[Closed] How many of you carry a first aid kit on your rides?

Cloudnine - what mobile phone?

I carry a first aid kit so that I can keep on riding in case of minor injuries. It's probably not going to save my life.

My "kit" contains:

Strong pain killers
Anti-histimine tablets (insect bites and stings)
Saline for eyes
Strapping and wound pads
Antiseptic spray (the stinging is reassuring)
Tweezers
Knife (to cut off arm in case it get's stuck between rocks)

And in case it gets more serious:

First aid training
Phone
REGA membership (Swiss mountain rescue)

I've used all the things at some time (except the REGA - but friends have used that as well). I ride in some pretty remote places and can't normally just roll down the hill to get picked up by my mum

Searches rupertpostlethwaite's post for traces of irony and fails to find any.

+1

**searches some of Rupert's other posts** still not sure.

cloudnine - Member
Make sure you have also registered your phone with Emergency SMS 999
which allows you to text the emergency services when there is no signal..

http://www.emergencysms.org.uk/

if you dial 999 in a poor signal area all other mobile traffic is reduced to allow a 999 signal to any network transmitter.. i think its the same with emergencysms

Ive never dialled or txt 999 with no signal to test the theory tho

Saline pods are also good for stuff in eyes or for cleaning wounds etc

Adds to list. Not big but don't always have clean water

I'm surprised by the number of people mentioning 'strong pain relief'. I thought this was an absolute no-no when dealing with injured people ?
Or do we all go around like something out of Apocalypse Now with ampoules of morphine stuck in our helmets ?

@cloudnine, it's a good backup to have in any case. Cheers for the tip.

I too always thought strong pain relief was a no-no when dealing with injured people, and it is illegal to administer anything that isn't OTC to anyone else.

Cloudnine - that's not strictly true, it's that 999 calls can be made on any network, irrespective of which one your SIM is on.

Space Blanket
Fleece Top
Mars Bar
GPS enabled phone wrapped in cling film with app to show coordinates.

These things live in my Camelback.

I always carry a small kit in my rucksack. With enough duct tape wound around a pencil to strap a broken collarbone 😉 . When I'm out with the kids, I think it's only a matter of time before I'll need it.

It's like a pump - take it and you won't need it. Leave it behind and...

EDIT: and yes trained to use it.

survival bag!?! just pack the kitchen sink too. Unless you're heading off to the proper wilderness there's a fair chance you'd be found by a walker/rider anyway

Really?

3 good reasons to use one,
1) I can go for a walk and within 10 minutes of leaving Wokingham not see another person on the footpaths all day. Depite the fact it's pretty much one continuous urban sprawl in either direction from london to birmingham!
2) It's bright orange and big, so even if you're not using it for warmth/shelter, it's a massive cry for help to anyone that can see it.
3) Break a leg and however close you are to civilisation you're probably going nowhere.

Add to that that most MTB'ers pack light, often with not much more than a spare jacket/jersey for the cafe stop then the potential for getting very cold, very quickly if it rains or gets dark is a potential best mitigated against!

rusty90 - Member
Searches rupertpostlethwaite's post for traces of irony and fails to find any.
POSTED 33 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Can you please explain? 🙄

TJ, stronger than OTC? iz yu a nurse prescriber blud?! hook a bruva up

freeagent - Member

I too always thought strong pain relief was a no-no when dealing with injured people, and it is illegal to administer anything that isn't OTC to anyone else.

If I have a broken leg up a mountain then I want something proper strong now. NO messing around. I was given a script by my GP for this purpose.

Phil- Oh yes - proper shizzle

Can you please explain?

I think they were alluding to C-y-B, and most 'trail centers' being pretty tame in the grand scheme of thing and usualy thought of as the idal place to take someone who want's to try mountainbiking as a complete novice as the trails are usualy designed to maximise your visibility of obstacles in advance, offer alrenative chicken runs and limit the penalties for failure by building tabletops rather than doubles, berms to catch people cornering too quickly, drop offs that can be rolled etc etc.

In my Camelbak I always carry a space blanket, a phone, some electrical tape and an energy gel.

Have used the tape plus a buff/tissues (and clean water from camelback) a couple of times for gashes on shins and palms.

Agree with much of the sentiment on here that scrapes can be cleaned up after a shower.

PS also used to work as a first aider, qualification long since expired but most of the important knowledge retained!

Can you please explain?

