Gravel Riding Survival Checklist
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.
One of the more tricky kits to optimize is the one day gravel riding kit. Don't make the mistake of grabbing your road ride saddle bag; a spare tube and one CO2 cartridge won't do the job on a gravel ride. Depending on luck is not safe or fair to those who you’re either riding with or who you’ll call if you have a ride-stopping mechanical.
This list assumes you are probably riding during a pandemic: stores have shorter hours, you are less likely to want to walk into a store even if it’s open, and you’re likely to be riding alone.
Here's our ideal packing list for:
Duration of ride: 4-10 hours
Ride Terrain Type: Mixed-Terrain, gravel cycling - a mix of everything
Location: Anywhere you find trails and ample amounts of dirt roads, usually more rural with fewer businesses/services
Time of Year: Mid-spring to late fall
Co-Riders: Zero to one or two others
Here's what we carry for a typical gravel 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.
All items that are bold are essential and you should not go on a ride without these on you or your bike.
Safety & Emergencies
Face mask that is easy to breathe through, easy to pull off and on while you’re riding. We like Pandana Face Mask bandanas, but there are many companies making great face masks.
Cell phone - In many areas, cell reception will be sparse so don’t rely on your phone. You should always have it and a back-up battery & cord for it because you need it working when there is signal.
Identification - Make photo copies of your driver’s license and health insurance cards front and back. Put one copy in the bar end of each of your bikes, put another copy in your bike wallet or other more obvious spot. Include a copy of your major credit card on the same page while you’re at it!
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. Fortunately, there aren’t many cars on this ride or most of the gravel rides we host.
Cash
Major Credit card (Visa/Mastercard)
Small bottle of hand sanitizer
Sunscreen
4 x Food service/mechanic gloves - These come in handy to keep your hands clean in case of a mechanical and it’s much easier to wear them when you want to keep your hands clean/germs off of them in situations like shopping or helping another rider that involves touching rather than trusting hand sanitizer
Tweezers - There are ticks and if you get one, you need to remove it quickly. Tweezers are useful for other things that can come up, too.
Navigation
GPS device with the route pre-loaded. Check to be sure the route is really loaded before leaving home.
External power supply that will keep your GPS unit charged for 3 hours more than your planned ride time. Most GPS units won't last for the time they say they can last for a multitude of reasons. Having your GPS die 2-hours from home base is miserable. Don't risk it; bring a spare battery. Use a battery that can double as back-up power for your phone.
Charging cable for the spare battery to the GPS unit.
A note about using your cell phone for navigation: cell phones have their batteries drain more quickly when out of strong cell range. Often gravel rides take you far away from cell towers. You need good maps and your route to be reliable. It is not wise to drain the battery of the device you’ll need to use to call for help should that be necessary.
Repairs
Two spare tubes: 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 with proper valve stem length; 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.
Two CO2 cartridges
CO2 inflator head. Here's our favorite CO2 inflator.
Mini pump that fits in your saddle bag or can be installed next to your water bottle cage
Tire levers x 2
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. It's useful for bolts on many bikes to have a Torx wrench; 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.
Two pairs of Powerlock Links - Be sure you have those that work with your chain. SRAM Powerlock links for 11 speed SRAM chains work with 11-speed Shimano chains.
Replacement spokes - A spoke breaking is not typically a ride-ending event if you have a disc brake bike with decent clearances between your tires and fork and frame. It is still worth bringing the correct extra spokes neatly stowed inside your seatpost or seat tube.
Duct tape - fixes just about anything. Wrap your mini pump with duct tape for easy access to the tape and easy porting of the tape.
Tire boot - a dollar bill also works here, but money's for spending, tire boots are for tears.
Running tubeless tires? - Stan’s Dart is the tool you need to plug holes too large for sealant to fix on its own, it even deals well with a sliced tire.
Have a Shimano electronic shifting bike? Take your charger with you. Yes, a charge lasts 1,500 miles, but if you left your bike leaning on a lever overnight, it will be drained at the start of your ride. The charger is small and works with your external battery pack.
Have a SRAM electronic wireless shifting bike? Take an extra battery or your charger. It’s tiny, weighs almost nothing, and works with your external battery pack. Charge your batteries the night before the ride, always a good idea to start fresh!
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.
In cooler weather, take water proof socks and gloves. These work wonders for keeping you warm and dry.
Nutrition
Food bars: This is a near-substitute for real food and being pre-packaged, it’s easier to take a few/more than you think you need without any effort. Take more than you think you’ll need.
Bloks or shots for quick energy if you're starting to bonk in the last hour of the ride.
Trail mix, dates, pre-packaged almond butter or other small packages of random food. You will feel like eating different things at the end of a long, hot ride than at the beginning when your stomach is fresh.
3 x Water Bottles, 26 ounce if your bike can hold these
If it’s a long ride, fill a CamelBak bladder and wear it in a backpack. It’s more comfortable than you might imagine.
Body and Skin Care
Before you start your ride, use heavier-weight, long-lasting Chamois Cream
2 x Chamois creme - single serving packets
Bug repellent
Sunscreen - appears twice in this list because it is for safety and comfort!
Tampons - Maybe you won’t need them, one of your riding companions might. Consider the other rider(s) you will be cycling with when choosing all of your gear. What if someone else has a mechanical? Helping them keeps you all riding smoothly.
Additional items to consider:
Women: Bib shorts that allow for easy nature breaks are vital to your happiness. We like these.
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. If you start with new-ish tires that aren’t too worn, your chances of needing a new tire on the ride go down dramatically.
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.
Camera - Yes, a real, separate-from-your-phone camera. Gravel riding takes you to wonderfully beautiful places, stop to take photos and better remember your ride well into the future!
To get all of this to fit we use an oversized saddle bag; there are many on the market. Our preference from trying many options is the Ortlieb 11 liter saddle bag featured in our Bug-Out Bag kit.
The Obvious
Our list doesn’t include obvious items such as helmet, sunglasses, personal items like medications you need to take or reading glasses if you need those to use your phone.
Wear your most comfortable bib shorts, don’t risk saddle sores with improperly made or fitting bibs. Bike shorts move around, bibs stay in place. Never experiment with equipment for the first time on a long gravel ride. Test out saddles, new shoes, everything when you’re doing a short ride near your home and bike shop.