what am I

Aptly named!

Aww I feel bad now 🙁

I’d help if asked but I’d ride past unless I was flagged down.

Usually ask if people are ok. Sometimes end up fixing other peoples bikes. Tend to reckon it is good karma. If I give someone a tube I do usually tell them it would be good if they do the same for someone else some day.

Less likely to stop if wet and cold.

But…….. I usually think that people should be prepared and independent – why should I carry kit to fix the bikes of people I have never met or indeed people on the same ride I am on.

To be fair. I was once part of a couple of hundred people who cycled past a pair of guys on road bikes who were asking for a spare inner tube by the side of the road. However:

1: it was about three miles into a Pedal for Scotlabd ride (Glasgow -Edinburgh) so it isn’t as if they had run out tubes.
2: they were on high spec bikes, looked like knobbers & should have known better. If you can shave your legs you can remember an inner tube.

Absolutely nobody stopped. But I think most people were thinking ‘ If I give my tube up now then I’m buggered if I get a puncture later.’

In the OP above, my instinct for being helpful would be tempered by the knowledge that there were three of them and for none of them to have a pump is pretty poor. I would probably have stopped however.
TBH I go riding with a large-ish group from time to time & there is only me and another guy who brings any tool/puncture stuff at all and I must admit it is beginning to bug me a bit. I’m all for personal responsibility. There is a difference between occasionally forgetting stuff & habitually not bringing it.

Always offer to help.
I was even fixing bikes during my walk around the coast.
Best moment was years ago when i gave a forign tourer a wheek as he’d worn his down, not only had he gone through his tyre, but he’d worn his whole rim (rear wheel)away 8O.
Hopefully the old wheel got him to his next destination/bike shop.

Not only are we all cyclists and need to help each other, we’re all of the same species and share the same land.

Be good to others and enjoy it when it comes back to you.

I will not give my tube away ( apart from to pals I am riding with) – but I do carry patches incase of a second puncture and have repaired a few tubes for people.

always slow down or stop and check the person or ppl have everything they need to fix – only takes a second and you know they’ll be forever grateful. I’ve been in a situation myself with multiple punctures a fair way from home. Fortunately a good samaritan stopped to help me out.

normally (but not always 😳 ) check others are OK and offer to help, definitley wouldn’t ride passed someone flagging me down.
Have given away a tube only to flat myself a couple of minutes later 🙁
I flatted and my pump failed on a commute once, stopped about 10 other cyclists before someone had one !
(now carry a spare micro pump)

I always stop and ask if its just one or two people or they seem to be in trouble etc. No problems with me giving my tube away as I always carry two spares plus patches and pump and CO2 canister, its hardly surprising that I am so slow 😆

Once when just out walking near my house I met a guy with a puncture and took him back to my place to fix his puncture for him. We chatted for a couple of hours, he had an interesting career, turned out he was now working for Evans!

This thread has let me identify who from here I’d be happy to ride with. Very useful.

I got a puncture on the Bristol to Bath last week on my commute, 4 people stopped to ask if they could help, which was nice and reaffirmed my believe in people are generally pretty nice given half a chance 😉

two decent if lower end mtb’s and one super market POS

I’d stop, laugh at their bikes, then ride off.

Surely that’s what we STWers are supposed to do?

This thread has let me identify who from here I’d be happy to ride with. Very useful.

So you’re one of them idiots who doesnt take any spares with you?

I doubt many would be happy to ride with you!

happy to help.

I gave some guy a tube up at ‘degla the other week……just after a fall. Talking of karma….they helped me back to the car park as I’d had an off and knackered my shoulder and at some points they were even pushing my bike!

Always help if its needed and I can

So you’re one of them idiots who doesnt take any spares with you?

I doubt many would be happy to ride with you!

Not for the first time I believe you may have got hold of the wrong end of the stick there. I believe pook was using the good Samaritan test to conjure up the twatfactor of STWers not the useful factor.

I believe from your post on page 1 you might have come up poorly on the twatometer 😥

nsynk that’s awesome would love to meet Nico he always seems such a nice chap when I’ve seen him on TV.

I stop and do what I can.

Not for the first time I believe you may have got hold of the wrong end of the stick there. I believe pook was using the good Samaritan test to conjure up the twatfactor of STWers not the useful factor.

I believe from your post on page 1 you might have come up poorly on the twatometer

I was only joking!

Although Ive decided I wouldnt want to ride with many of you lot, we’d be stopping every 5 minutes to help fix other peoples punctures.

Generally I always ask someone who looks like they have a mechnical whether they need any help, and to be fair most people do they same to me.
However on Saturday I was guilty of riding past someone who may have needed help. It was in Aston Court Bristol, on the side of the road going to the golf hut. The bloke had his bike upside down and when he saw me coming started to fiddle with his bike. As I got closer I realised it was a skip bike and the owner look a bit dodgy (crusty traveller type) and said alright mate as if he wanted something. It didn’t quite add up in my head and I thought it was the latest Bristol bike theft scam – I stop, offer help, whilst fixing bike he rides off on mine. So I rode on.
I felt guilty when I went back with mates to check him out to find he was signing people up for Sustrans. Then in all added up 😳

I, or someone in the group, always asks if people we go past are okay. They could have concussion or something! It only takes 2 seconds and a minor slowing down and everyone feels good afterwards.

mmhhmmm warm and fuzzy.

