Things you wish you’d packed

Managed to get out on a ride today, 3 hour drive to the brecons, 6 miles into the gap ride and boom front tyre instantly deflates.

1 in a million thing, stick into gap by valve core rotates round and shears the valve off!

never had it before, but at that moment i realised I didn’t have a spare – just a tube.

After fighting the cushcore out the front wheel, fitting the tube and pumping it up (which didn’t look like that was working)  the second realisation hit. No puncture kit!

Then started thinking I could make a ghetto tubeless strip and the third realisation hit – nothing sharp to slice the tube up!!!

Still made it round albeit a bit gingerly in places. All now added into going to far away places kit.

what is it you wish you’d packed after the inevitable mishap?

i realised I didn’t have a spare – just a tube.

A spare what?

No puncture kit!

Why would you need a puncture kit if you’ve just fitted a tube?

Spare tubeless valve

puncture kit in case a) I pick up another puncture by thorn or pinch flat

and b) in case the tyre already had a load of old thorns in it.

wasn’t very well written I agree

I carry

1 Tubeless repair worms

2 Spare tube/s

3 Puncture repair kit for spare tube, and

4 spare valve core and removal tool.

This ensures I never get punctures. I did once snap a valve stem off entirely so I’m gong to check I have one in the spares pouch.

/edit

5 spare tubeless stem present and correct.

Spare derailleur is the only thing that’s ever been needed that I haven’t already got on me.

Or a third spare inner tube when I pinch flatted tubeless then two tubes.

Underwear when commuting to work.

Cake.

Front wheel. It’s rather annoying to arrive somewhere and realise it’s still at home.

.

Friend of my dad was worse. He’s a dingy racer, Flying Fifteens for those who know them, twenty foot long and half a ton, so a decent size. Drove all the way from Nottinghamshire to the Lake District before someone pointed out on arrival that he hadn’t attached the trailer.

Heat.

Spare tubeless valve

I don’t think I’d ever manage to get any kind of tyre seated tubeless with a mini pump, so not convinced by the value of a spare valve.

Underwear when commuting to work.

Several times. I ended up leaving a couple of extra sets in my locker.

I forgot shoes once.

Ended up having to buy shoes *and* pedals as no one carried the right cleats.

Mech hanger. Bike fell over when closing a gate, snapped the mech hanger on a rock hidden in the long grass. Tried unsuccessfully to singlespeed it and was left with the following options:

1. Ring the wife and have her do a 50 mile round trip (with the kids in the car) and suffer an ear full for the next – well forever probably.
2. Ring a pal and disturb their Saturday afternoon/evening.
3. Take the chain and rear mech off, tape then to the  bars and walk/scoot the 15 miles to the train station, up and over the Pentlands whilst racing the sunset.
4. Go feral and live in a ditch, foraging off wild brambles and discarded half drunk Irn Bru bottles.

Option 1 was totally off the cards, option 2 was a maybe, as tempting as option 4 was, I went for option 3. Scooting along the water of Leith in the dark was interesting, but more scary for other path users I reckon.

I don’t think I’d ever manage to get any kind of tyre seated tubeless with a mini pump, so not convinced by the value of a spare valve.

CO2 pump would normally do it, but I’ve never carried a spare valve either. On some longer off-road trips I’ve carried two inner tubes and usually have a patch or two.

Saddle. Snapped a few over the years (actually snapped a couple of seatposts or seatpost bolts too, come to think about it). Last one was whilst descending at Tarlands. Quick drive over to Ballator and I was the new owner of a SDG Bell Air saddle. Went back to Tarlands and ended up doing over 2000m of ascending/descending that day, which was nice.

Cleat bolt, never happened to me but has happened to others I know. I think the sock thief gets bored sometimes and branches out to other foot related articles. They must be handy with their allen keys, as I struggle to remove my cleat bolts even when installed with a generous coating of thick grease. It’s fun watching someone be so much ‘as-one’ with their machine. 😉

Saddle.

I’ve snapped saddles before, but I’ve never thought “oh, I wish I’d thought to carry a spare one with me”.

When I have snapped a saddle rail I have just moved the saddle position so that the seatpost clamps the broken ends of the the rail.

