Maelochs

You have confused Cargodane and Livedarklions.

You have proudly accused someone of saying something somebody else said, and acted self-righteous for not arguing the person you falsely accused.

I really cannot define "irony." Can you help?

CargoDane

Haha, I thought he was recounting what he himself had said in the other thread with his edited quote/comment. Now it's even more ridiculously hilarious!

Maelochs

i see you pack a spare bike when you tour.

Doug64

On our trip across the U.S., 3700 miles, we had 13 flats. When I was commuting, I had 5 flats in one week. It was just a bad week. Between my wife and I, we average about 4-6 flats a year. We average 3000+ miles a year. In the last 12 years we have spent a total of 2 years bike touring through 11 countries. We need to be self sufficient,

When I put a new tube that has a presta valve on our bikes, I toss the little valve retaining nut, that I do not use, into my tool box. I don't know how long I've been doing this, but there have been up to 45 nuts in there. I usually patch my tubes several times before they are tossed. That could roughly equate to 135 flat tires We changed to Schwalbe Marathon tires on our touring bikes, which reduced punctures significantly.

The presta retaining nuts are the round knurled nuts in the middle of picture.

livedarklions

I pay for roadside assistance, it's literally their job. Not the same thing as calling a friend. I don't think paying the LBS to do maintenance I could teach myself to do is imposing on someone, either.

livedarklions

Because the person coming to change the flat on your car is doing their job and you pay for that service.

livedarklions

Many of the people on this thread are riding several thousands of miles per year. If you do that, you will have to deal with flats. I've had a few this year, courtesy of a bent nail and several pieces of metal wire.

livedarklions

I don't think rsbob is confusing us, I think he's using my quote for a purpose I don't endorse.

I think he's quoting me as evidence thatCargoDane had driven me to declare that. I do think that CargoDane went into a rabbit hole in that thread, but he/she is rather new and I only posted that out of frustration with someone who otherwise appears to be a pretty good poster. In this thread, I think CargoDane was right on with identifying the things OP said that were annoying.

If OP didn't know they might find people get annoyed by unnecessary roadside distress calls, better they find it out from people they don't know or care about than get a friend or family member resenting them.

livedarklions

Well, the guy he was quoting (me) is hoping there's no hard feelings from that thread and has no idea why the other guy thought it was relevant here. I do know the mods frown on bringing disagreements from one thread into another, but this is the first time I've seen someone trying to drag a disagreement between two other people into another thread. Bait not taken, thank you!

CargoDane

No problems from my side

Maelochs

Paying for assistance is a completely different issue. No one should lose in a transaction. No one should get something at the cost of another. Paying for service---even having AAA fix a flat on your bike, ort giving you a ride home .... is completely honorable. You are in fact supporting the economy, in a small way, and if you don't mind sitting on the roadside waiting, and you pay the annual fee anyway ... call them right up. Why not?

It is the attitude of expecting others to give up their time, stop what they are doing, and come to rescue someone else, for no return, that is an issue.

if someone chooses to ride without tools and tubes, and chooses to call for help, that is not an issue. If someone wants others to serve him or her for nothing in return .... whatever.

I thought the desert camo quibble was kind of humorous.

indyfabz

My road bike has tubeless wheels, so extremely rarely.

My touring/commuting bike has very good tires, so extremely rarely (I haven't had a flat on tour since 2014, despite riding many miles of unpaved roads, some of them mountainous, but one time I got two flats from two separate causes within about 5 miles of each other.), but I cannot afford to sit by the side of the road if I'm riding to work in NJ or touring in the middle of nowhere Montana. Try getting AAA, which I would never join to begin with because it's an automobile lobbying group, out here


Or here, when you are over 6,000' with no tree cover and a hail-producing thunder storm is closing in:






One steamy Sunday afternoon several years ago I decided to take a 2 mile ride from my house to pick up some wine. My seat bag was on my road bike and I didn't feel like being bothered with it or packing my pump In short, I was lazy. Besides, it was only two miles each way. What could possibly go wrong. Got a flat 1/2 block from my destination. No way was I going to walk home in 90+ degree heat and high humidity with no shade pushing a heavy bike. Fortunately, there was a LBS a couple of blocks away.

Phil_gretz

Can you please say your age and where (generally) you live? These details may factor into our responses.

