This time I thought I'd talk a little bit about what to take with you when you go out riding and kick things off with a couple of stories that highlight some good points.
A couple of weekends ago I went out on the Bike Tek shop ride and as normal I grabbed my riding pack which, by my own admission, is usually full of too much stuff. However, when a randomly bent chainring cropped up mid ride and someone said,
"Ah, we could do with some pliers!"
a pair of pliers was produced from my pack. Now, we were out riding in the woods and about a 15-minute walk from the vans, so it wasn't a massive drama to head back and sort out the problem. Carrying a pair of pliers in that situation whilst useful, was possibly a bit of an overkill.
Every year (twice a year if we're lucky) I meet up with my old riding buddies from back in the day and we invariably head to the Lake District for a weekend of riding bikes and maybe the odd beer or two. A few years ago, we headed to Glenridding with the idea of riding Helvellyn. At a height of 950 metres Helvellyn is a good day out certainly more than a 15-minute walk back to base! On this particular occasion one of my friends brought along his work colleague who, for the purpose of this story, we shall call Dave. We headed up Sticks Pass in the sunshine but as we got towards the top of the pass it had started to drizzle and most of us pulled on a waterproof jacket. We continued up and over Raise and as the rain worsened, we asked Dave if he was going to put his jacket on but he insisted he was all good. By the time we started up Lower Man the wind had picked up and Dave was looking pretty chilly and on further questioning admitted that he'd not got a jacket with him as the weather had looked alright back at the youth hostel. We made the decision to turn round and head back down, but it was then that sod's law intervened and Dave had one of those random mechanicals. Somehow his rear brake pads had got jammed in the wrong position and his back wheel wouldn't go round. Crappy weather, cold hands and a wet and freezing Dave meant the contents of the riding pack were called upon. The group shelter came out and the four of us plus the wounded bike got in. A spare layer was produced for Dave and the pliers made an appearance. Bike fixed, Dave warmed (slightly) and with a bit of food inside us we headed down. Within minutes of leaving the tops the conditions were much improved and we began to question our decision but the right call was made.
Both of these situations, once again, show us that as mountain bikers we need to have an understanding of what we are going to be doing and then make decisions, personal choices based on this. You need to ask yourself a couple of questions -
1. Where are you going?
and
2. What are you willing to put up with?
Mixed in with these two broad questions are a number of smaller considerations and an element of risk perception.
First let's consider - Where are you going? Put simply - near to help/car/base or far from help/car/base. How long will it take you to get home if something breaks? Is it going to be a two-hour hike through the hills or a ten-minute walk back from the woods?
Secondly - What are you willing to put up with? Are you happy to carry a rucksack with kit in it or are you happy to get wet and walk home if something breaks? Personally, I'm happy to carry kit. I was brought up carrying a rucksack in the hills from a young age and it's stuck. If it rains, I want to put a jacket on and if something breaks, I want to fix it and I don't mind carrying that kit around with me. However, there are plenty of people for which the opposite is true. They can't stand carrying a rucksack and they are happy to get a bit wet every now and again. That said there are a few things that it is a really good idea to be carrying.
The opposite ends of answers to our questions are easy to deal with. If you are a few minutes from the car/home or on an uplift day etc, you are probably not going to carry much at all. If you are heading out into the mountains for the day, then you really should have a rucksack with the kit to keep you safe and help you enjoy your day. It's the in between answers that provide us with some grey areas and personal choice.
For kit choices, I'm going to break things down into different types of kit - tools, clothing, food, first aid and navigation. Before I dive in, it's important to note that if you have no idea how to use the kit you are carrying then there's very little point in carrying it in the first place. This is probably true of tools, first aid and navigation. If you don't know a few basic trailside repairs or the basics of map reading, it's probably a good idea to get yourself on a course and learn how. At MTB Trail Guides we're perfectly placed to help you out with learning a few trailside fixes and how to navigate yourself away from the trail centres.
Tools
There are a few basic tools we should all carry with us and know how to use. A bike specific multitool is almost essential. It should have a good range of allen keys, torx, a couple of screwdrivers and a chain tool. The ability to fix a puncture is next. tubeless is brilliant but you can still get a puncture that can't be fixed. A tubeless puncture repair kit is a good addition but tyre levers, a couple of spare tubes and a pump are a must. Beyond these must haves there are a few things that can save the day. A tyre boot can help repair larger holes in your tyres and some duct tape wrapped around your pump plus a few zip ties can fix almost anything in the right hands. I've seen brake levers fashioned out of sticks and zip ties! A pair of pliers is useful as are quick link pliers and a pen knife. Spares are going to be tagged on the end here and quick links are the first on the list. Joining them are a spare mech hanger and spare brake pads. I'm sure some of you are reading this thinking, I'm not carrying that lot around and others are saying but what about... (insert the things I've missed here). At the end of the day, packing the tools to carry out some basic trailside repairs is a really good idea. If you're riding a little further from home, you may want to carry a bit more.
