Today's ride: failing to help the guy with carbon wheels and broken spoke

[schwa86]

Just checking in with the fast wheels crowd. On today's rise, came upon a guy standing by side of road. A rear spoke had snapped. Despite opening brakes up etc, fancy carbon wheel was so out of true that it was rubbing on chain stay. "Aha" I said, I happen to carry one of those kevlar spokes (and actually used it successfully when someone in my group snapped a spoke last year). But alas the fancy carbon wheels do not have nipples (required for use). Similarly, no external means of tightening/loosening spokes to re-true. He said truing is via internal means (eg take off tire and tube) , but he didn't carry the tool (and apparently this had happened once before). So, after wishing him well and msking sure he had cell phone to call a cab, we carried on. Any thoughts on anything else I should have considered? Is it right that there is a special tool involved, or should we have taken tire off and tried everyone's pocket tool?

[Cicli]

You did the right thing. Its not your job to carry supplies to fix everyones propritary stuff.

[unterhausen]

that's funny, we passed by someone with a broken spoke today. She said her husband was coming to get her, or I would have tried to get her back riding again. At some point the question becomes if the permanent repair becomes a lot more expensive if you do something to get the person back riding.

[bikinchris]

Low spoke count wheels will more often not pass the chain stays. They don't often break spokes when they are maintained well. But many people who use them don't maintain them at all.

[SlowPokePete]

Not really sure what else you could have done...

SPP

[lhuerta]

If he was running Lightweights, Reynolds RZR or Mavic CCU wheels, where carbon spokes are epoxied to hub/rims (i.e. no nipples) then ur kevlar replacement spoke would not have worked. If he was running steel spokes then ur fix would have worked (regardless of internal nipples), but only if he had the micro socket with which to adjust internal nipples.

[R3awak3n]

moral of the story, its not the carbon wheels that suck but internal spokes that suck :) I never built anything with internal spokes but also sound like a PITA to build.

[firerescuefin]

A+ to you for stopping and giving it your best!

[bcroslin]

Only thing more you could have done is hailed the cab for him. The fact that you ride with a spare spoke is awesome.

[John H.]

It can happen to fancy wheels.
I have also seen carbon wheel riders crippled by multiple flats- they run out of tubes and don't pack a long enough valve extender.

Makes me wonder why non-racers seem to like carbon wheels as daily drivers.
I get the aerodynamics and cool factor- I don't get riding things that fail in a way that leaves you out of luck.

Don't get me started on carbon braking surfaces-

[fogrider]

your kevlar spoke repair could have worked if you were able to get the tire off.

[John H.]

But then you would need to remove the rim strip, have the tool, etc.
Fancy wheels are over-rated.
Reliability is under-rated.

your kevlar spoke repair could have worked if you were able to get the tire off.

[Anarchist]

But then you would need to remove the rim strip, have the tool, etc.
Fancy wheels are over-rated.
Reliability is under-rated.

[x] Like

[Peter P.]

You did all you could.

If a broken spoke causes the wheel to go so out of true that it can't pass the chainstays, then either the wheel is poorly designed or the frame has poor clearances.

As has already been said, low spoke count wheels typically suffer the former.

Large tubed frames such as carbon, aluminum, and titanium, suffer the latter. All three materials need larger diameter tubes than a steel tube of similar stiffness.

If the wheel isn't field serviceable with common tools, then it should be reserved as a race day only wheel.

[kramnnim]

Someone just need to sell a multi tool with internal nipple wrenches.

Someone with Kysrium SL's would have been in similar trouble...

[rwsaunders]

Someone just need to sell a multi tool with internal nipple wrenches.

Someone with Kysrium SL's would have been in similar trouble...

+1...been there done that and opening the brake pads did nada. Of course, both times I was 25 miles from home and the team car (Mrs. RW) was not home.

