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My son's ashes is the absolute minimum (usually when I am riding with others so I can sponge off them).
Otherwise it depends. Local, a small bumbag with money and mobile, multi tool, reading glasses, puncture stuff and flapjack, a small lock and at this time of year a pair of secateurs and a pruning saw.Big or far rides I will add first aid stuff, extra clothing, drinks, (I normally just have a good drink before I go with the option of buying something if needed and rehydrating on my return)food.
Trailbike
Oneup EDC in the head tube. (multitool, chain breaker, quick links, worms, valve core remover and valve although its now on fillmore valves so those can come out). Thats the minimum. Plus a water bottle. Any ride worth getting on a bike for, I'll drink at least half a bottle even in the depths of winter. Oddly, I can make a single bottle last a long time in summer when needed.
Usually I'll add one means of tyre inflation. current choice is a CO2. A puncture when solo, I'll probably head home after fixing.
Longer ride. Either a decent pump or 2 redundant means of tyre inflation - although in a group, its good to have people with differing things. If someone needs inflation, you can choose from the most suitable tool in the group's possession.
Somewhere very rocky with potential for a very long walk, I'll add an emergency tube taped to the frame.
New XC bike.
Curently an old crank bros multitool in the frame bag. Need to get a one up for this too.
I'll go to great lengths to avoid anything on my person besides phone and a single key (car or house).
Big long list for what’s in the bum bag… but bare-minimum for little local rides…
https://www.parktool.com/en-int/product/micro-fold-up-hex-key-set-aws-13
I never bother with puncture stuff any more partly because I rarely get them with tubeless but mainly because my thumbs are too old and weak for tubeless sidewalls
café lock of some kind so if it all goes ****-up you can lock the bike and get a taxi home then come back in the car.
Digs out and old pair of scissors and makes a mental note to keep an eye on Strava for next time Jules' ride is cut short....
I carry a one-up component EDC pump which has chain breaker, multi-tool, quick link, bacon strips and a stabber as well as a pump obviously
cycling wallet, which has valve stems, money, presta to Schrader adapter, di2 charging adapter, puncture repair kit, tyre lever and a spare tube.
That fits in two pockets on my back leaving the center pocket for food. And honestly more food can be packed in around the one-up components pump
Electric pump, multi tool some chain links random assortment of patches/tubeless repair stuff which may or may not be suitable for the bike I am riding
£5 note. Phone. Tube and tyre levers, pump, bacon strips and file/needle-thing, joining link and multi-tool, nylon ties, spoke key, adhesive tape, snack bars.
Little binoculars and secateurs in summer
Locally, nothing. Well, phone is about it. I've got probably 30-40km of trails/goat tracks/double and single track within a 30 minute walk, all of which is useable.
If I'm going a bit further afield, it's just a minitool, CO2, plugs/strips and a tube.
Big day out in the hills, more plugs (really, i just take the same, i used to have two sets, but lost one in the workshop at home!) and an extra CO2 or two. And a couple of quick links.
Haven't been *properly* caught out in ~10 years.
Have had a couple of occasions when the damage was simply too bad to repair. (Snapped brake hose, 10cm split in tyre, broken axle.)
Proper, regular maintenance has been the cure for 99% of the issues i might have had. If i had a tenner for every time i'd stopped to help someone with a mechanical caused by sloppy or non existent maintenance/shoddy workmanship, i'd probably have an extra hundred quid a year.
If i had a tenner for every time i'd stopped to help someone with a mechanical caused by sloppy or non existent maintenance/shoddy workmanship, i'd probably have an extra hundred quid a year.
This is why I carry a fiver, but then I'm a cheapskate 🤣
OneUp pump with multitool, quick link and CO2 cartridge inside, gorilla tape and some insulation tape wrapped around the outside. I have mounts on both bikes and swap between which bike I’m riding.
Chisel has a dynaplug mounted behind the second bottle cage and a small saddle pack with a tube, tyre boot, spare valve cores and a little plastic valve core tool, tyre lever, micro pliers, dynaplug refills and a few cable ties.
Similar kit list on the Claymore, just mounted with a strap under the top tube
Recently found myself in the same situation
I now have a Dakine Hot Laps Gripper that I move to whatever bike I’m using and strap it to the downtube under my bottle cage, everything in a sandwich bag to try and keep water and dirt out of the bits
- Pump on each bikes bottle cage, each pump has a valve core tool
- multi tool with chain tool (crank brothers m19)
- tyre levers
- quick link pliers with storage for links
- 11 & 12 speed links
- valve cores
- tubeless repair kit
- tube repair kit (only one of my bikes running tubes at present)
- couple of extra Velcro straps (helps keep everything compacted and also useful if you want to strap a jacket to your bars)
- spare tube strapped under the saddle
- there’s still just enough room for a co2 cartridge and inflator if I can find it 😬
pretty confident that will get me or anyone I’m riding with out of trouble during a vast majority of my rides
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I don’t take anything on most rides
Maintain your bike and it shouldn’t go wrong
Local ride, minimum tools I'd go with would be:
Pump and tyre levers.
