… when you go out for a bike vacation or go to race. When you’ve been driving for hours to ride at some awesome spot, you don’t want to quit because of bike-trouble.
Especially when you’re planning to ride multiple days. Here’s my thought on what to bring (not including obvious stuff like tubes and tools).
- Gearhanger
Well yeah… I’ve seen it so many times, and still I myself forget to buy a spare hanger to bring along. Not all bikes require a replaceable hanger though, like the bullit. - Cables + rear derailleur
Bring at least two spare shiftingcables, inners and outers, and if you see yourself fixing a broken hydrolic cable, bring one of those two for your brakes. A rear derailleur is not excessive luxury, teach yourself how to replace and finetune it. - Brakepads
This should have been number one. Bring two sets of brakepads! If these things wear out, you’ll be so happy you’ve brought these with you. A spare disc would be a lovely extra. Especially when you’re out riding in rocky-territorium, you might hit a rock and bend it… - Chain and Powerlink
- Spokes
Last year I stupidly lost a bolt on my rearbrake. I should have checked it! The day would have been done if there wasn’t this awesome guy who replaced it with a spoke. This is a bit of a McGuyver solution, but hey… I was riding again! - Extra shoes (and pedals if you’re picky)
Especially when you ride clipless, these things can brake, you can loose a bolt on your shoe. Or it can get extremely wet. Having a nice clean set of shoes with you can be all the difference. - Starnut, mainstream bolts, tywraps, ducktape and some headsetspacers
- Wheelset
Some of us are lucky to have another set of wheels, yeah bring them along! - Grips
Seriously, these things wear out very quickly and it’s all you got to hold on. Very common is losing bolts (the tiniest around, the ones you probebly don’t have laying around) and not having the end-caps. This can be a problem at races! - Seat
They may brake or bend and very often the seatpost is still in tact.
Well, the truth is, you could pack a whole extra bike with you if you want to. But it’s like a said, when you’ve travelled for hours to do some riding for a few days… You’d kick yourselve if all that’s keeping you from biking is one simple broken part.
Now… do you actually think I forgot something… please add your tip in the comments! I’m leaving for the Megavalanche in 12 days and I sure don’t want to forget some vital part!
Some Loctite – you wouldn’t want to replace anything only to loose the replaced part on the next ride! Have fun at Megavalanche