robnol

I was out on a training ride.i was 15 miles from home.i went over some train tracks when my right cleat on my shoe broke off....I had to single leg pedal the 13 miles home...anyone else ever have to limp ur bike home

Cougrrcj

Had a pedal bearing let go halfway through a Century. Well, at mile 65. Too far gone for a roadside repair, so I had to take the Ride of Shame in the SAG wagon. Oh, I took crap from the guys in my club for that one.... New pedals the next day, and rode the full 210-mile two day TOSRV the weekend after that, so it wasn't me 'bailing'...

mcours2006

Broken chain...but only about half mile from home. I also had my trail running shoes with me, so no biggie. One other time I had a slipped pin on a chain about 8 miles from home. Thankfully I managed to get that fixed enough to ride home.

wolfchild

Few years ago I snapped a crank arm on my fixed gear bike while accelerating at a busy intersection, I had to pedal with one leg for about 7 miles...At another time I had a head on collision with another cyclist on an MUP and my front wheel cracked in half. while I went over the bars. I had to walk home while carrying my bike for about 3 miles.

Paul Barnard

I broke a chain about a half mile from where my truck was parked. I did the push bike thing back home.

delbiker1 

I had a chain break about 1 and 1/2 miles from home and walked the bike back. Only chain break I ever experienced. Earlier this year the NDS crank arm bolt on my Schwinn SS DBX, Truvativ GPX crank, backed out and I had to keep stopping to tighten it as much as I could by hand. I just kind of feathered that arm and pedaled mostly with the drive side. I was about 6 miles from home. When I got home I tightened it down and it has not happened again, no damage.

caloso

I had a pedal fall apart on me. Luckily I was only a mile from the house when it happened so I was able to one-leg it back home.

Dirt Farmer

I just signed up for AAA roadside service. They now cover bikes!

katsup

Broken Spoke (commuting) - Released the rear brake and road home.
Broken Chain (mountain biking) - Pretended to be Fred Flintstone back to the trailhead. I had a quick link on order, but hadn't received it yet.

alcjphil

One time, riding to work my rear wheel seized up. The locknut on the left side of the wheel had come loose and the cone screwed itself into the bearings to the point that the rear wheel locked up and then the locknut screwed itself out to the point where the quick release skewer exploded. I found the skewer on the other side of the road after I stopped. I had to call home to get a ride back, and other than the skewer, nothing was damaged. However, the sound when the skewer literally exploded was quite something. It shot out of the axle across two traffic lanes and ended up on the opposite side of the road

Cyclist753

..

TiHabanero

About 6 years ago pedaling up an overpass, the left crank arm snapped in two. Nearly dumped the bike. Had to ride one-legged to get home 5 miles away. About 20 years before that I snapped a crank arm in two about 2 miles from home. That time I dumped the bike.

Shimano 600 and Deore cranks. Did not break at the spindle, but they both broke about 2 inches from where the pedal goes in.

Ironfish653

Bent the cheap-o steel riser bar on my commuter on the way in to work one afternoon. Bent as in crimped it, like a broken chicken wing. I had about 3 miles to go, so i had to be really delicate about braking and shifting. One of the girls from QA gave me (and the bike) a lift home after shift.


Taco'ed a front wheel coming down a singletrack outside Blacksburg, VA. Still not sure what i hit, but the bars snapped sideways and I got pitched.
Had to do the 'beat it against a tree trunk' so it'd clear the forks without rubbing, and unhook the front brakes. It was less than a mile to the trailhead, but i still had to ride the 4 or so miles back to town on that wobbly front wheel.

