Said the first kid on a BMX with a flat tyre.

‘Yes’ I said

Kid then says, ‘can you pump my tyre up please?’

‘Erm, OK’ (at which point I was wondering why the kid couldn’t pump up the completely flat & obviously punctured tyre – how the kid thought it would stay inflated I have no idea)

Anyway, the tyre wouldn’t inflate as the valve was stuffed, so kid has to carry on his way home on foot

2 yards down the road, group of kids approaching.

‘scuse me Mister, have you got a pump?’

‘Erm, Yes’

‘can you pump my tyre up please’

‘Err, OK’ at which point one of his mates says ‘you won’t be able to, he’s superglued his bullet valve cap on’ …and indeed he had. What a stupid thing to do!

kid goes off pushing

5 more yards down the road

‘scuse me mister’….

By now I have serious deja vu. This kid has the tyre & tube off the rim, getting mashed as he pushes. This one also asks if I can pump his tyre up (what’s wrong with today’s youth that they don’t know how to work a bike pump?). I say

‘OK, but it won’t stay up if you’ve got a puncture’

‘I haven’t got a puncture, I let the air out’ (WTF?!?!?!? 😯 )

So I pump the tyre up, kid then says

‘Thanks mister, your a life saver, I live 5 miles away and was going to have to walk all the way home’

What a bizarre episode, and why do kids let the air out of their tyres if they don’t have a pump and live ,miles away?

Oh, well, at least the Karma bank has had a top up

i used to let the air out, when i was out playing at a friends house. He lived 5 miles away, with air out of tyre i could call parents and tell them i had a puncture and needed to be picked up 🙂
Sometimes they where not home so couldnt pick me up……..maybe that was his problem?

surely, you call teh parents, then IF they are availible, THEN let the air out, before they arrive?

ive let air out of my tyres before to soften it for playing kids games, more grip on concrete ledges, except then you hoof down a flight of steps to
“ding ding ding ding ding”

happens?

still, very random to have 3 in one sitting!

It’s not just kids, a while ago I flatted on my commute, my pump (still fairly new) gave up whilst pumping up my spare, I started to walk and asked several commuters going past if I could borrow theirs. I had to ask half a dozen before someone was actually carrying one.

(I now carry 2 pumps on my commutes)

They were probably copping a view of your a** as you pumped. Or something.

I had a young lad knock on my door the other day asking for a pump, he said he had a slow puncture on his BMX and needed to get home in 5 minutes !! I pumped it up for him and off he shot !! being a cynical git i thought he was maybe casing the joint 🙂