There is no camaraderie between cyclists anymore more.

DonDaddyD

There is no camaraderie between cyclists anymore more. Band of Brother

[you don’t really need to read this bit]

So there I was having the commute of my life! The mixture of fresh oil and rain had made a perfect lubricant on my bike. I was literally Venge link purring along at 20mph. Choosing, when I so pleased, to take things to 21, 22 and even the unbelievable 23mph.

Ealing quickly became Kew where I hit Kew Bridge. I felt the vibration of the road through my saddle. It meant one thing, a p*ncture. Now I’m on Continental Gatorkskins, this doesn’t happen often but it doesn’t matter because I’m a pro, so I start digging into my bag.

“Pump” “Innertube” “Tyre levers…. er tyre levers” “F.U.C.K.”

So I tried to lever the tyre with a very old Top Peak Einstein. Now I’m no genius but that thing doesn’t work. I tried a combination of allen keys and proper keys. It just would not happen.
[/you don’t really need to read this bit]

Now I can live with this, I didn’t have the right equipment to change my innertube so it meant a train from Kew to Clapham Junction to Wimbledon and the walk home.

However, what bugged me was I saw at least 10 cyclists ride past me that evening. Hybrids, road bikes, mountain bikes the lot. And not one of them asked if or stopped to see if I was alright. Not one.

You see I’m old school. I was cycling to work back in 2007 when it wasn’t cool. There was no Team Sky and the Cycle to Work Scheme looked like an email from Nigeria asking for your bank details.

Yes, there were about 25 of us tearing around London but we knew how to look after each other. Yes, if upright, we would leave a man behind. But if you were stationery with your bike upside down and one or both of your wheels off, we’d asked “You alright mate?”

I’m sad to see this camaraderie between cyclists die. I haven’t even seen an imperceptible nod in months. This new stock of cyclists are a bad bunch.

suzyb

Is there any camaraderie between any group of people in London.

DonDaddyD

Yes,

I see you have a Giant SCR 3. I have one too. If I ever saw you in London I would (i) tell you that my bike is better than yours (ii) attempt to race you.

That's your camaraderie right there!

EKE_38BPM

Maybe they all knew it was you?

sketchley

I'm sure if you had shouted 'got any tyre levers' your faith in fellow cyclists would have been restored

walkingbootweather

'Proper cyclists' have evolved their thumbs into tyre levers. If you haven't you are not one of us.

jonomc4

if you werre a good looking woman loads of people would have stopped - you obviously look like a potential axce murderer

msmancunia

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Maybe they all knew it was you?

Hee hee

DonDaddyD

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Maybe they all knew it was you?

Clicky

cyclingprop

DonDaddyD wrote:

Moany moany moan

Your reputation precedes you, innit.

dhope

cyclingprop wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Moany moany moan

Your reputation precedes you, innit.

Indeed, his reputation averages 14mph.

Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week.

TheStone

If I don't get a shout or a wave, I won't stop.
When you're changing a tube in the pishing rain, you really don't need every cyclist checking you're ok.

mudcow007

why not just your use quick release levers as improvised tyre levers

pfft amateur

suzyb

DonDaddyD wrote:

Yes,

I see you have a Giant SCR 3. I have one too. If I ever saw you in London I would (i) tell you that my bike is better than yours (ii) attempt to race you.

That's your camaraderie right there!

There would be no attempt to race me 8)



You'd easily pass me without having to try, in fact at 20mph you'd overtake me like I wasn't even moving

SimonAH

Camaraderie in niche pursuits is always stronger the smaller the group.

Riders of British Motorcycles, Drivers of classic Minis - always enjoyed great camaraderie with these groups.

Riders of motorcycles in general, Drivers of classic cars in general - still something there, but not much tbh

Same with cyclists.

Out on the fixeh - meet very few others, usually end up having a chat when I do.
Out on the 'normal' bikes? Sometimes a nod.

