Roadside Repairs
Clubnight 23rd March 2026
Andrew Rice
How to deal with roadside mechanicals.
First a brief recap of last month
Prevention is better than cure!
Keeping your bike clean and maintained will mitigate against most breakdowns.
Regularly charging and replacing batteries prevents failure on the road.
Keeping the sealant in tubeless tyres topped up - it only lasts a few months!
However, things that can’t easily be serviced or replaced wear out and sometime despite your best efforts, some things just break!
Your Bike - Cleaning your bike
Here are a couple of videos available on the British Cycling Website to show you how:
Washing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw3GwioTuT0
Degreasing and Lubricating the chain - https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/bike-kit/get-started/article/izn20130419-How-to-lube-your-chain-0
Cleaning your bike is not about making it look pretty, it is about minimising the wear to vital components (and making it look pretty…) and thus making sure they work properly when needed.
It is a lot easier to both clean and inspect your bike for wear if you have the bike in a bike stand – easier on your back too!
Check your tyres and remove embedded flints and bits of glass etc. Fill holes and cuts with a blob of superglue/rubber cement to prevent new flints getting in!
Your bike - Cleaning and Inspecting your bike; the drivechain
I generally clean the drive chain first as the muck from it gets spread everywhere as you brush the components and a second wash when doing the rest of the bike won’t hurt!
Once clean you can check the various components for wear – replacing the chain regularly before it gets too worn will prolong the life of the cassette and chainrings.
Anything at or beyond the 0.75 percent reading means that you should change your chain immediately. If you are using a chain designed for ten or fewer gears, replace your chain as it nears the 0.75 percent mark. If you are using an eleven or twelve speed chain, replace your chain once it has reached 0.5 percent wear. Note – 1% wear is greater than 1 whole link in length!
Check that everything works as it should
With gears and brakes that are cable operated. There is always some part of the cable open to the muck that comes off the roads. Water, grit, dust etc can get into the cable sheath and can both accelerate the wear and make the operation ‘sticky’.
Cables don’t stretch – the end fittings/sheath wear or bed in!
A regularly service can make all the difference to how well your bike works.
Check that your wheels are ‘true’
When you spin your wheels to check that the brakes don’t rub you may find that they touch in one or maybe two places and that the wheel seems to ‘wobble’. This means that the wheel is no longer ‘true’ , ie it is slightly buckled. To ensure efficient and effective braking the wheel needs to be re-trued or replaced (depending on how bent it is and how worn the rims are).
Going through a pot hole is the main cause of out of true wheels. If you got a ‘snakebite’ puncture as a result of a pot hole there is a good chance the wheel has been knocked out of true as well!
Your bike - Check that everything is installed properly; quick release wheels
Taking a wheel out of the frame – open the brake calliper quick release lever to increase the gap between the brake pads; this makes it easier to get the tyre past the brakes. Open the axle quick release lever through 180deg. Unscrew the nut opposite until properly loose. The wheel will now drop out or may require a slight thump to push it past the brake pads.
Putting the wheel back in the frame – reverse the above procedure but make sure that a) you have the axle fully seated in the drop outs, b) that you tighten the axle quick release and fully close the lever (and that it is positioned behind the fork) and finally, c) that you fully close the brake quick release lever
Note – it is often best to put the wheels back into the frame without fully tightening everything. Put the bike on the ground, loosen off the quick release and let gravity ensure you have the axle properly seated in the drop outs. Then full tighten the quick release.
Your bike - Check that everything is installed properly; through axle wheels
Through axles are effectively bolts through the frame of your bike holding the wheels in place. There are two main types; those with a lever attached to the bolt and those than need a tool- either a proprietary tool or an allen key.
It is vital you know what sort of through axles you have and, if you need one, have the tool required in your tool kit on the bike. Through axles don’t need to be cranked up hard, but they do need to be tight.
Your bike - Finally
Check that anything that is bolted, screwed, strapped or otherwise mounted to the bike hasn’t come loose with usage.
Mudguards and bottle cages often cause problems mid-ride when they come loose!
And last of all, check the tyre pressures and pump them up if needed; a track pump makes getting them up to pressure a lot easier.
Roadside Repairs
Common breakdowns you can fix/bodge at the roadside
Essentials for a roadside puncture repair - all types of tyre
Spare Valve Core and Valve Core removal tool
Essentials for roadside puncture repairs - tubeless tyre
Plugging the hole - adding something into the hole for the sealant to bind around.
There are all sorts of kits available that work on the same principle, ie pushing a hairy, sticky plug into the hole for the sealant to bind to.
Dynaplug Muc Off Lezyne Lifeline
Essentials for roadside puncture repairs - all tyre types
There are times when you suffer a really large cut to the tyre, either in the tread or in the sidewall; this generally means a new tyre. However, you may be able to effect a makeshift repair that will get you home.
Whether tubed or tubeless you will need a tyre boot and an inner tube
Tubed tyre - strip out the punctured inner tube, stick on a tyre boot over the tear (you may need to take the tyre off), put in a new inner tube, reseat the tyre bead in the rim, inflate and limp home!
Tubeless tyre - this is going to be messy! Break the seal between the tyre bead and the rim - can be very difficult! Pour out the sealant (if there is any left after it has sprayed all over you and the bike), clean and dry as best you can the area around the cut, stick on the tyre boot (good luck with that), insert an inner tube whilst keeping the tyre boot in place, reseat the tyre in the bead, fully inflate and limp home!
Essentials for roadside chain repairs
Multi tool with a chain tool
Spare chain quick link (must be specific for the number of sprockets on the bike, ie 10,11,or 12 speed).
Good to have - a chain hook
Disposable gloves
Not so common breakdowns you may be able to fix/bodge at the roadside
Not so Common breakdowns you may be able to fix/bodge at the roadside
Not so Common breakdowns you may be able to fix/bodge at the roadside
Not so Common breakdowns you may be able to fix/bodge at the roadside
Snapped internals of a mechanical gear shifter
Front - will default to smallest ring if you can release the cable from the clamp at the derailleur.
Rear - will default to the smallest cog (biggest gear) if the cable can be released. If a smaller gear is required more cable will need to be pulled through. If it is not possible to adjust the cable length and there is exposed cable then cable tie the cable to a water bottle or bottle cage etc.
Other useful things to have with you
Cash - £5 (or bigger!) note for emergency tyre boot if desperate!
Cable ties – six small ones will fix quite a lot of things
Disposable gloves
Small amount of sealant if riding tubeless
Questions before you have a go?
If your bike is now in this many pieces you’ve gone too far!