Flat-changing Clinic part 3 - What's in your Camelbak?

This is Part 3 of the 3-part series on Bicycle Maintenance: Tires and Flat-changing.


One of the most frequent questions I get from attendees at my clinics is: 


What should I carry when I ride?

Five things you should absolutely have when you ride. 

1. Mobile phone
2. Copy of your picture ID, emergency contact info, blood type, known allergies
3. Spare tube, Tire levers
4. Pump and/or CO2 inflater head and 2 cartridges
5. Emergency cash

In addition to these things, I carry a few more items. Here's my road saddlebag.

SADDLEBAG CONTENTS (ROAD RIDE)

Laura's saddlebag, clockwise from the top: KINeSYS sunscreen, Purell mini, tire levers, mechanic gloves, photo ID, emergency contact card, pocket knife, Elete electrolyte concentrate single, $20, spare tube, 2 CO2 cartridges, MicroFlate Nano CO2 inflater head, patch kit, Allen wrenches, small bottle of  Elete Tablytes, Clif Chocolate Cherry turbo shots.

List of additional items you might carry, that I do carry on the road, in addition to the 5 basics:

• hex wrenches
• nutrition (gel, bar, etc.)
• electrolyte tablets (e.g., Elete Tablytes)
• tube patch kit
• pocketknife - helpful to remove glass from a tire among other things
• mechanic gloves - when it's a grimy job and you still have hours to go
• sunscreen mini bottle - to re-apply as needed
• Purell mini bottle 

Mountain bike rides are different, because you can me in remote areas without access to emergency assistance. I carry quite a bit in my CamelBak when I'm mountain biking. Here are the additional items you might carry, that I do carry on the trail. The only things I've never had to use are the space blanket, photo ID and medical info card.

CAMELBAK CONTENTS (MTN RIDE)

Laura's CamelBak contents: medical bag (bandages, medical tape, alcohol, maxi pad - a great sterile dressing for a deep cut or a large scrape, anti-bacterial ointment, Benedryl, etc.), photo ID, emergency cash, spare tube, bag of many-sized nuts and bolts, chain break tool, space blanket, spare cleats and screws, electrical tape, duct tape, shock pump, SRAM quick link, energy towel (to cool off someone suffering from heat exhaustion), CO2 cartridges, tire levers, tube patches, CO2 MicroFlate Nano inflater head, hex wrenches, knife, nail clippers, Sharpie, chain lube, Elete electrolyte supplement, spare derailleur hanger, Sportlegs (prevents lactic acid buildup), sports nutrition, tweezers to remove cactus needles, 2 small combs to remove cactus bulbs, large bandage, personal medical and emergency contact info.

In addition to the 5 basic items, here are the things I carry in my CamelBak.

For the bike:

• hex wrenches
• tube patch kit
• chain lube
• SRAM quick link
• bag of many-sized nuts and bolts 
• chain break tool 
• shock pump 
• spare derailleur hanger

For the body

• sports nutrition (gel, bar, etc.)
• electrolyte tablets (e.g., Elete Tablytes)
• Sportlegs
• energy towel (to cool off someone suffering from heat exhaustion)

For random emergencies

• folding knife
• Sharpie
• spare cleats and screws
• electrical tape, duct tape 
• medical bag - bandages, large bandage, medical tape, alcohol, mechanic gloves, maxi pad - a great starile dressing for a deep cut or a large scrape, anti-bacterial ointment, Benedryl, sunscreen, nail clippers, etc. 
• tweezers to remove cactus needles, 2 small combs to remove cactus bulbs (we are in the desert)
• emergency cash
• photo ID, medical information card with emergency contact info, blood type, known allergies
• space blanket

While you don't necessarily need to carry items for any emergency, if you know how to use these things, they really come in handy when you need them. 

Have a great ride!

Please feel free to leave comments about thing you find useful, things you carry on the trail, or helpful suggestions for riders.

Choosing to Conquer Fear

I know I said I would discuss shifting, but I would really like to post a shifting video which I can't make until the perpetual beeping of the bulldozers and big trucks in front of my house stops. Probably Saturday.

So instead of our regularly scheduled program, today I'll reach into the mail bag.

Hey Laura,

I recently took a bad fall on my mountain bike and I believe I bruised my ribs. How do you bounce back from a fall where you hurt yourself? I know I need to go back and ride that section where I fell over and over and over again but now I'm scared of it. I know I can do it, but I dread it. How can I get over my fear and just ride it?

This is a great question. Here's my response.

Ouch!!! I am so sorry about your sore ribs. I've been bruised and sore from falls on the bike, and it's no fun.

The best way to come back from a fall is to go slowly, work back up to the place where you were, and then choose to proceed from there. You absolutely want to get back on the bike, but you don't want to push too fast without giving your psyche, if not your body, time to heal.

Keep this in mind: Things always become exaggerated in your mind. The beautiful chocolate cake in the window looks absolutely amazingly delicious, but really, it’s never as delicious when you taste it as it was when you imagined it. Similarly, with few exceptions, crashing is most often not as bad when it actually happens as it is in your mind. After you crash, your mind starts to build up the crash into something even more painful and traumatic than it probably was as a means of self-defense and self-preservation. Natural fear builds to keep you from attempting that daring thing again. Your brain does not want you to get hurt again!

