Been stranded on your bike?

[ColinJ]

I ride to places which do not have mobile reception or telephone boxes, and have very few dwellings, and little traffic. I do not have anybody to phone for a lift anyway, so if I had to call for help it would have to be for a taxi. Blow that!

I carry enough tools and spares to fix most problems, and maintain my bikes well enough to not get many sudden failures.

The most likely problems would be sudden serious illness or a crash and I assume that I would be incapable of summoning help anyway in either of those situations so I would either die or be found by someone eventually who would organise a rescue party!

A Scottish lad on a cycling holiday in Spain got his rear derailleur caught in his spokes, miles from our hotel. We bodge-repaired his bike for him by ...

• Removing the broken derailleur
• Removing the broken spokes and truing the wheel well enough to ride
• Shortening his chain and turning the bike into a singlespeed

I have fixed broken chains for people, removed broken spokes, trued wheels at the roadside, repaired/replaced countless tubes, fixed bikes in one gear after gear cables snapped and so on.

As far as possible BE PREPARED!

 

[cyberknight]

Most ive walked is 7 miles when on nights and had a ride stopper on the way home, no way was i ringing up swmbo at that time of day as kids are to young to be left alone and cant get bike in car with the kids as well .

 

[vickster]

A recovery service may help ease your concern, https://www.eta.co.uk/breakdown/bicycle/

That looks like a bargain at £18 a year!

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Yeah, 1-2 miles I'd just walk it whatever. 3-5 I'd make a judgement call but probably anything up to 10 I'd walk if there was no-one easy to call. Then again I'm a stubborn git. Over that, I'd start thinking who to call first.

 

[s7ephanie]

Walk, longest i've riden is approx 60k round trip so worst case is a 30k walk, which is impossible at moment with my bad back, so i'd sit on side of road and cry !!!!!!!

 

[shouldbeinbed]

6 miles pushing the bike out of the Derbyshire wilds after the seat clamp bolt snapped. I thought about a standing ride back to civilisation, for all of 500 yards until my legs decided they weren't happy with that idea.

 

[nickyboy]

Always a good idea to know that you have someone you could call to evac you in the event of an unfixable mechanical or, worse still, some physical problem. I'm often an unwalkable distance from civilisation/bus routes/train station
Only taxied home a couple of times. Top of the Snake Pass when my freehub locked up. Other was Alderley Edge when the spoke nipple thing came unscrewed causing the wheel to buckle and I didn't know how to deal with it. I think I've only called out the cavalry once when the spare innertube had a faulty valve

 

[Over The Hill]

Know how the bike works and how to take it apart.
Use road tyres. Get decent commuter tyres on a racing bike and they don't slow you down and rarely puncture. I think it is a bit mad to have thin racing tyres on a road ride. It is not a race and no one cares if you take 20 seconds longer.
Take enough kit to repair or bodge it.

I guess if something very unusual happened then you could get stuck but it is really very rare. Most bikes are fairly bomb proof. You can do without half your gears or one of the brakes quite easily.

 

[byegad]

Riding recumbent trikes, where hopping on a bus or cadging a lift would not rescue the trike I joined ETA some time ago. I've not had to use them but as I use ETA for both our cars' recovery it's a minimal amount extra to cover the trikes.

 

[Cuchilo]

I have a mate that rides and we have both said we would go out to one another if needed . My LBS have also said call them if I'm in trouble .

 

[Sara_H]

My friend once managed to talk a bus driver into letting her bring her (full size) bike on the bus after she'd had an unrepairable tyre blow out!
All the more stunned considering that my OH almost routinely gets refused when he tried to take his folder on the bus!

 

[Fnaar]

"Punctured bicycle...on a hillside desolate...

..When in this charming car...this charming man"

 

[Saluki]

I had a mahoosive hole in my innertube, the first week that I had my Giant Defy, we were about 15 miles from home up Glen Strathfarrar, at Struy (about 20 miles from Inverness). We tried fixing it a few times but nothing doing, I was a bit green at the time and didn't have a spare innertube, just a repair kit.
In the end, I took Hubster's bike - a bit too large Sun Solo - and rode back home and grabbed our Isuzu Trooper and then drove back to collect him and my Defy.

I'd come down a hill and there had been a bit of a rockfall since passing it on the way up. I had hit a rock in the roadway and that had done for my innertube. The wheel and tyre seemed OK though. If I had been on my own, I'd have been stuffed as the phone coverage up there was nil. I'd have had to have walked or hoped that one of the local farmers was up there and cadged a ride.

Nowadays, I guess that I'd call Hubster or walk to a train station. Happily Norfolk seems to have a lot of train stations.

 

[RWright]

On one ride I destroyed all my tubes and was about 8 miles out. I had plenty of time so I just took the cleats off my shoes and pushed up hills and coasted down. I wasn't worried about the tire but I coasted slow because I did not want to destroy my wheel. Another time at almost the same place I punctured again, this time I had noticed a guy in a pickup that I had just recently passed. He was heading the same direction as I wanted to go. I walked back and he started pulling away just as I was getting in sight of him. I started waving in a way he knew I wanted to talk to him. I asked him if he could drop me off at an exit close to my house.He told me to put the bike in the back and gave me a ride all the way home. I tried to give him some money but he wouldn't take it. It did convince me to now try and assist stranded motorist, which I have done a couple of times while I was out on my bike.

I would carry a phone, I didn't at one time but decided it was the best idea to carry one. I doubt if a taxi would leave you stranded if you called and if you are in a real bind, call the cops. I do have my brother that lives about 12 miles away that I can and would call if I were really too tired to make it back home on foot or quite a long way from home. If he were not available I would try a cab.

 

[dodgy]

I've signed up to the breakdown service at ETA. It also covers you in Europe, which is of particular interest as I have no support network out in France where I go each July.

For £18, it's got to be worth considering. Don't worry about finding a taxi to take your bike, that's up to ETA to sort out, you call them direct.

PS, they also do a refer a friend deal, £20 credit to each person. I'm not going to solicit my membership number here, I have class