TheDoctor said:
Any house will probably have a mole wrench, stillsons, water pump pliers or some sort of gripping and levering thing. Not many will have a lockring tool. Get the cassette off and you can replace a spoke. Been there done that.
...but they're probably fairly unlikely to have an oil filter wrench or an old chain (you'd still need them to be willing to park their car with its tyre on it.) So you're still stuck.
TheDoctor said:
Do you really expect travel insurance will help you get your bike back together on the road to Whaikikamucau?
You can get breakdown insurance in new zealand you know. It's not a third world country ...
...duh!
TheDoctor said:
well ... yeah, i'm Bits break, come loose or get totalled by baggage handlers. And yes, I know you could make a claim but that won't help you when you're at (say) Vienna airport and your front quick release has been run over by a luggage truck. Loop of cable ties through the axle and an allen key either side of the forks. Got me to the hotel, and the following morning I got to a bike shop. And that, Bonj, is why you need bits and bobs and some ingenuity.
it's quick release got run over by a baggage truck? well why weren't you supervising your bike from the point when you'd got it off the carousel and out of the box and put it back together? And I'm not sure i'd have put it back together in the airport either.
Uncle Phil said:
You can fix or replace a very large range of things (at least temporarily) with cable ties. They're very light, and very tough.
Examples: broken pannier hooks; tent guy loops; pannier racks; shoe laces; lash together broken tent poles; zip puller... With some gaffer tape, a swiss army knife, some WD40 and some cable ties, you can probably bodge just about anything.
Bodge, bodge, bodge. Bodge this, bodge that. Let's all get together in a field in the middle of a field and toss it off over our old bikes that are all cable-tied together, welded up with bits of old plough nicked from french farmers, driven by chains that are held together with string and have sheep leg bones for crank arms, over a fire that we've lit by twirling a stick between two stones. Sorry to jay for ranting on his thread, but this makes me really angry how whenever anyone starts a thread about touring or camping or any long bike ride all the cycling doom-mongers start banging on about how you'll have to fix your bike with 'the elements' and bits of old bric-a-brac.
jay, like i say sorry for semi-hijacking, i'm sure everything will go swimmingly, your bike will be absolutely fine and you'll have a lovely time - just don't believe all the doom-mongering that you'll get struck down by mechanical failure the minute you get a few miles from civilisation. Take basic tools, but for things that are
likely to go wrong, not things that aren't. Don't get the wrong impression of cycle touring, it's
mainly about meandering through the countryside, enjoying the scenery, and discovering new places. What it's NOT about is a willy-waving competition as to who can battle on through the worst mechanical adversity by cobbling something together with some crap old twigs they've found.
i'm sure at the end of the day nothing will break, it'll all go swimmingly and you'll have a lovely time, all the best and like i say sorry for the anger, but this general strength of feeling DOES make me angry.
