Gaffer Tape, Baler Twine, your tools that aren't tools?

[moonlite]

Dishwasher as a degreaser/cleaner. Was rebuilding a mate's Kona Coiler, stuck all the rear suspension components in to make them sparkle.
My wife was NOT in.

Ah yes, furtive use of the dishwasher for small parts. "Don't worry yourself, luv, I'll stack the dishwasher."

 

[doctor-bond]

+1 for bent spokes in all sorts of hooking and gauging operations, and sockets as drifts and bearing pressing tools in a vice. & Nutri bar wrappers for emergency tyre lining.

Also:

Wooden skewer for so many poking without scratching needs, and that badly used screwdriver you nicked from your Dad now filed and sharpened for prying, scraping, gouging, shearing.

Old steel handlebar for slot over leverage; old steel stirrup pump tube for wider gauge slot over leverage.
Garden fork for ultimately persuasive leverage.

Sturdy zip tie for breaking the seal on handlebar grips and making a gap for isopropyl to be introduced.

The holes in basic electrical crimping pliers/strippers are surprisingly deadly and will shear quite thick wire like mudguard stays.

 

[novocaine]

Modern toothpaste tubes .

Cut the ends off and split down the middle. This makes a flexible strong sheet that can be used inside a split tyre to stop the tube coming out. Can be used at a decent pressure, too. Plastic money notes may also work, but haven't tried them.

credit cards work too.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Plastic money notes may also work, but haven't tried them.

I always keep a fiver (tenner now obvs) for emergency supplies/bribes/tolls in the saddle bag, and have used an old paper one as tyre boot - but plastic notes way better.

@doctor-bond speaks of levers.

Fixed points: the hinge side of a door, or step right up to a cast iron drain cover in the road!

And @old_coyote_pedaller mentions the dishwasher

- the washing machine can do an exceptional job on tyres, especially filthy old tubs.
Attending needed to temperature, spin cycle, and removal of any white lacy undergarments before inserting brake-blackened items.

 

[grantoury]

credit cards work too.

Mine would be more at use there than as a credit card.

 

[ajm]

Older-style windscreen wiper blades (ie not the flat blade type) have an easily-extracted narrow length of flexible stainless steel in them which is useful for many things, at a basic level including poking the gunk out of jockey wheels, derailleurs etc. Being flexible it's unlikely to scratch anything and being steel it's unlikely to snap off (which toothpicks etc have a habit of.)

 

[ajm]

Rare earth magnets from old hard disk drives are invaluable for retaining those tiny screws that are always determined to find some long grass to hide in as soon as they're removed.

 

[bagpuss]

Vasaline petroleum jelly.
Been used for years to protect chrome work. I use a fine smear on chrome work all year round.

 

[bikeworkshop]

As we're back in the bathroom, wondering what to do with the toothpaste we squeezed out so the plastic tube could be used to repair a tyre/ shim a seatpost:
Toothpaste can be used to polish chrome and bare alloy, maybe the framework of @Guinessisgoodforyou fanciful naked aluminium French beauties?

Prior to letting @bagpuss smear it with vaseline...

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

As we're back in the bathroom, wondering what to do with the toothpaste we squeezed out so the plastic tube could be used to repair a tyre/ shim a seatpost:
Toothpaste can be used to polish chrome and bare alloy, maybe the framework of @Guinessisgoodforyou fanciful naked aluminium French beauties?

Sovol Autosol for me