Have you ever had a puncture when the bicycle shops are shut and needed to buy an inner tube to fix your bike ?This vending machine on the wall of a bike shop in Assen provides cyclists with a place to find a new inner tube 24 hours a day.
Provided, that is, that they know where it is (it was in Groningerstraat. Unfortunately it's gone now. There's another in a village a little way south of Assen).
There are also vending machines for whole bikes and for emergency bike lights. If you need Continental Inner Tubes, or a whole range of other quality bike components, we have them in our webshop, which is also open 24 hours a day and which has lower prices than this machine.
That's a great idea. There are quite a lot of bike shops around Portland, often on bike routes, and it would be great to have that kind of product available like that at any time.
ReplyDeleteI just got a Continental tire for my bike, incidentally. Seems to be quite well made (much better than the Heng Shin tires that came with the bike). I usually carry around an extra Schwalbe tube with me just in case, though thankfully it's been a while now since I've had a flat.
hehe - sorry the first thing that sprang to mind when I saw this was a condom machine. You'd get some very confused punters ...
ReplyDeleteIt is very telling - it only makes economic sense because cycling is so popular over there. Here, I don't leave home without a spare.
ReplyDeleteYour're right, Coco. I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I find that punctures are a rarity here.
ReplyDeleteThe combination of cycle-paths keeping you away from the detritus of cars on the roads, the high level of cleanliness and bottles having a deposit on them so that they have value combines to result in much less broken glass to run over than was the case in the UK.
We have these here as well- not everywhere, but I have seen them before.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree about the deposit bottles thing as well, we find less broken bottles here as well, and less plastic bottles chucked about since they had a deposit put on them.
I think that is a brilliant idea,badly needed over here in Dublin.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to what you said about it being very clean. Here at Night time you can come across broken Bottles on the Cycle Paths either on the Roads or the few off Road Cycle Paths. They the Chavs seem to do this on purpose,hoping you burst your Tyre in the Dark.
Our Bottle Banks are Lethal,one Evening in the Dark I went to my Local Supermarket and also to the Attached Bottle Bank at the side of the Supermarket off on its own.I put the Bottles in the various big Plastic Bins and Cycled back to the Supermarket and locked up my Bike and went inside to buy Groceries. when I came out I got on the Bike to go Home and discovered I had a Puncture after Cycleing a few hundred Metres,luckily enough I had only a Kilometre to walk Home.
So in future I never bring the Bike to the Bottle Bank but leave it locked up to the Bike Rack outside the Supermarket and walk down to the Bottle Bank.Most of our Supermarkets Bottle Banks on the Ground is full of Broken Glass.So if you cant fix your Puncture or no spare Inner Tube or do not have a spare Bike you are in trouble. Most People that I know have a spare Bike in case of Emergencies if they have a Puncture and no Bike Shop open.So yes it is a great Idea.
That's a great idea! Are tubes in the machine the same price as in the shop?
ReplyDeleteOh dear, it must be my age and my nationality, but I'm very confused. That's not what continental rubber discreetly available from a handy machine has ever meant to me - at least until now. Or am I being taken for a ride here (as it were)?
ReplyDeleteSomething you'll never see in the UK and numerous counts:
ReplyDeleteIt's be smashed up by drunks. It'll be smashed up by youths.
A car will crash into it.
Someone will try to steal from it.
No local authority will pay/sub it.
Percentage of UK cyclists who know how to change an inner tube is too low to warrant installation.
Lack of use will mean tubes perish.
It'd be loaded with cheapest cr*p possible.
>hehe - sorry the first thing that >sprang to mind when I saw this was a >condom machine. You'd get some very >confused punters ...
ReplyDelete...and possibly rather insecure given the sizes available!
Its a nice idea, but I must admit I usually repair my tube on the bike (unless its suffered a catastrophic failure), which is faster than changing the tube. ...and as MattP says, cycle use in the UK is regrettably limited, so the stock would probably perish before it was bought.
ReplyDelete