Why do mountain bikers carry backpacks?

In fact you’ve lent me tools despite me always having a rucksack 😆

I am absolutely certain the answer to the original question is..

now I may be wrong, and smite me if I am wrong, because I have been in the past, but I am fairly certain that 60% of the time this is true all of the time:

To carry stuff.

In my pack:
Some water or a flask of hot coffee.
Sarnies.
Camera (SLR or compact depending)
Waterproof
Alien
Spokey
shock pump
Tyre pump
Spare pad for each end
Chunk of spare chain
a few spare bolts

I’ve needed all of them on several occasions, and since they weigh sod all and I don’t even notice them there, why wouldn’t I?

because you are a rebel and you defy convention on a bicycle or you cycle conventionally to defy rebels. I’m not sure. It has something to do with having fun tho, I’m sure.

how many times have you adjusted shock pressure out on the trails? i can understand it if it’s your first time and you are setting it up, but every ride?

pump on frame, jersey pocket for cake and this is all you need
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knog 2[/url] by rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr

😉 😉

I don’t get it either, I’ve never carried a shock pump and it hasn’t affected me. My riding kit is pretty minimal – tube, puncture repair kit, multitool, pump, few bits of chain, water and soon to be a camera. I would carry it all on the bike (apart from the camera) but I drink a lot and don’t like things rattling around on the bike.

I carry pretty minimal bike kit (multitool, spare tube, zip ties, pump, mars bar) but still use a small Deuter backpack.
Useful for carrying a spare layer or emergency waterproof and as I usually take a camera, map (or two) & a decent lunch on a ride I’d rather not stuff all that in a traditional roadie jersey pocket.
Add the obligatory mobile phone, bunch of keys and bit of cash and you’re bulging at the seams. al sharp pointy things to

Call me strange, but I prefer not to eat a mashed up, body temperature lump of malt loaf and a melted snack bar washed down with a sip from a sheep shit encrusted drinks bottle.

As for the ‘cycling uniform’ I agree with the point made earlier, it’s the spd-ed up, multipocketed, saddlebagged types that are ‘uniformites’. I can just grab the pack and ride in whatever clothing I feel like knowing all I need is on my back……

……ride free 😀

Two tubes, repair kit & multitool in seatpack.
Bladder.
Headtorch.
Jellybabies.
Compass, map & whistle if required.
Pump.
Buff.
Spare layer.
Phone.
Headtorch.
Mini lights.
Small first aid kit.
Suntan cream if required.
All the above fits into a 20 litre bag with room to spare.

Fully intend to carry a telescopic spinning rod, some lures and a disgorger on a couple of trips this year. 😀

Fully intend to carry a telescopic spinning rod, some lures and a disgorger on a couple of trips this year.

I wholeheartedly second that..

All I was doing was pointing out the enormous fallacy that many folk on here subscribe to that it is essential to have huge amounts of water and spares for a couple of hours playing on your bike in the local woods and fields.

However as usual on here question the orthodoxy and you get slated to high heaven. Its nothing new. Usual sanctimonious pricks with no ability to understand that difference exists and a sheep like mentality of following the herd.

No, you’re getting slated because when you first stated your point of view you didn’t bother qualifying it at all – you stated it as pure fact, true at all times, and nothing about “a couple of hours” or “local woods and fields”.

Marathon runners, incidentally, are recommended to drink 400-800ml per hour – in hot conditions that’s 3 litres for a 4 hour race.

tj as above people are only responding to your condescending style
“Pure fashion. Its a part of the “uniform””
i’m sorry but you get what you deserve!

I use a 4yr old Mule. The ‘backpack’ is much more convenient that bottles and seat packs. I ride 3 different bikes and its easier to have my ‘kit’ in one location. I did a 5hr muddy off road ride last sunday and drank 2.5 litres. Also alot of the clothing I have now does not have large back pockets the roadie clothing has.

gamo – Member
tj as above people are only responding to your condescending style

In the peer reviewed world of the Teej this is known as “resorting to bitter personal attacks on someone who dares go against convention” 🙄

I went out for a 5 hour/40 mile sesh in the Chilterns accompanied by two veteran roadies with a would-like-to-have-a-go-at-MTB-so-we’ve-just-dropped-a-grand-each-on-a-XC-hardtail type approach.

The weather was not particularly pleasant, to wit, we all wore some kind of lightweight waterproof top. I, however, was the only one wearing a backpack (A Mule). This didn’t go unnoticed, and both roadies expressed the common sense of carrying all you need in a saddle bag and pump on frame.

My first opportunity to dish out humble pie came when the sun came out, somewhere high and deep in the muddy backwoods of Ibstone (quite hilly and not the most populous place). A couple of hours of up and downhill through leaves and mud had caused a bit of a sweat on. I took my jacket off and strapped it to the cargo net of my mule. Quite sheepishly, they asked if they could do the same and share carrying the pack. Ho Ho.

The second opportunity, 4 pinch flats across the roadie’s two bikes. All unrepairable.
That used their two spare inner tubes, my spare inner tube – but luckily, I still had an old “repairable” flat lounging around in the bottom of my pack.

3rd opportunity – multiple refills of waterbottles from my 3L bag.

Camelbak saves the day.

‘Ave It!!

“Id rather have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it”.

As Christian Slater said in True Romance when asked by Patricia Arquette why he was putting a gun in his bag.

You dont need 90% of the stuff 90% of the time, its the other 10%.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned already, but the problem with a water bottle on a mountain bike is that it gets covered in crap, some of which can be pretty nasty. I’ve also found that (sometimes) the folk who carry almost nothing are also the first to want to borrow kit when something goes wrong.

Water in bottle, pump on frame, tube, PRK, chainbreaker, link, levers, park multitool, phone, notes, card all in seat pack. Only ridding for 50K so don’t need food. What am I going to need to borrow?

A tandem?

What am I going to need to borrow?

A first-aid kit.