indyfabz

Sounds like the wrench for you.

Barry2 

I’ve fixed several flats for people walking bikes.

I run tubeless and use a TPU tube + patch kit as a spare.

I have no use for a butyl patch kit, but still carry one for others.

Barry

tomato coupe

potd potw potm poty

DangerousDanR

Back in my paramedic days I had half a dozen personal life saves, and another half dozen team saves.

On a bike? A couple of incidents stand out. I was cruising home on the riverfront trail and I met a couple standing by the side of the road looking forlornly at one of their bikes. Turned out that they had a problem with the rear derailleur
Luckily it was a quick fix and they were on their way and I on mine.

Someone helping me? Mrs Dan and I were riding on a little used 'B' road on Skye and we pinch flatted. Easy fix...tube swapped and out came the pump. Which wouldn't pump the tire past 20 PSI.

Suddenly, three bikes came over the hill and pulled up. The delightful lads pulled out a pump and, voila, back to 80 PSI. We met them several times on Skye, and again in Fort William.

So if you ever lent a pump to a couple of Americans on Skye, drop me a PM.

VegasJen

I have offered a couple of cyclists before but never been taken up on the offer.

However, I have been the recipient of help a couple of times now. Very grateful.

delbiker1 

Have helped, have been helped. Both good.

staehpj1

Many of both, some of my favorite memories are from tours.

Repairs were featured in many, but I think some of my favorites were the simple offer of ice cold water in 100+ heat in the middle of nowhere. I remember three of us sitting under the only tree for many miles sweating like crazy. A van rolls up. The guy doesn't say a word, slides the side door open, opens a cooler and throws us each an ice cold bottle.

Another time some motorcyclists shared their ice cold water in the summer heat, but maybe the most magic was the blue Powerade from heaven. We were on a long hot climb out of a canyon. Shortly after a vehicle passed us there was a large bottle of blue Powerade standing in middle of the shoulder. I checked it and it was ice cold despite the extreme heat. It was one of the best drinks ever.

wheelreason

If I see folks on a bike by the side of the road, I will usually ask if they are ok or need help, and render assistance if need be. I also do this while driving and see someone walking a bike, particularly in bad weather.

plumberroy

First in an old fat man that is happy tooling along at 10 mph. I am usually told that I carry too much. Most of my bikes have Topeak racks and I have a trunk bag with tools and spares. I have aired up tires patched tires, adjusted brakes and seats. Made a bike into single speed to get them home. I have given roadie's CO2 cylinders. I have straightened out and reattached a chain guard on a rental bike so college girls could get back to the shop my wife said I probably scared the girls too death when I stopped

rsbob 

Years back when my wife was driving home, she saw a female cyclist pushing her bike up a 1.5 mile hill with no houses around for another 2 miles. She stopped and chatted since my wife also rides and rather than offering to fix the flat on the side of the road, took the woman and her bike to her house where her husband could affect the repair. As a result all four of us been friends for over 20 years and have done rides together. Goes to show, you just never know.

alcjphil

I always carry spare inner tubes, usually at least 2. Several times I have stopped off seeing someone at the side of the road. My credo is to provide an inner tube to the person I am helping with condition that they pass the favour along. I have no idea whether that person will give that any thought, or not. Not my problem.
Many years ago a friend of mine met another guy out on the road. They were both riding tubulars and my friend gave this guy his (patched) spare. A few days later this guy showed up at my friend's place with a brand new replacement
Sometimes a good deed reaps benefits
Years later, I ran into that same guy, and his version of the story was the same

plumberroy

I do the same thing. When someone wants to pay me . Just help someone else when you can. Sometime in the early nineties I was having battery trouble with a car . Guy pulls up and jumps my car. When I asked what do I owe you. He said that I had gave him a jump 4 years earlier in Coco Beach which was ninety miles from where I was at the time. It never hurts to help someone. And nearly every belief system has the belief that if the help someone in needs it comes back to you multiplied

dennis336

If I see someone stopped on the side of the road, I pretty much always ask if they're ok or need help. Most of the time, they're fine. But twice, they needed some help:
1) A young woman was having difficulty changing a flat so asked if I could help. Given that I'm a klutz, I was fairly surprised I was able to help. It was a charity ride and we ended up riding together for the rest of the ride.
2) A guy needed help pumping his tire so I helped with my mini pump.

I've been helped a few times:
1) Had a flat and was having a difficult time getting the tire pumped and a couple guys stopped and helped.
2) I was on a ride and my chain snapped. Started fumbling around to get out a master link in my bag but, mercifully, a guy pulled over in a pick-up truck and asked if I needed help or a ride. The weather was pretty threatening so I took him up and got a ride home (around 4 miles away). As it turned out, his son did self-supported tours so he was sensitive to helping cyclists in need.
3) I took a pretty bad spill taking a corner - had just started raining and I didn't account for the slick road. Bike had some minor damage and I was bleeding a bit. A guy pulled over and gave me and my bike a ride home.
4) Another time I was working on a flat and a guy - another pickup truck - offered to help. He had an air compressor but it was schaeder vs. my presta so I said thanks and finished up myself. But, a real nice guy.

Not really a bike maintenance scenario, but there was another time I was waiting with my bike to take a ferry across the CT river (trivia: it's the longest continually running river ferry in the U.S.) and a car pulled up to wait along side. A middle-aged guy taking his mom out for a ride - got chatting away until the ferry got to our side of the river. The car pulled onto the ferry then I did. As I went to dis-embark and pay, the operator said the guy had paid my fare. Really made my day.

