Trail fix hacks

guy72277

This is possibly my favourite MacGyver-style mountain bike fix hack.

If you get a puncture you can't fix, just stuff the tyre full of leaves - it'll get you home without damaging the tyre.

I also once patched a ripped tyre (no, not tubeless) with some bark from a sapling - worked OK

Got any more?

an_original_name

rather than stuffing the whole tyre with leaves, if you have a pump with you but no spare tube/patches, fine the hole in the tube, cut it right across and tie a tight knot in both ends. then put the tube back in and inflate. it'll be a bit bumpy on the way home but it will get you there.

at the end of the day there's very little you can't fix with some duct tape and cable ties, 2 things i never go out for a ride without!

.blitz

guy72277 wrote:

If you get a puncture you can't fix, just stuff the tyre full of leaves - it'll get you home without damaging the tyre.

Have heard this many times and would like to know if it actually works :?

guy72277

an_original_name wrote:

cut it right across and tie a tight knot in both ends

Good point, I had forgotten that one. I guess the leaves thing is for extreme multiple puncture cases and tubeless riders or if, like a mate of mine, your valve gets ripped off by a tyre slipping....

guy72277

an_original_name wrote:

there's very little you can't fix with some duct tape and cable ties

Will be putting some cable ties in the camelbak this evening... (already have the duct tape)

chiefinspector

an_original_name wrote:

at the end of the day there's very little you can't fix with some duct tape and cable ties, 2 things i never go out for a ride without!

+1 for the duct tape. Very versatile and i also carry some with me when i'm out riding.

guy72277

.blitz wrote:

guy72277 wrote:

If you get a puncture you can't fix, just stuff the tyre full of leaves - it'll get you home without damaging the tyre.

Have heard this many times and would like to know if it actually works :?

Only had to do it once (broken pump and ripped innertube), you'll stuff the leaves in as hard as you can, but after riding for a little bit, they'll compress a lot, so you'll have to re-stuff. Green leaves were better that dead leaves as the dead ones disintegrated quickly. It's not going to be like a pumped up tyre, it's bumpy and slides around, but if you can stuff enough leaves in, it really does work (it did for me over about 5km)

gilesjuk

.blitz wrote:

guy72277 wrote:

If you get a puncture you can't fix, just stuff the tyre full of leaves - it'll get you home without damaging the tyre.

Have heard this many times and would like to know if it actually works :?

Apparently someone lubricated a Citroen 2CV gearbox with bananas (minus the skins) when the oil leaked out.

So leaves in the tyre doesn't sound too far fetched.

warpcow

guy72277 wrote:

.blitz wrote:

guy72277 wrote:

If you get a puncture you can't fix, just stuff the tyre full of leaves - it'll get you home without damaging the tyre.

Have heard this many times and would like to know if it actually works :?

Only had to do it once (broken pump and ripped innertube), you'll stuff the leaves in as hard as you can, but after riding for a little bit, they'll compress a lot, so you'll have to re-stuff. Green leaves were better that dead leaves as the dead ones disintegrated quickly. It's not going to be like a pumped up tyre, it's bumpy and slides around, but if you can stuff enough leaves in, it really does work (it did for me over about 5km)

I tried it once too. Total pain, but probably better than nothing. I suspect I rolled home at slightly faster than walking-pace.

guy72277

warpcow wrote:

I suspect I rolled home at slightly faster than walking-pace.

Same here. But it was better than walking because of the of the hack satisfaction feeling....!

paulbox

gilesjuk wrote:

Apparently someone lubricated a Citroen 2CV gearbox with bananas (minus the skins) when the oil leaked out.

Citreon 2CV's have gearboxes... :shock:

Daz555

I once fixed a broken freewheel by tying the cassette to the spokes with some wire from a knackered old fence. I walked up the hills to avoid putting any strain on it and it got me home.

Deepunder

chiefinspector wrote:

an_original_name wrote:

at the end of the day there's very little you can't fix with some duct tape and cable ties, 2 things i never go out for a ride without!

+1 for the duct tape. Very versatile and i also carry some with me when i'm out riding.

Can you get duct tape in small dia rolls?

neil_sheehan2000

Deepunder wrote:

Can you get duct tape in small dia rolls?

No need. You just peel off a length of it and then roll/fold up the bit that you just peeled off, so that it's flat and goes in your pack most conveniently.

Deepunder

Guess so but that stuff is darn sticky.

