Going on a bike ride unprepared is about the worst way to go about it.  Not only do you need the right tools for a possible–sometimes, probable–breakdown, you also need to know how to use them.

Flat tires are the most common breakdown. being forced to walk anywhere from a mile to ten miles or more due to a tiny–almost invisible–hole in your innertube simply because you failed to bring along $1 stick-on patches and a 50-cent plastic tire lever, or never practiced removing your tire in the first place, is about as bad as it gets, especially when you consider it’ll take less than five minutes to repair a simple flat tire with very little practice at all.

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