Afternoon all. I ordered my first road bike this morning, aside from pedals, helmet, shoes, shorts and jerseys (all already ordered or purchased) is there any other essentials I require?
I have come up with the following list - any other suggestions would be much appreciated:
cages/bottle
spare inner tube
pump
puncture repair kit
bag for tube and repair kit
gloves
Last but not least........ a winning lottery ticket or large inheritance
Comments
First thought would be tyre levers, assuming they're not in the repair kit
Track pump for home and mini pump or Co2 for roadside repairs
Spare tube and levers.
Repair kit could wait a bit.
Sunglasses.
Sun cream.
Bandana for under helmet.
When the weather changes you'll need another bank Loan to pay for cool weather gear.
zip ties and £10 for emergancy - i put mine in a zip lock bag which can double up for a bit of water proofing for my phone if it rains
CO2 pump AND mini pump, in my (bitter) experience
Chamois creme (for happy botty on long rides)
Bento box if you want an extra little place to stash goodies on a long ride
Multi tool - it can wait, but if you're going to get one, make sure it has a chain splitter on it, and later on you might consider carrying a couple of power links in case the chain goes
Thanks for the advice, I shall add these items to my ever growing list.
Spare inner tubes* make that a plural, cycle computer too is very helpful, a basic one will work fine, or you can go all swanky and get a garmin 910/810/800 etc but a standard 30 quid wireless computer does the job... Oh and clip on tri bars assuming its a road bike not a TT you can get a cheap set off eBay etc
I saw a wireless cycling computer in Tescos for £15 - is this likely to be a waste of money? Are any of the iPhone apps any good for this?
I think I will wait a little while for the tri bars - I will get used to the cleated soles first before I try something else that looks like they are likely to make me fall off!
I would maybe go a little bit more cash like a cat eye or whatever, all it needs to do is tell you... Speed... Time elapsed.... Avg speed.... That's really it everything else is a bonus... Don't need too spend more then say 30-40 quid
another +1 for cat eye, they are not hugely expensive, something like the strada will be about £35
I have a mini pump that does both pump and CO2
Check out places like Planet X and CRC for their sales ...
You also need to factor in the costs for your winter bike, TT bike and mtb.
Remember that the number of bikes you need = number of bikes you own + 1
Thanks, I will check them out.
Haha, that is my current principle when it comes to fishing rods. I can see this turning into an extremely expensive hobbie.
Water proof jacket, a gilet, arm warmers, shoe covers, gloves, go for winter, spring/autumn and summer ones, turbo trainer, fixed/single speed bike, hybrid bike, a spare set of clothes or two, you can't have too many.
Forget the bag, all sundry items, including pump and rain jacket MUST be carried in back pockets. In fact sod the rain jacket, Merckx wouldn't wear one, nor should you.
Whilst n+1 is the correct number of bikes to own, s-1, where s is the number that will cause a divorce is acceptable.
Good point.
Has anyone mentioned bike rack for the car and bike box for flying out to a foreign Ironman??
Insulation tape for taping spokes together when they break - so you can get home...
I'm in the fortunate position that I am single and live alone. so to get divorced I would have to find someone daft enough to tolerate my a selfishness first - so this sounds like an ideal hobbie for me.
Tall, dark and handsome by any chance ??
One advantage of being in a relationship is that you can ask for Wiggle vouchers for birthdays, christmas and aniversaries etc.
Also the missus can wash your kit as well.
Anyone said lights yet?
A lot of these things aren't exactly essential - some of them I've never used or owned in about 10 years of doing 6k miles a year.
Pops speaks wise worms.
Personally, the obvious essentials list for me includes:
pedals, helmet, gloves, shoes, cleats. Ask to keep the cheap pedals that the bike comes with, as they could be useful for sprint tri's.
Then we go into the other essentials that aren't so obvious:
mini pump, bottle cage (or x2), bottles (durr), little saddle bag, spare tube, stick on puncture kits, (option 1-change tube, bad day-mend punctures), tyre levers, mini tool kit (new bike: you'll need it), a fiver in coins. I have the Cat eye wireless, it also tells the time of day which can be useful. I'd recommend Leynze lights, as they are small and light and I want some. So that's not yet.
And a big one: eye wear. The best are wrap around safety glasses. No distortion and cheap. Clear AND tints.
Think about nosh later. Think about winter later.
Thanks all, for the useful - and amusing - advice. I have concluded I need to buy the following items:
bottles/cages
pump- co2 & track
spare inner tubes
tyre levers
gloves
lights
bike computer
bike box
bike rack
mountain bike
tt bike
single speed bike
bmx
entire new wardrobe of summer, winter, spring & autumn clothing
girlfirend - to do washing and buy me gift vouchers
once all of that is bought to will then need to find another bike to buy
Does this list sound fairly accurate?
Nope. You missed of fixie and CX bikes.
Dam. Looks like I will need to up the number of girlfriends to two in order to get more gift vouchers
Personally I'd recomend seperate chain tool and multitool, it'll work out cheaper and get a better quality chaintool.
But in all seriousness, why on earth has no one mentioned that the OP needs multiple sets of race wheels to compliment the course and conditions?
Chain cleaner? Love mine! Garmin?
If this all sounds a bit daunting, ha ha, so bike, pump, wedgie bag, couple of tubes, tyre levers, mutitool, a bottle, a cage and a mobile phone just about covers it at the start. The rest can come later.
personally I'd recommend fitting powerlinks/quicklinks as you don't need a chain tool then in an emergency.
Many thanks for your advice, I now have a bike, and tried it out for the first time this weekend. My initial ride was just around the block and despite spending some time sat on it inside getting used to clipping in and out of the pedals I still had a bit of a drama when I forgot to unclip and then at the last minute removed the wrong foot and fell over. Other than a slightly sore hand and a massively bruised ego no damage was done - I think the local kids found it highly amusing. It felt very strange riding a road bike compared to a mountain bike (and I hadn't even ridden one of those for a good while).
I went out for a 20km ride with a friend who is a regular cyclist yesterday evening. Once I plucked up the courage to go a little bit faster I felt much more stable and had no issues clipping in and out at lights/roundabouts Etc. I did bottle it at one big roundabout (Lawnswood Roundabout in Leeds) and got off and walked round the pedestrian crossing
Think about 4 times is the normal amount people fall off before getting used to clips