[Closed] riding alone.. what do you take with you in your pockets / bag?

I dont often ride alone.. But I've just reduced my backpack to minimum (for me anyway).

Bought a Lidl Backpack the other day for £9 and it's uber light.

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7130/7631105830_4b8efae1c4_o.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7130/7631105830_4b8efae1c4_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/58162507@N07/7631105830/ ]Lidl Backpack[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/58162507@N07/ ]SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

Things I now carry. Other than a bit of food and water.

Pump
Inner tube
Multitool
Mini first aid kit (couple of plasters and a bandage)
Pocketknife with a whistle (Firesteel things)
Small bag of things...zip ties mech hanger etc.

I FEEL SO MUCH LIGHTER 🙂

--

Do like that giant bag earlier in the thread.

PS the bag as a fold out mesh for a helmet. But I use it for shin pads.

Painkillers. Ibuprofen. Water.

Usually enough to get back to the car / help after broken bones. Brupen helps keeps the swelling down aparently.

For lone night rides:

A silver bullet (for the werewolves)
A cross and some garlic (for the vampires)
A couple of quid (for a pint when I reach the pub)

I ride in the desert alone - so plenty of water, GPS, mobile phone, whistle, first aid kit, pain killers, lights, spare tubes, pump, tools, food and sun cream!

I take my collie. I'm hoping he's related to lassie...

I always take ribbed condoms (for her pleasure)

hora - Member
I always take ribbed condoms

I'd heard you were a taker

Can I have some time to formulate a witty comeback line?

😆

usually don't take anything other than standard pump, tube etc. However last Sunday had a BIG off on a local loop I have rode a billion times before. Had to ride home with busted ribs, knee shoulder and arm, moral of the story is I should join the real world and get a bluddy mobile. Spent the rest of the night in A&E. Worst part is I got a brand new zesty 314 this week and everytime I try to ride it's bluddy agony!:( 🙁 🙁

weeksy - Member

Seriously?

Water. £10. an energy bar. 1 tube. Multitool. MOBILE PHONE

I don't own a mobile phone. Just two tin cans and a bit of string. 🙁

If you take a mobile DONT pin lock it. Potentially useless if you suffer a head injury.

By the time I reached hospital I couldnt remember who the Prime Minister was let alone let them call my next of kin. Now U carry a dogtag (6 quid) with my name, DOB, blood type, no allergies and next of kins number.

Brucey bonus is if I lose my car keys..

Dogtag company kindly agreed to engrave all the info

thisisnotaspoon
Last time we had one of these threads TJ argued that he doesn't cary anything as nowhere in the UK is more than a couple of miles from civilisation or a road, My counter argument is 2 miles is a bloody long way with a broke leg.

Not quite - I do carry a kit in remoter areas but it is questionable how much difference you can really make with a kit you can carry easily. What can you do with a first aid kit for the person with a broken leg that you can't otherswise. Painkillers is about it. Everything else can be improvised

I certainly carry far less stuff than most folk and not even a mobile phone. The key thing is knowledge.

It does amuse me how much some folk carry for a ride around the woods.

Me? Mini pump on frame clip, Multitool, tube, couple of chain links, couple of small nuts and bolts, patches in a small seat pouch. food in pockets. Map in unknown areas. Nowt else. Why carry a load of crap you don't need? All adds weight

First aid kit on longer rides into remote areas. Sometimes have a first kit to leave in the car if driving to a group ride

I carry some puncture stuff or something but never used it...condoms though, that's a different matter. I personally carry the variety pack, ribbed (for her pleasure) flavored just in case it's a hot ride and things get a bit sweaty and ultra thin just in case I feel reckless.

I ride on my own the majority of the time and I've got a Camelbak Mule that's exactly the same wherever I am. Just stays packed:

Front pocket:
Whistle (on the key ring in the front pocket) with keys & tablets
Mini compass, cash, zip ties, 10spd quick link - all in a plastic bag
Grub (quantity depends on ride length)
Multitool with link extractor

Main pocket: 2x tubes, pump, levers, first aid kit, foil blanket. Gilet if its bad out. Bladder.

Top pocket: phone (for what it's worth)

I also [u]always[/u] wear a Road ID - tells them who the missus is, where my titanium bits are and what tablets I should have taken that day... famous last words.

2 hour blasts: a multitool

More than 2 hours: spare inner tube, mini pump, water, first aid kit (about as useful as a chocolate tea pot), multitool, oh and my phone. All located in my Dueter Race X backpack.

If you crash hard enough and knock yourself out, what use is a phone. I wear a bright coloured DH jersey, so increasing my chances of being spotted in the undergrowth/ditch.

I wear a half face helmet and knee pads too.

same as i always carry weather on my own or in a group,my north face hammerhead hydration pack has a whistle as part of the chest strap

To beckon the woolly honeys?

