MMACH 5

Carry a spare tube and pump. Instead of shame, you get to feel pride in fixing something and getting back on the road.

MMACH 5

I consider it a walk of shame if I have to get off the bike to walk up a hill. It hasn't happened to me in Dallas in years. However, this summer in Seattle, one of their hills, downtown was enough to have me pushing the bike up the sidewalk.

Gresp15C

For me, it was an old Sturmey Archer coaster brake hub that locked up when I applied the brakes too hard. First, I nearly fell over, then I had to carry the bike home.

I never figured out what was wrong with that hub, and now it sits on a shelf in my garage.

wolfchild

Yep, happened to me last year. I was on a narrow MUP coming around a blind corner and got into a head on collision with another cyclists. I went over the bars, my front wheel got tacoed and the rim snapped. I walked home carrying my bike about 2 miles. Got my other bike and was on my way to work along the same route.

martianone

i did have to walk a bike to my destination on two separate occasions - each time due to a blown RD.
wouldn't call it a walk of shame.

john4789

I've never had to walk my bike more than 2 miles on a 10 mile commute so I'd say that's pretty good.

That being said my wife and I were riding the tandem to a charity run downtown one day. Got a flat on the way. Changed it. Got another flat. We were on an industrial stretch and had to *run* the bike to a major avenue crossing about 3/4 miles away (we were on an industrial corridor). Locked it up. Taxi to the run. Ran the run. Buy t00bs. Taxi to the bike. Fix and ride bike...... another flat!!! Walk it to friends house that we were headed to. Get drunk. Leave it there. Pick it up with car the next day. Ugh.

We put about 8 miles on the tandem that day and 12 miles on our feet.

psy

Mechanicals are mechanicals, and I've had a few, but I've always equated the walk of shame as walking up a hill I can't ride up. Now that's shame.

erig007

Me too

rhm

Last year I rode my bike to the doctor's office for a routine something or other. They don't have a bike rack, so I put the cable through the frame and both wheels and locked it that way. Came out to discover I had not brought my keys! Had to carry the bike home, about two miles. It's not a lightweight one, either, so maybe 35 pounds.

I know, I know, two miles, what am I complaining about? Two miles is nothing. Sure felt like more, though!

Phil_gretz

I'm confused a bit. I always thought that the "walk of shame" had something to do with a mechanical for which a reasonable rider would have been prepared but I was not. Something like having to walk the bike because of a flat tire.

About getting off and walking up a climb... Mountain biking aside, because there are many loose, steep, unwieldy climbs in mountain bike riding, there is only one road where I have to dismount and walk the bike. I've attempted it three times and have not been able to scale it.

It's Monument Road in Middletown, MD, leading up to Washington Monument State Park. Granted, at this point, I've ridden ~60 miles from home or so, but the pitch has to be in the high teens. The road is relentlessly climbing and when it pitches upward, it just sucks the life from your legs. Unable to turn the lowest gear any more ...

But, that's the only one that I can recall. Maybe I don't get around enough.

Leebo

Chain tool and a singlespeed fix would have worked.

Supermau

This June I was riding home from a late night at work, around 10pm, when my rear tire went limp. I never found the culprit but it left a perfectly round tack sized hole in my tire and tube. In prepping my spare tube I discovered that it was in fact trashed which really pissed me off since it was only a couple months old. Long story short, I walked it five miles back home in a nice summer rain and got in around 12:30.

In retrospect I could have patched the flat tube as I had a kit and it was repairable. But, I was exhausted, flustered, and having issue with my minipump as well. It all added up to me walking.

The next day I sussed out my issue with the mini pump (couldn't get it to grab my Presta valve and hold). No shame, but a valuable learning experience. Though I've changed tires and tubes multiple times here at home, that was my first on-road emergency and I screwed it up. Next time I'll be prepared to get it right.

Daniel4

Just had a flat yesterday night. It was dark and I didn't see the pot hole as I rode right into it and popped my tube. It was only 4 km from home so I slowly rode it home with a flat. I had a spare and a patch kit with me but I didn't want to deal with it in the dark.

Hint: Check that the contact cement in your patch kit isn't all dried up or empty.

