I dont understand some cyclist

[rydabent]

What 'parts' do you carry?

An idler pulley that some say breaks now and then. Be prepared.

 

[rydabent]

I cant tell you how many times I have stopped to help riders that have a problem, and no patch kits, tubes, tools, or pumps. Strangely one tool that I carry is a 6" crescent wrench, and it is the tool that it seems that I have used the most to help other riders. I sometimes think that the riders that carry nothing to get them going again, think that someone like me will always come along and help.

 

[blackrat]

I cant tell you how many times I have stopped to help riders that have a problem, and no patch kits, tubes, tools, or pumps. Strangely one tool that I carry is a 6" crescent wrench, and it is the tool that it seems that I have used the most to help other riders. I sometimes think that the riders that carry nothing to get them going again, think that someone like me will always come along and help.

If I do nothing else in this world but help others, I will deem it a life well lived. One of the greatest and most meaningful accolades others can say of us when we die is that he was one of the good guys.

 

[mickle]

I assembled the mother of all tool kits to go with my mother of all touring bikes that i put together over the last few years (and might now actually be considered "finished"). It fits in a canvas tool roll and includes an Allen key nest, Swiss Army knife, Gerber knife with bit driver, Gerber Dime mini tool with pliers, mini tyre levers, Brooks spanner, Giant ratchet/8mm socket, chain rivet extractor, a patch repair kit suitable for my plastic inner tubes, plus a spare tube, mini pump and assorted spare bolts, chain links etc. I have spare spokes and a spoke key. The bike has self-extracting crank bolts and i even have a cassette lockring removal tool. So i could, if i so desired, (with the exception of the bb) completely disassemble the whole bike and put it back together again. In a field.

But the thing is, in all my 60 years of cycling I've only ever broken one spoke, never broken a chain and I've not had a puncture for over a decade. My bikes simply don't break down. This is possibly to do with the fact that i derive as much pleasure from fettling my bikes as i do riding them, so they never get a chance to deteriorate to the point where they might fail. Also, i have several bikes so any mileage is shared between them.

Perhaps the mere presence of a comprehensive tool kit is enough juju to keep breakdowns at bay.

I long ago sold my soul to the Puncture Faery.

 

[PaulSB]

As we're talking about risk assessment, I will not stop to help a female cyclist on her own, and I'd hesitate to offer help to a group. My male colleagues in social care operate in the same way. All it takes is one comment about "he made me feel unsafe" and everything I've built for the last decades could potentially be destroyed in a few hours.

I fully understand and share your concerns. The safeguarding policy at my club stated there should be two other people present if a female was in need of help. Whether anyone applied that or not I don’t know. I've ridden solo with female riders on more ocassions than I could count. How does that work?

I'm involved with our local u3a. From time to time this requires me give some of our female members IT support. Our safeguarding policy is strictly enforced and I can only do this if two people are present or the member comes to my home and my wife is in the house.

The whole issue was brought home to me 25+ years ago. My son was on a one day sailing course on a local reservoir. A young girl of 12/13 fell in. She didn’t want to continue and was left to sit with me on the jetty. After a while she got very cold and was very distressed. I gave her a hug, asked if she'd like to get changed and when she said yes I took her back to the changing rooms..........completely out of sight of the reservoir.

When I got home my wife was chatting with a good friend and neighbour, a social worker. I told them the story. Both were horrified at the danger I had put myself in. Until that point I thought I'd done no more than the natural reaction of a parent to a distressed child.

My PT is a woman. I'm alone with her for an hour in a small gym. I ride solo with women. I go out for coffee with female friends.

It's a difficult world to navigate......

 

[blackrat]

"It's a difficult world to navigate.."
Yes it is, but not one we should be afraid to navigate, for to do otherwise we disenfranchise the vast majority of the female population who do not buy into the notion that all men a bastards.

 

[presta]

I was driving today and saw several cyclists, dressed in all black!

Can you spot these:

 

[Yellow Saddle]

And there it pops up in cycling. The dark side of fourth-wave feminism.

 

[Andy in Germany]

"It's a difficult world to navigate.."
Yes it is, but not one we should be afraid to navigate, for to do otherwise we disenfranchise the vast majority of the female population who do not buy into the notion that all men a bastards.

Unfortunately, the risk assessment is too high in my case: I have a family to look after, and it only takes one accusation and I could lose my job, and reputation, and maybe my licence.

