How often do you need rescuing?

[cyberknight]

3 times in 12 years i think so not a bad average

 

[matticus]

I don't count my mileage, but it's over 10,000 miles lifetime.

I did once get the train - but I was only 5 miles from home, so I could have got home at a push. => 10,000-100,000 mile category vote.

(I also recognise that shoot CAN happen, and that might be tomorrow. Or hopefully somewhere like the Swiss Alps in August )

 

[fossyant]

Only ever once. Took a long route home from work and my rear rim exploded on a roundabout, at the furthest point from home, 10 miles.

Team car dispatched with 4 bike roof rack. Keys for said roof rack were at home on my keyring. Wife in car with two kids. Bike had to be stripped - fixed gear, so wheels off, mudguards off, rear rack off. Then it fitted in the boot !

 

[Andy in Germany]

Once as a teenager I passed out after stopping at traffic lights in very cold weather and had to be picked up by an ambulance.

I was apparently fine but my body temperature dropped very fast.

Since then I had to use a train once when I snapped a train on a borrowed bike, which is why I don't borrow bikes now. I generally over prepare these days as I don't know anyone locally who I can call on to pick me up. So far it's worked.

 

[fossyant]

I have excluded two ambulance collections though !

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Never. I did ride +/-5 miles to a railway station following a heart attack. Caught the train home. I reckon that's a self-supported rescue. Only time I've had to abandon a ride in my life.

I simply don't understand all this rescue stuff.

When I had my heart attack I was out near Norton Lindsey and I finished the ride, very slowly and with several stops but finished it.

 

[Cathryn]

Twice...once for a mechanical, once for a puncture (hangs head in shame). I got taxis both times (head hands lower). But out of thousands of bike trips? Not that often.

I DO think this is something we should bear in mind when cycling these days but it's not as big a deal as it's being made out to seem.

 

[Aravis]

The reason I've raised this issue from time to time during the pandemic is that we have temporarily lost a lot of options we would usually take for granted.

If you can't fix your bike with what you have with you, normally you can knock on someone's door, which ideally might help you find the local bike expert, or maybe just give you somewhere safe to leave your bike to be collected later. Trains are little help around here so public transport home to fetch my car would likely be by bus. But none of these things are covid-friendly, so the likelihood of needing to call home for help is greater than it would normally be.

The last time I remember needing to seek help this way was in 2017. It's happened a few times over the years. Twice, back in screw-on freewheel days, I remember having to find someone with a vice so that I could replace a spoke - successful with minimum fuss both times.

 

[palinurus]

Never for breaking bike, once for breaking bones.

 

[johnblack]

Twice, could've walked home, but the wife was about. Once when I bent a wheel in half and the other was a puncture, that I could be bothered to change as I was riding first thing and needed to get home so I could then go off to work.

I walked home with a broken knee, that hurt.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I don't remember ever being rescued in the 50 plus years I've been riding, apart from needing an ambulance twice, an off and a wasp sting. I'm not in a position to be able to be rescued, my Good Lady doesn't drive and the only family members and friends that have cars are likely to be at work under normal circumstances and unavailable.

 

[oldwheels]

Nobody to rescue me anyway.
Once on North Uist I was looking at a memorial for the Air Ambulance on a small mound. I slipped and landed on my back wheel and tacoed it. Got the wheel off and stood on it to straighten it out enough to be more or less straight and rode the rest of the way about 20 miles back to my van. Hung it back on the bike carrier and straightened it a bit more with a spoke key and it did the rest of my holiday.

 

[Pale Rider]

I had to (deliberately) 'rescue' my car using the bike.

It was my first group ride to York - about 85 miles - and there was some concern if a mob of us could all get on the train at York, there being only one, or at a push, two.

I took the car down to York the day before, parked it, and got the train home.

Thus when we set off the next morning, I knew I had to get to York somehow to retrieve my car.

 

[TheDoctor]

Let's see...
I broke my collarbone and totalled my bike in 1986.
I broke a valve and the pump and so had to call for rescue in about 1995 or so.
I had to wait in a pub with a beer and bar snacks. Don't all feel sorry for me!
Erm... That might be about it.

 

[BoldonLad]

I had to (deliberately) 'rescue' my car using the bike.

It was my first group ride to York - about 85 miles - and there was some concern if a mob of us could all get on the train at York, there being only one, or at a push, two.

I took the car down to York the day before, parked it, and got the train home.

Thus when we set off the next morning, I knew I had to get to York somehow to retrieve my car.

The most impressive bit of that story is, finding a parking place in York