Pick it up & pass it on

There is no silly drawing here. I couldn't think of a single way of expressing the following visually, to be honest, but the subject matter is so important to me that without drawing it will have to be.

I believe, very strongly, in karma. No, wait, hang on I'm not going to go all religeous on you. Actually, as it turns out, quite a large amount of you do too.

Mr first experience of mtb karma was at Coed Llandegla. A friend on a rigid bike got dragged onto the blue, and after only a few 100 feet her gears were making the kind of noise you only ever imagine you will hear at 3am from the hotel room next to you. Upside down it went, the two blokes stroked their beards, out came the little tool of tricks and much whizzing and clanking could be heard. Almost every single person who went past while that bike was upside down offered to help. It's a trail centre, it was a weekend, you do the math. Only two people cycled past without a word. Two. By the time the lads had sorted it, my ears were ringing with 'got everything you need?', 'everything alright?', 'need a hand' and 'sure?'.  It was our first introduction to something I've always called pick it up and pass it on.

My second experience of mtb karma was on National Cycle Route 7. Yes, I know it's a roady route, it's covered in tarmac and it is very very long. None of these things are perhaps what you might first think of when the words mountain biking are mentioned. Bear with me. We'd gone because 1 of our group was far more happy on tarmac than mud, was riding a rigid, and in the spirit of fairness it was only right that after dragging her down the side of a blue route, we should accompany her on something more amenable to her riding style.

We had, after only 2 miles, a mechanical. I'm too embarassed to fess up as to what caused it. Suffice to say it's not only on trails I used to have an issue with gear selection and sudden increased gradients. Anyway. I may have dented a chain link. We may have ended up removing a chain link. We definitely ended up being accosted by a passing 'roady' who was in the middle of some ridiculously long epic 200 mile plus trek across Scotland and who produced from his ridiculously tiny pannier with all the aplomb of a street magician, a spare chain link. He definitely assured us it was absolutely fine, there was a bike shop in the next town 20 miles away and no, really, we were entirely welcome. And off he pedalled, leaving behind him two utterly bewildered 30 somethings, gobsmacked, and wondering what kind of world they'd been living in that such an act of unashamed kindness seemed so unusual. We were, it's fair to say, utterly floored. We were in the middle of nowhere, on a weekday, in Scotland, and out of nowhere appeared a helpful person.

The reason I call it pick it up and pass it on, is that I know, with the same certainty that because I live in East Lancs it will rain this week, that some day, somewhere down the line, we will ride past someone, offer to help, and it will be needed. We'll offer to help without self consciousness, without fear of being greeted with raised eyebrows, without reserve. See, once someone has got you out of a sharp corner with no thought for themselves, it makes you think. Really makes you think. About whether in another 100 miles, that lovely bloke on his road bike who might have had a mechanical, whether he would be lucky enough to have a happy passerby offer some help and advice or kit. I can safely say, with almost 100% confidence, that yes, someone would appear, and yes someone would offer to help. Because that's the way mountain bikers and roadies alike seem to roll.

Karma. Give something without thought of whether you will get it back, and you will get it back. Offer help, and even if it is not needed, you are passing on the sense of responsibility and trail etiquette to a new generation. Every time you offer, you are probably teaching someone that it's okay to offer. That the normal rules of the normal world do not apply out on the trails. No one will look at you like you're a psychopath for offering, instead they'll smile and pass on the offer, or bite your hand off with the eagerness of the uneducated. Either way, you will be paying your dues, because it will all come back to you, eventually.

For this reason, and many others, I am proud of the mountain biking community. For this reason, and many others, I can be vicious if random idiots start attacking it. But that's a rant for another day as well.