Carry a warm layer and food in a seat / saddle bag. If you get a mechanical put the warm layer on straight away to stop you chilling. Then have something to eat and drink. Then get on with fixing the mechanical. The food and drink can go down whilst you do that. Then remove warm layer before you start riding again.
Carry a heat reflective survival or bothy bag in case you get stranded and have to await rescue.
In generally for mechanicals
Have reusable fabric gloves and turn them inside out when done and put back in toolkit. Hands stay clean every time and the gloves don’t rip like latex or nitrile ones. Can be had pretty cheap.
If you ride at night
Have a charged up head torch in an easy to find place for hands free mechanicals at night.
I was taught this in motorcycle school… when I didn’t follow it, I lost it on a rock garden and sprained my AC joint (6 weeks of rehab) when I OTB’d from 20mph to 0 pretty quickly losing control of the float because I started looking where I didn’t want to go.
I also download all instructions and documents related to my bikes and components. I store them in the Apple books, so they are synced to all my devices. That way I can access them regardless of the device I am using.
This sounds like… “duh”, but it’s amazing to me how many people take short spins without a helmet.
I have a friend who hopped on his bike without a helmet to test a new set of tubless tires on his street and endoed, landed in the hospital with a severe head injury, and missed most of the race season.
For anyone that sweats heavily or gets sweat in your eyes, get a Halo headband. It costs $16 and you can find them at REI and Amazon. Position it so the silicone strip is just above, but not touching, your eye brows.
It made all the difference for me, especially mountain biking in summer when there’s lots of sweating but little evaporative airflow. The fabric holds onto the sweat long enough for it to evaporate and the rubber strip ensures that it can’t drip down into your eyes. And it doesn’t make you hotter because the evaporation has a cooling effect (which is why we sweat in the first place).
If you’re bald, have thinning hair or are just an extra heavy sweater, then wear one of their bandannas on your head as well. That will greatly increase the surface area to hold and evaporate sweat.
“outside of this little weirdo world of cycling… nobody cares.”
Don’t bore people to death with your Zwift tales, Century achievements, FTP, w/kg, self-starvation heroics. They simply think you’re strange. If you want something to discuss with other people outside your sport, discuss baseball, rugby, football, running, or pizza.
That’s a good one. A specialized tool for a simple job is usually less than a shops cost to do the job. I’m talking stuff like removing a cassette, cranks, spoke wrench, etc.
I have a limit though…if I need a steerer cut, hydraulic stuff done, or press fit BB put in I’m taking it to the shop. Not enough reward vs risk to do it at home.
Use a bit of electrical tape to mark your seatpost height.
For dental health: brush your teeth 30-60min after if you’re fuelling with carbs regularly. I usually try and finish my nutrition ~30 min before I end the ride, and do it soon after I get home so I don’t forget. Failing that, mouthwash will help to balance out some of the acidity that can lead to further enamel erosion throughout the day (caveat that I’m not a dentist, so ask yours for advice.)
Take a photo of your tube size for the next time you send your partner in to get you a spare.
Donate your old/unused stuff to your local club or junior program.
Just because you can run 12km on aerobic fitness alone does not mean you should.
My dentist said to do a mouth rinse(clean water ASAP, something like Listerine, when you can), avoid brushing as the sugar will have softened the enamel and brushing can/will do damage to the enamel in that state.
I must disagree. A lot of my non biking friends love hearing about my biking adventures, training, feeding etc. Because it’s foreign to them and they are curious. But of course you need to know your crowd and know when to tone it down.
That raises an interesting point: the up front costs of a sport vs. the recurring costs. I don’t golf but I ski and there are some parallels (greens fees vs lift tickets). Cycling has high up front costs, but if you behave, low recurring costs. All three have fashion challenges.
This x1000. I’m amazed how many I see not wearing helmets out on the mountain biking trails. Saw one today.
Someone I knew was hit by car and died from head trauma. She was riding her bike at night without a helmet heading home from class. It still breaks my heart. PLEASE wear a helmet!
The do-it-yourself car wash with the high-pressure sprayer is the best place to clean your bike. In 20+ years, I have never had an issue with high pressure infiltrating and damaging components.
More than once, I have put my sparkling clean bike back on the car and while driving away thought “I probably should have washed my car too.”
This is a good one, especially for on the way home from cross races when there’s a half inch of mud on every surface, and the prospect of standing outside in 35 degree rain when you get home is too horrible to contemplate.
Related to the groupset manual…download the geometry chart for your frame, while your bike is still getting sold. Saves you a lot of measuring when you’re looking for another frame.
Completely unrelated to the above. When you’re planning a long ride, cook something (real food) the day before that will just need heating up.
They let you talk about what you love