Other times where there's "kindness of strangers" situations ... people can be quite nice!

DVC45

I have offered help more than a few times and I have gotten helped once. It brings a good feeling having it both ways.

stan01

You never know when you may need help yourself, so I always ask if I see someone with a mechanical if they need assistance. I think it all balances out anyway as I've needed help myself more times than I would like but that is the nature of the sport. Anything can & will happen no matter how prepared you are. In fact that is how I met my best friend. On this one ride from hell a number of years ago, I had a front flat & was on the outskirt of town middle of nowhere. Changed it & continued on but flatted again on the front after only a few hundred yards. Changed it again with my last tube & the same thing happened again. Tried calling home for a ride from friends & family but no one was picking up & it was starting to get dark. I was SOL with no more tubes & so I started walking. This guy flies by in a sports car & stops. Asks if I need help & I explained my situation & he offered to drive me home. Turns out he's also a fellow cyclist & we've been friends ever since.

mschwett 

i dropped a chain once in a way that seemed impossible to me at the time, and could not be removed without chain pliers, which i didn't have with me.

i was about a half mile from cell service, so i was walking and about 20 cyclists passed (popular route) - just about every single one asked if i needed help, many stopped, but i said it's ok, don't ruin your rides, all good.

a few minutes later when cell service reappeared i walked off the road to a trailhead and a few more people offered help. one rider with a lot of gear said he was sure he could fix it - took a look, agreed that chain pliers were needed, had a pair of tire levers that doubled as them, we broke the chain, rethreaded it, reconnected it, and i was on my way. i switched my multitool for one that has chain pliers after that, but of course the situation has never repeated. my experience cycling in the bay area has been that virtually any time i'm on the side of the road looking like there's trouble, the majority of serious cyclists offer help. i have never in all my time encountered a cyclist in the real world who is as judgemental or caustic as some of the people on this forum!

more recently, a couple years after the above, i was on a local ride and stopped on the side of the road because i wasn't feeling well and could tell my heart rhythm was abnormal. i passed out and when i came to after being shocked by my defibrillator, there was a small crowd of cyclists and walkers gathered helping me. ambulance had been called, bike moved, helmet strap cut and helmet removed, etc. i was pretty shocked (no pun intended!) and had literally eaten/swallowed a ton of dirt from passing out face down in soft soil. when the ambulance came, one cyclist even volunteered to ride home, get his car with a bike rack, and bring my bike home for me.

indyfabz

The creek down there floods often. On at least one occasion I had to get off and walk during a long weekend tour to French Creek. There was just too much mud.

freeranger

Have helped with flats, derailed chains, brakes, misadjusted derailleurs. Probably the best was I spotted an inexperienced rider in a group. His seat was set way too low so adjusted that. While the bike was stopped, noticed the quick release lever was sticking almost straight out. He thought it turned to tighten, as would a bolt. Explained how it worked, set it, and he went on his way. It was the front wheel, so may have saved him from having a nasty wreck. He had borrowed the bike-maybe the owner didn't know how a quick released worked either?

L134 

I was resting and they stopped to ask if I needed help. I sent the picture to my brother-in-law, a motor cycle tourer, and told him I stopped to see if they needed help.

Bolo Grubb

twice, both times they flagged me down as I was riding up to them. Both cases a flat tire. First case I was commuting to work and pair that flagged me down had a flat, did not have another tube and their glue had dried. I traded them my spare tube for their flatted one , waited long enough to be sure there were good with the repair and headed off to work.

Second time was on a long weekend ride and a group of three flagged me down to ask if I had a pump. They had a flat but thought they botched blowing it up with CO2 mutliple times. Turns out their only spare tube among the three had dry rotted, no fixing the spare. I gave them a spare tube, helped them get it pumped up and continued to ride with them for a bit. They asked about my pump (a small lezyne frame pump) and what I carried. A small under saddle bag with 2 spare tubes and a patch kit.
Had a good ride and good converstion with them until I got to my turn and bid them a good ride

rsbob 

Being a presta guy, I stopped a couple of times in the past to help but they had schrader valves and could not air them up. Now a carry a reversible head pump/CO2 just in case.

curbtender

When I first started road riding I only carried a patch kit. Had a guy stop and give me a tube when I had a blowout. Asked for his info to repay him but he just told me to return the favor sometime. So that's what we do. Doesn't hurt to ask.

pdlamb

Several times. Couple times I was embarrassed to find out I couldn't help; once on a brevet when my pump's check valve was frozen (and he got his pump to work about the time my armpit heater thawed mine), and once when I couldn't get the reversable plug out of my pump to help her with her Schrader.

Non-flat help best memory was coming home from work, with dyno lights front and rear and two battery-powered blinkies. A lady was shepherding her two children on bikes, so I caught up and told her to keep going, I had enough lights to spare. I tailed them for couple blocks until she pulled into her driveway and explained they were slower than expected, and so they weren't prepared for dusk to come so soon!

LarrySellerz

Roy are you a plumber? How can I leak check a PVC manifold for a vacuum system. I was told not to pressurize and use snoop because it could fail in a dangerous way?? 2 inch pvc probably a hundred feet or so, don’t want to put water in it. I care about leaks more than normal because it’s going to be under a higher vacuum than say a standard central vacuum for a house.

what do people normally do? Maybe some smoke that doesn’t leave a bad residue? In the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender they used rotten eggs for something similar checked for smell.

i feel like i am being lied to when they say it’s dangerous to snoop

_ForceD_

I’ve helped stranded strangers numerous times, and even given away the spare tube that I carry.

Dan