What tools and spare parts have you actually used on a ride?

[Monique]

It sounds like we all have different tolerances for carrying tools on the trail. What tools have you actually used while out there?

Off the top of my head, I've used:
Tire pump
CO2 cartridge
Chain tool
Powerlink
Some allen keys from a multi tool

There were two cases where I blew up my bike way beyond trail repair.

In one I somehow ripped the shifter cable out of the shifter. I could ride that out. That was during my one and only cyclocross race.

In the other, as near as I can tell, the chain snapped, derailleur bent, derailleur hanger bent, and multiple spokes broke. Everything wrapped around so badly I couldn't even roll the rear wheel, so I had to walk down to the base (this was at Keystone) while keeping the rear lifted. Fortunately I was already almost to the bottom.

 

[scott43]

Chain tool, tire levers, multi-tool (allen keys, screwdrivers), adjustable wrench (they're surprisingly versatile..), needle-nose pliers/sidecutters, spoke wrench, pump.

Oh and rocks for hammers.. Caveman stylez..

 

[Crank]

Chain tool, tire levers, multi-tool (allen keys, screwdrivers), adjustable wrench (they're surprisingly versatile..), needle-nose pliers/sidecutters, spoke wrench, pump.

Oh and rocks for hammers.. Caveman stylez..

All the above except for the adjustable wrench. Instead I carry a small vice grip which has come in handy a few times.

However, most of my rides are in places that have a lot of loops that never take me more than a mile or so from the trail head so most of the time I just carry one bike multi tool.

Edit: I don't carry any spare parts.

 

[scott43]

Thing is, riding around here in summertime is kinda like riding in Mississippi in summertime..the mosquitoes are brutal. So if you break down in the bush, and you're 5 or 10 miles from the start..that's a lot of bug-eating time! So you have to work fast and do whatever you have to in order to get moving faster than the bugs can fly!!

 

[graham418]

Tire levers
pump
patches
new tube
multi tool (allen keys and chain tool, screwdriver)

and yes, I've done the caveman and used a rock!

 

[markojp]

Pump, tire levers, tube, dollar bill, spoke wrench, a small torque wrench when first setting up the new buggy.

What I carry:

a spare tube (2 for long rides), a dollar bill, a pump, two tire levers, a spoke wrench, multi-tool, and cell phone.

 

[Crank]

Thing is, riding around here in summertime is kinda like riding in Mississippi in summertime..the mosquitoes are brutal. So if you break down in the bush, and you're 5 or 10 miles from the start..that's a lot of bug-eating time! So you have to work fast and do whatever you have to in order to get moving faster than the bugs can fly!!

Same here, especially my normal after work ride time.

Couple of years ago my regular riding buddy had a tore that was losing air. He said it would last the ride. I offered him a tube and said he should just replace it before we rode. He said no. I said no really just replace it now it'll only take a minute or 2. I also offered him some Off - he always refuses says he can just ride fast enough to not get bit. Sure enough, his tire goes completely flat partway through the ride and the bugs are attacking him like crazy. Nothing I could do so I headed off for a mile long loop by myself. When I got back he was still working on the tire and was slapping mosquitos like crazy. I told him there is a lesson here for you. "What's that?" he said.

LISTEN TO ME!

I love riding with him though because of his aversion to bug spray I never get bugged.

 

[pais alto]

...adjustable wrench (they're surprisingly versatile..),

Right? They fit an amazing number of nut and bolt sizes.

 

[markojp]

torx and hexs, beans and franks... other than pedals, I don't think there's anything on my bike that a non-hex or torx wrench can do anything for, but I'm not on a MTB.

 

[scott43]

Right? They fit an amazing number of nut and bolt sizes.

And you can bend stuff with them, and hammer stuff. I think people frown on them because, normally, they're a little hack. But it's sort of a swiss army knife in the bush for fixing bike stuff. Same with little vise grips like Crank says..normally, a little hack..but versatile..

 

[Monique]

I think people frown on them because, normally, they're a little hack.

