What a super chap!

[Ian A]

I'm fairly sure it was on here, but I read a story about a cyclist who had been the recipient of a fellow cyclists good turn, possibly an inner tube and help with a puncture.

The tube donor would accept nothing, he just asked the guy to pay it back by helping the next person he saw in need of help and to make the same suggestion to them. That way the kindness gets passed around.

I thought it was marvelous, and I do my utmost to help and spread that same message.

If it catches on, I'm going to ride round on ragged tyres so some kind soul will donate me some new ones and save me the expense.

We did similar at a children's triathlonalong with other people. An announcement came out asking anyone had a spare 24" tube at one race. A child had punctured pre race and wouldn't be able to race without one. We had a couple so I offered one of ours. The boy's dad offered to send money for another tube. I asked him to do the same for somebody else instead. In reality it's a minor gesture which meant a child could race. If his son couldn't race it's not about a four pounds for a tube. It's a couple of hours round trip wasted and the day ruined for several members of his family. Most people would do the same.

 

[PaulSB]

This summer I rode from St Malo to Bordeaux. After a 7km stretch through a forest with nothing in site I stopped on the forest edge to admire two horses enjoying the shade. I decided to lay my bike on the verge and walk in 30 metres or so to photograph them.

As I came out of the forest I found three cars had stopped by my bike and a French lady was rushing across the road to check I was OK.

DEEP embarrassment for me but great to know people would stop and investigate an apparently crashed cyclist.

 

[calvinc]

They may not always be keen on the English but they are partial to cyclists in la belle France. I'll retrieve a similar story and post it anon.
Many thanks all, for kindnesses & for these posts. I've been sat in the bath looking at Trangia bumf and it brought me here. What a lovely thread and a reminder that, as you wisely point out, most people are decent and some are exceptional. Only a small amount are scum.
Downside is that my bath has now gone cold and I've run out of tea.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

One of the things we found on tour is that there are loads of really kind and generous people out there. The world is not full of horrible selfish people but sadly it is usually them that people remember.

I can name plenty of times when people have helped us out...

• campsite owners' not yet being open for the season, but allowing us to camp there anyway - opening up the toilet block etc and refusing money or just saying €5 for the night and on one occasion opening up a static caravan for us to use the toilet and electricity in.
• farmers saying use this flat field and they'll move the horses to the sloping field, then coming around later on and asking if we needed anything/could they take one of us into town (10 miles away...) never wanting or even considering payment
• farmers allowing us to camp on the lawn in the garden (not wanting us in the field because in their view it was too wet/waterlogged) and in the morning offering us a fully cooked breakfast, hot shower etc again never wanting or even considering payment.
• a B&B owner who opened up her private bathroom so I could have a soak in her bath and tend to my injuries after coming off my bike (I was knocked off by another cyclist being helpful but not appreciating that touring bikes take somewhat longer to stop than an unladen bike) rather than having to stand in a shower which would have not had the same effect.
• a man (in the far north of Norway) who on finding out that we had never tried cloudberries (he was out picking them) picked a whole load extra, took them home washed them and then returned to where we were camping wild and gave us 1/2kg of them!
• in Hungary, a man who ran a rooms to rent (for workmen), who used to be an arctic fisherman, offering to wash & dry our clothes for us whilst we were on tour - no question of payment, he simply understood some of the problems of living on the road in winter when campsites are closed...

And as for the help and assistance that Ediz gave us around the incident that ended our world tour, well that went way beyond what anyone have expected and this year we were even invited to his wedding, but sadly could not attend because it was the same day as my OH's parents' Golden wedding anniversary. Summed up very briefly, he dropped everything at work to come and help us when we were attacked by a pack of dogs, took care of our kit, translated, stayed with us all day and night at the hospital including whilst I was operated on/stitched back up (over 100 stitches) despite being afraid of blood, dealt with our bills, sorted accommodation, paid for meals, brought us supplies and other delicacies to eat, ferried us to and from hospital appointments over 90 mins drive each way in very bad weather conditions, took us out sightseeing (as I recovered), the list goes on... and it will be very hard to 'repay' all of it in my life time.

And yes, we have done things for others... it is the way both of us were brought up.

• When we lived in the Lake District, one evening around 9pm we had a knock on the door and an american tourist asking if we could fill up his 500ml plastic water bottle and could he have a look at a map because he was trying to get back to his campsite. We ascertained that his campsite was actually a 8 mile walk away with +1,000m of climbing to do and he had only what he stood in, plus the shop bought bottle of water in his hands and about an hour of daylight left. We ended up driving him back to the campsite which was a 3 hour round trip because of the roads and lake being in the way...
• One time when Scotrail had had to put passengers in taxis from Edinburgh to their destinations, we ended up in a taxi with 2 single females, one going to Oban and the other 2 Fort William. neither girl wanted to be the last person in the taxi late at night with an unknown taxi driver, yet logic would have said that my OH and I would have been first to have been dropped off given we were going to Tyndrum/Bridge of Orchy... so we agreed with the girls to be the last and ended up in the taxi for 3 hours more than we needed to have been, not getting to our destination until 2am in the morning... not a great way to start a long hike at 6am!
• picking up random hikers from the side of the road late in the day and dropping them back at their homes/cars
• and the standard, picking up cyclists and their bikes and dropping them back home when they have been stranded...

