Why do people bother to carry puncture repair kits with them?

[Thursday guy]

I think if I were you I would be inclined to take some of the advice on this thread.

You could have fixed a puncture in less time than it has taken you to pore over this thread.

Or don't take the advice and report back on your experiences with your system.

Well my experience so far is that *touch wood*, I have not been in a position to have to fix a puncture.

Fair point though, it's all mostly decent advice by the looks of how easy it is to fix a puncture. I can see the benefits of what people have said about spending 20mins fixing the fault over attempting to catch a bus/train, especially if public transport is shoddy and/or your route is isolated. Personally, my commutes are within town, so I never have to worry about finding a rack to lock up and then catching a bus or walking to my destination. Maybe this makes me very privileged judging by other people's experiences of riding through woods, middleofnowhereshire and nightmare bus drivers. I wouldn't be able fix a puncture within a reasonable amount of time, so that factors into my current plan.

 

[summerdays]

Everyone has different approaches, and it is a sad fact of life that a number of bikes are laying in sheds and garages for months or years because their owners don't know how to fix a puncture.

I know it takes a while and practice to improve, and I'm not at the point where it's very fast for me but I have noticed the time to fix a tyre reducing .. Luckily the fairy is very nice to me normally and picks on others mostly!

 

[Firestorm]

A bloke at work takes his bike to an LBS when he gets a puncture.
He does 50 plus miles a week , often going out 3 times on a Sunday, counts 15 minute spins round the block.
When asked about his bike, he doesn't know its colour or whether the front forks are suspension or not.
As someone said earlier, there are all sorts

 

[screenman]

Haha I didn't realise quite the fuss this would cause. Most people I see cycling around town don't seem to be carrying anything more than themselves when cycling. I have to say this place and the reaction here is quite fascinating to me as a casual rider.

Not all people live in a town bubble. In fact the nearest town to me is 11 miles away.

Also where is this 20 minutes to repair a puncture bit coming from? 5 minutes tops to change a tube and inflate and be back on your way.

 

[Bazzer]

Well my experience so far is that *touch wood*, I have not been in a position to have to fix a puncture.

Fair point though, it's all mostly decent advice by the looks of how easy it is to fix a puncture. I can see the benefits of what people have said about spending 20mins fixing the fault over attempting to catch a bus/train, especially if public transport is shoddy and/or your route is isolated. Personally, my commutes are within town, so I never have to worry about finding a rack to lock up and then catching a bus or walking to my destination. Maybe this makes me very privileged judging by other people's experiences of riding through woods, middleofnowhereshire and nightmare bus drivers. I wouldn't be able fix a puncture within a reasonable amount of time, so that factors into my current plan.

Even a cursory glance through the forum would have shown you that the cyclists here have a very wide range of rides, whether used for work, commuting, social or any combination of the three. And a rudimentary knowledge of life outside a town should have made you aware that a lot of people do not have access to adequate public transport.

 

[vickster]

I was actually thinking of leaving the bike outside for a few hours rather than overnight, at least until you are back from work/meeting, before going back to pick up the bike.

Unless your bike is worth more than £800 and/or you have a bad lock, I don't think you would have much issue with having it parked in a reasonably busy space for that amount time during the day in most cities.

I had a £400 bike stolen from a busy street in the middle of London on a sunny Sunday afternoon so I do t get your theory on value or location. Luckily I was 5 minutes from London Bridge station and the bike was insured. I stupidly used a cable lock while I popped into a bike shop for 10 minutes

There's no way I could change a tube in 5 minutes but some evidently can. In fact I really struggle at the roadside, so when I'm able to cycle I pay £18 a year to ETA to rescue me and also when I ride alone, I'm rarely more than a mile from a station. I do carry the means to fix though, tube not repair kit. I've never repaired a tube, life's too short and mostly my tubes seem to end up with big holes and beyond repair

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I was actually thinking of leaving the bike outside for a few hours rather than overnight, at least until you are back from work/meeting, before going back to pick up the bike.

Unless your bike is worth more than £800 and/or you have a bad lock, I don't think you would have much issue with having it parked in a reasonably busy space for that amount time during the day in most cities.

Here, like most cities, it doesn't matter how good your lock is if they want it they'll take it, they will use a battery powered angle grinder or cutter to break the lock, all the lock does is slow them down a bit. There are places here I wouldn't leave a bike. Even leaving a bike for a few hours risks people stripping components off the bike.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Haha where did you get the idea that I thought people are snobs for being able to fix a puncture?

It's not too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that some cyclists, probably most by my guess, don't constantly carry repair kits with them and therefore wouldn't fix a puncture on the spot if they had one. I'm not surprised in a cycling dedicated forum that most here are capable of repairing on the spot. What I am surprised about, is the level of detachment from reality that some here have displayed.

I've been cycling for over 40 years, I was a club cyclist for over 25 years, I'm still in touch with a lot of my old club mates, the majority of the people I've cycled with carry enough tools to deal with most emergencies. Yes there are people who are ill equipped, but in my experience they are in the minority.

 

[Vantage]

I was actually thinking of leaving the bike outside for a few hours rather than overnight, at least until you are back from work/meeting, before going back to pick up the bike.

Unless your bike is worth more than £800 and/or you have a bad lock, I don't think you would have much issue with having it parked in a reasonably busy space for that amount time during the day in most cities.

