Ride out with a snapped lever or shifter
The most common crash damage, and the one that most often ends a ride. Spares are light; bodges are ugly but they work.
What you need
- — Spare clutch/brake lever and shift lever (best case)
- — Vise grips, hose clamps, safety wire, zip ties
- — Hex keys for the perch
Steps
- 01If you carry the spare, swap it — five minutes with a hex key and you're riding normally.
- 02No spare shifter: clamp vise grips to the shaft stub as a lever, or bolt the broken stub to a hose clamp and a short bar.
- 03No spare clutch lever: many bikes can be ridden clutchless — start in gear on the button and shift on a closed throttle. Practise before you rely on it.
- 04No front brake lever: ride out slowly using the rear brake and engine braking, treating the ride as a recovery, not a ride.
- 05Wire or zip-tie anything you improvised so vibration doesn't undo it, and recheck at every stop.
Watch out
- — Never ride with no functioning front brake in traffic or on descents — get recovered instead.
- — Bar-end sliders and folding-tip levers prevent most of these breaks in the first place.