oboeguy

Long story short, our apartment building has a fire safety guard 24/7/365. I get along particularly well with one of them. When he's on days, he sees me go out for rides and was inspired to get on his old Peugeot and do the bike commute from Crown Heights all the way up here to Washington Heights (something between 12-15 miles I estimate). I even rode part of his commute home with him one day by sheer coicidence as I was on my way to a bike safety rally at City Hall. Problem is, he's been getting lots of flats. The wife and I come home late tonight from a small show downtown to see this guy starting his night shift with a tube and some of the nastiest, old patches I've ever seen in his hands, shaking his head in frustration. The tube is covered in these patches and he's having trouble finding the latest leak on the tube. Five minutes later I am down there with a fresh tube so he could make it home and a real patch so he could see what to buy next time (fortunately we had some Schraeder valve tubes around for the wife's hybrid). He was relieved and thankful; I feel warm and fuzzy all over.

SingingSabre 

Good on you, mate. That's awesome.

Banzai

Maybe everyone in the building can take up a collection for some thorn resistant tires: Schwalbe Marathons or Specialized Armadillos to go with the new tube...

Good for you though. That was a very nice thing to do.

e_a_olson

+1 karma for you. Right-on!

jyossarian

Good on you OG! I'm from Crown Heights and you ain't kidding, that's a long hike to Washington Hts. and more hills than you'd think on Flatbush and Riverside.

sukram

That's great to hear. So many folks always saying NYers are such nasty people...

I almost did a good deed yesterday... Two young boys who play out back by a garage I rent by home (houses 2 bikes, one Civic, and too much junk...) often come up to see what I'm doing, they're just looking for something to do sometimes. Anyway... I was putting air in my tires before putting in the bike after riding home from work. One of them drags his rusty Pacifica up telling me he's got a flat. Sure enough, in the seriously worn down tread on the knobby, there's a bit of glass. I extract the glass, pull out my patch kit & tire irons and show the kids how to take off the tire and try to find the hole in the tube.

Eventually, we find the hole, and I let them patch it and put the tire back on. I let them get started on the pump, but it's a bit too high for them, they're not getting much pressure in there.

So I finish it off. I mean the tube. KAPOW! Blow out. Patch held fine though... I was just about at the right pressure, not sure if the tube was pinched somewhere, I should have double checked the work. At least the kids got an idea of how to do it...

So, I'm off to buy a 20" tube in a bit and see if I can figure out how to get those back pegs off so I can take off the rear wheel... Told them I'd fix it up for them. Felt responsible.

Well, at least I gave them something to talk about...

LittleBigMan

You should feel warm and fuzzy. Next, he needs to learn how to avoid flats so he doesn't get discouraged and give up riding. I feel this guy's pain. He's probably thinking, "how can this be worth the trouble?"

oboeguy

I tried to give him a bit of advice. I checked his rim tape and suggested he get it changed at a shop b/c it was looking ratty. Also I told him that another cause of flats was not inflating the tires enough (pinch flats). He was surprised by that but took me seriously.

bike2math

I work on a college campus and have been toying with the idea of distributing some lube to some of the regulars I see during my commute. There are couple whose chains I can hear from two blocks away. It sounds like someone is dragging a smashed up car along the road.