Necessity is the mother of invention, and stupidity its cousin. We bring you a selection of instances where ‘Having the wrong thing’ (or forgetting the right thing) brought the family together. Don’t chuckle too hard – next time, it might be you. Thanks to our Forumites for their stories.

WORDS AS TOLD TO HANNAH DOODLES AMANDA

INTIMATE SOLUTIONS

Having had all sor ts of past traumas I usually have a little ziplock bag full of all sor ts of little bolts and grommets, from chainring bolts and rotor bolts to quick links, etc. I’m also the sor t of smug git that pulls out the bag of magic bits when someone else has a trailside cock-up.

The law of sod bit me firmly in the ass when we were out in the middle of a big Welsh hilly ride and my rear brake lever decided to no longer be attached to the rest of the lever body at the pivot as the bolt had fallen out. (Muggins had just fitted pimpy aftermar ket levers and not done something up properly.) After a panic and highspeed bailout with some choice words and lots of pisstaking, it should have been an easy fix… except I had left the little bag of bolts and bits on the wor kbench at home.

What I needed was a small diameter straight rod with bolts at either end. A quick fur tle in some intimate areas and ta-da! Turns out a titanium body piercing bar makes a great emergency brake bolt (now referred to as ‘Tazzy’s titty pivot’ by the bugger s I ride with).

Lots more piss-taking for the rest of the ride, but at least it got me home!