I thinktis adds to the debate about accident rates and so on - if you ride with crashers or are one yourself then maybe you need this with you
[img] [/img]

after all - you can never be too safe can you?

ok, i carry a knife and a blowtorch, if something hurts, cut it off then set at the wound with the blowtorch.

for anything else there's the my good company and ability to alert and guide the emergency services to the exact location using nothing but interpretive dance and using the light shining out of my arse to flash S.O.S into the sky.

Isn't the pain killer thing a bit of case of MTFU?

I'm super hard and rode 5 miles round Gisburn with a broken wrist, stopped for a pint, then drove home. It hurt quite a bit.

I don't want to MTFU If I get properly hurt I want opiates and lots of them immediately

On every occasion when i got out cycling be it with my riding group or by oneself,
it is a must to carry my 1st aid kit with me much similar to this one here [img] [/img]

i do have some morphine pills
but plenty of painkillers Aswell as
Anti-histimine tablets
Saline
Strapping - wound pads
plastic gloves
Antiseptic spray
Tweezers
Knife
scissors
Space Blanket
Fleece Top
energy bars
GPS enabled phone
lipsyl
small stove sometimes
whistle
also reflective clothing is a must!be seen,be safe,be heard!

I just carry a simple Ambulance dressing - it can support a broken arm, tie a broken leg and (even) help stop critical levels of bleeding. Anything less can wait until you get home, anything more you aint gonna help much in the middle of nowhere, unless you carry a Defib, Portex Chest Drain Kit, Thomson Splint or MARS Resuscitator.
All IMHO opinion of course.

i'm guessing nobody else has been sensible enough to grab one of the defib machines from their local supermarket or trainstation to take riding then? 🙄

fools the lot of you.

'm guessing nobody else has been sensible enough to grab one of the defib machines from their local supermarket or trainstation to take riding then?

i did when i rode up snowdon yes!

Plaster? WTF. If someone is bleeding, someone takes a top off and ties it round. I would never carry serious painkillers. Not good for the professionals who turn up and have to then hand you over to A&E etc if you've self-administrated (confused) or don't have the training etc.

Better to stick with good waterproofs packed, food, tell someone where you are going, ID and a phone and a properly working bike with shared spares.

rash pack in Camelbak, or bigger pack when bivvying

not when on the road or only out for a couple of hours

I'm with djaustin's sentiment "take one so hopefully won't need one!!"

Although used antiseptic wipes and dressings on quite a few occasions, including someone skewered on brake lever!

1st aid kit really just out of habit and fact its always in camelbak along with, in my opinion, more important space blanket. Oh and also tick pullers.

I always carry a small kit round with me, plus an emergency blanket, even when not cycling. It's light, and doesn't take up much room in the bottom of my rucksack. When an incident needs less than an ambulance something the best kit is your personal reassuring presence by being seen by the 'victim' to treat them, reducing shock.

In the past, heading to [s]potential riot[/s] demos with the Met posting ahead of it online they're going to "get theirs" I carry fully fleshed out kits with stuff like large bandages from a bomb blast kit liberated during some urban exploring. Similar to standard issue infantry bandages. But many injuries for cyclists out in the country there's not a lot you can do with a small kit: ankle/knee/hip/chest/spine. I certainly doubt anyone here is carrying a knife and tube to deal with windpipe issues from allergic reactions.

I'm not one for taking small doses of it before doing anything to pre-empt where I'm at risk of impact, like some rugby players I knew......but I do carry ibrobrufen so I can get home after a major impact. I don't need the painkilling attributes of drugs, but I have frequently needed the temporary mobility offered by anti-inflammatories.

knife and tube to deal with windpipe issues from allergic reactions.

Blade on my multitool, chop a chunk off someones camelback hose 🙂

Meh, is it time for this thread again so soon?

Duct tape and clean hankie, or dirty hankie, or buff or T-shirt.

Antiseptic wipes are a waste; they don't do anything except make smooth undamaged skin a bit cleaner.

Space blankets really are a waste; they are good for Christmas turkey in foil impressions, but if you need that kind of protection, a big orange survival bag is far better.

The most important thing is the knowledge and the intelligence to apply said knowledge in a calm, sensible way.

I'm also not 100% sure about people carrying round prescription only pain killers; they can interfere with any assessment, and can, undoubtedly, make head injury or other loss of conciousness events more difficult to assess.

Small kit [platers, bandage etc]

I've used it about 5 or 6 times and quite glad of it.

Training is useful,,,,, but any First Aid is better than none.

As I would rather see myself and those around me safe rather than in pain or worse I carry:

Space blanket (in water compartment)
Duck tape (wrapped around pump)
Sling
Non stick absorbent dressing
Narrow gauze
Antiseptic wipes and cream
Zinc oxide tape
Micropore tape
Large heavy duty plaster
Superglue
Small tubes of saline (much appreciated by contact lens wearers)
Glucose tablets
Ibuprofen
Scissors (on penknife)

Packs to the same size as 2 medium apples. No reason at all not to carry it.

