Rode the long way back home as had afternoon off work – culminating in me waking home as puncture could not be fixed (spare tube faulty, pump failed, no mobile).

On the 6 mile walk back in the peeing rain (mostly on roads) with a very obvious flat tyre no one stopped. I am probably expecting too much for someone to stop and ask if I was OK but was quite disheartened? 🙁

P.S. I always stop for someone on bike or car locally if they look like they might be in trouble?

Are you a bit freaky looking??

Depends if they’re on a road bike or not 😉

Yes will always stop 😀

Maybe they saw the Ti frame and decided to have a gloat instead 😉

Never stop, always ask as I go past though, if they need anything. If they scream yes I’ll stop and see what I can do.

Nothing wrong with helping people out now and then. Helped a bloke change his cassette in the alps a month or two ago, (obviously where we were staying, not mid ride or anything), and he gave me Tim Moore’s French Revelations in return. Hadn’t read it before, and it’s quite good.

Maybe they saw the Ti frame and decided to have a gloat instead

😀

Always stop and ask folk if they need help, even if they look as though they’re sorting it out.

There’s a douchebag guy that works in the same building as me who’s a bit of a weirdo. I had a puncture on the way to work one morning and discovered I had forgotten my pump so I’m pushing the bike along the pavement with a flat tyre. He cycles up, pauses and looks at me clearly seeing I’ve got a puncture, then buggers off without even asking if I’m ok. When i get to work and see his bike chained up, he’s got a pump attached to his frame.

absolute oddball though. Anytime I say hello when I meet him at the bike racks, he just looks at the ground and ignores me.

He sounds like a right tool Bob! – yeah sorry I didn’t mean stop and get out but at least ask?

I did have a bright orange high viz jacket on but I did look like a typical cyclist so…. I can’t answer whether I look like a weirdo – you’ll have to ask others like Realman 😉

Ti – Ahh – you mean they were jealous – now that might be likely 😉 LOL

Edit: Off topic I offered someone 10p at the petrol station recently coz they were short – the look of surprise on the ladies face was priceless!

When i get to work and see his bike chained up, he’s got a pump attached to his frame.

Nick it, see how he likes it 🙂

I always ask, road mountain and often in the car if it’s safe to stop. Given people lifts before if they are proper stuck.

When i get to work and see his bike chained up, he’s got a pump attached to his frame.

Drop of superglue in pump as revenge?

Anytime I say hello when I meet him at the bike racks, he just looks at the ground and ignores me.

Although, maybe he’s painfully shy/autistic?

Same happened to me last saturday, puncture on the roadbike 8 miles from home. I had a tube but no pump so started walking home, lovely day so wasn’t too fussed. A roadie passed from behind, not even a grunt in my direction. This was on a rural singletrack road so not hard to stop. Fairy nuff I thought, he’s going quite fast and stopping will probably make his HRM explode or something.
Ten minutes later, a guy pootling along on a tourer passed, again not even an acknowledgement I was there. Clearly just a bit of a git.

I wasn’t on Ti, just a battered old steel roadie. 🙂

I once snapped a chain on a v steep uphill, out of the saddle giving it welly. I was brought back to consciousness by the sound of footsteps. Picture the scene: bike in middle of road, chain hanging off. Rider in foetal position holding crushed pods and whimpering. The correct greeting is, it appears, ‘Lovely morning!’ as you walk past. Genius.

I had a tube but no pump so started walking home
They didn’t stop to teach you a very important lesson 😉

Bob – Maybe he fancies you and doesn’t have the courage to say so 😕

Yeah – sad isn’t it – people just do not want to get involved or, even worse, the thought never enters their head?

If I see a cyclist stopped or pushing I (try to) always make sure they’re ok

…spare tube faulty, pump failed, no mobile

Epic fail 🙂

Dont nick his bike if its chained up. Thats bad. Just ADD a lock of your own. I usually ask folk if they need help unless I got my flow on the go.

I had a puncture on the way home from work last week, pump gave up the ghost so rang home for a lift, shouldered the bike and started walking in that direction.

I was amazed when 2 car drivers stopped (at seperate times) to see if I needed any help or a lift.

