I went for an ambitious mixed trail/ gravel ride yesterday, in some fairly grim weather. After developing a puncture, then discovering my spare was also punctured, I tried my parktools patch which wouldn’t glue coz it was too wet. I then tried my duct tape which also wouldnt glue so I gave up and ran a mile out to the main road

Standing in the wind and rain, covered in mud with a muddy bike I stuck my thumb out hoping somehow to get the 25 miles back home.
Cars went passed and after a few minutes I started looking for taxi numbers to collect me.

Then a guy pulls up in his estate and chats and says he’ll take me 15 miles to the town where I can get a new tube and ride home. He chucks the muddy bike in his nice car, I sit on his footwell mat on the sit trying not to make a mess and we chat with the heaters on. He is on his way from Cardiff to home in North Wales and turns out he rides a bit too.

After a while he asks where I live and offers to take me all the way hom, about 20-30minutes added to his long journey

So I just wanted to say a big thank you to the BBC man who gave me a lift yesterday and sorted me out in a very sticky situation. It’s great to know there are such nice people out there and that cyclists will look out for each other.

And yes, next time I’ll be better prepared!

🙂

Good lad!

Think we all generally look out for each other when people are clearly stuck and hope the bike karma will help us out in the future!

Nice one, what a star that man is.
Might I suggest you consider going tubeless. 🙂

Great to hear this in a world where common decency just ain’t that common…

BBC?

😯
😆

Helped plenty of people who haven’t had a puncture kit with patches and the odd inner tube too. When I had the misfortune of getting 8 punctures on a very cold and wet ride and ran out of patches and tubes I had to walk over 5 miles home and was passed by many cyclists. The few that stopped said they didn’t have a spare patch which left me wondering what they had in their seat bag. Next time I think I’ll keep my patches and tubes to myself.

The few that stopped said they didn’t have a spare patch which left me wondering what they had in their seat bag

I commute without any spares and when I puncture I just carry on riding (slowly) on the flat tyre / tube.

Next time I think I’ll keep my patches and tubes to myself.

Don’t stoop or lower your values, keep sharing

I bunged a desperate looking, penguin suited chap a pound in the registry office car park, last summer. He was late for a wedding & frantically digging around his car for change. It made his day.

I bunged a desperate looking, penguin suited chap a pound in the registry office car park, last summer. He was late for a wedding & frantically digging around his car for change. It made his day.

Just reminded me of this years Great North Run. Waiting to catch the ferry over to South Sheilds and can’t help but over hear a man on his phone trying to figure out how he’s going get across the river without any money that he’d left at home. Conversation getting more heated until I just tapped him on the shoulder and said I’ll pay him across which I did. On the other side when he met with his charity team he tried to repay and just said to put in the collection. It was less than £2 and made his day too.

Gave a bloke on the Chester to Deeside path some glue and a patch yesterday. I know he lives at the Chester end and not only was he going to walk the rest of the way in, he would have had to walk home too. Hope he has the sense to get a spare inner tube and a spanner now.

The bloke carrying his pedal, with no thread left in the crank a few hundred yards later, not much I could do for him!

So I just wanted to say a big thank you to the BBC man who gave me a lift yesterday and sorted me out in a very sticky situation.

I’ve seen that one on redtube.

Restores you faith in humanity 😀

Over the lat year or two I’ve helped a guy rejoin his chain at Brechfa on the pissing rain, a mum unbind her Elixir rear brake while on her first ride with her son at Afan, given my only tube to a guy stranded in the middle of the Beacons and given a pair of lads a lift from (and back to) Cwmcarn after their car had a puncture (no spare) and the nearest tyre place open was a few miles away.

Haven’t had to ask for help myself for a number of years but if I do I hope someone will be equally as kind.

Of course, now he knows what bike you have and where you live…

I cycled past a middle aged lady pushing a moped in a supermarket carpark the other week. ‘Problem?’ I asked. ‘It won’t start’ she said ‘I think the battery’s dead’ ‘Have you tried the kickstart?’ I asked ‘Eh?’ was her reply. She didn’t know her moped had a teeny tiny kickstart and was very happy when I flicked it out and started it up, waving a cheery ‘thanks’ as she rode off. I cycled home smiling.

I was in a rush one time and couldn’t stop to help a bloke fix a broken chain, so instead gave him my chain tool and a spare link and my phone number. He phoned me back later that day to get my address and then posted it back to me.

It’s not just cyclists, most people are honest and helpful. My wife left a shopping bag on a bench at an outlet village two weeks back. By the time we got to the car and realised she got in a right state as it had some quite valuable stuff in there – perfume, etc.

I went back to check – not there. So went to the info desk who sent me to the security office who happily reunited me with the bag that someone had handed in.

I saw a bloke struggling with a flat at Strines Inn near Sheffield over summer. He’d reached the most distant part of his ride then double punctured. I dropped him on his road in Huddersfield as I was en route to Hebden Bridge and had decided to go the scenic route

Good man. I am constantly amazed that more people don’t stop to help, bike, car or even walking.

It’s nice to help people.

I once stopped in a layby and put out a car fire (a small one admittedly 🙂 )

The bumper/mudflap had somehow been rubbing on the tyre and had started smouldering and then caught on fire (that what the fire crew who arrived said was most likely)
I saw the smoke and pulled in, I was luckily driving a Detailing van that was fitted with a water tank, generator, jet wash and hose reel. So I pulled up started up the generator and put out the fire with the jet hose, before the fire crew arrived.

Proper hero me 😆

It wasn’t till much later that I remembered that there is quite a sizeable fire extinguisher also fitted in the van, that I’d totally forgotten about (always had a spare jacket hanging on it)

But I think the generator and hose reel had a bit more flair anyway.

nealglover – Member

I once stopped in a layby and put out a car fire (a small one admittedly )

To balance this out, I once stopped to help a broken down motorbike and while stopped, my own bike caught fire.

It’s odd sometimes when you stop though, it can freak people out. I stopped for a cyclist pushing in the middle of nowhere in the borders, he got a wee bit shouty. “Why do people keep stopping? I can look after myself!” “OK chief, backing away slowly now, you go about your pushing”

Also carry a can of that squirty stuff + tubes and patches. Saves trying to fix it in the rain and mud.
I gave a bottle of water to a guy who clearly needed rehydration on the london revolution as he was walking up the hill.

I cycled up to my parents house a few years back and punctured on the way home. I didn’t have any spares with me – wasn’t out for a ‘proper’ ride etc. As I was jogging home trundling the bike alongside a cyclist slowed down. Great I thought maybe he has some patches. “Should have remembered you’re pump eh mate? maybe next time”.
What a ****.