Why only more than £800?
When I bought my Dawes Vantage 4 years ago it cost me £412 and took me 2 years to pay that loan off. That was it's sale price down from the rrp of £600.
The current frame and fork I'm using now set me back £140 and that'll take another couple months to pay off.
£800 is fairytale amounts of money to some people in that I'm unlikely to ever see that in my hand. A pringled wheel would see my bike resigned from duty for a few weeks at least due to cost. And cost doesn't always come into it.
I have a fondness for my bike despite its low financial worth. It's been the biggest pain in my a$$ lately and at one point I considered just getting rid of it but no amount of money could replace it. I built it. It's a one off. Mine.
It's a bit like the choice between a 1950's VW Beetle and the latest Ferrari. The Ferrari may be faster, quieter, comfier and to some people nicer looking, but the old VW Bug has character. That can't be bought.
Then there's the fact that even the Kryptonite New York lock which is reputed to be the best in the business can be defeated in around 5 mins or less with an angle grinder. Busy areas make no difference as few people nowadays will attempt to stop a thief due to personal safety concerns.
I'd rather sit in the pi $$ing hail fixing a hole in my inner tube than risk it to some lowlife scumbag who sells it for his next coke fix.

 

[EltonFrog]

Nine pages of this buffoonery!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Winding people up?

This place is quite funny. You ask a plain question and get treated with deep suspicions. At first I thought it was just jokes and banter, now it seems some are genuinely quite offended. I hate to be blunt, but maybe some people here should learn to be a little less sensitive and realise that there's a world of cyclists beyond their small serious community, people who are quite 'casual' in their approach to cycling, who don't pack repair kits and are ready to fix a puncture on the go.

Around where I live, public transport is decent. I wouldn't say excellent though. But if I do have a puncture, I wouldn't hesitate to lock it up besides a rack and take the bus/train to where I need to be, or even push the bike with me for the rest of the journey, rather than spend 20 mins outside potentially in the wind and rain fiddling around with the tyres and get bike grease on me.

That's quite rude. The comments aren't about being a "small serious community" it's about having been there, gained the experience and wanting to pass it on so others don't have to learn the hard way.

When I was new to cycle commuting (3 miles from the edge of town to near the centre) I was a "casual" cyclist and didn't take along anything for repairs to the bike. After all, how often do you pick up a flat? After one ride which turned into a walk because both tyres punctured I changed my mind and now carry something on all but the shortest trips.

Even on that in-town trip the bus wouldn't have been a convenient alternative as the routes radiate from the town centre so after walking to a stop I'd have had to travel into the centre and change to another bus out again , much quicker to walk from where the bike became unridable.

If locking the bike up and retrieving it later works for you then that's fine. Most riders would rather complete the jouney with their bike that's all.

 

[Blue Hills]

Here, like most cities, it doesn't matter how good your lock is if they want it they'll take it, they will use a battery powered angle grinder or cutter to break the lock, all the lock does is slow them down a bit. There are places here I wouldn't leave a bike. Even leaving a bike for a few hours risks people stripping components off the bike.

An unfortunate truth well restated. Hopefully i will be ok as around london i use a bike that looks like nowt (though it is my favourite) and now always use 2 d locks on it. With london's crowded bike racks there will always be something the angle grinder would be more productively used on.** I never left my cannondale out of sight in london, locked or not. I know someone who popped into the old on yer bike shop near london bridge for 5 mins in the rush hour and came out to find his d-locked carbon bike gone.

** fair to assume that folk using an angle grinder will only nick one bike?

 

[EltonFrog]

Will you be popping back at 11 pages?

I may well do, but if there's any justice or divine intervention the thread won't reach 11 pages.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I wouldn't be able fix a puncture within a reasonable amount of time, so that factors into my current plan.

Which is a whole different scenario to your rather bizarre out of context initial question and makes more sense of your ludicrous reply to me a few posts upthread.

You could have started a thread in the beginners section and asking how difficult or easy is it to fix a puncture?

anyway here have a look at this video and random links to the whole 11 worth of kit you'd need to set you up with a simple bicycle skill for life, get an old innertube or two and; I'd recommend; some park tools tyre levers and glueless patches and have a go. Trust me you can get capable in the time it'd take you to wait for a bus.

Video on how to fix a puncture

Links, based on very positive personal experience of using the items, to all you need to be able to do it:

patches and levers: http://www.tweekscycles.com/Product.do?method=view&n=3561&p=33320&d=124&c=4&l=2&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Base&utm_campaign=Puncture Repair Kits&gclid=CO2ko86qrswCFY4y0wodbPcG2Q

Mini pump easily capable of 100 PSI + at the roadside and without killing you http://www.wiggle.co.uk/topeak-pocket-rocket-pump/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=5360098338&kpid=5360098338&utm_source=google&utm_term&utm_campaign=UK_PLA_Accessories&utm_medium=base&utm_content=mkwid|sQn2G2plJ_dc|pcrid|71714696822|pkw||pmt||prd|5360098338uk


Theres any number of youtube how to's that cover fixing a puncture with time and other stuff at home or using the more faffy old style rubber patches and rubber solution in a squeeze tube kits.

hope that helps.

 

[Globalti]

I've just read the first post and am surprised at the acrimony it's created.

My attitude to punctures are that they are a good excuse to stop for a breather and a yarn, and a minor irritant that is easily sorted if you are competent and properly equipped. This means carrying tyre levers, a spare tube and a pump or CO2 cylinder. In case those fail I also carry a second CO2 cylinder and some sticky patches. If all fails or something breaks, I would either phone home for a lift or get walking and hope a cyclist comes along, or hitch a lift. I would NEVER abandon my bike as it would certainly be stolen and I'd feel a prat walking around in cycling gear without a bike.

I used to find hitch-hiking was easier if I had my climbing rope on view as people could see the purpose of my trip; I've never had to hitch with a bike but I'm willing to bet I'd get a lift very quickly from someone in an estate car, a van or a Land Rover.