You've got to hand it to the crew over at Pop Mechanics: They know from fixing things. So who better to give you a rundown of clever ways of fixing fairly common (but major) malfunctions -- everything from a leak in the radiator to a hole in your gas tank -- with tools ranging from a twig to a repositioned relay switch to an egg and some diet soda. And, if you're asking why you'd have eggs on hand but not, say, a cell phone to call AAA, stop overthinking it; it's a fun article.

And, as a bonus, here's a home-grown tip -- not a fix, but useful information nonetheless -- based on something that happened to me a few days ago: Always, after getting work done, make sure your tire lock key is replaced in your vehicle.

Tire locks (aka wheel locks or wheel keys) replace one of the lug nuts on each of your tires with a specially designed nut that can't be removed conventionally (these things here); this aids in theft prevention, because they are pretty tough to get off without the special key that comes with the kit.

In my particular situation, I was riding with a friend who had her tires worked on last month, and (in a stroke of bad luck) blew out her rear driver's-side tire in a residential neighborhood. It was only when I went to take off the blown tire and put on the spare that she realized whoever had worked on her tires had forgotten to replace her tire lock key, so what would have been a 10-minute tire change turned into a 40-minute wait for a tow, plus extra cash to have the mechanic find the right key and remove the nuts.

Moral: If you use tire locks or your manufacturer had them installed, make sure to keep your key handy at all times.