Rescue repairs: how to be self-sufficient on a bike

This section deals with the repairs you may need to make while out riding – and for these you need a toolkit. Do carry your own, even if you ride with other people who are well equipped. No one wants to be in a group standing around saying, ‘But I thought you’d have your pump.’ Also, ensure you can use everything in your toolkit, and immediately replace items that you run out of, like spare tubes.

If you’ve never tackled the following jobs before, practise: (1) getting the wheels on and off your bike; (2) removing and refitting tyres; and (3) splitting and rejoining chains in the comfort of your own home. None of these repairs are difficult, but they’re all much harder if tackled for the first time in the cold and wet. Considering what we expect them to do, bicycles rarely go wrong. If you keep your bicycle well maintained, it will be unusual to face a repair that is not on this list. However, you are occasionally faced with the unexpected. Miles from home with the night closing in, you may have to make an emergency derailleur pivot. You can succeed using a spare pivot from the dismantled innards of an Allen key…

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Bike Maintenance Tips, Tricks & Techniques (Digital) - 1 Issue, Bike Maintenance Tips, Tricks & Techniques 3rd Edition

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