What’s In Your Pack?
Just a little different, not completely different …
Here’s the third in what is now officially a series of “What’s In Your Pack?” articles. It’s not completely different than Rebecca’s pack contents and not quite as extensively dedicated to trail work as Scott’s pack contents, but it might be more extensive than your average MTB rider’s pack because I’m a NICA coach for the Skyline High School MTB team, so I’m probably carrying more First Aid gear, food, tools, and spare parts than the average MTB rider.
Here’s what is pictured:
Camelbak TORO 8 pack: I won this in a gold sprints contest a few years ago at a NorCal league fundraiser, so I didn’t actually select it myself, but it’s comfortable and carries a fair amount of gear. I cut off the waist belt and removed one of the two sternum straps, which probably reduces the effectiveness of its built-in back protector but makes it more convenient to wear.
First Aid gear: I carry an aluminum foldable splint, still in its plastic covering because I haven’t needed to use it — and hope that, by carrying it, I may never need to use it! The Mountain Hardwear fabric face mask is a holdover from coaching during COVID, and I sometimes wear it when riding very dusty trails in the summer months because the dust often triggers my asthma. My first aid kit includes a set of tweezers (my most frequently used piece of first aid gear on MTB rides), a tourniquet, bandages and Band Aids, several precut lengths of tubular stockinette to hold bandages in place on arms and legs, trauma shears, and the typical Benadryl, Ibuprofen, etc.
Small stuff sack with dog poop bags: sometimes I ride with my dog, but there’s always dog poop from other dogs to pick up — I think of it like advocacy for dogs to use trails.
Paper map: I carry my iPhone too but the battery doesn’t last forever and there isn’t always enough signal on the trails to rely on it for navigation. I don’t always carry a paper map, but I like having one as a backup.
BTCEB stickers and cards: you know the question, “What’s BTCEB?”
Pocket chainsaw: works best with another person, and surprisingly effective for clearing medium-sized fallen trees.
Food: usually some blocks and bars, maybe some cashews and raisins. I’m far more likely to have pickles with me than candy.
ALMSTHRE compact frame bag: holds most of the tools I carry, which reduces the weight of my backpack and saves room for more food, water, First Aid gear and the pocket chainsaw.
Tire levers: I like the big levers from Pedro’s because I’ve broken too many of the smaller ones.
Spare brake pads and a set of cleat bolts: since taking this photo I’ve used one of the cleat bolts when a student was missing a cleat bolt at the beginning of our first lap of the day at China Camp.
Dynaplug kit: for plugging punctures in tubeless tires.
CO2 cartridges and inflator head: I prefer the reliability of a pump, but CO2 is faster — when it works — and is more effective at reseating a tubeless tire.
Patch kit and extra vulcanizing cement: tubeless tires mean the patch kit doesn’t doesn’t get used very often, and that means the tube of cement in the patch kit is likely to be dried out when you need to use it!
Multitools: I carry a few of these. One has more tools and includes a chain breaker, but its Allen wrenches are too short to reach the limit screws on some MTB rear derailleurs. The other tool has longer Allen wrenches — and sometimes you actually need two separate tools (like for the pinch bolts on some dropper levers). Another multitool has pliers and a pocket knife blade: I added this one after I really wished I’d had a pair of pliers while reshaping a mangled disc brake pad spring for a student’s bike at the top of the Soquel Demonstration Forest flow trails. On that day I squeezed the mangled spring between adjacent Allen wrenches in the only multitool I was carrying … and it worked, but a real set of pliers would have gotten us back on the trail a lot faster!
Wolf Tooth master link pliers with two spare quick links: a bit redundant, but they’re pretty lightweight, have storage for two spare quick links, and have come in useful on more than one occasion.
Pen: just in case.
Spoke wrench: less important in the age of disc brakes, but still helpful to fix a wobbly wheel.
Valve core removal tool: perhaps redundant, but often useful when student athletes show up for rides with a flat tubeless tires because their pump unscrewed their valve core a little bit.
Shock pump: this one is really small and lightweight and doesn’t have a gauge, but it’s really useful when someone really needs some more air in a fork or a rear shock in the middle of a ride.
Spare shift cable: actually 2 spare shift cables on the day I took this photo, though I’ve since used one of them on a ride to fix a student’s dropper post. I’ve fixed a few dropper posts and a few rear derailleurs mid-ride by carrying spare cables.
Not pictured, but always attached to my bike: a USB rechargeable taillight, a pump, a couple of spare tubes, and a couple of boots cut from old tubular road racing tires. These work a lot better than Clif bar wrappers or dollar bills and I’ve given many of them away to riders with sidewall cuts or even tread slashes. Ask me if you ever want some for yourself, or cut them from some old road tires on your own.
Not pictured, but added to my pack for most rides depending on weather and terrain: gloves, sunglasses, wind jacket or vest, lights, a water bladder or Platypus soft bottle, and even a water filter for long backcountry rides where the only options for refilling water bottles are streams or lakes.
I’ve never weighed the individual items I carry (and don’t even know how much my bike weighs), but I knew somebody would ask, so I weighed my pack and frame bag filled just with the items in the photo and got 2.2 kg for the backpack and .7 kg for the frame bag. That’s a total of 2.9 kg, so a little over 6 pounds. A bit more than Rebecca’s lightweight pack, but a little less than half the weight of Scott’s pack.
So what’s in your pack?
Brian Glueck, Communications Director
