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Bunyan Velo No. 05 is Out!

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My favorite magazine about bikepacking and adventure riding just released its newest issue:  No. 05.  

Buy it.

Contributions from sixteen of the most interesting riders in the United States, including Lucas Winzenburg, Joe Cruz, and Glenn Charles.

Buy it.

Bunyan is an important project.  If you don't buy No. 05, donate to it.

It makes us want to ride.  It knows why we ride.

What magazines make you want to ride?

Trail Repair Kit - Single Day

We use different service kits depending on the type of ride, the amount of time we'll be out, how many people - if any - that we're riding with, and the time of year.

Check out Overland's toolkit recommendation for all-day road riding here.  Overland's road kit and mixed-terrain kits are similar but different.  Don't make the mistake of bringing one for the other.

One of the more tricky kits to optimize is the one day kit.  Don't make the mistake of grabbing your road ride saddle bag; a spare tube and one quick-fill won't do the job on a 12-hour mixed ride.

Here's our ideal pack for:

  • Duration of ride:  6-20 hours
  • Ride Terrain Type:  Mixed-Terrain, mountain biking, road riding
  • Location:  Urban to exurban.  Not 100% rural.
  • Time of Year:  Mid-spring to late fall
  • Co-Riders:  Zero or more

Here's what we carry for a typical mixed-terrain all day adventure ride.  Our ideal kit for this type of ride includes a saddle bag - and jersey pockets - with five categories of equipment:  Safety, repairs, nutrition, weather management, and being a good co-rider.

Safety & Emergencies

  • Identification
  • Phone
  • Emergency contact information or Road I.D. bracelet
  • Accident Report card - When you're 10-hours into a ride, a bit hazy and tired, it's great to have a way to ensure you collect all permanent information if you have an interaction with a car.
  • Cash - If you're bonking, a 10 dollar bill is a wonderful thing.
  • Credit card
  • Chamois creme - single serving

Repairs

  • Spare tube or two:  New tubes - not tubes that have been in your repair kit for a season; these will have holes worn in them.  Also, make sure the tubes are the right size for your tires; often riders end up with road tubes that are really too small for mixed-terrain tires.  Those will work in an emergency but will cause problems in the long run.
  • CO2 cartridge or two
  • CO2 inflator head.  Here's our favorite CO2 inflator, by far.
  • Mini pump that fits in your jersey pocket.
  • Tire lever
  • Patch kit
  • Multi-Tool that includes at least a dozen tools - or the equivalent of this in some form.  There are a lot of good choices; here's what we use.  Recently it's become important to have a Torx wrench with you; unfortunately these are becoming fairly common.  A T25 wrench is really important; a T35 is less common but some high end parts are beginning to use this size.
  • Chain tool - that works with your chain type:  11-speed, 10-speed, etc.  A good multi-tool will include a chain tool.
  • Spare chain pin or Powerlock
  • Cat's Tongue towel - if you'll be riding near poison ivy.  A Cat's Tongue towel does a great job of removing poison ivy oil after pulling a tire off.
  • Replacement spokes or Fiberfix
  • Duct tape - fixes just about anything.
  • Tire boot - a dollar bill also works here, but money's for spending, tire boots are for tears.

Weather Management:  Depending on the season this could be a number of items:  

  • Wind jacket, vest, rain jacket, knee warmers, balaclava, etc.  Not a lot worse than being cold when you're tired and bonking.

Nutrition

  • Food bar or two:  If you're starting to bonk eating a food bar will get you to a real store to get real food.
  • Bloks or shots for quick energy if you're starting to bonk in the last hour of the ride.

Being a Good Co-Rider

  • Bug repellent
  • Sun screen
  • GPS device with the route pre-loaded.
  • External power supply that will keep your GPS unit charged for 12+ hours of ride time.  Most GPS units won't really last for 12 honest hours.  Having your GPS die 2-hours from home base is miserable.  Don't risk it; bring a spare battery.
  • Charging cable for the spare battery to the GPS unit.
  • Brave Soldier Crash Pak
  • Tampons

For the Very Prepared

If you definitely don't want to end your ride early due to a mechanical, electronics failure, or bonking, here's an exhaustive list of gear:

  • Leatherman with tools not included in a multi-tool.
  • Singleator or equivalent - for when someone rips a rear derailleur off.  This is the light weight simple solution for a destroyed derailleur.
  • Spare rear derailleur is our preference to a singleator.  It's really nice to have gears when there's 30-miles of trail riding left.  Carrying a spare derailleur is heavier than a singleator but having gears is hard to beat.
  • Spare cables:  One derailleur and one brake.
  • Zip ties of three sizes
  • Spare tire - seriously, it's come in handy twice on rides for us.
  • Will you need lights?  Taillight and head light, too?  Even if you're sure you'll be back before sunset we still ride with lights; we can't tell you how many times we've rolled home well after dark even when we were 100% certain we'd be home before dusk.
  • Backup battery supply for phone, light, etc.  This could be the spare battery for your GPS unit, too.
  • Charging cable for phone, lights, etc.  Make sure the cables have the correct ends.
  • Camera

To get all of this to fit we use an oversized saddle bag; there are many on the market.  Overland's preference from trying many options is the Revelate Viscacha bag.