[vicbastige]

Boy, some people are almost angry about fancy wheels. Actually I really like mine and look down on cheaper, heavier traditional sets. No way you can be a better cyclist with aluminum wheels.

[beeatnik]

vicbastige, i don't understand your style.

[veloduffer]

Boy, some people are almost angry about fancy wheels. Actually I really like mine and look down on cheaper, heavier traditional sets. No way you can be a better cyclist with aluminum wheels.


I hope this was tongue in cheek. Otherwise it's wrong in so many ways or a troll post.

[oldpotatoe]

Boy, some people are almost angry about fancy wheels. Actually I really like mine and look down on cheaper, heavier traditional sets. No way you can be a better cyclist with aluminum wheels.

How's that day of training going when that busted spoke means you ride no further? 'NO WAY'? 'You look down'?.... Yikes, you are a marketeer's dream come true. some of those guys racing that there 'tour of Italy' rode aluminum rimmed wheels...horrors, how did they do it???

[Mikej]

Happened to me twice- first time I was like !&@$ - no cell phone in bfe- I started walking to the first farm house hoping to make a call, and some dude with a suburban pulls up and asks where I'm heading- I said the town and he said hop in in going there-next time I carried a spoke and have since- spoke sticking out of jersey pocket is the new PRO if you ask me...

[texbike]

Any thoughts on anything else I should have considered?

You didn't offer to give him YOUR rear wheel so that he could make it home??? What an A******! ;)

[bikinchris]

But then you would need to remove the rim strip, have the tool, etc.
Fancy wheels are over-rated.
Reliability is under-rated.

Hear-hear!

Once upon a time, people trained on their strong, heavy wheels and put their race wheels on for...races. It was a training tool to have the heavier wheels that lasted forever and a psychological boost to feel those light wheels. Your bike felt like a hotrod with the race wheels and you were in the mental place where you felt like superman. Otherwise, why have expensive delicate, hard to repair wheels? Look, folks, those guys in the pro races have follow cars and mechanics to worry about wheels and they don't have to pay for repairs. To wear out and damage those wheels doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
If I won the lottery, I would still ride on hand built wheels, lovingly and skillfully built by hand and designed to NOT need a true after a few rides. I would probably have super nice wheels and use those on 'special occasions' but not every day.

[schwa86]

You didn't offer to give him YOUR rear wheel so that he could make it home??? What an A******! ;)

:bike: That's the kind of out of the box thinking that makes this forum so great!

[palincss]

You did all you could.

If a broken spoke causes the wheel to go so out of true that it can't pass the chainstays, then either the wheel is poorly designed or the frame has poor clearances.

As has already been said, low spoke count wheels typically suffer the former.

Large tubed frames such as carbon, aluminum, and titanium, suffer the latter. All three materials need larger diameter tubes than a steel tube of similar stiffness.

If the wheel isn't field serviceable with common tools, then it should be reserved as a race day only wheel.

A couple of years ago I led a 65 mile ride from Thurmont to the Gettysburg battlefield. One of the riders had a spoke break out in the middle of absolute nowhere about 3 miles from the Sachs bridge, on a 36 spoke touring wheel. One of my riders had a Kevlar spoke, but the wheel with the broken spoke didn't go out of true at all, so all we did was duct tape the broken spoke to another to get it out of the way and kept going.

That same day, on a different ride out on Riverside Rd near Maryland Point a guy with an aero wheel broke a spoke. His wheel went so badly out of true the wheel wouldn't turn at all, and there was nothing to be done but sit down by the side of the road and wait for a rider to get back to the ride start and come back with his car. That was a matter of perhaps 2 hours of waiting, but if that had happened on my ride it would have been more like 4 hours waiting (it was a very thorough tour of the battlefield!) and it would have been an hour's walk to get to the only reasonable place to hang out for that long.

There's a lot to be said for reliability and resiliance.

[bicycletricycle]

Lots of spokes wheels are sweet.

