Don't count on a guy for help!

[Grits]

I went on a ride yesterday with my usual riding buddies, 2 other ladies. We invited this guy to go along that has a road bike and has told us he wants to get back into riding. He has gone with us once before on a ride.

Soo, we wait about 10 minutes for him to show. Finally he does. We get about 8 miles into our ride, and he has a flat.

He has NOTHING! No tube, no pump, no nothing. He has never changed a tire.

So, everyone going by got to see the three of us chicks changing a tire while the big, strong buy stands there looking helpless

I guess his plan is just to call for help whenever he has a flat.

[txred9876]

I went on a ride yesterday with my usual riding buddies, 2 other ladies. We invited this guy to go along that has a road bike and has told us he wants to get back into riding. He has gone with us once before on a ride.

Soo, we wait about 10 minutes for him to show. Finally he does. We get about 8 miles into our ride, and he has a flat.

He has NOTHING! No tube, no pump, no nothing. He has never changed a tire.

So, everyone going by got to see the three of us chicks changing a tire while the big, strong buy stands there looking helpless

I guess his plan is just to call for help whenever he has a flat.

It never fails to amaze...... to bad some of his buddies din't see him along side the road! Where was the camera when you need one!

[redrhodie]

I don't think it's a gender thing, it just sounds like he's new. I went without everything I needed for a flat until I had one on the road.

[Skierchickie]

I guess his plan is just to call for help whenever he has a flat.

I actually have a female friend who does just that - carries her cell phone and calls her husband to come and get her if she has a flat. If she lived close enough that we rode together, I'd have an overwhelming urge to teach her a thing or two. So I can't judge this guy more harshly for it just because he's a guy. Especially if he doesn't ride much. I bet he'll know how the next time!

+1, Redrhodie

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yeah, I agree. I know newbie women riders like this too- flats?- what are those?

[Biciclista]

true confessions time
the only time I fixed a flat it didn't take. A coworker helped me fix it.
I carry everything I need to fix a flat, so I AM prepared, but so far, my DH
has done the dirty work.

[Blueberry]

I carried the "goods" long before I had any clue how to use them.

I've been blessed not to have many flats, and almost all near home (like rolling into my driveway). My first real "field test" was when I was in San Diego on vacation. I had the rental car keys, DH was in a seminar all day into the evening, and I went to ride Coronado. I flatted on the rear of my Friday (little tires can be wicked hard to change - I had always struggled with them at home) in front of the Naval Air Station. Not one soul offered to help even though LOTS walked by (I was right in front). Lots of cyclists passed too. However, I managed to get the tube changed, everything back together, and still make the ferry. There wasn't another option to get back to the hotel. At least I know I can do it And if I had waited for someone to help, I suspect it would have been a long wait...

[malkin]

I carry a patch kit and a tube and a pump, but often I don't have the right glasses, which makes me pretty helpless.

[Mr. Bloom]

Men are worthless

That Y chromosone just keeps them from seeing clearly - they're always asking Ynot

[yetigooch]

I stopped to help out a fellow rider a few weeks back when she flatted on the road. She looked like she knew what she was doing but couldn't get the tube to inflate. I checked her CO2 cartridge and it was used and empty (her husband gave it to her and said it was still good). I used one of mine to get her back on the road. (lesson: always have new cartridges).

[smurfalicious]

I checked her CO2 cartridge and it was used and empty (her husband gave it to her and said it was still good). I used one of mine to get her back on the road. (lesson: always have new cartridges).

Or you can rock one of these and be doubly sure you get home:

http://www.genuineinnovations.com/bi...px?prodid=1092

I love mine, mounts under the bottle cage, tiny, light, aw-haw-some. Best investment I never want to use.

[Christopher]

Usually I ride on my own, for various reasons. Over the years I've been stranded about six times, three times with sidewall blowouts and three times with broken pumps. Lessons learnt: don't buy cheap pumps, align brakeblocks so they don't rub on the tyre and, like, change the tyre when the innertube starts poking through...

Happily every time I was either able to walk home, to the nearest train station or beg the use of a pump from a passing cyclist. Current pump is a fat-barreled mini pump, think it's a Topeak something, it has been used so much all the decals have rubbed off but it will go to 90psi and has been very reliable so far...

[lph]

Even though I consider myself pretty handy, my dh is the one that's really mechanically inclined, and will happily spend hours disassembling his mtb just to see how it works.

So it was a sweet moment when the following occurred the other day: my dh asked to borrow my road bike to go ride with a roadie colleague, I was helping him get out of the door in a hurry and pump up the tires, and the front tube blew. He was already late and about to call off the whole thing when I just told him "CALL your friend! Tell him you'll be 5 minutes late. I'll fix it!" and his jaw literally dropped as he saw how fast I switched the tube

A little practice on road tires goes a long way!

[Crankin]

Even though I know how to change a flat, I live in fear of it. I barely ride by myself, so I don't worry. No lectures, please. I have the equipment and I *could* do it, but I don't want it to happen.
I have only had 2 flats on the road in 8 years. One was during a century (it was the tire, not the tube) and one was an actual blow out. My husband did both of those. The other two occurred in my driveway or in the house. I changed those, but painfully. My issue is putting the rear wheel back on. Yes, I have practiced and I know the "tricks," but it is really freakin' hard for me. I actually hurt my back when I was balancing the bike in one hand and trying to get the deurailleur /chain lined up. I am better at it now, but still.
I have not been able to deal with the V brakes on my Jamis. I can't get that little wire back in, no matter how much I try. So, if I have a flat, I'm dead there...

[pinkbikes]

I must admit I am the tyre changer in most groups I ride with. At work people bring in their wheels and tyres to me and look sort of helplessly at me when they want them changed from MTB tyres to slicks (or vice versa). I figure I don't mind doing it because it keeps me quick and handy at it since I don't really seem to get that many myself (running out to find some wood to touch as I type this) and can use the practice. I have taught quite a few girlfriends how to change tyres/tubes although I am quite pedantic and like to use powder and take the time to check whether there is anything left in the tyre that might cause another puncture.

This is because every time I have had a puncture while out with DH (who is a big guy and has possibly the worst luck with punctures that I have EVER seen) he stands there and "helps" by saying things like... "you need to use tyre levers?" and "why check, whatever's caused it is probably long gone?" and "hang on - I've probably got a sundial/calendar to time you?" and generally pesters me until I don't check what caused the flat and then end up with another within minutes as the small bit of glass left in the tyre shreds my new tube!

But at least he has had plenty of practice changing flats himself (since he doesn't like to check the tyres if he gets a flat while he's out!!)

Possibly the worst case of male tyre changing incompetence I have seen though was on a metric century last year. The list to all riders clearly identified the need to have the wherewithal to change a flat and suggested that you know how to use it so you could be self-sufficient.

At the first drink stop some bloke came in all steamed up and ploughed past the entry gate, jumped on the brakes and slammed into the back of my bike as I as leaving the exit gate. With my rear derailleur hanger looking somewhat bent I had a bunch of no gears and went back into the drink station to visit with the bike mechanic who had a van there to see if my ride was over or there might be something they could do.

Entertainingly, I had to wait while the lovely female mechanic changed the flat for the bloke in front of me, providing the tube he hadn't brought and the know-how he didn't have, despite owning a VERY high-end bike! Obviously he has a small slave to run along behind him most of the time to carry tubes and change them for him? Perhaps he calls a cab and pays with his platinum Amex? All the gear but NO IDEA!

PS: Cheryl, the delightful mechanic had a hanger straightener and in less time than it took for her to say "what a gumby" she had it straight, adjusted and I was back on my way! FANTASTIC!