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gambatte

Middle of the pack...
Location
S Yorks
Fab Foodie said:
All together now, Ohmmmmmmmmm

Theres a theological theory that if "om mne padme um" appears on a computer and thereby the hard drive (say by viewing a web page that includes it) it turns the hard drive into a prayer wheel, essentially transmitting good karma.....


:tongue::biggrin::biggrin:
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Cab said:
To be honest it wouldn't occur to me not to stop to help if I possibly could. There are a lot of cyclists here in Cambridge, and you see a lot of incidences of people simply coming off, a lot more than you see people working on punctures or roadside repairs. I'd say that I probably end up as first on the scene after a fall about once every two months; it isn't because I'm right up close to the accidents, its more that most other cyclists will ride straight past and not pay any attention. That really saddens me.

Thankfully, people being properly hurt and needing more than a few calming words and helping off the road with their bike is rare. Even so, its pathetic that people don't stop. And don't get me started on the BMW driver who stopped and sounded his horn at me and a bloke who had come off and got a gash in his forehead. Or the bunch of adults who pointed and laughed at a kid (12 or 13 or so) as he misjudged a mini-roundabout and fell off. I can take the not stopping to help far better than I can take such callousness.


Yes, in the case of someone being injured, of course you stop. But the OP is talking about having a puncture, and no decent tyre lever, not a fall. I don't see that there is any moral compunction to stop and help them, any more than stop to see if someone in a broken down car needed help or a lost tourist needed directions, and I wouldn't expect anyone to do the same for me. If I judged it to be safe for me, I might well offer help, but as a fellow human being, not through any cyclist's fellowship...
 

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
Arch said:
Yes, in the case of someone being injured, of course you stop. But the OP is talking about having a puncture, and no decent tyre lever, not a fall. I don't see that there is any moral compunction to stop and help them, any more than stop to see if someone in a broken down car needed help or a lost tourist needed directions, and I wouldn't expect anyone to do the same for me. If I judged it to be safe for me, I might well offer help, but as a fellow human being, not through any cyclist's fellowship...

No, it isn't about this idea that we're all in it together as cyclists, but if I could do so I'd stop and help another person in difficulty; if I've got the tools and someone is struggling to get a tyre off then I'll stop and help, or if someone has come off the bike I'll make sure they're okay. I know, the two aren't quite the same, the potential injury is more serious, but the principle isn't that different.
 

gambatte

Middle of the pack...
Location
S Yorks
For me there is some sort of 'fellowship'. In the car I don't feel any such link to other car drivers. However, on the bike, other cyclists do tend to get a nod and maybe a 'hello'. Used to be there was the same sort of fellowship with motorbikes.

I'll stop for others, possibly because I'd like to think others would do so for me.
 

domtyler

Über Member
gambatte said:
For me there is some sort of 'fellowship'. In the car I don't feel any such link to other car drivers. However, on the bike, other cyclists do tend to get a nod and maybe a 'hello'. Used to be there was the same sort of fellowship with motorbikes.

I'll stop for others, possibly because I'd like to think others would do so for me.

Things are a little in London though I guess, I see people at the side of the roads with their bikes all the time, some are obviously fixing punctures, sometimes it's not obvious what they are doing. If I stopped for every one of them I'd never make it into work.
 

Amanda P

Legendary Member
I was just setting off to go to York one weekend last June. There was a steady parade of cyclists coming up the hill towards me - it was the weekend of the CTC rally and this was a challenge ride route.

Just outside the village was a guy fiddling with his rear tyre. I asked if he was OK. He asked if I had a pump; I had. Turned out he'd used all his CO2 cartridges up, but kept finding more punctures. I didn't have a tube to fit his skinny rims, though. By the time he'd fixed the punctures and pumped his tyre back up, he'd decided to abandon the ride and head back to York.

But hey, he was riding, not walking.

A little further down the hill was another guy standing by an upside down bike. Did he need any help? Yes - his rim had split. Now, funnily enough, I had a wheel in my trailer (on its way to York Bike Rescue...) - but it was a wobbly 27", and the guy had a mate on his way with a car.

Next year, I'm thinking of lurking on the same route with a trailer full of spares and a colllection box for my favourite Charidee.

I've had my share of folk offering to help, usually when I didn't need it, and whizzing blithely by, looking studiously the other way when I did.

It never hurts to ask if someone wants a hand.
 

