Rucksack paranoia

Is it just me or does anybody else suffer with rucksack/ camelback paranoia?
I stop riding, remove rucksack, get tool/ key/ snack/ map/ wallet etc, zip it up, put rucksack back on and then either have to take it back off to check I’ve zipped it up or ask a mate to check it even though I know it’s shut.
It takes massive willpower not to check.
I know, it’s OCD but still………….

Yep, I’m like this with everything I check my pockets every 5 minutes throughout the day for wallet, phone etc

Me too. Usually get “the doubt” just as everyone starts pedaling away!

do something unusual as you put items in your pack then you will definitely remember you put it in there.

Sometimes I’ll even say out loud ” it’s shut!” And still find myself rechecking it, Grrrr!

Nah, I just ride about with the back pocket open about 50% of the time. Apparently forgetting to do up the zip is my superpower.

Whatever you do, as you’re 4 hours away from your car (at a notorious theft black spot) on a multi-day trek, don’t wonder to yourself whether you locked the car or not.

lost a fairly new phone on the Glacier up at Alp d’heuz one year due to either not doing a pocket up or the zip coming undone. Not something I want to repeat (the following year I landed on the new one and smashed the screen)

Its a good trait as it stops you from losing things.Embrace it.

I’m like this, front door too.

Jon Richardson suffers from it, he says a little ditty as he locks his door so him remembers. Something like “it’s Tuesday morning and I’m locking the door..” iirc.

I’m glad that my camelbak has a loop for my car key, I would lose out it some point!

Nope, I never use one

However I do routinely walk back to the car to check I put the hand brake on

My Problem is I can never remember shutting the garage door. I’ve been half way to work before and had to turn back to check!

It’s never been open.

I get tyre paranoia, on big downhills usually.
‘is my back tyre going flat, I’m sure my back tyre’s going flat *quick glance down* oh crap it’s going flat, it is, it’s going flat, I’m going to come off and die, my wife will be a widow, my daughter will be fatherless and I will die in pain’ *stops and checks tyre, mate comes flying past*
‘What’s up?’
‘Nothing, thought my tyre was going flat’

Glad to hear that it’s not just me!

all of the above.
Even lock car, make sure it’s locked, put keys on the clippy thing in the rucksack pocket, triple check all pockets, put rucksack on, have doubt, then even when riding off, have to loop round and make sure the little red LED is (still) flashing on the car door lock. Then double check pocket and doing a second carpark loop to make sure GPS is in pocket, not on car roof…

hahah great thread – i do this all the time, even after ive just checked it i often take it off again to check doubly, or ask a mate to check its done up 😆

All of the above here too.

Although I did have to read it twice to make sure.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a holiday or weekend away as an adult where I haven’t worried about leaving the oven on

I don’t think I’ve ever had a holiday or weekend away as an adult where I haven’t worried about leaving the oven on

this (or other house things left on/ not shut)

I could do with cental locking for the house – one push and its all off, except the fridge and freezer.

I’ve been like that with things for as long as I can remember. Getting sick of it now, but nothing I can do about it really.

Our camel backs are kept in the bathroom with the bladders hanging up. I still check them mid week for spare tubes etc.

Loving it!
So OCD among MTBers is perfectly normal.
Sunday was particularly bad as i kept having to get a map out of my bag to check i was going the right way and everytime i had to double check my Camelbak was shut.
in the end i put it in the mesh on the outside but then had to keep checking it hadn’t fell out!!

Try having a wife that “tidies up” your keys and cycling stuff (for tidy, read: hides) for proper “have I lost the keys?” paranoia.

It’s horrible.

Me and my usual riding buddy are terrible for this, we have to ask each other every single time we stop, we have started saying that the zip is open and riding off laughing, it’s **** agony.

I get tyre paranoia, on big downhills usually.
‘is my back tyre going flat, I’m sure my back tyre’s going flat *quick glance down* oh crap it’s going flat, it is, it’s going flat, I’m going to come off and die, my wife will be a widow, my daughter will be fatherless and I will die in pain’ *stops and checks tyre, mate comes flying past*
‘What’s up?’
‘Nothing, thought my tyre was going flat’

I had that yesterday. I could even hear air hissing out of a hole. When I stopped my tyre was fine, and it turned out that that hissing noise was dry grass rubbing against my shoes as I rode along. Idiot.

I also do that thing where I leave the zip open after getting something out of my pack. Not lost anything important yet, though.

Half a mile into the commute on Thursday I hear a soft “splat” – turn round and my wallet’s in the road. Check the bag, it’s all zipped up – it must have been sitting between the rucksack and the cover. Glad I heard it land….

I get flat tyre paranoia all the time.

I had a “why isn’t my phone in my pocket?” moment the other week. I was talking on the phone at the time.

I have this and all sorts of (little) OCD problems (have I locked the bike up/garage/house/etc).

One tip is to do something unique that you will perform just after closing your bag (As suggested by jonba above). I’ll elaborate: Close your bag, then put your elbow on your knee and say the first two words that come into your head, “OBVIOUS PLINTH!” – for example.

Then when you’re riding you’ll be like “ah yeah I deffo closed my bag because of the elbow-knee obvious plinth thing”.

Next time you do it you have to generate some new actions and words.

Good luck fellow mentalist 😀

No. I have absolute confidence in my actions. 8)

Riding in the alps, I felt a sudden cold feeling on my neck, reached back, it was my phone! Popped out of the top pocket and just sat there, like a parrot.

So you see, no reason to worry, there’s no chance of losing things, they’ll just miraculously be saved against all reason.