I know what to do with it and have had to use it. The piss wet through guy in the Cheviots last March with the dislocated collarbone and hole in his knee was particularly grateful, especially as he had no mobile reception, no real knowledge of what was wrong with him or how to fix it. He was just slowly walking towards the nearest road about 5 km away. Blue, shivvering and barely able to speak.

Maybe a bit out of the ordinary but a salutary lesson none the less.

I'm carrying ATLS training and sometimes a bivvi bag or silver jacket if it's wild. If there was one thing I'd like the folk I'm riding with to carry it would be some sort of trauma skills training/knowledge rather than any specific item, death is usually related to lack of airway support in the first instance, disability is related to not having your neck/spine looked after.

As regard "anti-inflammatories" above, there's nothing inflammatory about injury, they're good painkillers but some evidence suggests that they can impair healing of ligament and bone injury, the population is being conned by these pharmaceutical companies.

i'm guessing nobody else has been sensible enough to grab one of the defib machines from their local supermarket or trainstation to take riding then

I actually had a client once who expressed shock that we (the guides at The White Room) don't carry defibs. He told us that "every other guide he knows carries one".

He's a regular poster on here, so I won't name and shame! 😆

EDIT:

Oh, and yes, I carry a decent 1st-aid kit when guiding. When riding with mates, I usually throw it in the pack too. If I'm on my own, riding locally, I don't usually bother (often don't ride with a pack at all).

My guiding pack has a couple of big military/ambulance dressings, triangular bandage, steri-strips, iodine and duct tape. Some plasters too, because people ask me for them and get shocked if I don't have any!

I make this recommendation every time this thread appears - space blankets are pretty useless in typical wet/windy UK conditions. Get a classic orange survival bag, cut it open to make a sheet, then tape a space blanket to the inside. The two together work pretty well.

Oh, and as guides/outdoor 1st aiders, we're not allowed to give ANY medication at all, with 2 exceptions:

1. Epi-pen for anaphylactic shock
2. Aspirin for heart attack

I carry a small 1st aid kit that I put together myself after getting some experience of my own typical mtb type injuries.

I carry some spray plaster, zinc oxide tape, a couple of bandages, steri-strips, some gauze pads and some 10cmx10cm self adhesive wound dressings and a little bottle of wound wash.

I've targeted it specifically as a 'patch-up-an-get-on-with-the-ride' type of kit. I've no illusions that its going to save me from any number of possible accident scenarios - I've got first aider training to further help with that.

These first aid threads always deteriorate into the same arguments because some people think that a 1st aid kit is a survivalist tool kit, some think its a portable ambulance and other think that its all completely pointless. The key is in the name - FIRST aid.

Re aspirin

That's an interesting one. Asthmatics and folk who are on warfarin (excuse the spelling) can have conditions made worse by aspirin according to the first aid book I was studying last night.

Right. I'm off to add a lighter, superglue and glucose to my kit.

Cheers

Yes I carry one all the time.
Yes it assisted saving a mates life once.
Yes I carry one all the time at work, and in car, and in all rucsacs...

Re aspirin

That's an interesting one. Asthmatics and folk who are on warfarin (excuse the spelling) can have conditions made worse by aspirin according to the first aid book I was studying last night.

That is interesting Sanny, I hadn't heard that. Did my last refresher about a year ago, so I'm reasonably up to date and advice was still to give anyone you thought was having a heart attack an aspirin.

Long term aspirin can cause gastric ulcers which can bleed which is not good on warfarin, one dose of aspirin in a crisis will be a benefit outweighs risk situation, same applies with asthma, aspirin and NSAIDs (e.g. ibuprofen) make some asthmatics wheeze, certainly not all, again benefit would outweigh risk in an emergency situation.
ie. Don't worry about that too much.

I'll add to the stuff on here, combat tourniquets. Rather useful if someone ends up bleeding so profusely that it can't be controlled and they may bleed out before emergency services arive.... from say a penetrating injury or fracture.

FFS no tourniquets. YOu could cause someone to lose their limb. pressure onthe wound stops bleeding

Matt - you saved someones life by having a first aid kit?

Re aspirin
That's an interesting one. Asthmatics and folk who are on warfarin (excuse the spelling) can have conditions made worse by aspirin according to the first aid book I was studying last night.

Apparently it's only something like 10% and the other 90% of us thus get denied useful drugs.