Have You Ever Had to Call For a Ride

[KneesUp]

Sometimes the jokes go downhill and reach new speeds and destinations.

They're hardly revolutionary. If anything they leave me a bit flat. Sorry to derailleur thread, OP

 

[Ming the Merciless]

They're hardly revolutionary. If anything they leave me a bit flat. Sorry to derailleur thread, OP

Could be too late, a chain reaction may be occurring.

 

[ColinJ]

I've had a few 'ride-stoppers' but always managed to get home ...

• I broke a crank 8 km (5 miles) from home. I rode back one-legged.
• I snapped the top of my seatpost. Fortunately, I was at the top of a big hill above the town I lived in. I put the saddle in my back pocket, lowered what was left of the post to avoid accidental rectal surgery, and freewheeled home standing up.
• I broke a stem a 30 minute walk from home.
• I snapped a spoke in a wheel with a low spoke count so it went stupidly out of true. I had to take a mudguard off and the brake blocks out in order to be able to ride the bike to a town 16 kms (10 miles) away and catch a train home.

There are probably others, but I can't think of them for the minute. I have worked round/fixed lots of other problems such as snapped cables and chains.

A friend on a local ride with me got his rear derailleur caught in his back wheel, causing catastrophic damage. He borrowed my bike and rode home to get his car. I waited with his wrecked bike at the roadside for 40 minutes for him to return - fortunately, it was a nice sunny day.

 

[CXRAndy]

In the return from a club run my chain dropped off the rear cass and wrapped around the spokes. I came to a sliding stop. It was jammed solid. I couldn't take the wheel out, so a call to the wife to collect me

I had to split the chain and remove the cassette to release the chain. Chain was bent and only minor spoke damage

 

[DCBassman]

One blown out tyre, one bonk which I hadn't prepared for. Jinxed now...

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I've had two ride-ending mechanicals. Both wheel related and both on the knockabout bike.

First one was back when it was relatively new and still running on the nasty cheap wheels it was supplied with. I'd already broken a couple of spokes not long before when I hit an object in the road and had to teach myself how to replace, tension and true them but having had to ride it 14 miles to home on that occasion I'd already done the damage and the rest of the wheel wanted to unzip itself. Three spokes went in quick succession and the wheel was so badly warped it would barely turn so I had to call for help. The ride report for that one is here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-ride-today-part-1.8938/post-1993204

The second one was on a century challenge ride earlier this year. I knew the back wheel was old and worn but thought it still had life in it. Apparently it didn't and the rim split when I got to Ludlow. Although I was very annoyed I got quite lucky with that one as it was only a short hop across town to the railway station. It could have been a long walk otherwise.

 

[Aravis]

Just twice I've had to call for a rescue, as far as I can remember, in 1976 and 2008. Both were due to uncontrollable cramp.

One other occasion, also in the summer of '76, I was riding my 3-speed on some rough stuff near Beacon Hill in north Hampshire when a flint cut through my front tyre. While walking in search of a phone box I remembered that the family car was being repaired, so the walk suddenly became much longer. I'm sure I rode some of it - the tyre was trashed anyway!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I snapped the top of my seatpost. Fortunately, I was at the top of a big hill above the town I lived in. I put the saddle in my back pocket, lowered what was left of the post to avoid accidental rectal surgery, and freewheeled home standing up.

A couple of years ago same happened to me, 6am on an icy winter morning, one mile into the 5 mile commute to work.
Being the rest of the route slightly downhill or flat, no taxis about, I did the same as you.
That's how I found out I can ride standing up!
At work, one of the electricians, who is also a cyclist, did a makeshift repair that allowed me to ride the same bike home, saddle a bit wobbly, but I made it.

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, I've just remembered another one...

I was riding up the Cragg Vale climb (the longest continuous uphill in England) and suddenly the bolt*** holding one of my jockey wheels in place came loose. I found the bits of jockey wheel but after 10 minutes of searching I couldn't find the bolt. I was halfway up the climb so about 10 kms (6 miles) from home. Friends were ahead of me on the climb, but I had no phone signal. I freewheeled down the hill until I got a signal and then phoned my pals to tell them that I'd see them later at the planned cafe stop. Once I got to the valley bottom, freewheeling was over so I clipped my right foot into my left pedal and used the bike as a scooter to get home. I was surprised at how tiring it was!

Once home I swapped to my other road bike, then went back and did the climb again. As arranged, I met my pals at the cafe and then did the rest of the ride.


*** I suppose it is actually a screw because it doesn't use a nut.

 

[Jenkins]

I've been very lucky so far in that all my ride ending mechanicals, with one exception, have been within walking distance (a couple of miles) of home. The odd one out was when I managed to rip the valve out of the inner tube pumping it up following a puncture repair (no spare tube carried at the time - never again). Luckily this wasn't far from ipswich rail station and there's a station less than 1/3rd of a mile from home.

 

[PaulSB]

I've completed every ride I've started and never had a ride ending mechanical. The exception being an ambulance trip to the local A&E - to this day I don't know how I got home from A&E or how my bike got home.

One of life's little mysteries.

Did more damage to the car than to me or the bike!

 

[Mo1959]

The fact I live on my own and often go out really early means I don't really have anyone to call for help, so suppose it would have to be a taxi...........if I have remembered my phone. My worst one was a broken chain. Pushed the bike ten miles home. I now carry a chain tool and quick link.

 

[Edwardoka]

Never needed rescuing because of a mechanical, but twice I've needed rescue from my own idiocy: once in the ironically-named village of Drymen I got soaked through and was too cold and wet to turn the pedals and was in a sorry state. The 45 minute wait to get picked up in a van was very uncomfortable.

The second time was when I badly misjudged when the sun sets in Tenerife in November and found myself in the Las Canadas caldera with an hour until sunset and no lights. Descending a twisty, misty, damp (once below the cloud level) mountain road at 30mph in the gathering gloom is exciting
It was pitch black by the time I got to civilisation in La Esperanza and I knew that if I tried to continue I was definitely going to get hit. I was trying to work out what I was going to do when a local stopped and asked me if I was ok and without prompting drove me and the bike 15kms back to my hotel - well out of his way. He even refused payment. Good guy.

 

[Tom B]

As a teenager once got completely lost and had to phone dad from a phone box using the 10p sellotaped in my helmet and give him the details of the phonebox from the sticker inside. He wasn't impressed to find I was about 40 miles away.

 

[ColinJ]

As a teenager once got completely lost and had to phone dad from a phone box using the 10p sellotaped in my helmet and give him the details of the phonebox from the sticker inside. He wasn't impressed to find I was about 40 miles away.

One of the few teenagers to come on my forum rides felt too tired to ride back so he rang his dad for a lift home. IIRC, that was over 50 miles away!