On some longer off-road trips I’ve carried two inner tubes and usually have a patch or two.

I nearly always carry two tubes on a mountain bike. Two wheels, after all, and it’s not unheard of to crash through things and do both at the same time.

I did have the tubeless tape go pop in the middle of a ride. No amount of pumping and sloshing was going to fix that!

I’ll only use tubeless tyres that seat without bother. Else you might get yourself in a situation when you can’t get it working again easily.

I don’t think I’d ever manage to get any kind of tyre seated tubeless with a mini pump, so not convinced by the value of a spare valve.

I have a fairly zero tolerance approach to this. Which is that your equipment isn’t fit for purpose and needs to be changed to be more reliable or sort a means to get it re-inflated reliably. This could be as simple as adding more wraps of tape or packing an inner tube, or a couple of co2s, right they way up to changing rims or tyres so that they will inflate nicely.

I suppose it’s fine if you’re a park-type rider or sessioning in a small area near a car, but if you’re out there in the wilderness, you need to be able to rely on those tires being reparable/reseatable and have the means to do so.

Seat pin.

Touring Europe I had my saddle, seat pin and attached toolbag nicked from outside my tent on a campsite by some kids who must have done it for a laugh and chucked it in the nearby river.

It was in the middle of nowhere and I had to cycle about 50km to the nearest proper cycle shop which is suprisingly hard with panniers as they sway from side to side with momentum with no saddle . This was in the early 90’s and I had a Fisher Hoo Koo e Koo which had an unusual seatpost size so I had to get a smaller one and shim it with a coke can which lasted me from somewhere in Normandy to Barcelona and back

It kept slipping down slightly the whole 3000 miles – ********s

I have a fairly zero tolerance approach to this. Which is that your equipment isn’t fit for purpose

Err… what?

Since when did not being able to replace a tubeless valve on the trail count as “not fit for purpose”?! I can’t think of *any* rim/tyre combinations I’ve had that I’d happily (or even unhappily) be able to seat tubeless with a mini pump.

I’m *obviously* not saying I’d have no provision to get out of a flat tyre situation, just that I see no point in carrying spare valves. It’s a real stretch to say my equipment isn’t fit for purpose on that basis.

Seat pin.

Touring Europe I had my saddle, seat pin and attached toolbag nicked

Again though, I’d never have thought “wow, I wish I’d packed a spare seat pin” – especially because I’d have probably have put it in the tool bag.

Commuting I’ve forgotten

Trousers, shirt, jumper, pants, lunch, keys, work keys

On a MTB

Pump, tube, tubeless worms, multi tool, shoes, pedals, front wheel, helmet, gloves, hat, waterproof, lunch, snacks

Friend of my dad was worse. He’s a dingy racer

That’s a bit mean, isn’t it? He may not be the best dressed man, a bit shabby, but it sounds like he could be a bit of a racing snake. Results matter, not looks!

I have a fairly zero tolerance approach to this. Which is that your equipment isn’t fit for purpose and needs to be changed to be more reliable or sort a means to get it re-inflated reliably. This could be as simple as adding more wraps of tape or packing an inner tube, or a couple of co2s, right they way up to changing rims or tyres so that they will inflate nicely.

I had a similar issue to the OP halfway round the afan skyline loop. was a rock rather than stick, but sheared my valve stem clean off. I had a spare valve core – they are a bit flimsy, enthusiastic pumping can brake them, they get gunked up etc. But no full valve.

I also think that I wouldn’t be able to seat a tubeless tyre with my pump, but apart from the nuclear “put a tube in” option then you dont need to break the bead – I know that my tyres will stay on the bead even with 0psi in them.

Annoyingly when I mount my bike in the Thule 598, the Oneup pump with EDC toolkit and spare Co2 has to come off for it to fit the clamp……

The amount of times I’ve looked down and seen I’ve forgotten to clip it back on and had to either cycle back to the car or cut a ride shorter ‘just in case’  means now I slide it into my cycling shoes every single time without fail so i can’t forget it!!

I wished I’d packed the two front wheels on my drive back from Devon. At least I got the use of them when I was there. And nobody handed them in.