Clothing
First up, you know you! I hate being too hot and wonder why some people are wearing trousers and a waterproof jacket when I'm still in shorts and a t-shirt. Secondly, look at the weather forecast (and out the window) and dress appropriately. After this apply the learnings from our two questions. If you are going out into the hills and mountains on your bike, then you should be carrying appropriate clothing. A waterproof jacket with a hood - definitely! An extra layer, a hat or buff and spare gloves should really go in as well.
If you're out close to home, then it's up to you. The risks associated with the weather are massively reduced because you can get out of it pretty quickly. The in between situations are again the ones to think a little more about. Of course, we have the "how much are you willing to put up with?" factor but there are a couple of "what ifs" as well. If the weather looks ok and the forecast looks alright then we can ditch extra clothing, right? No need for a waterproof? Well, the weather in the UK can change pretty quickly and it's all too easy to end up cold and wet with quite a way to get somewhere warm and dry. The second "what if" is what if something happens. What if you end up hurt and waiting for help. You may be warm enough riding, getting a good sweat on probably but try sitting for a while in damp sweaty clothes. You'll soon end up wishing you'd put an extra layer in even if it's just a thin windproof layer.
First Aid
This is a quick one. Carrying a first aid kit and knowing how to use it is a really really good idea. If you know how to use it, then you've probably been on a course, and you will know what to carry. If you haven't been on any kind of first aid course, I would thoroughly recommend going on one.
Navigation
Navigation. Knowing where you are and where you are going is another really useful string to your bow. Modern trail centres are fantastic and more often than not very well signed and, if things do go wrong, you can retrace your steps and the marker at the start of that section might just have a grid reference on it.
Technology is amazing and the vast majority of us have a smart phone with some form of mapping app on it. Add to that bike computers and smart watches with navigation features and we have every chance of not getting lost in the forest. Apps like What 3 Words and OS maps are worth a mention. What 3 Words allows you to pinpoint your location pretty accurately if the emergency services need to find you or if you are meeting your mates in some obscure car park in the middle of nowhere. I can't recommend OS maps highly enough. For about £20 a year subscription with Ordnance Survey you get access to their range of maps on your smart phone and laptop. You can plan routes, download and print maps plus loads of other features, it's great! There are tons of other apps that allow you to plan routes and download them to you head unit of choice but all of this has a couple of potential problems. They all rely on a battery and we don't always remember to charge our batteries. They also rely on GPS signal and mobile internet and, as good as this is, there are places where you are not going to get any mobile internet signal at all.
The ultimate solution to this is of course, a good old paper map and compass. If you want to explore a little more of the beaten track but don't know how to use a map and compass, then it is well worth getting yourself on a course or workshop to learn. Get in touch with a mountain bike guide who can show you the ropes and you'll soon have the confidence to start exploring.
Food
To keep it simple, if you are out riding for more than about 2 hours then it's a good idea to take something to eat. You'll work this out for yourself with experience and probably a bad experience of not eating enough. Don't wait until you get hungry. If you are out for a big ride, then start eating little and often. What to eat is a personal thing just make sure it's got plenty of energy. Gels, sweets, bars, sandwiches, pork pies, whatever takes your fancy. Just pick something that isn't going to melt or become inedible in some other way after spending a few hours bouncing around in your rucksack and whatever you do, take your rubbish home with you!
Drinks - take plenty to drink. The amount you take depends on how long you are going to be out and how warm it is, but I always take a drink.
Other stuff
A bag to carry all your kit in. We should probably talk about your riding pack. There are loads of great riding packs from lots of great manufacturers out there. A bike specific pack is important as it is designed to keep that load nice and stable when you're riding. You really don't want your kit swinging around all over the place in your old drawstring PE bag! Size is something to think about and it depends on what kind of riding you are doing and therefore how much kit you are carrying. Are you going to be attaching kit to your bike somehow? This might reduce what you need to carry on your back.
The eagle-eyed reader might have spotted the two red bags in the bottom right corner of the first picture. These are group shelters. Essentially a big nylon bag that you and you friends/group can climb into to escape the weather. The two bags are just two different sizes and I'd only carry one of them; which one depends on the group size. Although there as an emergency shelter, they can be useful to escape the weather up in the hills while you're having a snack or fixing a puncture. If I'm out guiding, I always carry one but If I'm out on my own or with a few mates then I don't tend to, unless we're out in the mountains.
Hopefully there are some useful ideas on kit and gear to carry with you when you're out riding but apart from (in my opinion) a few essentials, keep asking yourself those two questions -
Where are you going?
What are you willing to put up with?
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