Still, I always stop if I think someone may need assistance, even if it doesn't always work out (see 'Sometimes you wonder.....' thread)

pangolin

DonDaddyD wrote:

You see I’m old school. I was cycling to work back in 2007 when it wasn’t cool. There was no Team Sky and the Cycle to Work Scheme looked like an email from Nigeria asking for your bank details.

Lol, I did it 2008 and the C2W people took forever to get me my bike. Worked out in the end, but it did all seem very unprofessional.

I think the friendly cyclists are still there, just hidden amongst hundreds of new cyclists who are still a bit too focused on winning a race or not getting squashed, and half of whom probably don't have puncture repair stuff on them anyway.

Had a nice chat with a bloke in Richmond Park yesterday, after about 4 miles of trying to drop each other. Still try to ask people if they need anything if they look a bit lost, though often you can tell they're well on the way to having a repair done.

I repaired a puncture next to the priory lane lights last week. Lots of people stopped in view of course, for a couple of red / green cycles. No-one offered help, though I guess that's because I was getting on with it fairly quickly and not looking around sheepishly. Try looking a little less proficient next time

Kieran_Burns

DonDaddyD wrote:

...meaningless rant....

Yes, there were about 25 of us tearing around London but we knew how to look after each other. Yes, if upright, we would leave a man behind. But if you were stationery with your bike upside down and one or both of your wheels off, we’d asked “You alright mate?”

I’m sad to see this camaraderie between cyclists die. I haven’t even seen an imperceptible nod in months. This new stock of cyclists are a bad bunch.

Clearly they could you read you like a book....

thankyouthankyou.....

Boy Lard

I utterly despair for you Londoners. One minute you're complaining that too many people nod and say hello and the next minute you're complaining because people won't stop and help. Make up your minds.

I was out on my commuter on Saturday, feeling really crap and struggling a bit. However, my whole day was brightened up when 2 very pretty girls in full lycra on carbon road bikes wearing matching team kit, shouted me from the other side of a busy road. They were just saying hello and looked genuinely happy to be out on their bikes.

Further up the same road I saw a kid with his bmx upside down on the pavement. I stopped, patched his tube, pumped the tyre up for him and carried on my way.

Last week I was out on the street messing about on my mtb after a bit of fettling and I saw a chap running down the street pushing his bike. He was moving at a fair clip, it was quite impressive. He had a flat. He had the wrong valve type for his pump. When I looked at the wheel he had managed to break the valve running with the bike on a flat. I went in the house and got him a spare inner tube and my track pump. He gave me £3ish that he had in change, but I wouldn't have minded if he hadn't.

If you haven't got time to say hello and be personable when you don't need anything, don't expect people to be all happy and friendly when you do.

daviesee

It's that London. Innit.

FoldingJoe

Maybe you looked sooo Pro, they thought your service car would be along any second with a spare!!

byke68

DonDaddyD wrote:

There is no camaraderie between cyclists anymore more. Band of Brother

[you don’t really need to read this bit]

So there I was having the commute of my life! The mixture of fresh oil and rain had made a perfect lubricant on my bike. I was literally Venge link purring along at 20mph. Choosing, when I so pleased, to take things to 21, 22 and even the unbelievable 23mph.

Ealing quickly became Kew where I hit Kew Bridge. I felt the vibration of the road through my saddle. It meant one thing, a p*ncture. Now I’m on Continental Gatorkskins, this doesn’t happen often but it doesn’t matter because I’m a pro, so I start digging into my bag.

“Pump” “Innertube” “Tyre levers…. er tyre levers” “F.U.C.K.”

So I tried to lever the tyre with a very old Top Peak Einstein. Now I’m no genius but that thing doesn’t work. I tried a combination of allen keys and proper keys. It just would not happen.
[/you don’t really need to read this bit]

Now I can live with this, I didn’t have the right equipment to change my innertube so it meant a train from Kew to Clapham Junction to Wimbledon and the walk home.