I wished I’d packed the two front wheels on my drive back from Devon. At least I got the use of them when I was there. And nobody handed them in.

In the 90s the club I raced with were running an NPS race at Margam, iirc, when an irate bloke threatened to call the police because someone had stolen his wheels from his car. I don’t remember whether the police did arrive, but the whole situation rumbled on for a while before he spoke to his wife at home and she asked why he’d left his wheels there.

It’s a real stretch to say my equipment isn’t fit for purpose on that basis.

Context is everything. I’m not replying to your broken valve comment which seems down right unfortunate.

I’m responding as a general point to the poster who says they couldn’t inflate their tubeless with a mini pump. It’s why I quoted their comment before my response.

You need to be able to get yourself home. Whether that’s walking to a road to get a taxi or bodging a repair so you can ride close enough to civilisation. And you need to have clothing options to keep you warm enough while you do it.

Much as I hate CO2 cannisters, I carry them so I can (hopefully) get a tubeless tyre to reseat. I also carry a chain tool and spare links, much to the joy of a rider on my club ride last week.

I also carry a card to pay for unexpected taxi journeys if the worst happens.

Quick chain link – if you break a chain, its a very quick fix – to avoid a long walk back home.

Spare tubeless valve

Being unable to do the locknut to remove the valve can be fun. A small pair of pliers solves this but not everyone carries them.

I’ve split tyres many times over the years while touring. Patched with anything from energy gel wrappers to $ bills.

Only had to abandon the bike once over the years – and that was when the rear flange came off on the back wheel. Left the bike in Aberfeldy tourist office, and medivac’d it home by car the next weekend.

Context is everything. I’m not replying to your broken valve comment which seems down right unfortunate.

I’m responding as a general point to the poster who says they couldn’t inflate their tubeless with a mini pump.

That was my comment. And, as you’ve quoted, wasn’t about not being able to inflate a tyre, but about being able to reseat a tubeless tyre with a mini pump. Probably you should take some lessons in context yourself.

My turn to say ‘what?’

Both in terms of what you actually mean, and why you seem so uppity about a generalised comment?

I had to do an entire uplift day without seatpost and saddle because I’d left my brother’s on the front wall of our garden. My kegs were wrecked by the end of the day.

Two week expedition on Baffin Island…forgot to pack trousers, flirted with hypothermia & ended up borrowing some polar bear trousers from a local.

A sleeping bag when I was camping nr Coed y Brenin  in April.

Mechs, knee, tubes, shirt

As a group of mates we’ve snapped two mechs off. One was at a bike park, right on climbing out of visitor centre. Bike shop at centre didn’t have spare, so mate hopped in car down to local town and was re-fitting the mech by the time we arrived for lap two.

Another was near the end of two days on Pennine Bridleway. Probably 15 miles from the end of our trip. mates mech exploded. Single speeded him and sent him on his was to nearest road. Managed to do the 15 miles two hours before we did the miles continuing on the same route.

Same mate’s knee went on the KAW – last day, so scooted to train station, two trains back to near where his car was, scooted to car (took ages with train timetables). We arrived a couple of hours later having followed the route.

Tubes, another mate went through four tubes in one day on KAW – just bad luck (plus a rip in the tyre). Used his two spares, my two spares and on to the last spare we had.  Patching session that night by the camp fire.

Shirt – rode 10 miles to work, realised I’d forgot my shirt, rode home, and back again. About an hour late in the end. Got in, colleague said, “why didn’t you go to ASDA up the road ?” – Brain fart on my part, Doh.

A new freehub or an alternative complete rear wheel, when my Hunt Aero Light Disc freehub decided not to engage pawls. I’d taken my road bike up on the train to Prestatyn to see family and while there, the plan was to ride up the Ffordd Las and Hillside climb to Gwaenysgor (hits ~33%, 550 feet in 1 mile) and head over to Denbigh to tackle Road To Hell.

Lost all drive ~15mins into my ride to Denbigh, played around with wheel for ages not having ever experienced this issue ever before, somehow got drive again intermitantly while heading back to mum’s.

Ended up climbing Hillside on my sister’s tank hybrid that weighed ~17Kg! 😮

My trunk and said goodbye to the circus.