Our friend had a breakdown at Hudson Gardens Coffee House where we stopped for a banana and an orange. His back tire, already suspect when he left his house, was completely flat.
In all the years we've had our bikes, neither Deb nor I have had to change a tire. In fact, I don't have the required tools, or a pump, or a spare tube. But our friend does. After 30 minutes or so of fiddling around putting in a new tube, we found that it still wasn't holding air. We left him at the Platte River Tavern intending to bike back home, get the car with the bike rack, and go back to fetch him. Part way into the ride home, he called and said he had it fiddled to the point where he thought it would hold air for the trip back.
Learnings ...... carry trouble kit for the trip. And, we learned a bigger lesson about road bikers, pedestrians and others who use the bike trials around Denver. Broken down by the side of the path, many road bike riders asked if we were OK and whether we needed help, tools, or parts. Thankfully we didn't; thankfully, they were willing had we needed.
The flip side of the helping hands are the riders (to maintain the anonymity of the Denver Bicycle Touring Club riders, I won't mention any bicycling club names) who believe that they can exceed the speed limits on the bike paths (posted everywhere at 15 miles per hour), and that they actually own the side of the path they are riding on. They forget simple etiquette (like letting you know that they are coming), they yell obscenities at little old ladies out walking their dogs, they ....... well you get the picture. The ratio between the helpers to the "others" is like 15 to 1, so all-in-all the ride was very pleasant.
I always enjoy getting a different perspective on a city; one way to do that effectively is to ride through it on a bike.
Cheers!
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