Dumb shit you've forgotten when you go biking

[Gary]

Tonight. In my haste to ride the trails down at Glentress on a sunny evening I left my car in the car park with the window still wound fully down.
Came back 2&1/2hrs later to find my phone, watch, money, tools, clothing etc. all still there untouched and in full view on the front seat. hahah! Such a twat!

The tweed valley probably has one of the UKs highest rats of mtb theft.

I WOZ WELL LUCKY

a riding mate once turned up for a ride 3 hours from home in his van. opened it and had forgotten to put his bike in.

 

[Tori]

Tonight. In my haste to ride the trails down at Glentress on a sunny evening I left my car in the car park with the window still wound fully down.
Came back 2&1/2hrs later to find my phone, watch, money, tools, clothing etc. all still there untouched and in full view on the front seat. hahah! Such a twat!

The tweed valley probably has one of the UKs highest rats of mtb theft.

I WOZ WELL LUCKY

a riding mate once turned up for a ride 3 hours from home in his van. opened it and had forgotten to put his bike in.

I'm usually pretty organised for rides Gary - which carries over from a lot of my outback dirt-biking missions where you have to be on it with tools, food/water, emergency beacon etc etc - but I often find people I ride (MTB) with forget to pack food. On a recent ride, one of the girls 'hit the wall' (bonked) and had to end her ride there and then. I had a bit of chocky in my backpack, which picked her up a bit, but she was done for the day. Such a simple thing, but the body needs fuel on long days out...

 

[Gary]

Yeah. i'll bet it's a lot more important to carry more stuff over there Tori.
I only take the bare minimum unless I'm leading/guiding a group. Where by contract I have to take a 25l bag rammed full of everything for every eventuality from injury to mechanical failure to severe weather including a 6 man shelter.and spare food/water for the group.
I hate riding with loads of stuff in my own time. especially on short (couple of hours) rides. tonight I just took a bottle belt and had a had a grand total of 1x tiny multitool, 2xC02 bottles + the adapter. 500ml of water, an emergency energy bar and my car keys (rather pointlessly )
I meant to leave all those things in the car. Just not in full view or with the window down. it's a busy place and difficult not to see another rider almost every few minutes on a nice evening. The trail network has over 100 waymarked purpose built trails all linked up and I know every trail (except one that I rode for the first time tonight) so well I could pretty much tell you the exact location of every rock or root. I've got a bizarrely almost photographic memory for trails.

the car park is at the bottom of the map and all the trails are higher in the hills to the north.
I rode up as far as the mast (Carls lane @602m)
Glentress Trail Map | Trailforks
it's a great safe place to ride for all abilities from little kids right up to pro level riders and the sheer number of great trails means once you know your way round the basic lay of the hill you don't need to actually plan a route.

 

[Doomanic]

I am a bit paranoid about forgetting the battery or front wheel (bike in boot) so tend to check numerous times.

I’ve forgotten my water bottle on several occasions, luckily I can buy a Lucozade Sport drink from the cafe at FoD that fits in my bottle belt.

Gary, you were lucky not to come back to an empty car!

 

[Ryder]

Forgetting my helmet is my worst one. Was at Peaslake and thankfully the awfully nice Howard at Pedal and Spoke lent me his! It probably herlped that I have bought numerous expensive bikes from there

 

[Sherman]

Last summer I forgot front wheel, rear axle and helmet. This summer I'll check 1000 times that everything is packed. And I'm probably going to forget something anyway

 

[Dukeinlondon]

On my first solo ride, forgot to check tyre pressure, didn't take spare tube, pump or any kind of tool. Had not converted to tubeless yet and of course the pinch puncture struck.

Also left the car window open on the car park and on another occasion, left the house without the battery. Luckily I realised 15 min into my drive.

I am going to do a tick list on my phone from now on.

 

[Gary]

You'll probably forget your phone now.