Low spoke count wheels on narrow clearance frames require a cell phone and a friend for retrieval.

Low spoke count wheels are for world class riders and professional cyclists only?

[FlashUNC]

He's had it happen before, he knows what he's in for.

That's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Your willingness to help is commendable, but you're also not your brother's keeper in that instance.

And I say that as someone who rides both carbon and alloy wheels.

[aramis]

I don't ride fancy carbon wheels (actually don't have a set of wheels worth more than $300), but since I started riding 3 years or so ago I've never broken a spoke and I all the roads I ride on are pretty bad. I did bend a rim pretty bad once though but the spokes were all fine.

I've only noticed heavier guys breaking spokes, is it really an issue these days for lighter people?

[palincss]

Three or four years ago one of the women in my club, a national champion triathalete for several years running, destroyed two carbon wheels on a badly potholed section of the Rt 4 service road out in Waysons Corner in Anne Arundel county, MD. She's all muscle, and I'll bet if you boiled her down you wouldn't get enough fat off her to make up a stick of butter.

The guy I wrote about whose aero wheel suffered a broken spoke that left him stuck in the wilds of Nanjemoy is a big guy, well over 6' and well over 250 lb.

[oldpotatoe]

Three or four years ago one of the women in my club, a national champion triathalete for several years running, destroyed two carbon wheels on a badly potholed section of the Rt 4 service road out in Waysons Corner in Anne Arundel county, MD. She's all muscle, and I'll bet if you boiled her down you wouldn't get enough fat off her to make up a stick of butter.

The guy I wrote about whose aero wheel suffered a broken spoke that left him stuck in the wilds of Nanjemoy is a big guy, well over 6' and well over 250 lb.

That's the subject of a separate thread right there. Saving 500-600 grams on unreliable(for this guy) wheels on this 120,000+ gram bike and rider 'package'...

[cfox]

I have limited riding time, and I enjoy riding my carbon wheels more than my aluminum wheels. I've never broken a spoke in my life, so I'm not going to let an unlikely scenario dictate my equipment choice. I also ride tubulars despite the compromise you make in dealing with flats (yes, I know how to deal with a tubular flat, but a flat on a clincher can be repaired to 100% utility). And, seriously, how many people carry a spare spoke with them on their Saturday morning 40 miler? I just want to go for a bike ride, I'm not interested in being a pack-rat road warrior equipped for the apocalypse.

[firerescuefin]

I have limited riding time, and I enjoy riding my carbon wheels more than my aluminum wheels. I've never broken a spoke in my life, so I'm not going to let an unlikely scenario dictate my equipment choice. I also ride tubulars despite the compromise you make in dealing with flats (yes, I know how to deal with a tubular flat, but a flat on a clincher can be repaired to 100% utility). And, seriously, how many people carry a spare spoke with them on their Saturday morning 40 miler? I just want to go for a bike ride, I'm not interested in being a pack-rat road warrior equipped for the apocalypse.

This...I would also add that companies are building stuff that you can pretty much have your cake and eat it too. Enve wheels are designed to be ridden, not raced. I've ridden my 6.7s for the last two years, and they are no worse for the wear.

[djg]

Just checking in with the fast wheels crowd. On today's rise, came upon a guy standing by side of road. A rear spoke had snapped. Despite opening brakes up etc, fancy carbon wheel was so out of true that it was rubbing on chain stay. "Aha" I said, I happen to carry one of those kevlar spokes (and actually used it successfully when someone in my group snapped a spoke last year). But alas the fancy carbon wheels do not have nipples (required for use). Similarly, no external means of tightening/loosening spokes to re-true. He said truing is via internal means (eg take off tire and tube) , but he didn't carry the tool (and apparently this had happened once before). So, after wishing him well and msking sure he had cell phone to call a cab, we carried on. Any thoughts on anything else I should have considered? Is it right that there is a special tool involved, or should we have taken tire off and tried everyone's pocket tool?