Reflector Guy

I used to get a lot of flats when I lived in Peoria IL and that was mainly because they used cinders on the roads every time it snowed and they remained on the roads all year long, like little razors (unlike salt which washes away). I was younger and would just walk home if I couldn't fix it on the spot. Once I got a flat much further away than I wanted to walk and fortunately I knew of a bike shop close by so I walked there instead.

Nowadays, I think I'd just walk home too, if I couldn't fix it myself for some reason. It would have to be something catastrophic before I'd burden an friend. I'm not married, but if most wives were anything like my own mother, the day I call her for help would be the last day I ever rode the bike. She'd have tossed it out in the trash the next day!

Milton Keynes

It's actually been a while since I had a flat on a ride, so I'm probably due. Luckily the last time I had a tube go flat was when the bike was sitting in the garage.

Kapusta

If someone wants to go the AAA route instead of carrying a tube and repair kit, they are not imposing on anyone, so sure, go ahead.

However, it sounds silly to me for several reasons:
1) By the time AAA even gets to you, in most cases you could have been well on your way if you just fix it yourself. Lots of talk in this thread about flats, but sometimes something has just come loose, and a hex wrench and 30 seconds of thought is all that is needed to fix it (like a slipping seat post).
2) Calling AAA basically ends your ride
3) No cell service = No AAA.

On the other hand, keeping AAA drivers employed is good for the economy, I guess.

Milton Keynes

I imagine Montana is about the same as rural Kansas. If you did have AAA and called them for assistance, be prepared to sit and wait for about an hour or more before someone shows up. I live in a small town about 30 minutes from anywhere, and by the time they show up I could have fixed the flat myself and already be a few miles further down the road. I'm not sure where the nearest AAA affiliated wrecker service is, but I've heard of people sitting by the road waiting in their cars for up to two hours. What would be even worse is when I ride gravel way out in the boonies and attempting to tell someone where I am so they can find me.

Nope, patch kit, spare tube, and tools are the way to go. We are intelligent enough monkeys that we should be able to use the tools we invented.

I-Like-To-Bike

Same for me; slow leaks that flatten while at work, or in the garage at home are about the only flats I have gotten in the last 23 years since I started using Schwalbe (not PLUS) Marathon tires on my commuting and recreational riding bikes. Probably have had less than 5 on the road flat tires in those 23 years (estimated 70,000+ miles). I still carry my tube repair kit for every ride that is to a location that is farther than I am willing to walk home, about 1 mile.

In the early to mid 70's when I was riding daily to work and for recreation on the glass lined streets of urban Philadelphia I had flat tires almost every week, almost guaranteed when the streets were wet and acted like glue to make the glass particles stick to my tires. In retrospect, using cheap tires from The Pep Boys wasn't even penny wise and was downright foolish, but I didn't wise up about using Schwalbe Marathon tires until moving to Germany.

Milton Keynes

Right now I've got some Continental tires on my bike which are supposed to have added flat protection layers under the tread. They're still fairly new so I haven't racked up any flats with them yet, but keeping my fingers crossed.

dedhed

Until you factor in the time taking it to a tire machine, or if the shops are closed. Really isn't that hard on car tires. Takes me about 15 minutes to to break beads, demount, and mount after it's off the car. Just did 2 - 10 ply skid steer tires, now those were some work.

CargoDane

It's not the car tyres I'd worry about. It's the rims being damaged and then the tyres afterwards (and the seal).

dedhed

"Hard to do" on car tires, not hard on tires. Really isn't any different than the ubiquitous coats 20-20, just human power rather than air power.

CargoDane

You can't tell the difference between your method and that in the video - other than air vs human power? Seriously?

Milton Keynes

I just happen to have a key to the automotive shop I run and partially own, so I'm covered there.

BlazingPedals

Every cyclist should know how to fix a flat tire. Tools are a personal choice, generally you only want to carry the tools you'd use. (I know that should be a no-brainer.) I generally carry:
1. a tire patch kit
2. a frame pump
3. a multi-tool
4. cell phone
In the tire patch kit I include a spare quick-link for the chain and a presta-shrader converter. On longer rides I may carry a spare tube too; just to save time in case of a flat. Thus equipped, I can fix almost any flat tire, as well as tighten almost any bolt that comes loose during a ride. If you keep up on your maintenance, other failures should be extremely rare. As far as where to pack it, that is why saddle wedges were invented.