Bought my first MTB need Help/Advice

Shogun-44

Hi all,

This is my first time since I was a young teenager that I have owned a proper MTB. I’m 27 years old now and I have recently just bought myself a new MTB hoping to get fit again, I am going up north of Scotland in September and I planning to take my new bike on a little adventure. I was hoping some of you could drop some knowledge on me as I have literally no idea on what provisions I would take with me when I go mountain biking!? Obviously I’ll take plenty of water and a Med kit but what provisions would I need to take for i.e the bike gets a flat tyre or something..

The bike I’ve bought is a Saracen Mantra Pro 2018 I think this is a good bike to start of with to get back into mountain biking again. If anyone has any more info if this is a good bike to begin with would be great! I’ll be practising plenty before I go up north so I can get used to it!

And tips and thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

JBA

Welcome back to the world of MTB.

There are lots of threads on the forums about what to carry when out for a ride. THIS and THIS will get you started, but if you do a search you will find more.

Long_Time_Lurker

Don't know where your little 'adventure' is going to take you - so be prepared for the vagaries of the British weather and associated conditions.
I don't know how remote you're intending to go, but you don't want to get lost in the middle of nowhere, so an OS map would be a good idea - you can't always rely on your phone.
(I did a bit of bike hiking when I was a lot fitter, and found that phone coverage could get a bit patchy and the map apps drained the battery in under 5 hours.)

mattyfez

Yeh you certainly can't rely on phone coverage up on hills /moors so you need to have a really good understanding of the route before hand, unless it's a really well trodden route.. else take a paper map /compass depending on where you are going.

steelo

My advice would be, as well as a map, to take a multitool (with chain tool) and plenty of spare inner tubes and a decent pump, some quick patches and some cash/notes. Also a roll of duct tape can be useful too. If you get a puncture just swap the tube out for a fresh one and then repair the puncture at the end of the day/ride. If you burn through all your spare inner tubes then the quick patches will come in handy. I don't think you want to be riding tubeless tyres just yet as it's a much bigger problem if you suffer a split/gashed tyre. With inner tubes you can always use a £5 on the inside of the tyre to cover a split/rip and stop the inner tube from bulging through the tyre wall (you can buy specific tyre 'boots' for this job too). A multitool with a chain tool is useful if you knacker the rear derailleur and you have to bodge a single speed repair to get you home. They are probably the most likely 'mechanicals' you'll have if you're just riding general trails and not anything too extreme.

Make sure whatever you take, tools etc. you learn to use them first. There's no point taking tools for every possible breakdown if you don't know how to use them. It might sound stupid but if you're out of mobile phone/3G signal then a small bike repair book could come in handy, otherwise just have www.parktool.com bookmarked!

Tell someone what route you're planning to take and how long you think you'll be! Some breakdowns/mechanicals will likely result in a long walk home, so be wise if this happens as to which way you walk back in case your trip then takes longer than expected as people may have decided to start looking for you.