The special tool involved was standing by the side of the road with a broken spoke . . . ba dum, dum.

Ok, that's unfair. Folks should ride what they want and if I'm typically prepared for this or that, it's nonetheless true that there have been more than zero rides when I haven't been. But really, you stopped, offered to help in the usual ways, made sure the guy had a cell . . . I don't know that there's anything else you could have done. Depends on the wheel, but it seems as if you did what you could.

[thirdgenbird]

I have limited riding time, and I enjoy riding my carbon wheels more than my aluminum wheels. I've never broken a spoke in my life, so I'm not going to let an unlikely scenario dictate my equipment choice. I also ride tubulars despite the compromise you make in dealing with flats (yes, I know how to deal with a tubular flat, but a flat on a clincher can be repaired to 100% utility). And, seriously, how many people carry a spare spoke with them on their Saturday morning 40 miler? I just want to go for a bike ride, I'm not interested in being a pack-rat road warrior equipped for the apocalypse.

I just bought a 20/16 spoke wheelset using this mentality. I wanted to give some 55mm wheels a try. I went in knowing a broken spoke would end my ride, but most of my rides are solo and I've always got a phone on me. I've never broken a spoke (on a road bike) but if I do, I've got several people I can call.

The experiment may fail, but I don't have much to loose. The 32 spoke wheels I'm used to riding are staying around.

If you had stopped to help me, I would have thanked you and sent you on your way. I've got no expectations and it was my choice.

[John H.]

I see a few mistakes happening here
1.) Riders making poor wheel choices for their weight and/or riding surface.
2.) Riders continuing to ride wheels that they have had problems with. In my experience if your factory built wheel has broken more than one spoke there is something wrong with the tension. Simple spoke replacement will only get you so far. It will break again.
3.) The third mistake is riding with riders who make the above two mistakes. You are asking for failures that will make you wait, call for extraction, etc.
Demand preparation and reliability from your riding partners.

[benb]

The roads here are terrible, terrible, terrible here to the point I've moved up to never using tires smaller than 28c.

And yet everyone else is going the other way and always riding high zoot carbon wheels with next to no spoke and no rubber, and most of these people are out riding recreationally.

It has gotten so bad here with riding being about showing off money. I have been in and out of the shops lately trying on gloves as I'm having trouble with pressure on my hamate bone & ulnar nerve... they keep trying to sell me a high zoot bike with a carbon frame and fork and telling me my steel frame & fork is much to harsh and stiff... not noticing they are trying to sell me something that can't take tires bigger than 23c and I rode in with tires in the 28c-35c range. It's ridiculous since I've owned a bunch of those bikes and they were all jackhammer stiff compared to my current steel frame/fork/big tires.

[nate2351]

This thread is a flotilla of smug

[Bob Ross]

Someone with Kysrium SL's would have been in similar trouble...

Just had that experience this past weekend: Big group ride, someone up front didn't point out a gigantic pothole, 5 (!) riders went through it, yielding 6 flats and 1 broken Ksyrium spoke. Actually, it wasn't broken: The end of a drive-side spoke simple popped out of the hub...but that spoke nipple was so tight that we couldn't re-insert the end into the hub flange. And of course no one in the group had a Ksyrium spoke wrench with them. Rider wound up hitching a ride back to town.

Later that same day I was in a bike shop and I saw a multitool that included a Ksyrium spoke wrench! Almost bought it, just so I could be That Guy.

[thirdgenbird]

The roads here are terrible, terrible, terrible here to the point I've moved up to never using tires smaller than 28c.

And yet everyone else is going the other way and always riding high zoot carbon wheels with next to no spoke and no rubber, and most of these people are out riding recreationally.

