Stopping to help people with punctures

[jonny jeez]

I know we've done the thread about whether you stop when you see people at the side of the road with mechanicals, and pretty much everyone says "yes" and some people say "even when I'm in the car", so I was quite worried this morning when I punctured on a busy path through a park on the way to work. I have all the stuff I need to fix the puncture and I know what I'm doing, what if someone offers help and I can't think of something for them to do and then they feel rejected and go off in a huff and spoil all their coworkers days? That would be awful. So imagine how relieved I was when of the 200ish [*] cyclists who passed me while I was standing there in the rain, not a single one stopped or called out or anything. Social catastrophe averted!


[*] there was probably about one every ten seconds and I must have been there for 20 minutes if not longer. Cold wet hands and cold wet tyres don't make it easy to get the tyre off.

Phew, that was a close one

 

[mjr]

I stopped to give a spare (patched) tube to a chap doing the push of shame - he'd tried to use one of the cans of goo.

To be fair, I've not tried the stuff myself, nor needed to help folk it worked just fine for - but it increased my existing scepticism

Oh sure, I still carry tools, patches and a spare tube. They can go wrong in some VERY messy ways, but they usually work and it's worth a shot when it's cold, wet and/or dark, or you're in a rush.

 

[CUBE CRD]

I always stop and ask if any help is needed.

Me too - I'd rather know someone was able to manage than wonder later on if they were still stuck at the roadside

 

[fossyant]

We get lots of punctures on the Fallowfield Loop. I usually slow and ask them if they have everything. Most have, although one chap insisted on carrying on pushing. Only 4 miles to work at this point !

Even stopped to help one chap off the deck having lost control.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I always stop and check if they need any help, only once had one person say they could do with some help, was a young lad who had nothing with him and had no idea what to do, so I put one of my spare tubes in for him and got him on his way.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Thanks @Dan B , I'd always thought of my lonesome commute as a bad thing, I can see now that I'm just saving someone from the upset of a spurned offer of help

 

[Aunty Tyke]

I'd stopped to,pick dandelion leaves for my tortoises,and a kind driver asked if I was ok. Sounds like they were in a hurry and selfish

 

[Maylian]

I tend to check when I see them if I can see any obvious flats / mechanicals, sometimes people I stop and ask are just walking it up a hill because they're tired. I stopped for a puncture about two weeks ago for a MTB rider, all I could offer was a CO2 but more often than not I think it is just polite and reinforces that "bond" cyclists have for one another.

 

[mustang1]

Well I always stop and point my video camera at them. That really puts them on edge, especially when I keep looking at my stop watching.

Kidding aside, I typically won't stop on the way to work, but sometimes stop on the way back. If I'm on a w weekend ride, then I stop most of the time.

If I'm assisting, then I mount the camera onto a small tripod.

 

[sbeqs]

I ask if they look approachable, how do I know it's not a ruse to get free skabs and the £1.27 I have in my purse...?