datlas 

Towards the end of today's ride, about a mile from home, I saw a cyclist sitting on the side of the road with his front wheel off. I slowed down and asked "you ok??" he said yes but he was obviously not fixing his flat, so I stopped anyway.

He said he was leading a group of boy scouts who were riding and working on the cycling merit badge, but he had a flat towards the end of his ride and his wife (who was apparently on the ride) took his pump and would be coming back, eventually. I gave him my pump and said he could/should go ahead and fix his flat. I watched him work on the flat and bit my tongue several times, as he was doing several things wrong, and eventually I had to start giving him step-by-step instructions, it took him quite a bit of time but he was able to patch his tube. While he was playing with the tube I was able to find and extricate the culprit shard that had caused the flat, it had penetrated the Gatorskin's tread and was just barely poking through the casing. In these situations I find it wiser to remove the shard from the tread side to avoid cutting any more of the cords. I gave him all my secret tips on patching a tube and reinstalling a tire, I had to demonstrate the "roll the tire over the rim" technique but he was able to get it done.

#GoodDeedOfTheDay