downtube42

About seven miles, in 2" - 4" of snow. I'd ridden the MTB on a snowy mup, and flatted just after the turnaround. Between cold fingers and limited CO2 experience, I effed up the repair.

I was targeting my LBS, a mile closer than home. They were closed due to the snow.

I was tired of pushing the bike through snow, but no harm done.

Typically I'm far better prepared, but I'll take some risks when jra locally.

LesterOfPuppets

I did an 8 mile hike the other day after my second flat. Luckily I wasn't clipless, so I just stashed my mountainbike in a wash and started hoofing it to REI for a couple tubes. It was a perfect day for a walk and I had not time constraint so NBD. Well there was one time constraint - wanting to get back to the bike, tube installed and ride 7 miles back to the car before sunset...

EddyR

About 3 miles and had 4-5 more but gave up and called wife. She was there in 10 minutes
Ed

sean.hwy

9.21 miles

https://www.strava.com/activities/3469445955


The sad part was I was afraid of getting a flat tire so I took my gravel bike with gravel tires to ride on the road. I figured those tires where much more durable than gp 5000 road tires. I had just started biking so I didn't have all the tools, spares, or even bike clothes. lol

jaxgtr

About 2 miles in road shoes, then finished the remaining 3 in bare feet. My wife worked nights at the time and it was 11 pm, so it was my only choice. I got a pretty large sidewall cut on something, and I had nothing on me that would allow the tube to stay in, I now always carry a couple of dollars on me just in case.

Sy Reene

About 8 feet

RChung

For my own mechanical, 10 or 12 minutes. Anything more than that, I've either fixed or the ambulance came. I did walk 2 miles once but not really for me. I happened on a couple hobbling down the trail headed back to their car. She'd broken her ankle. We put her on my bike and rolled her back to their car.

Brocephus

As chance would have it, I broke a seat clamp bolt just yesterday, and did a mix of walking, and riding with no seat !! ( i was really happy I'd largely been using flat pedals and plain running shoes in recent years)
I finally stopped at a relatively secluded country crossroads where I knew I had a good probability of flagging down a pickup truck, which thankfully took all of 5 minutes!

indyfabz

+1. I remember walking home from happy hour maybe 5 years ago. I was about 0.9 miles from home. Preferred to change the tube in the comfort of my own house and use the floor pump rather than my Road Morph G.

jimincalif

Like the BCI jersey, 10 Wheels !

vespasianus

In the 90's I lived in Oxford, England. I would ride my mountain bike down to a place called Watlington about 15 miles away. I got a flat and my spare tube also went flat. Had to walk back home. I now carry multiple, multiple spares of everything.

Champlaincycler

We were camping in the Adirondacks with no cell service. Riding my gravel bike,first thru axle bike. all prepared for the flat but for the Allen wrench to remove wheel.
6 miles.

Dave Mayer

7 miles on a closed forestry access road in the middle of nowhere in the Rockies. Solo. No cell service. That year, there was no snow in December, it was above freezing, and the trails were tantalizingly dry. On a last huge singletrack descent I had 3 irreparable flats, and that was it for spares. So then: walkies.

Despite the ideal conditions, and the bears being in hibernation, it was an irresponsible ride idea never repeated.

good4u

Seven mile walk of shame because I was entirely unprepared. Even if I had a replacement tube or patch I probably couldn't have got the tire off the wheel on the roadside. I wrestled with that tire for forty five minutes at home.

DorkDisk

The longest would probably be when I blew through all my patches MTBing in the Santa Monica Mountains and walked back towards Marina del Rey down the mountain and along the coast; got patched up in Santa Monica pier, and rode home. There are much worse walks to do, this barely registered on the hardship scale.

The Chemist

About 3km from home, on my evening commute home from work. I actually had all the tools and parts I would have needed to fix the flat that made me walk home, but I figured it was dark and it would have taken me just as long to fix the flat and then ride home as it would to just walk directly, so I walked the bike home and fixed it later. I'm always well prepared when I ride long distances away from home, so I have never been stranded.

Rick_D

IDK but will assert 1 mile walking in road shoes with cleats is like 5 miles in any other footwear. And that's setting aside the mental image of grinding one's expen$ive cycling shoes into the pavement. Sometimes one can walk in socks but that rarely seems viable.

Worst breakdown, luckily a few blocks from my apartment, was snapping a crank arm. Whee!

bijosepke

While biking around Seoul, a flat tire halted my 30-mile journey. I’m equipped with a portable pump, yet sometimes that’s not enough. When a new tire is necessary, I check Google Maps to decide which is closer—a bike shop or a subway station. On one occasion, I ended up walking five miles because the bike repair shop had closed, so I had to walk to the nearest subway station instead.

slow rollin

Around 10-9 years ago I was mountain biking with 2 friends. I remember walking.... 1-2 miles off the mtb trail and then another 3-4 miles on the road going home. I remember it being a mechanical since half way through the walk I was thinking "dammit I should have tried fixing X issue".
Don't tend to get a ton of road mechanicals. Instead I sometimes can't make it up the hill and have to cramp walk/ride a mile or two back.

MNBikeCommuter

I have been fortunate to get rides the few times I've been any distance from home. The farthest I've actually walked is just under a mile. I'd pumped up the winter hybrid's tires and took off. Not far down the road, BLAMMM, tick, tick, tick.... Part of the rear rim sidewall was hitting the rack. Six inches of that rim sidewall was nowhere to be seen...

jzr756

"These days I seem to think a lotAbout the things that I forgot to do for you, and all the times I had the chance to."--J. Browne

Smaug1

↑ This is something that I don't recall being mentioned when folks are discussing clip-in vs. flat pedals, and 5 miles in cleats would feel like 15 in the old Brooks, right?

pdlamb

4 miles in MTB shoes (Sidi) felt like 6-7 miles, mostly because of the stiff soles that make them so good for riding.

OTOH, 1/4 mile in the middle of a long, steep climb feels just about right.

Eric F 

About 3 miles of twisty - and sometimes technical - singletrack, mostly downhill, in the dark, plus another mile of pavement. This was somewhere around 1990, with my first MTB. I flatted, replaced the tube, but then dropped and lost the schrader-presta adapter I needed for my pump. Without it, I was out of luck. I think that's the only time I had to walk. More recently, I was unable to repair a slashed sidewall of a tubeless tire due to a stuck valve stem nut, and had to call Uber. Other than those issues, I've always been able to take care of bike issues in the field.

Chuck M 

The what if I need to walk scenario is still not something I think I would consider. The bike that I ride clipless on and the bikes that I either uses cages and straps or nothing on are an apples and oranges thing. The fact that I had to walk was due to me being a bone head and leaving my seat bag with a tube, patches and my pump at home. I was just fortunate that it was on the bike it was. I also had my cell phone so if I thought I needed to call for a ride, I could have. Instead I enjoyed a walk instead of a ride.