Women, more than men, are hard-wired for self-preservation and are more prone to fear of getting hurt. After all, women must keep themselves safe in order to ensure the survival of the species. Men on the other hand, are hard-wired to face danger, fling themselves over the edge, and slay the saber-toothed tiger. Understand that it is completely unnatural as a female to push through the fear and try the thing again.

Recognize that your brain is doing you no favors, and that it will try to blow the crash and even the pain out of proportion, just like it exaggerates the amazing taste of that mediocre cake. Cut yourself a break, and don’t beat yourself up for being afraid.

Kudos to you for wanting to keep going and gritting through the fear. Keep practicing the fundamentals, and work on your balance. Practice riding really slowly, like crawling, so that you will learn to track-stand. It will help you more than you know.

I took a bad fall in 2004 and suffered a class 2 A/C separation (shoulder). I couldn't ride for about 6 weeks. Drove me nuts. But what I COULD do was practice riding slowly, practice stops and starts, practice riding slow tight turns, and practice riding with no hands. I was really surprised when I got on the bike for real 6 weeks later and found that my technical skill had significantly improved in the time I had "not" been on my bike. There is simply no substitute for spending time practicing the fundamentals.

When you're ready to face the demons again, have someone with you who can help you with body position, speed, and technique. Wear body armor if you have any. Start with something smaller and work up to the degree of difficulty that gave you trouble. And when you're riding, never revel in your victories at the moment you experience them, because guaranteed there is another challenge rising to meet you. Stay two seconds ahead of yourself, and don't look back. When you come to a stop, then you can celebrate the victory.

Hope this helps any of you who have suffered setbacks in your riding. Never be afraid to ask for help or take a break. But be sure to get back on the bike!

Laura Drexler, Plattekill Mountain, 05 JUN 2004

Before I made it to the bottom of the hill and finished the race that day, I crash landed on my head, lost my front brake, flipped the bike and landed on my back, dropped my chain, and did a "Superman," landing on my chest. Not such a good day. While it took some time to mentally recover from that one, I did, and went on to race well two weeks later at the NORBA Nationals at Snowshoe, WV.

Rides with Jane: iBert gets me back on the trail

I had to check my blog history three times, and couldn't believe I never posted about one of the best purchases I've made in the past year: an iBert kid seat for my bike so that Jane and I can ride singletrack.

I heard about it from my friend Joy Martin, and went to REI to take one for a test ride. Jane thought it was so great, she didn't want to take her helmet off. "More, more," she told me. "Honey, we have to purchase it first."

It mounts to 15 mm of stack height on the spacers below your stem, so it's technically attached to the frame. Although it looks like it might affect the steering, your handlebars are independent of the unit. I have good bike-handling skills, and have gradually taken the iBert on more and more technical trails. The things I can't do are pop the front wheel up a curb or really finesse the fork. Past that, it's just common sense.

I've taken the iBert on three airline trips, packing it in my soft luggage and renting a bike. In all our journeys, I've only "dumped" Jane once. We were in PA, and I had forgotten that fallen leaves on top of shale get really slick. We slid out, and the bike landed on its side. I was reassured to find that Jane was completely enclosed in the iBert, protected on all sides. She was temporarily shaken up, but willing to continue the ride. We've taken many many rides since.

Here's a video from our very first trail ride, on our hometown trails of Bonita and Chula Vista.

Enjoy! Click here for video.

Sycamore Canyon - Martha's Grove ride

Seasons and weather in Southern California are a bit tricky, mostly because you expect January to be cold and June to be warm. Here in San Diego, it seems like parts of January and February are warmer than May and June, then suddenly the clouds go away in July and there's no relief from the heat till November.

So while my East Coast friends are busy shoveling out from under yet another snowfall and sticking pins in a little Laura-with-matching-bike doll, we in San Diego are taking long rides in the middle of the day, knowing that once summer is here in earnest we'll have to stick to the coast, go early, ride at night, or run away to the mountains.

Here's the latest ride I did with Billy and Miles out at Sycamore Canyon and Martha's Grove. All told the ride is a little over 17 miles with a fair bit of climbing. I've condensed the ride into about three and a half minutes of the more exciting parts. It's a good ride for conditioning with a couple of technical spots at the top of Martha's Grove.

Enjoy the ride! (Click for video)

Snow Ride in Idylwild

Oh boy! My first snow ride! My mechanic and riding buddy Steve K and I went riding in Idyllwild, down the Ernie Maxwell Trail.

The snow was about 2-3 inches deep in most places, and although for us San Diegans it was a very brisk 34° F, the wind was hardly blowing which made the temperature seem mild.

Me crossing the stream.

There is something magical about looking down and seeing snow in your tires and hearing the crunch of ice as you ride along in the stillness of the late morning. Your nose is cold and the air is crisp, and right at that moment, there is no place you would rather be.

Steve on the trail.

Me coming down the stairs.

My faithful steed. I love this bike.

The colors of the manzanita tree were particularly beautiful offset by the snow.

I'm so glad we went to Idyllwild. Although we were only there a day, it was time well-spent. There's great riding year-round, friendly people, and beautiful scenery.