I'm sure smartphones don't help but I think a bigger problem is how people are overly paranoid these days and will call the cops over just about anything. Including unattended kids riding around the neighborhood.


Sounds about right. I know for sure that my ability to use a regular kanji dictionary has suffered. I've always been terrible at remembering how to actually write though, so I can't blame spell check for that at least.

Most adults aren't doing much better...

I used to think this but try to see that their reality isn't better or worse, just different. Our world is just a story to them.

I work with the elderly and the men constantly relate that their life was just work work work. No fun, no vacation out of the ordinary. I'm sure to them my generation must seem very self indulgent with all our time off to have fun and travel and "express" ourselves, stretchy pants and all. Probably their generation couldn't understand why they didn't want to march off to war like cannon fodder for glory.

What's really trippy is trying to imagine what our kids kids will be doing. Maybe it will be like Wall - e or maybe they will all be living off the grid in tiny houses and riding bamboo bicycles.

It becomes all about doing the task properly and efficiently (whatever it is) without the assisting tech available. It may be fun to watch a McDonald's manager and staff try to operate when the computer drops out some afternoon, but figuring firing coordinates or single gun multiple round simultaneous impacts by hand becomes labored and dangerously slow inaccurate if the hands-on skill was never learned and practiced.

Yeah... and repair parts (tub/tire at a min.), water, 1st aid kit, tools, protection from the weather and sun, GPS/Phone, helmet, food, sleeping gear, more water..... this is all of course for real "bike touring" - Bicycle touring means self-contained cycling trips for pleasure, adventure, and autonomy rather than sport, commuting, or exercise. Touring can range from single-to multi-day trips, even years. Do you need a tire patch kit to ride to the grocery store, probably not? Are you stupid if you don't have one when you ride to the grocery store? Yes. Do you need a GPS to ride 100 miles to a specific location? No, a map will do for a lot of people. Is a map necessary? Most people will admit they think so. All a GPS is, is an electronic map. Common sense. After this, it becomes about higher degrees of comfort and convenience -vs- weight. The use of electric assist allows for more comfort and convenience. Multi year rides are about living on the bike, that changes opinions on what is "absolutely" necessary.

Guess I am stupid since I never take one (or a spare tube) when I ride the one mile from my house to the grocery store. If I were to get a flat I would rather walk home and take care of it rather than patch (or even change) a tube and pump while sitting on the sidewalk.

When I want to walk I go for a walk. When I want to ride... I ride. When my bike gets a flat I repair it, usually in less than 15 mins. and I keep riding. It's all about degrees. Does someone with severe allergies carry an epi-pen? Of course, they do, just stupid not to. Could I walk my bike to some other location to repair a flat? Sure, why would I? The real question is why wouldn't someone... wait!!!! We already answered that, didn't we?

not stupid....you simply choose where you want to draw the line.
it's maybe not worth carrying extra stuff for a short, local ride,
say a mile to the circle K for lucky strikes and chew.

but change the parameters a bit.....the vittles store is 5 miles away.
you're returning with 2 saddlebags full of beer and beef jerky and
cheeze whiz (big date tonight, just the essentials!) and you get a
flat 1/2 mile from the store........

When I was a teenager growing up in Maine, I worked at a bike shop. I rode my Raleigh Grand Prix all over Hell and Creation, and never carried a thing with me. My girlfriend's house was five miles away, and used to ride there daily. I don't remember ever having a flat back then! Of course, I'm probably jinxing myself for the rest of my life just uttering that now, but wth.

Nowadays I have a saddlebag with tools, patches, etc, on every bike in my stable.

Besides yourself and the bicycle, without which you can't do a bicycle tour, the only things you absolutely need are a cool head, decent coping skills, and a positive attitude.

Everything else is only about varying degrees of comfort.

One time I got 4 wire holes at once on a century day ride. Fixed 3 and had trouble with the 4th, plus I was getting swarmed by mosquitoes. So I pumped the tire as fast as I could and rode as fast as I could a half or 3/4 mile till it went half flat. It got me 7 miles to the town wal-mart.

Guess I am just into efficiency. Why spend 15 min. sitting on the sidewalk changing a flat in the situation I mentioned when I can simply walk. But whatever. Maybe it's a big city thang, you know what I'm sayin'?

I don't usually sit when I patch a tube and/or replace it, but get what you're saying. I can still understand the thinking of someone that doesn't ride. If you walked where I ride daily you wouldn't call what you were doing efficient.

Same thing Friday night on the way to the state park; about 4-5 miles out I apparently picked up a wire in the back tire. Got stopped and started pondering taking the panniers off so I could flip the bike, and I was already swarmed. Hosed on some DEET, pumped it to about 50PSI, and hammered a half mile before it was too flat to ignore again. Lather, rinse, repeat. (Glad it was the back as the last hill was good for a no-pedal 30mph descent to the gate.) In the morning, found the wire, patched the tube, got it all back together and around 65PSI...the valve stem failed where it attaches to the tube.

And that's why I always carry a patch kit and a spare tube.

And then annoyingly, today the front tire was low. Glass shard worked its way through. Pretty sure that was from a busted bottle I ran over while dodging a pothole about 20 miles back.

Time for

:

This should be a good one!!!

PS: Go INDY!

So it takes 20 minutes to actually walk that mile. A 15 minute patch job would then certainly take longer than the walking option since you still need to ride the distance as well.

apples and rutabagas.

20 minutes to walk a mile (more like 15 minutes if in good shape)?
NOT if you carrying your loaded touring bike, or pushing it with a flat tar.

The way I figure it, as a good cycling tourist, you've weighed the risks and the probabilities of a flat within a mile are pretty low. Even moreso, the remedy is pretty simple, too.

There are times when I have ridden some distance without tube and repair kit because I had forgotten to change over the gear from one bike to another. Living on the edge? Maybe. Stupid? Far from it, because the incidents gave me more data points to consider the risk of riding one mile the store and back again without a kit.

I've even ridden the last 10km of a century by stopping, inflating the tyre, riding about a two kilometre, inflating the tyre again... rinse and repeat. No damage to tyre or wheel. It was quicker to do that than stop and repair.

I've also ridden the last two kilometres on a work commute on a flat front, on more than one occasion.

Don't spend your time lookin' around,
For something you want but can't be found,
When you find out you can live without,
And go along not thinkin' about it,
I'll tell you something true,

The bare necessities of life will come to you!

But also the Ten Essentials - some of which are less essential if you aren't leaving civilization.
Navigation... which in the original backpacking sense it was a map and compass, but on roads could just be a map.
Sun protection
Layers
Flashlight
First aid kit
Fire
Tools - jackknife, baling wire, tape
Food - GORP
Water
Shelter

Toiletries and cooking are luxuries, but good ones.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Tra...hair/178622317

Fits perfectly on top of my rack, wedged under the seat bag that holds my spare tube, patch kit and multitool.

Now I just need a reasonably priced portable repair stand that will slide into its bag and I'll be all set.

folding solar panel (anker worked fine for me)

10000mah battery pack or larger

dual USB port AC plug in (i had a single port and was waking up in the middle of to night to change what was charging)

Body glide (cycling version)

Coffee, donuts and payday candy bars

Money, you need to eat plus get coffee and donuts + emergency hotel stops pend your area.