Couldnt mend their own puncture

[MisterStan]

Commuting in some time ago, I happened upon a lady pushing her bike. Stopped and asked if she was ok, she had a punture. She didn't have a tube with her, so I gave her one from my saddlebag, she looked blankly at me! I ended up changing the tube for her as she had no kit at all and no idea. Talking to her, she told me she was commuting about 15 miles to the hospital. She was a brain surgeon! I got to work a little later than planned, but feeling smug, outwitting a brain surgeon!

 

[DRHysted]

Always do for others, and let others do for you.

Everyone (and I do mean everyone) has to learn some when.

 

[yello]

Of the 4 or 5 people I have offered help to this year, all have been on steelies.

Thank you. I was beginning to think only carbon framed bikes punctured!

 

[BigAl68]

I always stop and offer help, tubes or as the OP did change it for them. Changed a tube for a guy on a 4 grand bike last year, he was trying to fix a tube without taking the wheel off. He didn't understand it had QR...

 

[busman]

Not the same sort of thing but whilst out on a ride last week I had to stop and take a phone call.
As I was hunched over the handlebars with my finger in my ear so I could hear, a fellow cyclist stopped to see if I was alright. I thanked the gentleman for stopping but I was on the phone.
After finishing my call I caught up with him and again thanked him.

 

[screenman]

So with all this talk about carbon and medium priced bikes, could somebody tell us at what price you should know how to fix a puncture. I must say at this point that all 3 of my boys never asked me after they were 10 years old to fix a puncture for them, so I blame the parents.

 

[ufkacbln]

A cautionary tale?

 

[Drago]

Thing is, the poor bloke in the OP didn't learn a thing. All he got was a free tube change.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Thing is, the poor bloke in the OP didn't learn a thing. All he got was a free tube change.

I think....he knew perfectly well how to do it but didn't want to get his hands dirty. Perhaps he had on white shorts and thus nowhere to wipe his hands.

 

[Rupie]

We are all after some sort of time, whether you call it a race or not.
I stopped because it's polite to do so, if it had been a mechanical repair, for example after an accident then fine but he knew so little he had pumped up the new inner tube before removing the flat wheel from the bike ! That's totally wrong.

 

[byegad]

I though that all roadies did that


Save weight by not carrying a kit, then....

Wave down a passing tourist or commuter and use theirs.

I've been flagged down by Road Warriors in full team kit, (They'd obviously lost their Team Car!) and by an MTB er of a decent looking bike who hadn't got a pump with him!

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I think these things start off a bit differently to what you propose and the OP's grudge isn't evil. One usually stops to see if someone needs help with helping themselves. For instance, if his glue had dried, I'll pass him some. If he has already punctured twice today and has no more spare tubes or patches, I'll stop and help him. But if I stop and find out that a complete idiot has just done the equivalent of a Lotto millionaire buying a yacht and sailing off into the Atlantic and then calling the coast guard to help him light his gas stove, I'll also be fussed.

Similarly, I stopped on the commute home (where I'm not so much looking for a time as desperate to get home and not be 'coming home from work' anymore) to find the guy had so little mechanical sympathy he'd ridden his punctured MTB BSO until it had pulled the inner tube from the tyre, wrapped it around his cassette and then snapped it in half. Having 'kind of offered help' I was too English to just tell him he'd farked it and used tools to remove the inner tube so the wheel would at least rotate rather than drag and cable tied the tyre to the rim so he might be able to push it home. I did then suggest he just throw it back in the skip it came from and hope there was something better in there to replace it with.

To be honest, it's experiences like that that make me wonder whether to risk stopping at all sometimes.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Similarly, I stopped on the commute home (where I'm not so much looking for a time as desperate to get home and not be 'coming home from work' anymore) to find the guy had so little mechanical sympathy he'd ridden his punctured MTB BSO until it had pulled the inner tube from the tyre, wrapped it around his cassette and then snapped it in half. Having 'kind of offered help' I was too English to just tell him he'd farked it and used tools to remove the inner tube so the wheel would at least rotate rather than drag and cable tied the tyre to the rim so he might be able to push it home. I did then suggest he just throw it back in the skip it came from and hope there was something better in there to replace it with.

To be honest, it's experiences like that that make me wonder whether to risk stopping at all sometimes.

Imagine being on a survival island with a man like that.

 

[screenman]

Team kit, road warriors, all the gear no idea and the list goes on, damned if I know where you lot ride but I see nothing like that around here. I just see cyclists enjoying the ride that may need a little help or advice at times. This evening on the Sustrans route I stopped to ask a guy who was on a steelie and was reading a map ( this guy even had a green Brookes saddle) if I could be of any help, he told me he was looking for a campsite and I managed to tell him of one just off the cycle route and only 5 miles away, this was not shown on the map.

Luckily for me the Garmin was on auto stop so did not interfere with the time i was not trying to set.

 

[winjim]

Inability to navigate is always worth a chuckle. On a charity ride a couple of years ago, the group I set off with got about a mile down the road before the two lads in the full team kit decided to give it the beans... in completely the wrong direction! We did shout after them but to no avail. I don't know how far they got before they realised they had to turn back. All the gear and no idea.

Although now I think about it, it's less navigation and more following arrows.