Wobbles

Senior Member
Gazzaput........I for one would have asked if you needed a hand. Peckham's not the best place to be strandedxx(

Who, hand on heart can say they've never forgotten to pack something vital in their saddle bag/rucksack?.....fgs, it's human nature.

I've always thought it common courtesy to offer a hand to a fellow cyclist. Perhaps some people believe things have changed in this 'screw the rest' generation.........maybe they're just being holier-than-thou.
Let Karma sort 'em out.
 

bonj2

Guest
it' fairly often I see a person pushing a bike, when I do i slow down and have a quick glance at the tyres, if they're down I'd stop but can't remember that ever having happened, if they're pumped up they obviously haven't got a puncture. If i saw someone obviously trying to mend a puncture i'd stop.

However, if I was riding my MTB and saw a roadie with a puncture, or the other way round, then I personally would probably still stop all the same, but not sure how much i would be able to do if my tubes aren't compatible with the stricken cyclist's bike, perhaps this could be the reason people dont' stop?

Also motorists bandy urban myths about like 'don't stop for a hitchhiker or someone apparently broken down, they could be a mugger/carjacker/nutter', but the same doesn't apply to bikes?

I did once have a puncture on a country lane in the dark and a car driver passed me and then turned round and pulled up alongside, to ask if there was anything he could do to help. I'd just finished fixing it but appreciated the kindness all the same.

biking_fox said:
"I have often wondered if an 'on call' basic repair/sweeper van could be a viable business option in London."

There used to be one in Guildford. Best idea ever. You phoned up, he turned up, fixed most stuff there and then. I never had to use him for roadside repairs, but pushing a broken bike to the bikeshop x miles away was a nightmare, that I no longer suffered.

If it worked in Guildford, I'm sure it would in London, and any city with a decent cycling population.

Maybe the council could/should do it, as an encouragement to get people cycling? It would put paid to the excuse that a lot of people have for 'oh but i wouldn't know what to do if my bike went wrong'.
 

flycatcher

New Member
Location
Manchester
Nice story bonj. I went for a ride down a canal last month a got a puncture, got the tube changed but my mini pump did not want to play which is an old thing I keep on that bike. Anyway two people offered to help, first when I thought I was OK and the second pumped it up for me.

Bit later in the month getting some cash from a till a young bloke in a car was struggling to push start it on his own. I gave him a shove and got him going. The kid was a bit chavish looking, you know the type, but he was really appreciative and might just give me a bit more room next time he burns past me!
 

tdr1nka

Taking the biscuit
So the sweeper van idea doesn't seem like such bad thinking then?
There are so many unmaintained cycles out there and to be fair to newbies they have some excuse for not knowing how to fix or maintain their bikes.
I think you have to have loved and loathed a couple of bikes before you find if you're bitten by the fettling bug or just happy to take it to the LBS and 'let them do it'.
Dunno how many times I pushed my bicycle home in a grump before they had to invent glueless patches for me!

I do also stop and assist motorists, even if only to help push them to the side of the road. I have a working knowledge of cars and once helped a lady, her throttle return spring having snapped and she had no accelerator.
A quick hunt in the gutter for the ubiquitous red post office rubber band, which I used to replace the spring and she was on her way in minutes.

NB: This sort of temporary repair is known in my house as a 'Ghetto Fix'.

T x
 
Arch's point is a god one....

We had an elderly couple break down at a junction.......

The motorists simply sounded horns and shouted verbal abuse as they filed past - it was three cyclists who helped and pushed the car free of the junction into a layby!


[sanctimonious + sad] Actually I would go further... I have checked all the main repairs on my bikes, and each one has a small "accessory kit" that contains an appropriate spare tube, an appropriate lever(s) and and particular parts or tools - I have also done a dry run on most common repairs. I don't want to experisnce the above!
[/sanctimonious + sad]
 
Cunobelin said:
[sanctimonious + sad] Actually I would go further... I have checked all the main repairs on my bikes, and each one has a small "accessory kit" that contains an appropriate spare tube, an appropriate lever(s) and and particular parts or tools - I have also done a dry run on most common repairs. I don't want to experisnce the above!
[/sanctimonious + sad]

I recognise that ... I've repaired everything from a puncture to a snapped chain at the roadside. The only one that defeated me was when my fork crown broke inside the head tube and I had to push the bike home. But, short of carrying spare forks everywhere, or welding kit, I can't see how you'd deal with that. Unless you're Eugene Christophe.
 
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