helping another cyclist?

I am currently ‘in credit’ with the ‘perfectly useable/repairable tubes found hanging from tree/post and taken home from trails’ versus ‘other folks tubes replaced or repaired’ balance.

My favourite was a dad who seemed to be holding out for his bike being irrepairable so he could stop being dragged up and down more hills by his lad. 😆

Mrs Julian is slim and pretty ( 8) ) and once had a passing policeman insisting he changed her tube despite her insisting she could quite easily do it herself. [edit] Is there an innuendo somewhere in there?

I always ask if help, have loaned tools and pump etc many a time.

However, the false offer really annoys me. I had a serious problem (pump failed) at the top of a hill once, EVERY person asked “are you OK” but not one stopped when I yelled back very loudly “NO I’M TOTALLY NOT OK CAN I BORROW YOUR PUMP PLEASE” they suddenly went deaf. This was a road race mind so perhaps roadies do the fake help offer thing.

Learn to fix the basic stuff, or just die your hair blond and strip to your bra top men are simple creatures.

Always ask and actually stop have helped a few and borrowed a pump off someone when mine broke during puncture repair

I usually check that they have a problem then hit them over the head and rob them 😉

Nah, I ask if they’re alright.

Yes I ALWAYS stop to make sure the person is OK & if they need any help fixing their bike. I carry both presta & schrader spare tubes, scram & KMC links, spare shimano pins, small bit of spare chain, etc …. no wonder my backpack is so blinkin heavy.

I’ve even stopped during an enduro race to lend someone my pump, not that I was ever going to be on the podium mind. I once had a mechanical when I was riding the Devon coast to coast. The chain jumped off & was stuck fast between the frame & granny ring and wouldn’t budge. I went into Southfork bike shop in Braunton & the guys whipped the chainset off to sort it out for me & wouldn’t charge me – top blokes & I was very grateful.

On another occasion I had a puncture on the commute home, as I was only about 1 mile from home & it was flattish I decided to walk the bike. A bloke stopped with his Mazda Bingo Bongo van & gave me a lift home – fantastic.

I believe in bike karma & if you help someone then someone will help you in return. Spread the biking love & never look the other way if someone needs help.

I always give a, “you ok, need anything or a hand” if its clear I’ll pull over and do it in the car aswell as on the bike too.

I ask but most of the time people are ok.

I really regret one time i saw someone fall off their bike while i was on my way back from a hard ride. I was shattered so not totally with it but i still slowed down to ask if she was ok, she said yes but promptly burst out crying but for some reason i cycled off thinking about drinking raspberry jam from the jar. It was only as i was putting my bike away when i was home that it registered that she had started crying despite saying yes. I have no reason why i did it, total brain fart and i keep hoping to see her again to apologise.

As above, ill always ask, even if they look like a competent group ride, if they have got everything to fix the prob.

But also as stated earlier, it ain’t reciprocal, i once snapped a chain at the top of the berms section at Lee quarry, i was fully kitted, quicklinks and chain tool on by crank brothers 19, so no danger of having to roll down to the car park, but one rider deliberately took a fair old short cut to avoid me and the upside-down bike sitting so obviously off the trail to the side…

I always stop and offer help. It’s all about Karma innit!

always stop to top up my karma levels and topped up others karma levels when they have stopped for me. everyone a winner

Always say ‘Hi’ as you pass other mtbers

Always ask if they’re alright if they’re not actually riding.

Does surprise me how many people don’t say hello back, or look at you as if you’re mad.

I don’t. They might say yes and that would be a problem because
i) I’m more likely to make things worse
ii) it wouldn’t be my bike so why would I want to stop
iii) I ride on my own almost all the time becuae I hate the stop/start/stop start element to group rides so stopping for a stranger isn’t going to occur
I’d stop everytime if the person was injured though.

Stop to help everytime, could be an easy fix. At the weekend there I was out doing a night run at GT and came across 4 young girls on supermarket specials and a bmx at the bottom of the spooky wood climb. They had no lights and didn’t know where they were (disorientated in amongst the fire roads) so I walked them back down to the hub. It was a pain in the arse yeah but who knows what would have happened otherwise!

Helped a few folk over the years and it still surprises me the range of knowledge and preparedness out there. No one’s going to carry a workshop stand and full Park toolkit but the lack of kit and basic mech skills in some people out in the middle of nowhere is quite scary. Conversely, some rucsacs contain an astonishing array of ironmongery ‘just in case’.

Last mechanical I helped with was a broken mech hanger. The chap involved didn’t seem to understand the concept of removing the rear mech, shortening the chain and finding a magic ratio to get him home. It was a group ride so we got him going again. Had he been riding alone, he would have had a 2 hour walk.

I always help, even if it’s normally just advice – “get off the **** trail”

Hels…road race with no support?

Sorry, I wouldn’t give a pump to someone in a race, apart from maybe a team mate.

Always. Everything from tube replacement to broken chain repair. I normally carry enough tools to fix anything within reason (including SPD cleats). Plus the obligatory zip ties and Duct tape.

I once stopped for a young lady with a puncture on Fulham Road. Invited her back to my house which was “around the corner” and taught her to change a tube and fix a puncture. Every cyclist should be able to change a tube. Other stuff might need assistance. But there is a skill required to mount tyres on rims.