Next day there was another person who had a puncture, I stopped to check he was all sorted. Luckily he was, as I hadn’t replaced the broken pump.

Next day there was another person who had a puncture, I stopped to check he was all sorted. Luckily he was, as I hadn’t replaced the broken pump.

That would’ve been awkward.

I always offer to help.

I might not if I saw a ‘slammed’ stem though

I think from a passing car it may not be all that obvious that you had a puncture or are people wary about offering a lift to someone with a manky bike in these dangerous days we are living in? 🙄

On a happier note; in the summer the GF and I were walking with the road bikes after one of her spokes randomly snapped and threw the wheel far enough out of true for it not to turn without rubbing the frame, I had my bike on my shoulder so she could push hers with my wheel. A builders van that had passed reversed up the road to us to ask if we needed a lift. I’m sure he said he wouldn’t have thought anything of it if it hadn’t been for me having the bike on my shoulder rather than pushing. I hope that karma has paid that gentleman back with a lottery win (or at least a free pint as he wouldn’t take anything for going out of his way to take us to a train station).

Surprised to read about all these pump failures you need to get yourself a proper pump.

A couple of years ago I stopped on a warm Summer’s evening to help a vision in lycra ‘pump her tyres’. She was pretty impressed I can tell you when I extended my Lezyne Alloy Drive.

always stop,next time it might be me 😉

Usually stop, always help roadies but only help mtbers if problem is genuine bad luck rather than down to user stupidity or poor prep 😆

Foxy – you weren’t wearing those bright yellow spiderman knee pads were you ? might explain why they didn’t stop 😉

I always stop to enquire whether a rider needs help with their bike & I always carry both types of inner tube just in case. I had a puncture on my HT about a mile from home on my commute a few years back. I couldn’t be @rsed to stop & fix it seeing as I was almost home so started to walk. A chap with a Mazda Bingo-bongo van stopped & gave me lift to my door. Top bloke & he was a roadie 🙂

I always stop, although I’m sure when I stop for a lass they think I’m just trying to chat them up, not a single one has ever accepted help. The blokes usually do.

Anyway, it makes you believe in karma. I’ve always been happy to give people a spare tube, others have always done the same for me.

One time I had to walk half the length of Lcoh Ness (along the parallel road, not on the water), bike on shoulder, clearly taco-ed rear wheel, not a single offer of help from the hundreds of motorists that passed me.

I’d have stopped on the basis that karma’s always a good thing to have BUT you can’t really blame cyclists for not stopping, particularly in that weather, when you failed to prepare properly…

Every single time I stop to help someone, something bad happens to me later on. *every* single time.

Should I carry on helping people or not? I’ve snapped frames after helping people, is that fair?

always stop and only needed help once[pump broke]. Helped strangers in 3 out of the last 6 rides with pump/puncture issues.

I always offer to help. There’s something about being on the bike that makes me much more laid back and friendly. Off the bike I probably wouldn’t give anyone in (non life-threatening) trouble a second look!!

I doubt I would give anyone my spare tube or last CO2 cartridge though if they just hadn’t bothered to equip themselves properly.

I stopped to help a roadie out a month or two ago. I was riding my Inbred on the road & he appeared to be having some difficulty with his bike; the back wheel was off and he was clearly struggling with it.

Turned out he had a puncture, had replaced the tube but couldn’t work out how to get the wheel back into the drop-out past the rear mech…..bit of an odd one, really.
I don’t think it helped that he was doing it without turning the bike upside down. I suggested it to him, but he refused; I think he didn’t want to get his white bar tape & saddle dirty.
Anyway, he held the bike while i put the wheel back in, tightened it for him and scooted off. I expected him to come flying past a mile or two up the road, but never saw him again.

I thought I had prepared but fate was against me 🙁

Biked in today and have a brand new tube, I have my other pump in my bag, mobile is charged and now carry my emergency waterproof one always, spare chain links and puncture repair kit 🙂

Edit: Crispy – no was on road bike – those pads are for test purposes 😉

Yep, I always proffer at least a “You alright … need a hand?” if I see someone fettling or walking (avec bike).