Local 1hr blast - iPhone & headphones

Longer local ride - as above + multitool, pump, tube.

redthunder.. great size backpack.. a little more compact than the one posted earlier. Will go see if i can get me one of those.
A few photos from my ride this evening (actually remembered to take my phone)..

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

The only bit of the, admittedly quite extensive, amount of kit I carry that I haven't used is the [two] emergency foil blanket. Everything else I have used at some point on the trail.

I always pack my inner-mother. She stops me from doing risky stuff when I'm on my own. OK sometimes I ignore her but it's situation dependent. For example: I was solo up on the Black Mountains Black Route on Sunday and it was not a situation to take the pee by riding full-gas either up or down. Mummy was insistent I rode gently and took proper rests.

So don't forget your inner-mother

I almost never ride alone ... honestly... where I am the bears and cougars will get you 😆 (At least partly true though, riding in groups is recommended)

Me? Mini pump on frame clip, Multitool, tube, couple of chain links, couple of small nuts and bolts, patches in a small seat pouch. food in pockets. Map in unknown areas. Nowt else. Why carry a load of crap you don't need?

By a strange coincidence I bought a pack of 5 whistle buckles off ebay the other day and was fitting them to rucksacks last night. On the camelback I was just able to change the clippy side for the whistle clippy one with no sewing required, on my alpkit gourdon I had to undo the stitching and sew in both sides of the new buckle

I only ever really ride dh or jumps now so if i do come off I'm only a shortish crawl to the car park/help 🙂 for more xc rides i just take normal stuff - tube or 2, patches, multi tool, chain tool, water and some food. I think some people here are going a bit overboard, biking isn't that dangerous!

I think some people here are going a bit overboard, [s]biking[/s] [b]trailcentre riding[/b] isn't that dangerous!

FTFY

Same as on a group ride as it's never good when it was always the other guys turn to bring the pump.

So
Pump
Tubes 2 or 3
Glueless patches (for emergency or bad karma)
Multi Tool with chain splitter (- never bothered with magic links on the trail they always get lost)
Water
Few bars
Some Lucozade tablets
Shock Pump (I know I'm soooo over prepared)
Small first aid kit
Spare Top
Jacket
Phone
Map if I'm out of local area compass if up high
Tyre Levers
Cash
Camera/GoPro
Mech Hanger

Reason for a few of those things
Spare top is for when you get caught in that mad shower and get soaked before the jacket goes on
First Aid Kit - Enough to stop bleeding and cover a nasty wound - missus came off and put a hole in her elbow, she was able to ride out but much better to stop more stuff getting in wound and blood pissing everywhere.

My bag weighs something, it's not that significant. It has things I might need but not a full workshop.

Juan i have done plenty of natural/non trail centre riding, still not that dangerous!

Remember the days you'd see Jazz mags strewn around? Maybe a fellow rider had taken some al fresco reading material.

Its all digital now.

Going slightly off piste here, but extending the "you carry HOW much" idea a little further, I am amazed at how much clothing other people wear when MTB! Am I the only one who sweats a lot?!? Turned up for a first ride with a mate recently and he was decked in three layers including waterproof jacket and then wonders why he was pooled in buckets of sweat within minutes. Magazine features show people generally in jackets, again, are they not overheating?

Still in amazement that I spent my childhood riding miles and miles across all sorts of terrain without carrying anything apart from some cash to buy a drink and some food in a shop! Gosh, we were wild and irresponsible 😉

When I was 6(?) I once rode my Stryker from Hudds to Brighouse and back with nothing in my pockets except for knocking on doors and asking for glasses of water.

Jesus 😮

juan - Member
As I have said I used at least once all of what I carry with me except for the survival blanket (lets hope i'll never have to use this one)

I'd just like to confirm that I'm not juan despite the similarities. 🙂

All gone quiet on the admission that Hora is a 'taker'? Self acceptance is the first step.

Road bike - pump, tube, repair kit, gel, credit card, 20e note, phone, gilet/waterproof, tool, tyre levers

Same with speed links and a tool with a chain splitter but with the camelbak water reservoir.

Also have a little emergency card with next of kin, contacts etc in case I get hurt

gaffer tape, knife, chloroform

_tom_ - Member
Juan i have done plenty of natural/non trail centre riding, still not that dangerous!

I think Juan's mtb rides are a bit more mountainy than most of "ours" 😉

Not quite - I do carry a kit in remoter areas but it is questionable how much difference you can really make with a kit you can carry easily. What can you do with a first aid kit for the person with a broken leg that you can't otherswise. Painkillers is about it. Everything else can be improvised

First aid kit might be useless for a broken leg, and I'd probably not want to move them unless conditions wee getting really nasty. But that's where the space blanket and survival sack come in, toasty warm and bright orange wile you wait for the rescue people.

A quick read of the 'worst ride ever' thread and 50% seem to involve getting caught out by crap weather. Whilst stopping might not be the right thing to do if you're capable of getting back to the car, at least if adds an option if things deteriorare further.

[s]gaffer tape[/s] Zipties, knife, chloroform and a President Nixon mask