With all the zip ties and duct take in my bag I'll be just about ready to cuff n' gag someone special forces style ! Assume stress positions please...

fanny

How about a broken mech hanger? I trimmed the chain down to single speed length, then raised the front mech up the seat tube as a make-shift chain device to stop the chain slipping down the sprockets. It sounded awful, but got me home.
Any other ideas for a broken hanger?

tom_howard

Daz555, sort of agree with the signature, but shouldnt 'WD40' be replaced with 'Hammer'? :twisted:

getonyourbike

fanny wrote:

How about a broken mech hanger? I trimmed the chain down to single speed length, then raised the front mech up the seat tube as a make-shift chain device to stop the chain slipping down the sprockets. It sounded awful, but got me home.
Any other ideas for a broken hanger?

carry a spare, that's what I do.

ddraver

neil_sheehan2000 wrote:

Deepunder wrote:

Can you get duct tape in small dia rolls?

No need. You just peel off a length of it and then roll/fold up the bit that you just peeled off, so that it's flat and goes in your pack most conveniently.

Good, but I prefer the wrap a length of it around your pump method...

wordnumb

.blitz wrote:

guy72277 wrote:

If you get a puncture you can't fix, just stuff the tyre full of leaves - it'll get you home without damaging the tyre.

Have heard this many times and would like to know if it actually works :?

For the amount of effort you'd put in collecting leaves you might as well carry the bike back.

guy72277

Deepunder wrote:

Can you get duct tape in small dia rolls?

Put a little paper around a credit card, then wrap as much Duct tape as you need around that (I have about 2 meters), then just slide it off the credit card. The last 15cms will be unusable because of the paper, but the flatpak size is pretty practical.

edhornby

Guy72277 that is a quality solution cheers

getonyourbike

I've just wrapped a couple of feet of gaffa tape around a cut down piece of small diameter plastic pipe and then folded over the very end so that I can take it off when I need it. It barely takes up and space at all but it'll be infinitelu useful when I have a ripped sidewall.

Almightydutch

I managed to fix a girls rear suspension pivot with my trusty Multitool.

She had lost the bolt out of it and the rear end basically collapsed. After lots of head scratching, I saw that possibly the bolts holding the multitool together may just fit......and it bloody did. She got from the top of Lower Cliff @Cannock back to the car park at Brches Valley OK. Mega chuffed with that one as its the most ghetto repair i've ever done.

ricardo_smooth

a cut toothpaste tube can patch a slit in your tyre sidewall to get you home

guy72277

ricardo_smooth wrote:

a cut toothpaste tube can patch a slit in your tyre sidewall to get you home

Yep, that's a good'un. It'll get you home. And if you don't have the toothpaste tube you really can use sapling bark. Now I always keep a three inch section of an old scwalbe NN tyre in my bag. It worked so well for one ripped tyre last year that I kept it in for 6 month's riding. I am a total cheapskate though.... I def prefer repairing to renewing.

getonyourbike

Almightydutch wrote:

I managed to fix a girls rear suspension pivot with my trusty Multitool.

She had lost the bolt out of it and the rear end basically collapsed. After lots of head scratching, I saw that possibly the bolts holding the multitool together may just fit......and it bloody did. She got from the top of Lower Cliff @Cannock back to the car park at Brches Valley OK. Mega chuffed with that one as its the most ghetto repair i've ever done.

That is pretty damn good! I'm guessing that you got the bolts from your multitool back once at the car park.

guy72277

Almightydutch wrote:

I managed to fix a girls rear suspension pivot with my trusty Multitool.

She had lost the bolt out of it and the rear end basically collapsed. After lots of head scratching, I saw that possibly the bolts holding the multitool together may just fit......and it bloody did. She got from the top of Lower Cliff @Cannock back to the car park at Brches Valley OK. Mega chuffed with that one as its the most ghetto repair i've ever done.

Nice one! Can't beat the feeling you get from a good ghetto repair! Gotta love those multitools....

pugaltitude

getonyourbike wrote:

I've just wrapped a couple of feet of gaffa tape around a cut down piece of small diameter plastic pipe and then folded over the very end so that I can take it off when I need it. It barely takes up and space at all but it'll be infinitelu useful when I have a ripped sidewall.

Just wrap it round your pump. Less to carry.
Also slice it in smaller sections so you dont have to cut it when out.
Carry rubber gloves and a rag.

ride_whenever

I have riding mates and I just carry a log.

If anything happens, wait round a corner and clothesline your mate with a log then 'borrow' their bike...



I don't condone this, nor do i have any riding mates...

homers_double

chiefinspector wrote:

+1 for the duct tape. Very versatile and i also carry some with me when i'm out riding.

Yep, saw a young virgin out one day on the moors and I tie... Oh, this isn't the Crudcatcher is it.