If your adventures are confined to pavement, you’re reasonably safe if you break down—eventually someone will stop to lend a hand if you can’t fix the issue on the side of the road, and that’s often when the real adventure begins! But if you are in the dirt, on a remote track, solo or even in a group when something breaks, you may need to be able to think outside the toolbox.

Unless you have a catastrophic failure, most likely it will be the extremities of the bike that are damaged. You might bend a pannier rack; so you simply bend it back, easy. Or maybe rip you a pannier off—so strap it on top of the rest of the luggage until you hit civilization. It’s crude, but it works!

What if it’s worse? Here are a few ingenious ideas I spotted around the interwebs to store in your melon for a day when they might just be useful.

I keep a selection of good quality (Samco) hose clamps on my bars for emergencies, not just to use on hose clamps that have failed.

These have some unexpected uses. Got a broken clutch lever? Grab a wench and a few clamps and ride out of there.

What if your throttle cable has snapped at the housing, but you have a couple of zip ties?

Were you listening in Mr. Wilson’s woodwork class when he told you, “Just maybe, woodworking skills might get you outta trouble!” Brake lever fix anyone?

Snapped a peg off, and it fell down a ravine, but you saved the bike? Zip ties and a pair of grips to the rescue could be the butt-saving option you’d never thought of.

Snapped off the shifter tip, Allen key to the rescue, hey, and there’s those hose clamps again, or of course zip ties work well too … just not those 1000 for $3 kind.

Don’t have a bolt to hold that (part) in place until you get back to civilisation? Do you need it, or could you improvise? Maybe!

I know you guys have loads more, so lets see ’em. Impress us with your resourcefulness in the comments.