How light do you ride?

Justinjured

Hi am doing soggy bottoms in a couple of weeks and wondered what the norm was for riding with spare tube and pump etc.

did SB a couple of years ago and didnt experience problems, but saw people along the way side who did.

the risk over 1 1/2 - 2hrs riding seems pretty minimal, but wondered waht everyone else did.

explosifpete

For a short race I don't take anything as if you stop thats game over but if you don't have such a do or die atitude I would take a tube and a co2 cartrage pump so that you can fix a flat in about 2 mins, any more serious problems and you should of sorted them before the start line

stevieboy

Chain tool taped under the saddle with a powerlink
Couple of self stick patches
Carbon micro road pump

I dont bother with a mulitool on the basis that my bike is prepared so as not to need it. If I crash and bend something that needs tightening etc i'm probably going to be in too bad a shape and/or too pee'd off to care about finishing anyway!

Preperation is the key as pete says

TonyWard

I've switched to CO2 rather than pump so could get moving again quicker if have to change tube

TonyWard

Mind you, I'm not exactly slick at changes so probably wouldn't make much difference!

I read somewhere that they have a bike mechanic competition which involved wheel on bike back to wheel back on bike with new tube inflated and the winner did it in something like 45 seconds. Amazing! I spend longer than that just on swearing alone :shock:

cannonfodder

nooooooo! tell me that 45 seconds is an exageration!

Can we get him on u-tube or something - I need to learn that kind of speed...

Father Faff

Gosh - took me 45 minutes once during a 5 hour Open 5 (and I wasn't last!) but that was mainly because the bloody mini pump was knackered though even if it had been working I'm sure it would have taken me 15 minutes.