Tubelsss plugs, Tyre boot (weights nowt) and probably a tune.
Multitool.
Quicklink and pliers.
That's probably it.
Always take water, phone, debit card and cash.
However, I generally just grab my pack which has other odds and sods in there inc spare layer, buff, small 1st aid kit etc - but that's cos I'm lazy.
Maintain your bike and it shouldn’t go wrong
ah, but it might! if I am anywhere further than a local walk home (or train) then I want some way of dealing with the occasional puncture, so stuff to fix that is enough for my basic ride tools if I am just out for the day 🙂
So how many rides are you carrying "just in case" stuff for scenarios that never happen? I used to be a serial "every eventuality taken care of" back when I used to be responsible adult. Nowadays if I only have a puncture once a year say, why carry puncture stuff on the other 149 rides? I would rather walk home (or call my wife) in that eventuality and fwee as the wind the rest of my rides
Local loop I'd just risk it with a multitool in my pocket and a tubeless repair needle/work/dart (and fingers crossed to get it in before it loses air) and I've got (the correct for the bike) chain quick link taped inside the brake levers on each of my bikes. The bikes that do bigger rides regularly mostly have (again, the correct ones for that bike) tubes and pump strapped to the frame.
Long list of other stuff I'd take depending on the ride.
Foil poncho - on anything other than a perfect summers day these are brilliant in any eventuality from an a casualty to just having to walk home in the dark.
CO2 - still useful on an evening group ride where you don't really want to be hanging around not riding.
Brake pads - only if the pad falls off the backing.
I try and avoid the temptation to carry loads of stuff "just in case and it doesn't take up much space anyway" because there's so much stuff you could take that it quickly gets a bit silly. I the absolute worst case the foil poncho keeps you warm while you wait for the uber you can pay for on your phone to take you to a train station. And touch wood I've only done that once in over 20 years (and it was for a crash resulting in an injury, so spares wouldn't have helped).
Guy i rode with years ago used to have a spare chain, rear mech, gear and brake cables, tyre, 2 or more tubes, full set of pads (cantis), spokes, *big* pump and a *proper* tool roll. The sort of thing you'd see in the boot of an old school Rover. Metal tyre levers, small socket set and a couple of spanners. God knows what else.So how many rides are you carrying "just in case" stuff for scenarios that never happen?
Must have weighed 6 or 7 kilos.
I reckon the carrying of the back pack probably caused more issues than it prevented. Mostly rear wheel punctures.
Meanwhile we're all rocking middling sized saddle bags and the biggest thing in them is a tube.
I try and avoid the temptation to carry loads of stuff "just in case and it doesn't take up much space anyway" because there's so much stuff you could take that it quickly gets a bit silly.
think there will be some defined cut off points in what you take - and these can be different for each person, based on the rider, the bike and the location.
once you've reached the point where you are taking a bag, of whatever size, there's a subconscious obligation to fill it.
As I said upthread, for me, the combination of a headset EDC tool, plus either a mini framebag or usable short pockets, is something I work delibeartely to use - I really want to avoid having a bag, even a bum bag, if it can be at all avoided.
I've bent a few chainring teeth in my time - most recently on a gravel+singletrack ride in the middle of nowhere. There's no way the chain was staying on without some kind of intervention. Mate I was with had a tiny adjustable spanner which we used to bend the teeth back and I was able to finish the ride. Without that I would have needed to walk a considerable distance to even get to a place I could have been picked up.
I now carry a tiny adjustable spanner.
Unless you smack a rock. Did that occur to you?I don’t take anything on most rides
Maintain your bike and it shouldn’t go wrong
This is like my mate that used to rib me for getting puncture all the time because he never got any... until he did. We relentlessly took the piss out of him for that.
Some way of resolving a puncture, a chain quick link, something to tighten bolts/split a chain is my minimum on all rides
I think you always plan for your last mishap not the next. I always carry mini pliers because I got stranded miles from any where with a tubeless valve lock nut that had welded itself to the rim when I needed to put a tube in. This was ten years ago and it hasn’t happened since but I still carry them!