Haven't broken a chain in years, since i started using quick links; had to boot a couple of tires that should have been replaced due to age, and there have been countless brake levers, bar-ends and stems that have had to be 'massaged' back in to operating condition by the side of the trail.

martianone

A wonderful May morning a couple years ago commuting to work on a StreetMachine, perfect weather and temp. Could not have asked for a nicer morning, blazing along in the recumbent, coasted up a slight rise, down shifted the RD one step, sounded like all heck broke loose. Pulled over, hopped off to see most of the chain dragging behind, hung up on a broken deraileur which was warped into a broken spoke. About 4 miles from the house in a cell dead zone. Left the SM parked leaning on a tree and walked home. Changed my clothes, took pick up to get the SM, then on to work, only about an hour late.

dedhed

Only in certain areas, check with your local AAA

elcraft

At the end of a 35 or 40 mile ride with my usual cycling buddies, I had to drastically swerve to avoid an unleashed dog on the MUP. The rear wheel began to distort. The rim started to "twist" like it was rolling over. I unhitched the rear brake to allow me to get home the last 3 miles or so. The rim continued to distort. The last 20 yards, the rim was so distorted that it would no longer pass through the real triangle. The odd thing is that none of the spokes were broken. I have never seen anything like it. I cut the spokes to save my hub and attach them to another spare rim I had. The damaged rim was now angled like it was sitting on a cone shaped form; one braking surface having a narrower diameter than the other. The rim was a 700c x 28 Weinmann AS23X. Still seems so weird to me...

rseeker

Same, 4 miles from home. I hadn't yet learned you're supposed to retorque the crank bolt 20 miles or so (right?) after you reinstall a crank. And I wasn't carrying the wrench (since corrected) to tighten it down. I coasted the downhills and walked the uphills. It was a nice night to be out, with big James-and-the-Giant-Peach billowing clouds under moonlight. But I didn't get the ride I wanted.

gecho

I had to call for a ride due to mechanicals a few times. My freehub froze in the disengaged state while commuting at -18C at pretty much the mid-point. Broke the RD off my fat bike riding in thick wet clay. Clay packed the chain then as it began to dry the chain became stiff, leading to chain suck. I learned that day that one thing you shouldn't do when you experience chain suck is try to "power through it" by pedaling harder.

As a teen my quill stem clamp broke off while I was riding. Managed to come to a stop with disconnected handlebars without crashing, then walked home.

raceboy

I’ve had to limp home a few times—mostly I’ve been pretty lucky, though. The best was breaking a freewheel on my old Centurion about 4 miles away from the LBS. Fortunately I was almost at the top of my hill climb. I just spun the bike around and coasted all the way to the shop!

bwilli88 

Spokes popped, Chain snapped, Chainring warped, catastrophic tube failure, Seat post snapped.
Spokes adjusted wheel rode home, Chain fixed with small piece I had along, Shifted to small and spun home, Walked the 200 meters home with the tube dangling out of the tire, Seat post snapped and I filed the broken off piece with the file on my leatherman and put it in and squatted the ride home

Leinster

I had a chainring taco on me once. That left me with nowhere to go.

Same bike, a chainstay snapped. I thought she was a goner, but the LBS welded it back together and it rode fine for quite a few years after.



I've broken chains a couple times, but always had a quick-link or a breaker tool to fix it up and get back on the road. And one time a derailleur hanger broke the RD snagged itself in my spokes. Again, using the breaker I set up a 42x21 single speed and got home that way. That bike (a Cannondale Criterium) has been a my single speed commuter ever since.

subgrade

I have broken a few crank arms and a BB spindle once, which all resulted in "limping", i.e. riding one-legged home, but it hasn't been more than 3-5 km or so.

Other mechanical problems that have rendered my bike unridable include:

- punctures while doing short rides in the neighborhood without any toolkit on me
- rim ripping open along braking surface due to wear and causing the tube to explode with deafening bang
- broken quill stem handlebar clamp (twice on the same bike, both times while pushing hard uphill, both times stopped without crashing)
- bent fork after a frontal collision so that front cantilever brake cable was stretched tight and locked up the wheel (too tight to get it undone)
- snapped derailleur hanger
- I have broken a few frames too, might be that at least once the damage was too severe to ride on it (can't recall for sure though)

indyfabz

Shifted my RD into my spokes. It asploded. Skateboarded most of the way home. Walked a few blocks of hills.

Nachoman

Taco'd my front wheel by crossing train tracks incorrectly.

Rides4Beer

Rear shift cable snapped when I was about five miles from the house, was stuck on the 11 cog, and there were still plenty of hills left, the rest of the ride was a really good workout