Five roadside repair hacks: Keep a ride going with these quick fixes

Mechanical issues are frustrating, especially if it’s cold or raining, but they’re something every cyclist has to endure at some point. If you’re lucky, it will be a pesky puncture that can be easily repaired, but every so often a more serious issue arises, one that can leave you stranded on the side of the road.

While your natural reaction may be to send an SOS message to friends or family, most mechanical issues can be repaired. This often won’t be a permanent fix, but enough for you to limp back home.

Here are five roadside fixes for the most common mechanical problems.

• Read more: Five essential tools and spares for cyclists

Broken rear derailleur gear cable

Usually when a gear cable snaps, the derailleur will slip down to its lowest position. That’s not a major problem for the front derailleur as the chain will drop into the smaller chainring. It’s a different story for the rear derailleur as the lowest position is the hardest gear, which, let’s be honest, is an alien part of the cassette that most of us barely ever use. Unless you have pro-level power, it’s not going to be of much use.

While you can’t restore a rear derailleur to full functionality without a spare cable, it can be adjusted to an easier gear, which should make your ride home more manageable.

Simply remove the gear cable from the shifter end and then place the cable through the barrel adjuster on the rear derailleur. The domed-end of the cable should fit snugly into the adjuster.

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Once it's been pulled through the shifter, thread the cable through the barrel adjuster

You can then manually push the derailleur with your hand into position over an easier gear and tighten the cable into place with the pinch bolt, securing the derailleur into its new position. Wrap any loose cable so that it doesn’t get caught in the system.

Flat derailleur battery

Electronic shifting is great, unless you forget to charge the batteries; cue plenty of frustration as you’re unable to shift.

Like with a snapped derailleur cable, there’s no way to restore full functionality, but you can shift the derailleur into an easier gear that you’ll be stuck in for the rest of your ride. To do this, you’ll need a friend who has the same shifting system as you, from the same manufacturer - hopefully you’ve spent plenty of time sheltering them from the wind so that they’re feeling generous.

If you both have Shimano electronic groupsets, place the two derailleurs next to each other and then unplug the cable from the system that has the battery power and plug it into the one that doesn’t. This will give you the power required to shift to an easier gear.

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Use a friend's rear derailleur cable to switch gears

SRAM works a little differently as both derailleurs have detachable batteries. This means that you can take the battery from the front derailleur and plug it into the rear, or you can pinch one from a friend to quickly shift to your chosen gear.

Read more: Can easier gears actually help you ride faster?

Punctures

Every cyclist will suffer a puncture at some point. These are usually easily remedied with a spare inner tube and a patch kit, depending on your set-up. Even experienced cyclists forget these spares sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that your ride has to come to a deflating halt.

If you’ve suffered a puncture that has left a hole in your tyre, you’ll need to insert something that covers the hole to prevent the inner tube from bulging out. There are dedicated tyre boots and patches for this, but if you’ve forgotten one then a humble food wrapper can do the job. Fold it over a couple of times to add extra rigidity and then place it on the inside of the tyre over the hole.

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A food wrapper can protect an inner tube when there's a hole in a tyre

In the worst-case scenario you may have also forgotten a spare inner tube too, but don’t worry. Simply tie a knot in the inner tube around the puncture area. This should create an airtight seal, allowing you to pump the tyre back up.

• Read more: How to fix a bike puncture

Snapped brake cable

Once again, pesky cables pop up on this list. Like gear cables, brake cables can snap. That’s bad news if it’s the rear cable as there isn’t a simple fix. Riding without two functioning brakes isn’t advisable, but you may still be able to make it home if you take things steady and safely.

The front brake, on the other hand, is more important. This is where the majority of braking power on a bike comes from, so it’s critically important for safety and you shouldn’t ride your bike if it isn’t functioning properly. If you have no other way of getting home, you can swap the brake cables over, taking the rear cable and fitting it to the front brake.

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If the front brake cable snaps, swap it with the rear cable

Just be careful when doing this not to fray the cable end, which will make it very difficult to feed the cable through the front of the bike.

Worn disc brake pads

Continuing on the theme of braking, it’s also possible to swap disc brake pads between the rear and the front of the bike. Worn brake pads are something that you should keep on top of through regular maintenance, although cyclists often only become aware of this issue when braking performance starts to deteriorate. This is usually a bigger problem for the front brake which takes up most of the braking slack.

Most of the time, the worn front pads can be swapped with the rear pads, presuming that they’re not as worn. This will give you more confidence-inspiring braking for the remainder of your ride, but you should replace the worn pads before heading out on another rider.

Do you have any other roadside repair hacks? Let us know in the comments.

Got any maintenance issues you need help with? Explore more how to guides over on the GCN website, linked here.