The Greasy Wrench
Be Prepared - Whats In Your Bag?
Spring has sprung and it won't be long before the trails are dusty dry and the roads clean of sand and frost heaves. Be prepared for nearly any mechanical failure short of frame or fork breakage with a few "should haves" in your camel back or seat bag.

1. Energy Bars/Goo Mojo Bars, Cliff bars, Gu packs, Cliff Shots or what ever your fix is. You need fuel to keep your fire burning!

2. Tire pump, Tubes and Patch Kit I like the Blackburn Air stik 1 (AS-1) pump. It has a dual shot pump action and aluminum body for durability also it's small, sleek and lightweight. A patch kit is a good temporary fix for when your tubes have all been used up and you flat out again. Though replace the tube ASAP after your ride. Patching tubes is a temporary fix as today's rubber tubes don't accept patches as well as the tubes of days past did.

3. Tire Levers or Quik Stik I like the quik stik cause one tool does the job of three by comparison to regular tire levers.

4. Chain Tool/Chain Repair Supplies A good quality chain tool is a must. Park Tool makes the CT-5 chain tool that works on 7, 8 and 9 speed chains. Depending on if you use a SRAM or Shimano chain, a couple of extra links is a good idea to have also. If you ride Shimano chains, invest in some replacement pins for reassembling the chain. The pins are designed to bore the link hole out a little bigger to achieve a tighter tolerance than if you were to push the old pin back in the chain link. I use SRAM chains myself and carry a spare power link for a quick trail or roadside repair.

5. Multi-Tool I like the Crank Brothers Multi 17. It has a unique aluminum frame with the 17 most common tools needed for road and trailside repair: 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8-mm allen wrenches, Philips and regular screwdrivers, a chain tool, 4 sizes of spoke wrenches, 8- and 10-mm open-end wrenches and a Torx T25 (for disc brakes).

6. Shock Pump More and more people are now using air shocks. A slight trailside air adjustment can be disastrous if you remove to much air form your shocks. I reccomend a pump by Fox Racing Shox or Buzzy's Pollinator.

A few other items not to forget to put in your Camelbaks (if you have room) would be a First Aid and safety kit, spare shift cable, cable cutters, 6 inch crescent wrench (great for bending misalignment derailleur hangers), replaceable derailleur hanger, small knife, copy of your license or state ID and matches or lighter.

My road ride repair kit is basic and light. I use a super tiny seat bag made by Topeak and stuff it with:
1. Multi-Tool
2. Tube/Patch kit
3. Presta valve adapter
4. Tire levers
5. A copy of my license
6. A Blackburn AS-1 pump(mounted on my bike's down tube)

Happy Wrenching!