Here's other posts that you might find useful for the long ride.

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Electricity for 24-Hour Mixed-Terrain Bike Rides

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Here's the list of electronics I carry on any given all-day mixed-terrain ride.  It's getting a bit out of control.  And it requires too many electrical wall outlets and a tangle of cables; if I were to charge all these items at the same time it would require 14 outlets.  Therefore, I have to charge everything in stages, particularly when traveling.

My primary bike also has a generator hub, generator light, and Sinewave USB charger.  Regardless, I still carry all the lights and batteries mentioned below.

Will Not Ride Without

  • GPS Device:  Garmin 1000
  • GPS Device:  Garmin 810:  I always ride with a backup GPS unit.  I've had too many adventures where my Garmin ended up having a major issue.  The backup unit provides me confidence to head into the woods without hesitation.  And, my phone is my third backup - or fourth, see below - so I have no worries.  I have other GPS units but this combination I find to work best in most cases.
  • Phone
  • Battery backup 5,600mAh.
  • Battery backup 12,000mAh.  Three reasons I carry a second larger backup battery:  
    1. In the winter, battery life gets reduced by up to 75%; I've been on rides where my Garmin dies after about 3 hours.  
    2. When I'm riding with other people I find this backup has come in handy a number of times.
    3. If I have a mishap and will end up being outside throughout an evening, this backup will keep some items powered through an unexpected additional 10+ hours of dark.
  • Headlight:  Light & Motion Urban.  I typically use this for my helmet mount.  No better light placement for night riding in the woods - so you can see around a corner, or for urban riding - where you want drivers to see you.
  • Headlight backup:  Light & Motion Gobe 700.  I've found that the only truly waterproof light is the Gobe.  They're cumbersome for helmet mounting, and for riding in general, but being stuck in a lightning storm at 2am on the trails without light is not something I want to live through again.
  • Headlight backup:  Light & motion Gobe 700.  I carry enough lights that I can ride throughout the night without running out of light - regardless of my generator light.  I've had my generator system die on me once; don't want the ride in the dark again.
  • Taillight:  Clip-on to jersey pocket.  I use a battery operated taillight, not a USB chargeable.  USB chargeable don't last long enough.
  • Taillight:  Small mounted to helmet tail.
  • Electronic shifting:  If you have Di2 or eTap electronic shifting, make sure you do a full charge before any big ride.  With eTap make sure you check the brifter batteries, too.

Vanity Items

Items I pretty much always carry on all-day rides, but that I don't really need.

  • Camera:  Sony RX100 III.  Note:  For the photo above, I used this camera so I had a stand in - that's why the 'camera' looks a lot like an external hard-drive in this photo.
  • Video Camera:  Garmin VIRB or GoPro 4.

Don't Like Riding Without

These are items for other riders, or I'll bring if the weather or riding conditions indicate it.

  • Foot Warmer Batteries:  In temperatures below 20 degrees I'll typically wear Hotronics FootWarmers.
  • Third backup GPS device:  Garmin 800
  • Video Camera Backup:  Either second VIRB or GoPro 4 - or both.
  • Headlight backup:  Light & Motion Urban.  If you're counting, this is the fourth battery operated headlight I carry.  While the Gobe is more water-resistant than the Urban, the Urban is a better helmet mount headlight.  I've never killed an Urban in rain during its first charge.  However, if I'm doing multiple days in the rain, I expect the Urban to have issues; I'll keep it well protected from water until I need it.

That's about it.  Charging all this stuff takes a while; I better get started.

What electronics do you carry for your long rides?

Meaning of Maneha

The Meaning of "Maneha 250"

Maneha:  [ˈmä-nāʹ-jə]  An abbreviation of the two states through which the route meanders:  Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

250:  The total route distance in miles; 125 miles on Saturday and 125 miles on Sunday.

Other meanings of Maneha:

  • Arabic meaning:  “Pretty & beautiful” when referring to a woman, or “good & well” as her response when greeted.
  • Sudanese meaning:  You.
  • Malay meaning:  Again.
  • Javanese meaning:  Again.
  • Sesotho meaning:  Overlaid.

Meaning of Maneja:  Spanish for 'to handle or take charge of.'

The final meaning we have for it is an awesome ride that'll bend your mind in new ways.