Darth Lefty 

And the neosporin and bandaids while you're at it!

sci_femme

Me three. The only shame is being inept enough to fix a minor mechanical like a flat or broken chain. Everything else - that's what husbands, SUVs and LBSs are for.

adavis84

Last week, I was prepping one of my bikes to sell so I took my flat kit and frame pump off to take pictures. I needed to run to the LBS 2 miles away to get bar tape as the shop around the corner was out of what I wanted. It was easier just to hop on this bike rather than get my other out so about 1/2 mile into the trip there, I manage to hit a pothole I already know exists (and have successfully avoided hundreds of times). Boom! Rear pinch flat. Did "the walk" to and from the shop since I had the time. That was literally the first time I've been out without a pump/repair kit in years! Also my first flat of the year!

Outnumbered

The eye sapped off my bike frame where my pannier frame attaches. I took my plastic grocery store bag (use it for carrying lunch) cut it into three long strips wrapped the strips around each other for strength Then tied frame it around my frame emptied bag on that side into other bag and went real slow the last 8 miles home.

vol

This may not 'walk of shame', but being a loyal customer to the LBS where I bought my bike, once when I had a flat (the only time in that bike's life time, which turned out to be a punctured rim tape), instead of getting it fixed at one of the several bike shops within 3 minutes of walk, I took the bike to the subway (carrying it down/up stairs), walked 20+ minutes from subway station to the LBS to have the tube replaced. My shame here is not the loyal walk, but maybe the fact that I couldn't fix the flat by myself.

Hugh Morris

I had one aggressively geared SS that had me hanging my head on steep uphills. Those walks were shameful. Now I'm geared; can't deal with spinning out on downhills that immediately precede taller climbs.

Mechanical walk of shame- got a flat 4 miles from home with no phone or convenient public transit solution, and could not re-mount a 25 gatorskin to a bontrager fairlane rim. I considered using the tire levers but i have ruined tires/tubes in the past using tools to get that last little bit over the edge.

I bought a plastic tire jack because of that incident; the one the dude at the LBS had to use on that tire/rim combo, as he could not do it with his hands either.

The upside to that flat: About a mile into the long walk back, a cyclist pulls over and asks if I need assistance. I explain the problem and that I'm fine with walking, and whaddyaknow the guy is trying to recruit me for his church. Even though I made it clear as soon as I knew what was happening that I wasn't going to be visiting his church, he walked the other 3 miles with me, being neither overbearing or unwelcome. I felt no pressure from him, and we had open and unoffensive dialogue that explored different interpretations of religion, science, and the earth on which all the tangible exists but most importantly passed the time.

It was all in all a pleasant experience.

pat0115

Happened to me this morning, on only my 3rd ride on my new Cannondale Quick Speed 1. Had a total blowout in the rear, I think I might have overinflated the tire before I left for the ride. A 30 mile ride turned into a 7 mile ride and a 5 mile walk with the bike, back to my car. That was not fun as I do not enjoy walking in the least! Next time, I am parking my car dead center of my route so that I minimize the walk just in case it ever happens again.

pdlamb

I don't think of it as a "walk of shame" any more. It should be considered a "walk of fame" or some such. I've ridden so far that things have worn out, or in a few cases defective manufacturing showed up. Tread delaminated from the tire? Not my fault, the tire wasn't worn out. Busted crank? Hey, I wore that out! Bearing wore out and pedal came apart? Ditto. Seatpost cracked and folded? Double ditto, how many people put 50,000 miles on a seatpost? Be proud of riding so far and so hard!

YogaKat

I had a tire blowout yesterday due to not replacing the tires when I should have (that's the shame part for me.)

I just switched my app to a walking workout and trekked 3 miles along the trail until I could get to a place where my husband could pick me up.

kickstart

You mean I'm supposed to be ashamed of walking a 3 speed with a low of 42 gear inches up a 18% grade?

What about the roadies I passed on a 10% grade on the same ride?

ciderguy

Sometimes I need to take an important phone call on my commute home. So, I end up walking on the sidewalk and talking on the phone. I don't mind it, but I generally ride in trainers or clip-in DZRs that are comfortable to walk in, my whole work commute is only about 6 miles, and there is sidewalk almost the entire trip.

kuroba

Yes, twice this year I had a flat during my ride to work. The first time it was around 10kms away from the office so I called a coworker to pick me up. Last time I was 3kms away and walked. Now I learned how to fix a flat, and haven't had one since lol.