Real Man – I do use tubeless – and I have also split tyres and needed to whack a tube in.

You're mad if you don't take a tube with you.

GB

Never ride too far from a pub!

Always carry a first aid kit.

And spare chainlinks

Always have your support crew nearby

Don't ride with idiots who get oil on there disks when oiling their chain, they'll hold you up!

Something I've started to do recently when riding alone:

Keep re-riding a fun section of trail, just 100-300 metres, with interesting corners, bumps and drops, until perfect. It will make you focus on your technique until you can ride it fast and clean. This will translate to faster, safer riding on other trails.

It's ok to fall off – You need to fall off to learn 😯
If/When you do fall off…tuck and roll baby… tuck and roll!

Don't continue to screw that BB cup* into the frame when it really doesn't want to go and even starts go in "wonky" – it probably means you've cross-threaded it. Brute force doesn't make it better.

*Especially if it's the one that should go in the other side.

Don't fight the mountain.

I'm putting these on a t shirt. Unless they make sense in which case they're useless to me.

1. Whenever more than one cyclist goes for a ride – it's a race.
2. Tubeless is the future, but there will always be a place for tubes.
3. There's always someone better, faster, more stylish than you – try and ride with them, it'll make you better.
4. Get out of bed and go riding – no matter how horrible it is outside, you will always be glad you did(sometimes during, sometimes after).
5. Thin, hard saddles are comfier than big plush saddles.
6. Lycra just works, yet strangely…
7. …only baggies work with pads (i.e. pads+lycra=wrong)
8. Brakes cannot be "too powerful"

Remove cap before pulling the tube from the rim despite quantity of mud covering it. 🙂

Keep your Camelbak bladder empty in the freezer between rides, tastes so much nicer and always wrap some gaffa tape round your pump in your pack, it has many uses with the humble zipe tie.

Be the trail, not the tree.