 

[clid61]

Absolutely splendid tales of good deeds! this is such an interesting topic, helped and been helped too.
Love the stories so eloquently told though .... More please

 

[ColinJ]

I remember MSeries from the old C+ forum relating how he had been on a cycle tour of New Zealand. He got chatting to an elderly couple who told him that he really must visit [some fantastic beauty spot] but he replied that he couldn't because it was hundreds of kms off his route and he didn't have time. They asked if he had a clean driving licence and when he said that he did they gave him a map, the keys to their car, and said they would look after his bike while he drove over there, which he did!

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

When we lived on Arran we had a house fire in the middle of the night and were lucky to escape with the clothes on our back. The acts of kindness we received from so many neighbours and strangers in the days that followed are far too many to list here but some were:

The Yorkshire family on holiday who had two sons ages with our son. They gave him all their spare clothes as they were leaving for home the next day.

Our neighbour Glynis who asked my wife (who was still in shock) what she needed most. When she replied "Eyeliner", Glynis marched down to the chemists and when she couldn't find the shade she wanted, announced loudly "This is an emergency. The woman has lost everything she owns and she simply must have black eyeliner!"

The next Sunday as my wife was working in our shop, a young lady came in and pressed an envelope into her hand before hurriedly leaving. When my wife opened it, inside was £100. She called me and I ran after the girl. When I caught up with her she explained that she was on holiday and, this being a Sunday, the £100 would have been her donation at her church anyway. She refused to take it back and it must have got awfully dusty awfully fast as my eyes were stinging for ages.

I'm convinced people are basically good and just want to help their fellow man, but just don't get the opportunity very often.

The next summer I got my chance to help someone. As I was depositing the takings at the bank, there was a middle aged woman having a tearful altercation with the teller. I arrived at the end of the exchange and the woman was just leaving. I asked the bank teller what was going on and she just said "a chancer". After making my deposit I went outside and the woman was stood by the door in tears. She explained to me that she was a Canadian visiting Scotland and on Arran for the day. she'd lost her purse with her money, credit cards, ferry ticket, train ticket - the lot. I didn't think she was a chancer so I gave her £100 to get her back to her Edinburgh hotel. Six weeks or so later, I got a cheque from Canada which I never cashed, goodness knows where I've put it.

It nice to be nice

 

[ColinJ]

The next summer I got my chance to help someone. As I was depositing the takings at the bank, there was a middle aged woman having a tearful altercation with the teller. I arrived at the end of the exchange and the woman was just leaving. I asked the bank teller what was going on and she just said "a chancer". After making my deposit I went outside and the woman was stood by the door in tears. She explained to me that she was a Canadian visiting Scotland and on Arran for the day. she'd lost her purse with her money, credit cards, ferry ticket, train ticket - the lot. I didn't think she was a chancer so I gave her £100 to get her back to her Edinburgh hotel. Six weeks or so later, I got a cheque from Canada which I never cashed, goodness knows where I've put it.

It nice to be nice

That's good!

OTOH - there are real chancers about. I gave one the benefit of the doubt once and handed over money. Blow me if he didn't try the same sob story on me a year later! (Apparently, his car kept running out of petrol as he rushed to be at his dying mother's bedside in hospital.) I told him that his mum seemed to be taking an awfully long time to die because she had been at death's door the previous Easter too!

 

[CopperBrompton]

Om my LEJOG, we were eating only a couple of slices of toast in the morning then stopping for brunch after roughly 20 miles. On the final day, 20 miles came and went without any sign of anywhere to stop. So did 25 miles. I finally asked a guy mowing his lawn if there was a pub or cafe nearby.

"Not that I know of," he said, "but my wife's a District Nurse, so she'll know." She was due home in 10 mins, so he invited us in for tea in the meantime. When his wife appeared, she said there was nothing, but she would get us some food. She then rustled up an absolutely amazing meal for us.

I sent them a postcard from JOG, and a box of nice chocolates once I got home. Their daughter emailed me to say they'd asked her to thank me as they didn't have email.

 

[Pale Rider]

That's good!

OTOH - there are real chancers about. I gave one the benefit of the doubt once and handed over money. Blow me if he didn't try the same sob story on me a year later! (Apparently, his car kept running out of petrol as he rushed to be at his dying mother's bedside in hospital.) I told him that his mum seemed to be taking an awfully long time to die because she had been at death's door the previous Easter too!

I was approached by an Eastern European man in a lay by with a similar story.

Sounded like a load of lies to me, but there was just enough in it for doubt, so I gave him £5.

He took the money in a huff, cheeky so and so.

And I did see him a couple of weeks later as I drove past the same lay by.

I can't be sure, but he appeared to be pulling the same stunt.

 

[ColinJ]

We need another name for the 'Like' button so we can agree with a post without liking what it is about!