QUESTION: What should I pack for a 50- to 100-mile bike club ride? I’m comfortable doing short rides of 25-30 miles, but a friend has invited me to join him for some weekend club rides that are longer. I don’t want to show up unprepared, but I don’t want to load up with more than I need. —Albert H.
RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: I assume you’re asking about equipment, food, clothing and personal items.
Regarding equipment, if you are running tubed tires, it’s wise on any ride to carry a couple of extra tubes, and something to inflate them with — either a minipump or a CO2 inflator with two cartridges — as well as tire levers and a small multi-tool. If you are running tubeless tires, you should add tire plugs to that list and drop one of the tubes (but keep one as a “just in case” you get a flat you can’t fix in any other way). These items can be carried in an under-the-seat wedge bag or in a handlebar bag.
One nice thing about club rides is that if you do have a mechanical issue with your bike, other riders will often stop with you to help you deal with it.
For food, the nature of club rides is that they may not take breaks as often as you want to munch, so having some quick energy boosters you can eat on the bike, stored where you can access them easily, is useful. I favor fig bars and, especially in hot weather, pretzels (for salt replacement) but there are all manner of energy bars and gels available. I keep them in a top tube bag where I can reach them while pedaling.
For liquid, on hot days, I fill one insulated bottle with a diluted sports drink and ice, and I put ice water in a thermos bottle with a sipper top that fits in a water bottle cage. I drink from both bottles as needed, but usually consume the sports drink first since the ice melts faster in the insulated bottle than in the thermos.
On longer club rides, it’s not uncommon for there to be a planned stop for coffee and snacks or even a meal. One club I rode with had a route dubbed “the apple-fritter ride,” which had a midpoint stop at an Amish bakery where enormous apple fritters and other pastries were available. Most likely, you’ll know before you start if the ride you’re joining has such a stop, and if they do, that will likely reduce the amount of food you need to carry on the bike. And you’ll also be able to refill your water bottles at those locations. Some group rides might instead have a shorter, more informal stopping point at a convenience store or gas station, which allows you to just run in and buy anything you need.
Long club rides often mean that you need more clothing in the cool morning than you do in the warm midday, so look for items you can wear and then store on the bike or in the pockets of your jersey when you remove them. I have sleeves that go in my seat bag when I take them off, and a windbreaker that stuffs down small enough to go in a jersey pocket.
Personal items include stuff like sun cream (which may need to be reapplied at a stop), any meds you require and items that matter personally to you. In the latter category, some riders like to have a few individually wrapped handy wipes stuffed in a pocket or in one of their pouches. I know a rider who feels that he must floss his teeth after any eating, and so he always has a dental floss dispenser with him on the bike. He even keeps an “emergency” length of floss in his wallet. I’m not criticizing him. To each his or her own. But carry what you need to be comfortable on the ride.
Of course, you’ll also want your phone and a wallet or some arrangement to carry some cash and ID and the number of who to contact in an emergency, plus whatever medical alert info you may require.
Readers, is this too much stuff? Or did I leave something out? What’s your 50 to 100 mile group ride packing strategy?
Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.
I don’t ride with my prescription glasses as my distance sight is fine, but I pack a pair of cheater glasses for any flats/mechanicals I might have.
I carry one water bottle on rides under 30 miles. I carry 2 water bottles and food on rides over 30 miles. Otherwise, my kit is the same.
That depends on your metabolism as to what to bring.
My first 100-mile race, granted this not a ride, but I was on a team and took snack stuff as the team leader said to take, and ate a pre-race meal as was suggested, I got about 1/2 way into the race and I had gone through my snack bars and was starving and starting to bonk, so at around the 60-mile mark I saw a mini-mart, so I pulled in and got a pre-made sandwich, fortunately, I had some cash with me. Needless to say that first race I finished last! LOL!! But what I found out was my metabolism was higher than most, so from then on, I packed more snacks.
45 years later and when I’m riding my touring bike loaded with gear, I have to stop about 2/3rds of the way to a designation and get some real food, snacks like store bought energy bars don’t really do much for me, most stores don’t carry high calorie energy bars, I found I need around 4 or 5 400 to 600 calorie bars on a long 75 plus mile ride.
All the other folk in the race were fine with their snacks, so you have to know your body and know how long will it go without the need for fuel, but to be safe, pack a bit more than you think you’ll need. Take cash along as well, just in case the group stops to get something.
You might also want to think about taking a small 6-ounce plastic flask and filling it with black coffee before you go, then sip about 1 ounce of it about every 1/2 hour starting about an hour into the ride, for sustained energy. Making your own coffee for that is a lot cheaper than buying some sort of bike boutique expensive energy gel pack, and the coffee will do the same thing for less than a 10th of the price! You can even get a 6-ounce plastic refillable collapsible flask, or a hard shell flask off of Amazon; the collapsible ones you can use several times before having to throw away; the hard ones just wash out and keep using it over and over, if it gets a bit dingy from coffee stains an ounce of bleach with 5 ounces of water, shake and let set for a couple of days will remove most if not all of the decolorization.
Water goes without saying!
Flat repair items, along with a few alcohol pads in sealed pouches, and know how to repair your flats, including patching, you shouldn’t have to rely on a group member to do that for you. A small multi-tool, but if you don’t have one don’t fret about it, someone in the group will have one, but the chances of a mechanical breakdown if you have maintained your bike, will be very rare. If you were riding alone then yeah, get a multi-tool just to be safe. I never carry more than one tube, never found a need for two tubes even while touring! If a tube gets destroyed, chances are so did the tire! All the spare tube does for me is if I can’t find the hole in the tube to fix on the side of the road then I can use the backup tube and worry about fixing the tube when I get someplace, but it’s rare if I can’t find the hole.
Speaking of flats I’m going to share with you an old trick I learned when I was 9 or 10 years old from a middle-aged neighbor who saw me trying to fix a flat at my house. You can fix most tube flats without having to remove the wheel from the bike! All you have to do is find the entrance hole in the tire while the wheel is attached to the bike, I can usually do that roughly 75 percent of the time. Then remove roughly half of one side of the bead of the tire with that hole in the center of the half; next pull out about a 1/4th of the tube, again with the hole in the center of that 4th you pulled out, buff the tube, apply some glue and wait for it to dry, while it’s drying check the inside of the tire where that hole was and see if you feel anything sticking out if so remove it; once the glue has dried apply the patch and squeeze the tube/patch between your thumb and fingers as hard as you can for about 30 seconds; stuff the tube back into the tire, put just a small amount of air into the tube to give it shape, remount the bead, inflate and you’re good to go. This method sounds odd to people, but it is the way they used to do it back in the 40’s and 50’s according to that neighbor guy, and I’ve been doing that for the last 60 or so years, yes. I’m that old!