The All-Purpose Bike Repair Tool: Duct Tape
If you pack the emergency repair kit, you should be able to handle many of the basic emergencies that may strike when you ride. However, at some point, you may find yourself in a situation where a part of your bike needs repairing or replacing and you don't have the tools to do the job, but you still need to keep riding. This is when you need to put on your MacGyver hat and get creative. A piece of wire on the side of the road may be good enough to secure a loose bottle cage. A PowerBar wrapper could be used to boot a tire. Really the only limit to bike repair and maintenance — at least as a temporary fix — is your imagination.
Perhaps the most valuable of the multipurpose materials you can use to fix your bike is duct tape. Serious bikers always leave a roll in their bag for special emergencies. Duct tape is strong and secure, resists water, and can get you out of a number of jams. Here's a list of some of the things you can do using duct tape and a little old-fashioned ingenuity:
- Hold a torn saddle together
- Keep a loose saddle post from coming off
- Secure a bike pump to your frame if the mounting bracket breaks
- Repair rips or tears in clothing, pouches, and pannier bags
- Attach a flashlight to your bike or helmet
- Hold together a cracked helmet at least until you can get home and replace it
- Hold together frayed cable ends
- Boot a torn tire
- Secure a broken buckle on a shoe
- Hold a bottle on a bike if the cage falls off
Any and all repairs, patches, and fixes using duct tape are temporary and must be replaced at the earliest possible time.
Questions and Answers
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