There are a lot of tools that are suboptimal except when you need to carry them yourself ... I don't use a multi tool when I'm in the garage (unless I can't find one of our THREE sets of allen wrenches - jeez!), but on the trail ... I guess I could pack just the allen wrenches I need, that would be lighter .. hmm ... there's other stuff in there, too, though.

 

[crgildart]

Cell phone to call for a ride/pick up. Back in the day before that option I kept a patch kit and small pump handy for longer rides. Not anymore though..

 

[fatbob]

Used most things. Never got the dollar bill and straw to pack out a torn sidewall trick down. Just bulges too much.

 

[Mike Thomas]

Ride with a prepared friend. It's lighter that way.

 

[ZionPow]

large band-aids, butterflies, gauze pads, 2-inch rollers for wounds and arm slings

 

[Primoz]

I basically used all of the things I carry with me. Spare tube in case if tire tear is too big for sealant to seal it, CO2 cartridge to fill either tire (just used it yesterday) or changed tube, small metal piece that allows me to fill my presta valve tires/tubes on gas station, and 10eur bill (never used in emergency, unless coffee and coke by the lake counts as emergency ), and mobile phone (to call my wife to come and pick me if everything goes wrong... always until now, because I forgot something from above list .
That's pretty much all what I carry with me, and realistically I never needed more then this. I never needed to fix chain on trail, I never needed screw drivers or allen keys to fix bike on trail, so it's lighter for me to ride without it

 

[Crank]

Someone mentioned bandaids. I once used one to patch a tube. It held long enough to finish the ride.

 

[SKI-3PO]

Ride with a prepared friend. It's lighter that way.

How much do they weigh?

 

[KevinF]

My most memorable breakdown occurred in Pinkham Notch, NH. For those not familiar, Pinkham Notch is the location of the Mt. Washington visitor center (and is across the street from Wildcat ski area). It is a good 15, 20 miles from much of anything else.

My friend Cheryl and I are doing a long road ride through the White Mountains and we get to Pinkham Notch. Cheryl wanted to tweak her seatpost and I ran inside to fill up water bottles, etc. I get back out, hand Cheryl her water bottles and ask "you ready?" to which she says "no". Ok, ummmm, restrooms are inside that door, down the stairs, I'll wait! "No, I'm good there... I snapped the seatpost bolt".

Oh shit.

It's a Sunday morning just before 9AM. I volunteered to ride back to Jefferson, get the car, and come back and pick her up. But Cheryl suggested we go into the visitor center to see if we can get some help. So in we went, explained the situation to the rangers (not surprisingly, they don't stock spare seatpost bolts), but they did hand us the North Conway phone book and we started calling every bike and outdoors shop in North Conway. And there's a lot of them. I figured nobody is open (remember the 9AM on a Sunday thing?), but one guy did pick up the phone and said that by the time we reached him he could be open, and he had spares.

The visitor center people handed us a roll of duct tape and we wrapped the hell out of the seatpost / frame junction. It's virtually all downhill from Pinkham Notch to North Conway, so these twenty miles are going to fly -- i.e., our duct tape solution doesn't need to hold for long.

So we coasted / rode to North Conway, found the shop, undid god knows how many layers of duct tape, put a new bolt in, and finished our ride.

 

[KevinF]

I've had rear shift cables break on rides -- once was about 40 miles from the car. The cable was jammed into the shifter, so it was holding the derailleur in a lower-gear, so I had either a 34x21 or a 50x21 to ride home in. (Cheryl was there for that one as well... hmmmmm...). It wasn't completely awful as I had a reasonable hill climb gear and a flat-road gear, but it sure wasn't fun either. Respect for anyone riding single-speed or fixed gears; not for me, thank you!

The other time a shift cable broke was a bit easier... I could feel the shift cable going about 30 miles from home, so I was trying to only shift when I really really needed a shift. The cable finally broke about three or four miles from home, but I had been trying to leave it in a gear that would "work", so I was able to get home ok .

Fishing busted shifter cables out of Shimano shifters though... that takes some patience.