As one colleague said: "It's all women until it's no women." So I'll keep on riding...

 

[mickle]

"It's a difficult world to navigate.."
Yes it is, but not one we should be afraid to navigate, for to do otherwise we disenfranchise the vast majority of the female population who do not buy into the notion that all men a bastards.

No, but the vast majority of bastards are men. And they're not easy to distinguish from non bastards just by looking at them.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I fully understand and share your concerns. The safeguarding policy at my club stated there should be two other people present if a female was in need of help. Whether anyone applied that or not I don’t know. I've ridden solo with female riders on more ocassions than I could count. How does that work?

I'm involved with our local u3a. From time to time this requires me give some of our female members IT support. Our safeguarding policy is strictly enforced and I can only do this if two people are present or the member comes to my home and my wife is in the house.

The whole issue was brought home to me 25+ years ago. My son was on a one day sailing course on a local reservoir. A young girl of 12/13 fell in. She didn’t want to continue and was left to sit with me on the jetty. After a while she got very cold and was very distressed. I gave her a hug, asked if she'd like to get changed and when she said yes I took her back to the changing rooms..........completely out of sight of the reservoir.

When I got home my wife was chatting with a good friend and neighbour, a social worker. I told them the story. Both were horrified at the danger I had put myself in. Until that point I thought I'd done no more than the natural reaction of a parent to a distressed child.

My PT is a woman. I'm alone with her for an hour in a small gym. I ride solo with women. I go out for coffee with female friends.

It's a difficult world to navigate......

When I read that, I probably reacted the same way as your friend. Sadly, while you're right, and it is a natural reaction, it is a very dangerous situation, and in practice, we are guilty until proven innocent.

My male colleague and good friend who runs a kindergarten told me he is always aware of these risks. He introduced an emergency protocol where he worked in case of any slightly dangerous situation, which he's used more than once. Was it strictly necessary? Maybe, maybe not, but we don't want to find out.

I always hold private discussions with clients outside, in line of sight of colleagues, or in public areas; never in a private office. I was recently criticised for this, but as I pointed out, even with a glass door that's too much of a risk: if a female client doesn't like something I said, she can make any claim she wants afterwards.

 

[Andy in Germany]

No, but the vast majority of bastards are men. And they're not easy to distinguish from non bastards just by looking at them.

Statistically, that's not as cut and dried as people think.

Either way a woman with a punctured tyre on the road is highly unlikely to come across one of these b*stards. Most violence comes from relatives and acquaintances, and the actual breakdown is fairly unclear, but the generally accepted figure at the moment in social care, is a bit less than 6 : 4 male : female perpetrators.

Certainly in Germany, more men are victims of violent crime than women, so I should be more scared if I'm approached by helpful cyclists.

 

[wiggydiggy]

There was a post on here I read about a group rider that carried nothing, always relying on others. I think it ended up with them having an issue one too many times, having nothing at all to assist with the repair and they were left behind.

Years ago a remember on a days adventure with some mates, one of them broke the pedal crank on their bike. We clubbed together their train fair home as naturally as teenagers we had nothing at all, let alone a spare crank and the tools to replace it.

I think riding alone, you take the risk upon yourself if you don't take tools. In a group ride at least carry something to contribute!

 

[blackrat]

No, but the vast majority of bastards are men. And they're not easy to distinguish from non bastards just by looking at them.

If I was a pretty young woman I would very likely agree, not necessarily because men have demonstrated to me personally that they are but because I might assume they are. Literature is full of references of men standing over a woman to look down her front, or sitting opposite a woman leering at her legs. Men are historic predators and it is years of civilised behaviour that has weened most of us of that tendency. If I was a woman I would think very differently and would very likely be wary. I wish it were otherwise. Maybe in another hundred thousand years we might have that aspect of male on female sexual violence eliminated - but probably not.

 

[mickle]

Statistically, that's not as cut and dried as people think.

Either way a woman with a punctured tyre on the road is highly unlikely to come across one of these b*stards. Most violence comes from relatives and acquaintances, and the actual breakdown is fairly unclear, but the generally accepted figure at the moment in social care, is a bit less than 6 : 4 male : female perpetrators.

Certainly in Germany, more men are victims of violent crime than women, so I should be more scared if I'm approached by helpful cyclists.

In the UK men are responsible for 95+% of all violence and sexual assaults. Women comprise 88% of the victims of these crimes.