It has gotten so bad here with riding being about showing off money. I have been in and out of the shops lately trying on gloves as I'm having trouble with pressure on my hamate bone & ulnar nerve... they keep trying to sell me a high zoot bike with a carbon frame and fork and telling me my steel frame & fork is much to harsh and stiff... not noticing they are trying to sell me something that can't take tires bigger than 23c and I rode in with tires in the 28c-35c range. It's ridiculous since I've owned a bunch of those bikes and they were all jackhammer stiff compared to my current steel frame/fork/big tires.

This isn't what I'm seeing.

Bikes in every segment, road included, are getting more tire clearance. The 25 is the new 23 and clearance for 28s isn't abnormal. Things are returning back to normal.

I also wouldn't specifically call about "high zoot carbon wheels." Most of these new carbon wheels are wide. Very wide... 24mm to 26mm wide. Most traditional alloy rims are 19-20ish. As one data point, specalized's roval rims are over 24mm at the brake track and they are pushing 26mm tires. Carbon wheels also typically (not always) have deeper and stiffer rims that help make up for the loss of spokes. I'm not saying they are as good as, or better than, traditional wheels but many of them are very durable.

It's also not about money. High end wheels are pretty durable. Shoot, I talked to a guy that did lighter loaded touring on Campagnolo Eurus wheels and he wore out the brake surface without breaking a spoke. It wouldn't have been my choice, but it worked. My Eurus wheels have a lot of miles on them without issue and they have never needed trued.

I'm guessing you will find that it's the cheaper end of the spectrum that causes more issues. Many entry level alloy wheelsets don't have very many spokes. These are the ones that seem to go out of true or pull spokes through rims (bontrager and mavic for example)

As background info: all my road frames and forks are steel and 90% of my milage is done on custom 32 spoke wheels. I have to hand it to some companies though. Some of the shimano and Campagnolo/fulcrum wheels are remarkably resilient for having fewer than 40 spokes total.

[benb]

I didn't say anything about what the bike manufacturers are pushing or anyone on this forum in particular, just that I'm noticing carbon low spoke wheels are almost becoming the norm for just about anyone on a proper "road" bike.

I only road on a MUT yesterday.. still saw tons of carbon wheels. They don't serve any real purpose there, no one is going fast and the surface is rough.

No disagreement on the bikes that are being sold, the situation is a lot better than 5-7 years ago. I saw a pretty sweet giant carbon cx bike the other day with the Ultegra hydraulic disc setup.. $4800. Seems like a bike I would have enjoyed more if it existed back in the day than my Serotta. That bike is way out of my price range these days though.

[schwa86]

Just had that experience this past weekend: Big group ride, someone up front didn't point out a gigantic pothole, 5 (!) riders went through it, yielding 6 flats and 1 broken Ksyrium spoke. Actually, it wasn't broken: The end of a drive-side spoke simple popped out of the hub...but that spoke nipple was so tight that we couldn't re-insert the end into the hub flange. And of course no one in the group had a Ksyrium spoke wrench with them. Rider wound up hitching a ride back to town.

Later that same day I was in a bike shop and I saw a multitool that included a Ksyrium spoke wrench! Almost bought it, just so I could be That Guy.

That's why I bought the Kevlar spoke -- but then I wasn't that guy after all...

[thirdgenbird]

I didn't say anything about what the bike manufacturers are pushing or anyone on this forum in particular, just that I'm noticing carbon low spoke wheels are almost becoming the norm for just about anyone on a proper "road" bike.

I hear you there. I just bought a set of cheap takeoff wheels from a giant propel just to see what these things are all about. I've noticed a number of mid level aero bikes coming with deep section wheels. Standard road bikes with 105 and above also have pretty low spoke count shallow wheels.

only road on a MUT yesterday.. still saw tons of carbon wheels. They don't serve any real purpose there, no one is going fast and the surface is rough.

I used my giant front wheel (waiting on freehub) over the weekend and it rode surprisingly nice. I thought it rode better over rough stuff than my record to cxp33 wheel but didn't seem to give up any flex when sprinting. I couldn't tell you if this was a product of the width or some other element of the wheel.

No disagreement on the bikes that are being sold, the situation is a lot better than 5-7 years ago. I saw a pretty sweet giant carbon cx bike the other day with the Ultegra hydraulic disc setup.. $4800. Seems like a bike I would have enjoyed more if it existed back in the day than my Serotta. That bike is way out of my price range these days though.

The prices are unreal. some of the takeoff wheels are cheap however. I'm going to see what they are all about. I may move to a full carbon set after I try out my alloy/carbon hybrids. So far, I am pretty impressed. Trying out wheels is also cheaper and easier than trying out frames. Expect to see some cheap giant p-slr1 aero wheels in the classified this fall.

[victoryfactory]

Get AAA to add bike service option to their coverage!
An extra 10 bucks per year and they send a bike repair crew to get
you back on the road.

As with their car repair service, they will need to hire 3rd party companies to fulfill.
That's where You come in. Set up a fleet of mobile bike repair vans.
Petition AAA to use your service.

You can thank me when you make your first million

VF

[oldpotatoe]

I have limited riding time, and I enjoy riding my carbon wheels more than my aluminum wheels. I've never broken a spoke in my life, so I'm not going to let an unlikely scenario dictate my equipment choice. I also ride tubulars despite the compromise you make in dealing with flats (yes, I know how to deal with a tubular flat, but a flat on a clincher can be repaired to 100% utility). And, seriously, how many people carry a spare spoke with them on their Saturday morning 40 miler? I just want to go for a bike ride, I'm not interested in being a pack-rat road warrior equipped for the apocalypse.

Funny...some of the giganto bags I see on some bikes for their Sunday morning 25 miler...

[bpm]

Get AAA to add bike service option to their coverage!
An extra 10 bucks per year and they send a bike repair crew to get
you back on the road.

As with their car repair service, they will need to hire 3rd party companies to fulfill.
That's where You come in. Set up a fleet of mobile bike repair vans.
Petition AAA to use your service.

You can thank me when you make your first million

VF

I don't know if AAA offers this everywhere, but AAA Southern New England offers rides to stranded cyclists (current AAA members). They'll drive you and your bike up to 10 miles at no charge, up to 2 times per year. They'll drive you further than 10 miles but you pay mileage fees. I haven't had to use it, but it's nice to know I have options if I'm ever stranded and can't reach my wife or a friend to pick me up.

[victoryfactory]

I don't know if AAA offers this everywhere, but AAA Southern New England offers rides to stranded cyclists (current AAA members). They'll drive you and your bike up to 10 miles at no charge, up to 2 times per year. They'll drive you further than 10 miles but you pay mileage fees. I haven't had to use it, but it's nice to know I have options if I'm ever stranded and can't reach my wife or a friend to pick me up.

Interesting. I'll check locally.
VF

[benb]

Funny...some of the giganto bags I see on some bikes for their Sunday morning 25 miler...

Haha.. yah I see that too. It's the flipside of the 50lb overweight guy on the $10,000 13lb bike going 14mph.

But in the case of the folks going out looking like they are going to cross the continent when they're going 10 miles they might just be going out to have a picnic and they brought real food, a bottle of wine, a camera, etc..

[Anarchist]

Funny...some of the giganto bags I see on some bikes for their Sunday morning 25 miler...

I don't want to be equipped for the apocalypse but I have also taken the attitude that if I go out on my bike, I need to be able to get myself home, not phone someone.

So I carry a spare tire, a can of Vittoria pit stop a multi tool and a frame pump.

If I was on clinchers I would carry boot material, a tube, a multi tool and a Repair kit with glue and patches.

I will not knowingly ride equipment that runs the risk of stranding me somewhere. I am not getting paid to do this.

[endosch2]

Boy, some people are almost angry about fancy wheels. Actually I really like mine and look down on cheaper, heavier traditional sets. No way you can be a better cyclist with aluminum wheels.

