Repairing (a flat) is caring.
Elitist or just ... common sense?
Every person who rides a bike — road, gravel, mountain, urban, e-bike — should learn how to repair a flat.
I didn’t know this was a controversial thing to say, but apparently some people on the interwebs believe this sentiment somehow exhibits an elitist attitude to the sport.
There’s no rule book that mandates the things one must learn before riding a bike. But it’s a solid recommendation. Ask almost any cyclist why they enjoy the sport and they’ll tell you it’s the freedom it allows. The freedom of movement. The freedom of deciding which road to take, and how far you traverse it.
If you get a flat tire and don’t know how to change it, your freedom is gone.
Also, isn’t freedom sorta synonymous with self-sufficiency? Being self-sufficient means you know how to do stuff on your own. That you don’t need help from Google, or Youtube or your friend with a car.
Saying to a new rider he should learn how to repair a flat isn’t being discriminatory or exclusive or elitist. It’s caring.
It shows that I care about that person accessing the full joys of cycling. Riding a bike is an empowering thing. Isn’t also knowing how to fix your bike part of the empowerment?
What this statement is not saying is that a new rider cannot get out on the bike until he learns how to repair a flat. This isn’t a skill one must have before enjoying the sport. No. Learning a skill takes time and it takes, sometimes, many efforts. If a friend who is just getting started in the sport had a flat during a ride and I was with him, I wouldn’t just stand there with a blank, apathetic face and wait for him to figure it out. I’d offer to help by lending a tool or a hand.
Consider LeBron James.
He just became the highest scoring player in NBA history. You think he did that by never learning how to tie his shoes? You think he did that by never learning the mechanics of the lay up? The dunk? The assist? Nah.
I don’t know, man. This whole movement of inclusivity at the expense of sparing someone’s feelings seems … careless. To me, it’s more inflammatory to ignore someone’s inability to repair a flat. You’re essentially disregarding a great opportunity to teach that person something new because you’re afraid the suggestion is somehow going to scare them out of the sport.
What do you think, cycopaths? Am I missing something here? Is it elitist or gatekeeper-ish to suggest riders should know how to repair a tire?
Yep. It’s self sufficiency. Not sure it’s elitism….thinking more it’s also self interest and self discipline. On the two long (800+ miles) tours I’ve done… part of the group training was everyone in the safety of our meeting space learning how to change out both the front and back tires…even the younger riders turned into a competition to see if it could be accomplished in under 3 minutes…not exactly a nascar pit time. And there is something pleasing about the accomplishment.
I think it’s important to value self-sufficiency, as most cyclists either do or come to do. But the intimidation associated with the culture of (some parts of, which may represent to some the whole field of) cycling runs deep, so I am sympathetic to people sensitive to anything with the slightest whiff of gatekeeping. I am lucky I live and bike in places where transit service and car-sharing with roof-mounted bike rack service is relatively plentiful and generally a short stroll from anywhere I might ride, and this generally felt safe enough, as a transportation cyclist averaging 10-30km per day that was also the runt of every gym class, for me not to carry a spare on every ride. I learned to change a flat back when stooping down to fit a bead under a rim didn’t make my chronic lower back pain flare (due to surgery at 12yo) for at least 36h. It’s true I feel slightly better having practiced recently, or staying current on the contents of the patch kit. We don’t all bike for the same reason, and there is no inherent morality attached to any of those reasons - nor to your suggestion on the practicality of being skilled enough to overcome an issue; nor to me managing my vulnerability to flats within the constellations of options, limitations, preferences and assets (like riding with someone else) that are before me.