Oh and my wife’s nickname for me is Bicycle Repair Man – I built her a bike from bits at college “to get to know her better”.

always help, it might be me 😉

Al – it wasn’t really a road race sorry more of a Sportif really (Fred Whitton – is that a race ?) although obviously I normally have a team car with my name on it driving around after me…

I have helped a few recently both on the road and off, the last being a guy who had gone over his handlebars after hitting deep mud. unfortunately he had damaged his seat and was struggling to ride back to his car, he looked absolutely knackard and was well pleased when I supplied him with cable ties and gaffa tape to make a temp repair.

Felt good knowing we had helped a fellow MTB’er 😀

I always ask although most of the time i’d not be able to help.

i’ll always offer help. stopped on the mega for someone who needed a five mm alan key. why the **** would you go into the mountains with out basic kit is beyond me.
also stopped on dirt merchant for a fella who had a ten inch, very deep gash (finger deep) on his leg, claret every where. surprised me how many people slowed, looked but offered no help. me and another guy held it together while waiting for the mountain ambulance to turn up.
i saw the fella with the gash in the bar the night after. asked how he was, he brought me a jug of beer. 😀

Im my experience when ever I’m stopped and someone comes by they have always asked if I’m OK and I always ask if a stationary rider is OK. During the FOD enduro did ask a lady rider if she was OK but could not help as she had broken rear mec so did not have spairs for this and there were 3 marshals with her as well so did not stop.
Fave time was when knackered down at Afan i stoped by another rider and he in panicked voice asked which way to go and how much further to go as he was in worse state than me, followed him back to carpark as only couple of hundred meters.

MTB riders are the most friently buch of people I have ever met.

I cant say I would stop and help !

I stopped at Dalby last year and tried to help a guy who had a puncture !

He was on a hire bike from the centre and didnt have any tools or spares, I offered up a patch which he gladly refused requesting a Tube instead !

In the end i rode off and left him as he said my patches were of no use as the werent Glueless !

Apparently patches and glue dont mix !

Sorry ! but once bitten !

I always ask if people on the side of the track need assistance, and in many cases stop.
Over the last couple of years alone I have handed out: –
10+ quick links
Numerous patches
a tube or 2
Brake pads (I always acrry a couple of worn but usable pads just in case).
Other things I have assisted with are: –
Fixing Rear mechs (sometime by unorthodox methods i.e. a rock!).
Setting up gears.
Set up forks.
Set up rear shox.
The list goes on!

I do this because
a) It’s good Karma
b) I may need help myself one day.
c) I like helping people 😀

Normal rules don’t apply down south. Stoped to help some kids with a split tube at Swinely, gave them my rather threadbare patchwork spare tube which promptly blew up.

You’d be amazed how many people rode past without asking.

Felt bad as I couldnt help them.

Even asked a group of bikers at the end of the trail if they had a spare tube to lend them, apparently not!

If you are female some people will insist on helping even if you’ve passed on their offer of help, in my experience anyway. I must look incompetent 😀

Even asked a group of bikers at the end of the trail if they had a spare tube to lend them, apparently not!

Handing out spare tubes is a bit more of a lottery. In a group of mates then yes, I have done before and equally I have accepted spare tubes from others.

On the other hand if I’m out on my own with only 1 spare tube I’m unlikely to give it away in case I puncture later. Will still give out patches or assist someone else in fixing their puncture though.

i don’t always say hello etc to other riders when passing but i do always stop check if riders are ok and have what they need when they appear to fixing a bike or having a mechanical. even if you’re not mechanically minded i think the offer of a loan of tools or a pump is always appreciated. i think we all should, isnt it just the right thing to do?

Seem to be the mountain biker code. I remember when i first started riding and couldn’t believe how friendly everyone was and always asking if fixing a puncture.

1st mayhem surprised me when I had to stop mid lap to take my coat off and loads of riders asking if i was okay and got the tools i need.

i have been in the embarrassing situation of having my co2 canister piss all over me but not inflate a tyre 😳 was very glad of the guy who lent me a pump.

have stopped for people several times. once met a guy who said he was ok; clearly embarrassed, cos he wasn’t. he had a flat but no tube/ no patches and didn’t know how to remove a wheel.

gave him a quick demo of how to do it, pumped up the tyre and then chatted to him on the next hill.

it’s always wise to remember whilst i know it all know, cough cough, once i was a inept monkey with no tube and no clue.

c) I like helping people

This +1.

I carry a Mountain Morph pump in my Camelbak, i’ve made plenty of friends on the trails who are struggling to inflate tyres with stupid minipumps.

Can I be the first to admit that I was helped out by a nice young lady?

Pump was knackered from water/mud ingress, and last CO2 can was used fixing the other puncture.. so I had a last tube but no way to fill it. As I pondered this, she stopped and not only lent me a pump, but insisted on getting it started 🙂

My house was around 1 mile away with a plentiful supply of track pumps but it would have been churlish to refuse!

I carry a Mountain Morph pump in my Camelbak, i’ve made plenty of friends on the trails who are struggling to inflate tyres with stupid minipumps
+1
once stopped and asked a girl with a puncture if she needed help and got ‘i know how to fix a effing puncture, don’t be so effing patronising cos I’m a girl’ so I went a bit further and stopped for a butty and 5 minutes later she sheepishly came over and said her pump didn’t work and could she borrow mine, which i did, and 5 minutes after that she came back and asked if i had some tyre levers, 😯
Now rightly or wrongly I’m a bit cautious about asking ladypeeps if they are ok, I just slow down a bit and say hello

Always ask, be it trail centre, natural trails or road. Never ride past.