Why bother?

[clarion]

Which is a good reason for asking 'do you have everything you need?'

Pretty much exactly what I say.

If I'm cycling on my commute, and I see a cyclist in difficulty, I will almost always stop and speak to them.  I quickly realised that 'Are you OK?' would always be answered in the affirmative by male cyclists, even f they looked like they had no idea what they were doing.

There are, of course, times when I'm in a big bunch, or don't spot the bike until a bit late (even then, I have turned back on occasion), and carry on, with a British guilt festering inside.

The only time I can think of when I deliberately didn't stop was when I was rather late for work, and I saw a chap with a flat tyre near Elephant & Castle.  As I passed, I realised it was a CCer.   I did later apologise, but he informed me he was a couple of hundred yards from his workplace, anyway, so planned to fix things in his lunchbreak.

[citoyen]

I'm another who has helped push-start a car when out on my bike. Same experience of other motorists sitting in their cars pretending they haven't seen it, even though they are stuck behind the stuck car.

On the organised ride I was doing last week, day three started with a long, fast descent out of Bath Uni, with a T-junction at the bottom where you turned right. At the bottom was a rider looking at his bike and scratching his head. I did the usual 'You alright?' to which he replied with the usual 'Yes, thanks' but he clearly wasn't, so I stopped anyway. He reckoned his rear brake had jammed against and wasn't sure what to do. Well, that's an easy one - you just wrench the brake around its pivot bolt until it's aligned, right? Only this didn't help and the rear wheel still wasn't spinning freely. On closer inspection, it turned out the wheel was totally pringled and was jammed against the seatstay. The tyre was also incredibly hot, so he must have done the whole descent with it like that.

The odd thing was he had no recollection of hitting a bump or anything that could have caused it. And he reckoned his wheel had been fine when he finished the end of day two. I told him sorry, nothing much I can do about that. Luckily the event had mechanical support with spare wheels, so I left him to give them a call.

Over the course of the nine days, I helped several people, including one chap who was having trouble reinflating his tyre after a puncture because it turned out he'd put the wrong tube back in. I figured it would be good karma. Actually, I did get one puncture, but that was mainly because I'd let some air out of the tyres on a stretch of particularly poor road surface and then hit a stone, causing a pinch puncture (wouldn't have happened if I'd been running tubeless, as the tyres/wheels were intended to be), but I had changed the tyre and was on the move again before any other rider passed me so didn't have to go through the ritual exchange.

Also fell off on another occasion due to not paying attention and drifting too close to the kerb. Did an amazing judo roll onto the mercifully soft grass verge. There was a rider about 50m behind who enquired after my wellbeing as he passed but I was too busy laughing at my own stupidity to give him real cause for concern.

[citoyen]

Which is a good reason for asking 'do you have everything you need?'

Pretty much exactly what I say.

Yes, I've often used that variation too, for much the same reasons.

Whether I stop or not depends less on the answer to the question and more on a gut instinct assessment on whether I think they actually need help.

I have on occasion, when not in a hurry, just stopped to chat whether or not the person needed help. Can be a good excuse for a break.

[Ham]

Does anyone win the prize for actually being able to fix someone's broken car at the roadside while cycling?

Does it count if I cycled out to fix it?

[Kim]

Which is a good reason for asking 'do you have everything you need?'

Pretty much exactly what I say.

Yes, I've often used that variation too, for much the same reasons.

Weirdly, I've picked that phrasing up by osmosis, but not really considered the reasons (beyond "are you all right?" sounding a bit too much like "alroight", which is Brummie for 'hello').

[Jakob W]

I vaguely remember a tale (maybe on the CTC forums?) of someone being able to get a car started again with a bit of wire they had in the depths of their saddlebag, but I don't think it was a particularly recent event...

[Kim]

I once got a car started with a bit of wire I had in the depths of my coat pocket.

But that doesn't count because it was my dad's car and I was a passenger in it at the time, without a bike in sight.

The bit of wire (bypassing the fuel pump fuse, IIRC) remained part of the car starting procedure for a couple of years until it was scrapped.

[MikeFromLFE]

Years ago, when the kids were little and just starting to ride bikes, several of the kids in our street were riding about outside our house, but one little girl from down the street was struggling.

Her bike had a flat tyre, a buckled wheel that was rubbing on the brakes, and a kick-stand that was fouling the back wheel.

I spent 5 minutes fixing it up enough to make it rideable, but I always did wonder if I was treading on toes by doing that.

When mine were a lot smaller than they are now I was in danger of becoming the regional bike-fix-it-man as kids and bikes-in-bits would appear with great regularity at all times of the day (and once before I was out of bed). One day they just stopped coming. I still don't know how I got the reputation as Mr Fixit, or why they stopped coming.

[L CC]

On a recent 1000km ride¹ I got the first puncture² 15km from the start.

A fellow rider stopped and said "Have you phoned the other half for help?"

 

Obviously if fboab had been there she'd have held back and waited patiently while the motorist drove around the rabbit, then clobbered it to death with a chainwhip or something.   

I don't carry a chainwhip. Said rider is now probably pleased, given the look I gave him.


Back to the OP- I ask if they've everything they need. I have assisted strangers (in team kit, with no phone reception).


1: like the way I casually drop that in? 
2: Grrr

[Chris S]

And on the other end of the spectrum, who can forget the enduringly amusing:

Rider 1: "Shall we stop to help them?"
Rider 2: "Fuck 'em, it's an audax."

 

[ian]

I once stopped to remove a wheelie bin from the road. Lady in a Land Rover had been delicately trying to nudge it out of the way. With the aforementioned Land Rover. She did say 'thanks'. I assume she couldn't get out and do the same thing because she was a mermaid and thus quite obviously inoperable on dry land.

[Gattopardo]

Does anyone win the prize for actually being able to fix someone's broken car at the roadside while cycling?

Does it count if I cycled out to fix it?

I have, a proper beetle I met by the roadside. Think the male driver didn't like me fixing it.

[hatler]

As a cyclist I once stopped and pushed a broken car out of the road, thus easing a long tail back.   No car driver leapt to my assistance and I received no thanks from the occupant.

Of course it was lunacy.  What was I thinking?! I should have left the thing where it was and enjoyed cycling a traffic-free road.

I've done that !

[dave r]

What I find often happens is that I don't see the rider till I'm right on top of them, by the time I've reacted I'm past.  I must say I'm extremely grateful that a rider stopped the other Sunday. I'd been stung and had suffered a major allergic reaction to the sting, the fella organised a ambulance for me before going on his way, he would have stayed with me if I hadn't insisted he continued. There's some real gents out there.

[tonyh]

Me (not slowing): "need anything?"
Him:  "..... chain....."
Me: (after turning round up the road): "...here's a chain tool"  [pause]  "ooh it's lost its pin...."

Outcome: his problem unsolved (but nearly home anyway)
               my unknown problem (no chain tool) soon remedied
               plus friendly meeting. Overall,