Commuting - Forcing a repair on someone?

I saw this lady walking her bike down the road last night while I was going home and stopped to help her. Apparently her bike's so old that the tube just rotted out at the valve.
I put some air in but it only held for a minute. So I offered to see if I could patch it or replace it with a tube that I had (but wasn't sure if it'll fit since she had 25's and my tube was for 28-32's). Anyway I felt bad leaving her to walk home but she kept insisting that it was ok.

So I rode away. It would've been weird to force a repair on her heh.

I've found this sort of hesitation from a lot of different aspects such as a car broken down. Women in these situations are much more cautious and I think it's hard for men to understand that they are on their guard at this time and would rather walk than to take help from a stranger. To force it on her would have been really, really bad. Especially since she probably had one of her hands on a bottle of pepper spray. Best thing I think you could do is just offer. If she refuses your help, go about your business. Problem is there aren't enough people such as yourself to offer such help. Without ulterior motives that is....

So I rode away. It would've been weird to force a repair on her heh.

I'm picturing John Wayne into the sunset ...

All we can do is offer to help. It is up to the other person to accept or not.

I was wondering about this, If she'd had a pump I might have offered to leave her one of my spare tubes if she seemed like she would use it. But from what you describe she didn't have a pump. Perhaps an offer to use your cell phone might have been accepted? I don't know. I look like a crazy man sometimes when biking, so I'm not suprised if people refuse my offers to help. Although I taught a nice women in a suit with a rental car how to put on a spare tire once. She was extremely pissed off that she didn't know how to do it, and had me describe every step and point out anything that could go wrong.

She didn't have anything on her. I also offered the use of my phone but she said she had a phone on her.
I just didn't want to see the woman walking home near dusk on a 3 mile stretch of industrial road.

Problem is there aren't enough people such as yourself to offer such help. Without ulterior motives that is....
Who says he didn't have ulterior motives? ;) Anyways, it's up to people to accept or decline offers of help based on their motives, surrounding and common sense. She may have been wary of a stranger's help or she had resigned herself to walking or she was too embarassed to be fussed over. You can lead a horse to water...

Anyway I felt bad leaving her to walk home but she kept insisting that it was ok.

So I rode away. It would've been weird to force a repair on her heh.
Maybe she was wierded-out by that rubber glove of yours... :)

Some People (men and woman) just won't take help even if they or dieing. I'm kind of like that sometimes.

Who says he didn't have ulterior motives? ;) Anyways, it's up to people to accept or decline offers of help based on their motives, surrounding and common sense. She may have been wary of a stranger's help or she had resigned herself to walking or she was too embarassed to be fussed over. You can lead a horse to water...

Plus you never know what has happened to them in the past. Maybe some guy beat her over the head with a frame pump and then tied her up while he patched her tube and tightened her spokes. That would scare the hell out of me.

I don't know why, but I'd be less scared if the guy started talking about technical stuff on my bike, like, "Hey, I also noticed your trans-wrench Simolds cap sham is out of line. Want me to fix it?"

I guess I don't expect the typical assault perp to be a hardcore cyclist. Extremely specialized knowledge of the thing I happen to be doing AND a predator? Somehow, it does not compute in my mind. I know in reality that's not a safe conclusion, but my gut says otherwise.

On the other hand, bike maintenance would be the perfect racket for a serial perp. Hm.

The hand cuffs were actually in my chrome bag's secret stash pocket, so I don't know how on earth she knew where those were.

Yeah, I had a strange enounter with a co-worker that commutes about 2 miles away... his well worn semi-beach cruiser had a flat... he had no pump, no patch kit... nothing.

I offered a pump and patch kit and he just blew it off. I suggested a nearby LBS, and again it was shrugged off. He walked it home. About a week later I noticed a new tire (but no other maintenance) on his bike.

Guess some folks are just comfortable living on the edge.

I think some folks see the walk of shame as penance for their failure to maintain their stuff.

Probably this woman felt safer walking than accepting help.


Two weeks ago, I whipped out my multitool to fix another rider's broken chain on the commute home. After a 45 mile ride the next day, I noticed that I hadn't zipped my seatbag all the way, and my multitool had fallen out somewhere along the way. I'm trying not to take a "no good deed goes unpunished" outlook, but this just doesn't seem fair.

Sounds like an excellent reason to get a newer, better, multi-tool.

Just to even out the karma around here, I have a multi-tool lying around from Schwinn that's a generic version of the topeak alien tool. Its yours if you don't have a replacement tool.

The hand cuffs were actually in my chrome bag's secret stash pocket, so I don't know how on earth she knew where those were.


All you can do is offer, you did the right thing. Offering the phone is about as innocent a gesture as possible. I would be concerned for her safety too in that environment.

Maybe if you stopped wearing that Ninja outfit with the sword over your back it would help. :)
Keep the Katana, no one will know. ;)