Everything on my bicycle is important

Almost everything on my bicycle is important. If it wasn't, I wouldn't waste energy pedaling it all over the place. So when something breaks, it's a problem.

I can fix flats, chains, spokes, and a few other things with the tools I carry, but yesterday one of the bolts on my saddle mount broke. The head popped clean off.

There's supposed to be a head on this bolt

I ride the kind of seat post that has two bolts for easy alignment and the front one failed. The back one stopped the seat from flying off and taking me with it, but one moment the saddle was horizontal and the next it was vertical. Fortunately I was able to bring the bike to a controlled stop.

Once we ascertained what happened, Amber decided to ride back the four miles to her truck and come get me. Thank goodness we weren't at the far end of a 200k out-and-back. I would have had to walk to the nearest hardware store.

I stopped in at Lowes on the drive home to replace both bolts (if one fails, the other may not be far behind). I needed expert help to figure out which one of their several hundred types of bolts to buy. If you're interested it's an M6 35mm. The one that didn't break is now in my top tube bag as a spare.

So if we all carried spares of the parts that had broken over the years, some of us would have to pull a trailer behind us to carry them all. You can imagine the conversations at the start of brevets.

"What's that?"
"Pawl spring - had one break in San Mateo in '04. And there's the tool I need to replace it."
"How much does all that weigh?"
"I carry 28lbs of spare parts with me on all my brevets."