Stopping to help - do you?

slowbike

Moonbiker wrote:

How about in a sportive?


There was at least 40 riders with mechanicals or punctures etc, on one i did last year i reckon over the 100 miles, most were alone.

Normally I stop & offer to help but i didn't bother to stop for the sportive riders 8) .

I've always asked if they've got everything.
Once I've stopped to help a chap whose chain had got stuck between frame and crankset - I was riding with my wife so was able to stop & help then catch her up.
Last one did the usual "everything ok?" at one rider stopped on the side of the road looking puzzled - "cable broke" was the response - well, nothing I could do to help so carried on ... there would be support along the way somewhen - and it wasn't as though we were in the middle of nowhere, we were just passing through a village - so comms wasn't an issue.

capt_slog

wastelander wrote:

Surely just asking if it's all in hand is just "the done thing"? Maybe as I come from a motorcycling background where checking if a stranded rider is ok is the norm I do the same thing on my cycles? I've had the split in the spare tube scenario and it wasn't fun, although several motorists stopped to make sure I was ok (7:30pm on a winters night in the middle of nowhere) but my house mate was en-route to the rescue.

Me too.

Many years ago I was returning from a trip to Italy, I'd been to the Ducati factory where my bike came from. We came over the mountain and down into France and there was a bang and a clatter and that was the chain coming off. So I left Mrs Slog (who wasn't then) with the bike and walked to the nearest village a few miles away.

Outside a cafe was a motorbike and the rider just coming out to it. I explained in my bad French plus mime that my chain had snapped and pointed where I'd come from. He took me back to my bike so he could have a look and so know what to ask for, his mate followed him in a van. He then took me back through his village and onward to a the next big town, and his mate stopped with my bike and the future Mrs Slog to make sure that they were both OK (no smut please).. He asked for just what was needed, a split link, I paid and we went back to the bike. Fixed it all up and off we went. He wouldn't take anything for his trouble and I've always been very grateful to them for helping. Top blokes and that was what it was all about.

BTW. During the rides on the pillion of his bike I nearly shat myself. From leaving the bike we rode 12 miles to town, and back, he stopped off on the way to fill with petrol, called home to put on a leather jacket, and we queued a short while in the shop. Yet we were gone for just over half an hour! :shock: