Bikepacking first aid kit, what would be in yours?

Have everything prepped for my first solo bike packing trip now, just need a first aid kit sorted. Do not know whether to buy one of the life venture ones, or put one together myself.

What are in your bike packing first aid kits?

Very little
Half a dozen ibuprofen and paracetamol

Steristrips ,film dressing,

Tick twister

Sterile gloves

Cheers Tj, I forgot about ticks! It will be on Exmoor, so plenty of the critters about.

Pretty minimal really, mostly what I’m capable of using with my (lamentable) knowledge*. Antiseptic wipe, a variety of plasters, compeed, safety pins, elasticated bandage, paracetamol, ibufren. Paper, pencil. Obviously if you are diabetic, suffer from anaphylactic shock, etc. then you’ll be taking the necessary kit to deal with that.

That will deal with most cuts and scrapes. Once you get to breaks and dislocations then it’s a whole different level. Mostly it’s stabilisation rather than treatment. Upper body injuries a generally walking wounded – I’ve self rescued with a broken wrist and dislocated elbow for example, Legs and pelvis are most likely going to be 999 and mountain rescue. @tjagain will be along shortly no doubt, best practice for paramedics has changed quite a bit over the last few years. (Edit: too late!)

There’s a section on first aid in this useful on-line pamphlet – https://readymag.com/u16005985/1375842/21/?fbclid=IwAR2HZGX5i0wpgzAsfjMbn0hQUMWY6PeLDgC0K7G62-dClO5tsxsUUvd1iWw

2nd Edit: from the above link – worth noting that Josh Kato is an ITU nurse, his kit is minimal so he’s relying on his knowledge and improvising.

*Go on a first aid course, ideally one with a slant towards outdoor sports.

A large dose of common sense.

Anbesol, Superglue, a few bandage rolls and some celox.

Thats what I would add to a standard first aid kit – I have bought ones from Lidl before and they’re pretty good.

Pretty minimal really, mostly what I’m capable of using with my (lamentable) knowledge*. Antiseptic wipe, a variety of plasters, compeed, safety pins, elasticated bandage,

Ah! St John’s member.

Never carried one but if I was too it would be a few dressings.

Just put one together for my trip to kintyre:

Few bandages

Plasters (including blister plasters)

Drugs (ibruprofen, paracetamol etc)

Tick tweezers

Scissors

Antiseptic cream

Kineso tape

Non stick dressing

Gloves

Anything thats needed above that will be out of my limited experience

Mine has:
Nitrile Gloves
Stuff to deal with scrapes and cuts – wipes, plasters, steri-strips, melolin pad
Zinc Oxide tape .
Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Immodium, Antacid of some description.
Tick card
Foil blanket.

I should probably get some sort of trauma dressing and a bandage for immobilisations for longer trips, but you can always improvise something if you’ve got a night away’s kit with you…

After last weekend and subsequent events, I would say sterile saline solution in a squeezy bottle/vial. Between seven of us we had a lot of dressing and tape etc, but other than a few antiseptic wipes we had no way of cleaning a wound – especially irrigating it if it was deep (which it was).

Given that a lot of riding injuries involve cuts in dirty conditions I would say that is my chief recommendation on top of a basic kit.

Are you not either fit enough to keep going or bad enough you need to go home, or call for help, or die in the gutter because you are not well enough to do the above ?

For me emergency bivvy bag, Mobile phone, and telling someone where I’m going and when I will be back + updates

i asked this exact question at a recent first aid course, response from the very experienced instructor was:
– foil blanket
– triangular bandage
– clingfilm (works great as a sterile dressing)
– snake bandage (probably don’t need that in UK)
– compression bandage
– dressings
– eye irrigation
– hydrogel
– resus mask (lightweight disposable one)

Plus some nurofen and paracetamol.

Lots of good advice above.
I’d additionally comment as follows:

If there’s a group, take a 2 or 3 person sized mountain shelter.
Foil blankets are N+1, where N is the number of riders in the group.
A SAM splint is great for stabilising a range of problems;
An inner tube around the back of the neck to make an excellent arm or elevation sling.
Unless you really know what you’re about, skip the ibuprofen as it does more harm than good if you’re on a long journey, through the risk of additional kidney damage being high.
Clean wounds with copious clean water, it’s more effective than wipes on anything that actually needs cleaned. You can use a Camelbak bladder as a very effective irrigation device. Just squeeze.

@Drac – were you equating my lamentable FA knowledge with being a St John’s member (I’m not BTW) or stating that you are an SJ member?

@Funcydunc & @jimdubleyou- if you are bikepacking (as per thread title) then you are very likely to have some form of shelter with you so no real need for a foil blanket

Hmm, forgot the tick card that’s in mine.

Improvisation – shirt or inner tube in place of a triangular bandage for example.

Edit: irrigation of wounds/eyes and the like. If you’ve a water filter like the MSR Trailshot then you can use the output of that directly onto the affected area.

Surely this depends on where you are riding and how remote you are? The kind of riding I do in the South of England I don’t think I’m ever too far away from some kind of service be it a pub or a petrol station or something.

I wouldn’t usually take more than a strip of ibruprufen, a couple of plasters and a larger dressing.

Injuries are either Ok enough to make i for a period of time to get sort myself out somewhere with supplies – or its bad ju ju and I’m aborting by either getting to a road and calling a taxi, or with a broken leg or some other trauma wound, I’m calling for a rescue.

I’m not into dragging myself and my broken leg for 6 days

Tick twister

Now that is something I probably should add to my kit

Couple of aspirin. Take up no space whatsoever, fairly handy for heart attacks.