Managed to fix a fit bird’s drive train a couple of years back – didn’t get an invite to the party she was cycling too though 🙁

Coming back from Holmbury one afternoon I spied a roadie with a saddle hanging off as one of the rails had gone. He was standing up to pedal. I stopped and asked him if he needed a lift, told me that he was only going back as far as Putney and that he’d be fine.

That’s around 25 miles standing all the way – Hardcore. 😯

I’ll slow down and ask if they’re OK or need any help if I see a cyclist (road/mountain/bmx/whatever – we’re all cyclists ffs) faffing at the roadside when I’m cycling. In a car it’s a bit awkward – I probably wouldn’t stop unless the person looks really in trouble – a car slowing down and winding down the window often freaks people out. Last weekend I was in a car behind somebody on a bike with open pannier straps flapping scarily close to the back wheel – decided to let him know, so as I passed I shouted and gestured to him – after he’d realised I wasn’t abusing him he was quite greatful, but it was a strange few seconds.

Some people deserve to get stuck though… I offered help to a bloke out on the moor some time ago – turned out he’d got a puncture but had no spare tube or working pump. It was a massive cut in the tube, obviously from running the tyre way too soft for the rocky track. I didn’t have a tube the right size on me, so I tied a knot in his old tube to cut off the split bit. Bit lumpy, but it works as a get you home bodge – but as he was in the middle of a day ride I offered to let him have a tube if he followed me home a couple of miles away (the way he was going anyway). The muppet refused to put a decent amount of air in the tyre (“that’s how I always have it”) and got about a mile before he sliced the tube again. In the end his mate followed me home to get the tube and went back to join him – wonder if that one lasted the rest of the ride? 🙄 Grr.

But yes, I do try to help other cyclists, and hope the same would be true if the situation was reversed.

Rob

Always try to help if I’m on the bike and been helped in return when it’s gone t*ts up for me.

Never seen anyone in trouble when I’m in the car, well not yet.

Common courtesy to ask if you can help, but courtesy seems to be in short supply, I blame the recession/ the government/ parents/ nothing to do with insular miserable individuals obviously 🙄

I always stop/ask, MTBr’s & Roadies, we’re all the same really i’ve given a couple of tubes away, helped a roadie put a snapped chain back together, although i am a beliver in Karma it doesn;t always work. A few years a go on the real Ale wobble, at the half way point i managed to snap my chain and had no chain remover D’Oh, luckily managed to snap the chain right by a marshall’s spot lo-and behold he didn’t have any tools and refused to give me a lift, then a group of bikers come up the track one of whom kindly stops with his chain tool, puts his bike down to help me, at which point this ‘tool’ of a marshall drives his landrover right over the top of the guys front wheel – none of us could belive it

to be fair, the fact you’ve got a flat tyre isn’t going to be obvious to someone in a car. moving too fast and aren’t going to be looking too closely.
I did once stop to help a guy whose chain had snapped and he refused the offer of a powerlink (“don’t know how to use them mate”), instead proceeding to keep me waiting for 15 minutes while he painstakingly drove the pin back in.
(i now regret not asking “wanna learn?”)

I’ve also been completely blanked by people I’ve stopped (well at least slowed) to ask if they need any help, as if they take it as an insult to their self-sufficiency abilities.

These incidents plus the fact that they could be any nutter or a bandit makes me slightly skeptical of stopping, still do at least slow down though and ask.

Ripped a tyre last year out on road ride. Couldn’t sort it so limped home shredding the rear tyre. Stopped to help a van driver push his van out of a muddy field entrance (he’s tried to do a three point turn and trapped the front wheels). Did a cheeky “are you going my way, as bike knackered?” afterwards to no avail. 5 mins later he passed me without a wave or an offer.

Wouldn’t stop me helping again, or in a cyclists case just checking if they’re okay (my car permanently has a pump and toolkit/patches in it for some reason).

The other thing that annoys me is the ones that when you slow down to ask, start a long monologue: “well, I think I should be ok, but I have got a bit of a problem with…”
I’ve gone by then!
A simple “Fine thanks!” or “No!” will suffice!