Times you've been helped by a stranger.

[Crackle]

Actually there are many times, I've always found people to be extremely helpful. Back in the 80's when I had duff cars that broke down, I often used to knock on peoples doors and borrow tools off them. I never got refused, I've borrowed pliers, jacks and wheel braces. My BiL used to regularly run out of petrol, he used to hop out, grab the can out of the back, shout, back in a minute, stick out his thumb and get a lift to a garage. Often the same people brought him back!

Once I had a misfiring Morris Traveller and me and a mate we're under the bonnet in the rain trying to work out if the pump was duff or the carb was blocking when a bloke walked up asked us what the matter was, we explained, he grabbed a wire from his car and ran it from the dizzy to the battery direct, saying we had a duff electrical connection, said goodbye and jumped in his car with his wife and kids. It was a while before I fixed that. I started and finished every journey under the bonnet for a few months.

What about you?

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

This very morning as it happens. Myself and two friends had set out on a bike ride, but before we'd gone many miles one of them came to grief and had to be taken off to hospital in an ambulance, accompanied by the other friend . Without being asked, the proprietor of a nearby garage/workshop went and got his van and cheerfully gave me and three bicycles a lift home.

Yikes - hope your pal is OK.

Nice garage man tho' but

 

[ColinJ]

It has usually been me helping other riders, but one fellow cyclist took a piece of glass out of a punctured tyre for me. That was when I realised that I needed to start carrying a pair of reading glasses with me because I couldn't see what I was doing close up without them.

When I first visited Yorkshire there was a monumental cock-up in arrangements which left me wandering about in the dark 1,000 ft up 'on the tops'. It was November and it was cold. A local resident stopped his car and asked if I were ok. He offered me a bed for the night but I turned it down. Still, it was very nice of him!

 

[Haitch]

This very morning as it happens. Myself and two friends had set out on a bike ride, but before we'd gone many miles one of them came to grief and had to be taken off to hospital in an ambulance, accompanied by the other friend . Without being asked, the proprietor of a nearby garage/workshop went and got his van and cheerfully gave me and three bicycles a lift home.

Strewth! Hope it all turns out well.

 

[rugby bloke]

Last month when I had a puncture. Changed the inner tube only to find that the replacement has a short valve, which would not work with my mini pump. A passing cyclist stopped and with a bit of fiddling we managed to get his pump to work enough to get sufficient air in the tyre for me to get home. Would have been a long walk home without his help.

 

[Dave 123]

Cycling in Holland last year. We stopped at a bar in Harlem and the boss lady brought us our drinks.
She asked if we were going to Amsterdam, when we said yes she gave us free tickets for one of the canal tours.

Ordinarily I wouldn't pay for this kind of thing, but we enjoyed ourselves.

 

[Sharky]

Jan 2nd, fall on black ice. Couldn't stand up and two lovely young ladies who happened to be carers as well. shoulder lifted me into their car and brought me & bike back home.

 

[jefmcg]

Duplicate thread!

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/thank-you-to-the-stranger-who.216771/

 

[BikeCurious]

I was out for a ride one Sunday and picked up a puncture. Not a problem I thought as I took my spare inner tube out of my back pocket, expertly changed the tube then set about pumping it up with my trusty CO2 inflator. I screwed the inflator onto the valve then went to screw the CO2 cartridge into the inflator. Foolishly I hadn't closed the valve on the inflator so as I pierced the cartridge the gas rushed out with such force it blew the inflator off the valve letting all the gas escape. I was then stuck by the side of the road with no means of pumping up the tyre. After spending a few minutes wondering if I should walk the 20 miles home or call a taxi two people approached on bikes and asked if I was alright! Luckily one of them had a pump with them and even pumped up my tyre for me. After that I went home, threw away the CO2 inflator and bought the exact same pump.

 

[PaulSB]

I've enjoyed help from strangers on many occasions. There are two cycling related ones which spring to mind.

Around 7-8 years ago I was knocked off my bike and taken to hospital for a checkup. Apart from bruising and broken bones in my hand I was OK. My wife collected me and when we got home my bike was in our backyard. To this day we don't know how that happened!!!

Two years ago I was touring in rural France. I probably hadn't seen a car for an hour. I stopped, lay the bike down on the verge and went in to the trees to pee. I noticed two horses in the field adjoining the small wooded area and stopped to watch them for a few moments.

Returning to the road three cars have stopped beside my bike and five people are searching for the missing cyclist!!! I've never been quite so embarrassed.

Hugely comforting to know people were concerned and extremely kind. Would that happen in the UK? I'm not sure.

 

[Sandra6]

A number of times relative strangers - as in people that knew me by sight as we lived near them but had never spoken to me, not actual complete strangers because that would be dangerous - have given me and the kids lifts in the rain, or when the bus hasn't turned up.
I think if I were a driver, that's the sort of thing I'd do.

 

[Globalti]

No, in the UK you'd have been searching for your missing bike.

 

[swee'pea99]

I've posted this before but it bears repetition I think...

Many moons ago a friend and I were riding in the Peloponnese mountains in Greece, and stayed overnight at a very cheap pension in a tiny village way up in the hills, so basic that it was unplumbed: your washing water came from a little metal tank that hung on the wall with a beer-keg type tap on the front.

Anyway, next morning we set off again and after maybe ten miles rode into a little village in the back of beyond, and as we rode up the main (only) street, people started coming out and flagging us down. They spoke no English and we had only a few words of Greek, but they got us to understand that we should wait, so we did. And about five minutes later a small car pulled up and a young man got out and proved to be the one man from miles around who could speak - albeit little and very halting - English. Anyway he started trying to tell us something, with the help of a lot of gestures, and I suddenly clutched at my sides and said to my friend: 'The money belt!' Sure enough. I'd left the belt, containing not only all our money and travellers cheques but passports, tickets, everything, back at the pension.

As the doctor - for that's who he was - drove us back to the pension, he said that the owner, not knowing which direction we'd gone in, had rung every village within a ten mile radius to tell them to look out for and stop a pair of young English numpties on bicycles.

We got to the pension, the man handed over the money belt, many smiles and thank yous, then the doctor drove us back to the village where our bikes were leaning against the wall where we'd left them (unlocked, needless to say - we'd had a brief debate, because if they'd gone we really were screwed, but had agreed that there's no way we're using a lock in front of these people), then we climbed on and rode away, good-byed with big smiles and waves from all the villagers.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Thought this might be well received.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL8A-b9XZaI

 

[Tin Pot]

Actually there are many times, I've always found people to be extremely helpful. Back in the 80's when I had duff cars that broke down, I often used to knock on peoples doors and borrow tools off them. I never got refused, I've borrowed pliers, jacks and wheel braces. My BiL used to regularly run out of petrol, he used to hop out, grab the can out of the back, shout, back in a minute, stick out his thumb and get a lift to a garage. Often the same people brought him back!

Once I had a misfiring Morris Traveller and me and a mate we're under the bonnet in the rain trying to work out if the pump was duff or the carb was blocking when a bloke walked up asked us what the matter was, we explained, he grabbed a wire from his car and ran it from the dizzy to the battery direct, saying we had a duff electrical connection, said goodbye and jumped in his car with his wife and kids. It was a while before I fixed that. I started and finished every journey under the bonnet for a few months.

What about you?

Countless - people are always helping me out. I try to offer the same.