"We need air pumps in every bar!" we cried out loud after several buffet-owners just stared at us with glassy eyes when asked whether they had an air pump to lend and the recommended service shop nearby was closed, too. Balaton Bike Ring is great, but the circumstances are not so much.
Imagine that you're standing in the middle of - let's say - Balatonkenese on a burning hot Sunday afternoon with a flat tyre, and it seems there is no solution at all. After an hour-long quest to find - not the Lost Ark - a bicycle pump, a guy from one of the stores on the shore helped us with his air pump used for inflating balls. It worked for a while, but he couldn't help us with changing the tyre. After asking for help at a couple of places, it turned out that it would be much easier if we wanted to eat shrimp risotto.
gas station is still the only hope
We should be proud of Balaton Bike Ring, because it is a well-constructed, nice, comfortable bike road, which takes us through beautiful places and there are many resting points for cyclists. No wonder it is so popular to ride around Balaton from spring until fall that on a summer weekend in Balatonfüred bicycle traffic jams could become an issue. In the early season everyone mostly prepares for the weekends, but if there's bright sunny weather it's quite rational that people will want to hop on their bikes.
Still, the service shops we found were all closed on Sunday. We're not saying that the repair crew doesn't deserve some rest, but why are they having a nap on the 12 summer weekends, when bikers would buy water, pump some air into their tyres, or look for help with a flat tyre? Despite the bike road and bicycle tourism the gas stations remain the fix points for the poor bikers who only need some air and their tyre is alright. A flat tyre would probably be a big challenge for the gas stations as well.
Our saviours: Yacht Kemping and Tourinform
Tourinform never disappoints: we solved our service shop problem with the help of the first Tourinform along the way. The girl behind the desk made a few phone calls, and she could find an open service shop in Balatonalmádi's Yacht Kemping. We had to spend an hour with a few glasses of fröccs in Yacht Kemping to wait for the repairman who in reality fixes paddle boats, but he repaired the tyre very quickly: 10 minutes after he showed up we were on our bikes again. We have no reason to complain, because we were not in a rush and Yacht Kemping is a pleasant place near the shore.