Definitely carry a foil blanket. I usually try and remember to slip one in a jersey pocket on any ride. If you are stuck and waiting to be rescued, or god forbid, find someone else injured, they can make a huge difference to the outcome.

Mobile phone, compeeds(also walk) and some plasters and wipes and gloves, the wipes and gloves are handy for mechanicals etc

@Funcydunc & @jimdubleyou- if you are bikepacking (as per thread title) then you are very likely to have some form of shelter with you so no real need for a foil blanket

Indeed, but a foil blanket is easy to grab and deploy as well as being tiny.

You can also use it as additional ground cover if you’re travelling light and it gets colder than you thought…

Most important for me is an Anker battery. the phone should always working to call for help or navigate.

As a couple of others have said – knowledge is the key. Its a very small subset of injuries that what you have in your kit makes a significant difference. I like to carry the bits to be able to make good repairs on cuts and scrapes which could perhaps turn “ride over” into “carry on”

Major injuries – knowledge is the key. You can improvise a lot.

A large dose of common sense.

Not worth the paper it’s written on IMO. Sound knowledge and the correct tools FTW

I’d add to TJs kit with some tape and or conforming bandage but agree with his unstated point that you don’t need most stuff that would be in his actual kit.

I would further suggest (because I do carry them) that cocodamol or the strongest OTC Codine is actually worth considering because a long walk out with broken collar bone or similar will be much more comfortable with some proper pain relief.

Unless you really know what you’re about, skip the ibuprofen as it does more harm than good if you’re on a long journey, through the risk of additional kidney damage being high.

I’m not sure what issue you are imagining… anything that big is likely to be “long journey ending” and is to cover the time to get out; or is minor and this is about providing some comfort to make a miserable day ok.

Savlon. Also doubles as a chammy cream.

@Drac – were you equating my lamentable FA knowledge with being a St John’s member (I’m not BTW) or stating that you are an SJ member?

Nah! Just laughing at your kits from the 1980s safety pins, antiseptic wipes and sticky plasters. I’m not even first aid trained.

The three most useful items I have found are field dressings large 100mm square.
Butterfly wide wound closures those thin ones and rubbish and read the instructions before you have to use them not when – trust me.
Spray on plaster is brilliant. Great for gravel rash sets like varnish and gives hours of picking pleasure.
Also have a look at Vet Wrap as an alternative to Duck Tape but why would you carry both?

I have had to use all my dressings and closures for home related wounds and spray plaster is in general use so nothing goes out of date.

I keep the tick hook accessible as digging out the medical stuff usually involves a major thrutch.

I have never used a large field dressing, the thin steristrips are much better than “butterfly” closures but you need to know how to use them properly – you make a herringbone pattern over the wound not straight across. Spray on stuff – ouch ouch ouch – a semipermeable film dressing like tegaderm or a hydrocolloid like duoderm is much much better. Duoderm you slap on gravel rash, the pain stops very quickly, you leave it on for a week and take it off to find scar free healing underneath.

Duct tape. Seriously. There is very little immediate lifesaving first aid than cannot be achieved with a metre of tape. Plus the usual stuff. Wrap 50 cm around a pencil. Keep both on the pouch with some gloves, BIG dressings, and some wipes.

Add a thin rolled up bin liner. Will provide some of the best wind proof cover for a casualty and you can slip it over that broken collarbone in driving wind.

What are the BIG dressings for?

TJ, what do you mean by herringbone pattern? Can you explain more

I’ve only seen them used straight across

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/accidents-first-aid-and-treatments/how-do-i-apply-butterfly-stitches/

Hard to explain. whats described there is not how I was taught Maybe I am out of date or maybe the way I was taught is a bit trickier

If the cut runs east / west then the first strip goes on north east to south west, ie at 45 degrees to the cut, the second one goes on at 90 degrees to the first ie north west to south east then the third goes parallel to the first and so on until the entire wound is covered. very little gap between each one so it ends up looking plaited / herringbone

Thats the way I was taught and how I have always done them. I guess it gives less chance of them lifting

I suppose it does not really matter too much on thinking more – the key thing is to get the skin edges pulled together

Interestingly all the pics I can find on the net have them straight across. I did find some mention of doing them criss cross

Duct tape. I’m only partially joking.

Definitely carry a foil blanket. I usually try and remember to slip one in a jersey pocket on any ride

I carry one on most rides, shoved under the saddle rails.

Butterfly wide wound closures
Loctite Precision

Stockings/tights (cut up)
Very useful to hold a large dressing in place over a gravel rash, so you can keep on riding.

sgn – better with a piece of tegaderm or similar film dressing.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=TEGADERM+FILM&i=drugstore&search-type=ss&ref=bl_dp_s_web_0

tjagain – I’ve used tegaderm and they are quite good, however they don’t breath, so you get a lot of gunk building up particularly when exercising, they also don’t give any protection which a dressing pad gives against light knocks.

Its a very small subset of injuries that what you have in your kit makes a significant difference. I like to carry the bits to be able to make good repairs on cuts and scrapes which could perhaps turn “ride over” into “carry on”

I tend to always bang on this , the real life saving stuff is silver blanket and a tourniquet strap thing, in an emergency situation your unlikely to have the time to ass about and arteries can be a fkr.

Protecting yourself from hypothermia an bleeding out is good.KISS

Also make sure someone knows where your going an check in etc.

Then they can eventually find you miserable but not dead.

sgn – thats what they are supposed to do – they are semipermeable so sweat gets out but not lymph – that speeds up healing and reduces scarring