However, what bugged me was I saw at least 10 cyclists ride past me that evening. Hybrids, road bikes, mountain bikes the lot. And not one of them asked if or stopped to see if I was alright. Not one.

You see I’m old school. I was cycling to work back in 2007 when it wasn’t cool. There was no Team Sky and the Cycle to Work Scheme looked like an email from Nigeria asking for your bank details.

Yes, there were about 25 of us tearing around London but we knew how to look after each other. Yes, if upright, we would leave a man behind. But if you were stationery with your bike upside down and one or both of your wheels off, we’d asked “You alright mate?”

I’m sad to see this camaraderie between cyclists die. I haven’t even seen an imperceptible nod in months. This new stock of cyclists are a bad bunch.

If you had been in certain parts of Tyneside you would have got punched in the face and your bike nicked! :P

essex-commuter

I stopped and asked if you was OK when you punctured on your one and probably only ride on the CS3 last year near Beckton.

DonDaddyD

essex-commuter wrote:

I stopped and asked if you was OK when you punctured on your one and probably only ride on the CS3 last year near Beckton.

That you did and it was greatly appreciated. Thank you.

However, dreadful route, dreadful.

iPete

If I see someone walking with a flat I tend to weigh up time of day, distance to bike shop, distance to public transport, FCN appearance, how late I am for work and male/female.

I'll let you decide which of those factors gets the most camaraderie from me!

t4tomo

More of this

So I tried to lever the tyre with a very old Top Peak Einstein. Now I’m no genius but ...

and less drivel young man.

Wheel off and stand by road saying "tyre levers anyone" would have got a response.

It would have been "no" from me. The beauty of a brompton is it fits in the back of a taxi very easily - also a rear wheel punture is a b******d to fix and should never be attempted at roadside.

DrLex

SimonAH wrote:

[...]Drivers of classic cars in general - still something there, but not much tbh
[...]

I can attest to this; had a coil failure, and a bloke stopped, said "I've got one on my jag that'll match; back in 10", and lo and behold returned with the coil stripped from his pride & joy so that I could carry on. I almost had to stop him fitting it, too.

To OP - get creative or flag someone down next time.

msmancunia

What you need to do is engineer it to have your first ever puncture outside a fire station and be a girl. Then you get it fixed, a glass of orange juice and the telephone number of a fireman as well. :oops:

Wrath Rob

t4tomo wrote:

More of this

So I tried to lever the tyre with a very old Top Peak Einstein. Now I’m no genius but ...

and less drivel young man.

Wheel off and stand by road saying "tyre levers anyone" would have got a response.

This. I left my pump at home one day and of course got a flat. 15 cyclists later and one guy stopped to lend me his. Job done. What amazed me more was the 14 cyclists riding without a pump. My excuse was that it was a 1 off. Not sure what theirs was :?:

roger_merriman

msmancunia wrote:

What you need to do is engineer it to have your first ever puncture outside a fire station and be a girl. Then you get it fixed, a glass of orange juice and the telephone number of a fireman as well. :oops:

Ha one of my friends has a real thing about firemen, doesn't seem to matter how rotund, how bad the fascial hair etc, in her eyes they are bronzed idols, she is perfectly lovely, and loopy!

CiB

msmancunia wrote:

What you need to do is engineer it to have your first ever puncture outside a fire station and be a girl. Then you get it fixed, a glass of orange juice and the telephone number of a fireman as well. :oops:

Ha. He won't even have a minor adjustment to the internal wiring let alone complete rearrangement into something more attractive.

I'd have stopped. Probably.

Blacktemplar

Always make a point of shouting "got everything you need?" to any stricken cyclist, male/female/other, usually get a cheery "yes" but occasionally have stopped and offered pump*/patches/inner/tea/sympathy as appropriate. Always appreciated, hope someone does the same for me if the need arises.



* but only to attractive female bicyclists, in a Frank McAvennie stylee