough to get you home. You will need a new wheel but saves the walk 8)Bikes are OK, I guess... :-)
2008 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp.
2013 Trek 1.2
1982 Holdsworth Elan.0 -
mudsucker wrote:I actually had to do this a couple of weeks ago. If you bend a wheel behond repair (like i did going over the bars at about 20mph!) a few sharp smacks on the ground will get it straight enough to get you home. You will need a new wheel but saves the walk 8)
Guilty your honor!0 -
mudsucker wrote:I actually had to do this a couple of weeks ago. If you bend a wheel behond repair (like i did going over the bars at about 20mph!) a few sharp smacks on the ground will get it straight enough to get you home. You will need a new wheel but saves the walk 8)
Have done that on numerous occasions. A good hard whack or stomp on it pops it straight back in place. Good idea to carry and spoke key as well just to tighten up any loose spokes."If I Was Falling, YOU BETTER FREAKING CATCH ME!!!"
6 years riding bikes, 8 broken bones, gravity can be a b**ch
http://dobby.pinkbike.com/album/My-Bikes-D/0 -
Have a read of this months WMB, a big guide on trail side repairs.0
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mudsucker wrote:I actually had to do this a couple of weeks ago. If you bend a wheel behond repair (like i did going over the bars at about 20mph!) a few sharp smacks on the ground will get it straight enough to get you home. You will need a new wheel but saves the walk 8)
I couldn't be bothered taking my wheel out (didn't really know how :P) so I propped the off-side chainstay up against a bench and gave the wheel a good kicking with my heel. Straightened it enough to get home but the bike was crap so wasn't worth the cost of replacing the rear wheel.0 -
If your freehub breaks during a ride, you can ziptie the cassette to the hub by going around a few spokes, put a few in there around the whole cassette and voila a fixed wheel to get you home.Craig Rogers0
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"OK" so what is the Welsh????????????0
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what?bearfraser wrote:"OK" so what is the Welsh????????????0 -
yeehaamcgee wrote:
what?bearfraser wrote:"OK" so what is the Welsh????????????
I think he means what does the welsh bit in your sig mean. I've been wondering this myself, but the best online translation I can get is...
"It is known to have scratched, corroded with hoelan, the small blue"
...which makes no sense to me at all.
Anyway, my MacGyver fix is: if, for somereason, you're only running a single ring up front, but don't have a chain device (maybe it broke, maybe you're poor), and your chain keeps popping off, wrap a sturdy cable tie around your seat tube and position it so that the long loose bit is just a couple of milimetres above where the chain sits on the ring. Then trim to fit (so that it doesn't stab you in the ankles) and- hey presto- your chain is more than likely to stay on in most situations.0 -
yt_ wrote:Someone told me if you run out of puncture repair patches and find one of those plastic 4 can beer holders you can melt it with a lighter onto the hole (providing its say a thorn sized one) and it will seal it temporarily.
We attempted it at the weekend until we realised we didn't have a pump, so the lad rang his parents :roll:
Kids these days! :roll:
When I were a lad I walked home with a broken collarbone, pushing my bike with the other hand.0 -
Oh, that! It's a line from a song. I've had several PMs asking me about it!neil_sheehan2000 wrote:yeehaamcgee wrote:
what?bearfraser wrote:"OK" so what is the Welsh????????????
I think he means what does the welsh bit in your sig mean. I've been wondering this myself, but the best online translation I can get is...
"It is known to have scratched, corroded with hoelan, the small blue"
...which makes no sense to me at all.0 -
...and it means...?yeehaamcgee wrote:
Oh, that! It's a line from a song. I've had several PMs asking me about it!neil_sheehan2000 wrote:yeehaamcgee wrote:
what?bearfraser wrote:"OK" so what is the Welsh????????????
I think he means what does the welsh bit in your sig mean. I've been wondering this myself, but the best online translation I can get is...
"It is known to have scratched, corroded with hoelan, the small blue"
...which makes no sense to me at all.
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sigh.
It means, literally translated...
"My name is etched on these blue slates with a rusty nail".
But in context, it translates more along the lines of..
"My very identity is carved into the slate that forms these hills, my home"0 -
That's probably saved you a few PMs.
I like and heartily approve of that sentiment.
More the british isles* as a whole, but that's my feeling about this place and what brought me back from living in Chamonix.
* just to be on the safe side... while I include Éire in that name, it my no means implies approval of "British" rule. I use the term british isles as originally used by (IIRC) the ancient Greeks who probably got the term from the original briton/celtic name used to refer to the whole group of islands.0 -
If you cut open a tyre, an empty toothpase tube can be used as a boot to fix it (along with a few zip ties).
Twigs can also double up as gear shifters and brake leavers...0 -
Hmm thumped a few taco'd rims into a roughly round shape to get home.. Works better with disc brakes of course.
Managed to 'repair' a smashed cage on the derailleur with a couple of zip ties. Held for nearly 6 months in the UK! last about 6 seconds in Morzine.
Cable tied a smashed shifter roughly shifter shaped again and mounted it back on my bars on the Morzine trip before that, held for about 3 months when I got home and I even transferred the guts of in into the shifter on my XC bike when I got home as they were 'fresher'.
Best bodge ever!!!
A mate and I broke down on the way home from Afan once in his shitty old transit. The Fuel filter fell off - gasket lost on the M4, diesel everywhere!! Freezing cold, throwing it down with rain (which was a bit of a blessing as there weren’t any bikers about to be thrown off by our diesel spill). The filter wouldn't go back on without the gasket and we were trapped. Until we McGyvered a new gasket out of old DH innertube using a rusty Leatherman!!!! Try that tubeless fans!!0 -
Nice work with the gasket there P-Jay!
(Did you notify the powers that be about the diesel spill so they could clear it up?)0 -
BigShot wrote:Nice work with the gasket there P-Jay!
(Did you notify the powers that be about the diesel spill so they could clear it up?)
I'm gonna have to say no to that, didn't know you could!? I was proper sheepish about it, being a Biker myself. There was about 1cm of standing water everywhere that day so it should have been washed away before it caused any problems. :oops:0 -
Aye, maybe it would.
To be honest I don't have a clue who to report it to, but I know there's someone. Mainly because I don't drive a diesel and I'm yet to go for my bike licence (need to save up for a wee bike to practice on first) though I've got my heart set on a Triumph Thruxton... beauty!0 -
Spilling petrol can be problemtaic too, you know.0
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yeehaamcgee wrote:Spilling petrol can be problemtaic too, you know.
Only really if you're on fire. It evaporates pretty quickly and also doesn't 'stick' to rubber like diesel does.0