I perceived some retro grouch tone from the beginning of this thread too. I rode conventional spoked wheels for the first 15 years of my cycling career. They are serviceable because they need frequent service. I have a pair of Ksyrium SLs that are now 7 years old with 13824 miles (I track them with a fancy garmin and a fancy computer software program) that have never seen a truing wrench and I ride on the some of the worst roads around and I weigh 175 lbs.....

My fancy garmin and computer software also tell me that I have ridden 786 days over the past 7 years on 3 different bikes, all with fancy wheels, and I have never had a mechanical caused by the wheels that would need me to be picked up. I am sure the day will come but if it did i will have no regrets.

Just wanted to provide a different perspective, I feel the new technology is well worth the trade off with self sufficient serviceability.

[Bob Ross]

I don't want to be equipped for the apocalypse but I have also taken the attitude that if I go out on my bike, I need to be able to get myself home, not phone someone.

^^^This.

fwiw, twice in the past month I've been on a group ride where someone broke a chain. Someone else in the group had a chain tool...but no one except me knew how to use it. So I'm thinking I should start bringing a chain tool with me

...and charging a roadside repair fee :)

Then I thought about how many times I've been on a group ride where someone broke a shifter cable. And how the subset of those times where someone had a spare cable with them were much more fun rides than the ones where we had to McGyver some solution or send someone home in a cab.

Obviously the answer is to never ride with other people.

But short of that, I'm thinking some modest additions to my saddlebag wouldn't be the stupidest things to drag along. Sure, everyone thinks you're a dork when you've got a saddlebag big enough to carry a human head...until you pull out the chain tool or the spare shifter cable from your giganto bag, and you save someone from having to do The Cab Ride Of Shame. Then suddenly you're the coolest guy on the ride. I can deal with those odds.

[schwa86]

Interesting. I'll check locally.
VF

I actually mentioned this to the guy I tried to help. In his defense, he said he didn't have a car...

FWIW I guess where I came at this (more or less) at the beginning of thread is:

I want to try within reasonable limits to help people stranded by side of the road. I'm not that much in a hurry, and believe in the good karma-pay it forward approach to life when I can. But not owning wheels like that, I was honestly flummoxed about whether there was anything else I should have considered. I am on the "bigger saddlebag" end of things (probably descended from HS-era touring those many years ago) -- eg in addition to kevlar spoke, I carry a kmc chain link, some duct tape, two zip ties, and a reasonably equipped multi tool (eg one with the chain tool), along with the tire patching stuff. There is a little tiny bag with a couple of aspiring and an alcohol wipe or two. I have used all of it helping other people at one time or another, and have been treated to a couple of pretty good beers as a result when they are people I know...

[thirdgenbird]

I stop to help others too. I've fixed far more flats than I've had myself.

I carry:
Multi took w/ chain tool
Quick link (c10)
5mm Allen key
6mm Allen key (quil stems and ss rear hub)
Cash
Patches
Tube
Co2 and/or pump
Small rag/towel (if anything, it keeps things from rattling)
I had some cable ties but don't think I've restocked... Good reminder.

This all packages up in a very small.

I'm not too worried about cables and spokes. I've never had an issue with either, and setting a bike up single speed with a short section of cable doesn't worry me in the slightest.

[Bkat]

I'll always stop or at least slow down enough to see if someone needs a hand when they're broken down. In some cases, I've been able to bail someone out. (Jammed derailleur, etc..) In other cases, just been able to wish them well and make sure they had a cell. (Snapped crank.) Knock on wood, I've always been able to get myself home. Even after being hit by a car I've wobbled home, bloodied but unbowed.

Of course, when I walk in the door after those cases it's always preceded with, "Honey, don't worry. It looks worse than it really is."

In short, stopping to make sure someone is OK is just the nice thing to do. You did well.