So you’re one of them idiots who doesnt take any spares with you?
I doubt many would be happy to ride with you!

I dunno. We broke our record on the last pootle with 36 out riding. I had enough spares on the day for myself and a couple of others too if they were unprepared. And a first aid kit, spare kit. You know, just in case.

A biker without a pump is a rambler in disguise

richc – Member
I got a puncture on the Bristol to Bath last week on my commute, 4 people stopped to ask if they could help, which was nice and reaffirmed my believe in people are generally pretty nice given half a chance

Which day? Near Bitton? I think one of them was me.

Although these days I normally only stop for attractive young ladies 😉

Let’s face it this thread peaked with the nico post! 8)

This is why “Alright!” ids the standard greeting when passing another rider, it’s a greeting, statement and question all rolled into one.

I’m just about out of patches, but I can’t think there are many on any of my tubes… (think it’s my mates using them rather than strangers.

If you ever get stuck, wave over anyone on a dawes, the seatpost cum pump setup they come with is super fun to use.

I’ve told this before but I once stopped for a girl & a boy on road bikes (mebbe 14 or 15yr old) the lads rear mech had disintigrated & was a right mess, I took the mech off, shortened the chain & single speeded him, but at least he was mobile.
What pi$$ed me off was that they were on a group ride with some adults who hadn’t a clue what had happened & had just kept going & these 2 were in the middle of nowhere with no tools! (or phone reception)

+1 uplink, had one of those mates, carried nothing, climbed for fun, put our foot down when he used to lean over and drink from our camelbaks. Helped out plenty of people over years off road, on road out walking , if someone looks like they might need help costs nothing to offer. Always a nice feeling seeing someone ride off on their bike after you found them pushing it.

Once in my life – during the Megaavalanche qualifier, cycled past a kid whp ahd a flat and no pump, felt bad about it for the day,

Outside of that, I’ve given away pumps, tubes, C02 cannisters, powerlinks and all sorts to complete strangers. Would never leave someone stranded. As it should be.

What’s the point of buying innertubes if not to distribute to our tubed brethren broken down at the side of the trail? Good to turn the tubes over now and again – they deteriorate sat in the bag for 3 years waiting for a tubeless puncture.

I always slow and say, “Hello” if it looks like help might be wanted.

I’ve been on the receiving end of being ignored before, so now I tend to carry a bit of everything ‘just in case’. The knock-on effect of this is that some of my mates now don’t really bother carrying stuff if they know I will 🙄

always ask if they need help – never look at the bikes tbh.
Only once have I needed help when my pump broke and i had to stop a roadie – i was on a MTB at the road- to borrow his pump. he had a pump the size of my palm – pocket rocket? after about 3 mins he asked for it back as he was getting cold I suggested pumping furiously would help warm him up – he just held out his hand for his pump. i said it was half inflated and unrideable he just shrugged. I gave him the pump and sat to eat my dinner waiting some MTB turned up and they had a track pump in their car 50 m away and offered me a spare tube – said it owuld not matter as i had no pump 😉
This is not a roadie rant i ride road as well and dont do the all roadies are miserable, however I assure you this one was.

Always stop and see whats up, or offer help. I have given away tubes, links, and even water. Its all about spreading the love in my book. Must have worked as i turned up for a ride once only to find Id left my shoes at home (nkob i know).
The guy at FOD cycle center who had just turned up lent me his shoes. Health issues aside THATS KAMA BABY!!

My bestest help was when I bust a collar bone a couple of years ago dropping into Hayfield.

I accosted some poor sod in a van and begged him to drive me back round to my motah in Edale. He did and wouldn’t take anything for his trouble. I then had the delight of the 3 hr drive home in my very manual car.

Thanks chum, you are a star.

I slow down and check – I carry a pump because they never run out so are eejit proof (always thought that co2 cannisters seem faffy)

if they are struggling I would do what I could – lest one day I need someone to stop for me

I’d always stop.and offer help/tools/spare tube/chain link.

No point being a know it all preachy dick about it either; by the time you’re forced to rely on the kindness of strangers you probably already know you should have planned better I expect.

Doing the South Downs Way last year and a guy stops in front with a puncture. I ask whether he’d everything?

Have you any tyre levers, he asks?

No, says I.

I just wasn’t prepared to wait while he fixed his puncture as there were about 100 other riders following me, and a bus waiting 30 miles in front.

Why would you not bring tyre levers?

I’ve stopped plenty of times to help others. It’s just a nice thing to do.

Why would you not bring tyre levers?

because you dont need them if you know what ur doing!

Have no problem donating the occasional innertube in return for some good karma.

Can usually tell from a distance / the look on their faces whether they need any help or not.

Its paid me back plenty of times – the time my pump broke on the far side of the Marin trail one quiet evening, or when i forgot my pump doing the Mashup last year (cheers to Rich Cunningham and friends for their patience and help)

And i still owe Snakebite / Scruff (too long ago to remember which one) an innertube which was used for a sling when i separated my shoulder on the only ST ride I’ve been on.