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Necessary Items for a Flat Kit

December 12th, 2007 by Arleigh Jenkins

This past weekend I was honored to help my friend pick out some essentials to throw in a seat bag for his mountain bike. Here are my suggestions and why :

Staple items that go with me on every ride -

  • Tube
  • Tire Levers
  • Inflation Device
  • Small Multi Tool

Getting into specifics -

Racing - (These items are normally in a seat bag or wrapped around my stem.)

Explained - I use CO2 on the side of a trail when racing for weight and time. The Park MT-1 disappears into a jersey pocket but has enough leverage to adjust your seatpost or stem. 6400053.jpgPedro’s tire levers are awesome and they have a life time warranty. Break it? Send it to them and they’ll replace it. The $1 bill is to boot a tire if there is a tear.
Longer rides with a Camelbak -

Explained - For longer rides I like to pack a little more. A handpump is for multiple flats or a slow leak. The Bontrager Rollbar has just enough uses without being bulky. Two tubes in case someone has to borrow one from you. Patch kit is for more than 2 flats.  $5 bill is for either food, or in case you need a ride home it is normally enough down payment for a taxi until you can get home and get other money.

For awhile I had little flat kits made all over the house. Just in case I decide to hop on the cross bike or didn’t want to deal with a bag. Everything rolled up in a tube and stuck in a snack size zip lock bag.

11 Responses to “Necessary Items for a Flat Kit”

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  1. 1 Levi  on Dec 12th, 2007 at 9:17 am

    Any specific reason you go with 12g Cartridges as opposed to Big Air? (when racing)

  2. 2 Ben L.  on Dec 12th, 2007 at 9:52 am

    Thanks for the list.

    Why the 5-dollar bill for the longer ride? I must be missing something.

  3. 3 Arleigh  on Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:01 am

    I’m normally running my 29er tires at 25-28 lbs which a 12g fill it up to. Most the local shops don’t carry the Big Air refill so the kit is great but getting refills was a pain!

  4. 4 Arleigh  on Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:02 am

    Ben -

    You didn’t miss anything. I forgot to add in that I carry a $5 incase I need food or a ride home. Normally $5 will get you a gatorade and a couple snack bars, if you need to it is normally enough to convince someone to drive you 10-15 miles home.

  5. 5 Ben L.  on Dec 12th, 2007 at 11:16 am

    Thank you Arleigh.

  6. 6 Quinn  on Dec 12th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

    I carry a 2 tube, 1 lever(yellow fat pedros), CO2(innoflation? nozzle, 2 tanks),
    16g tanks, 12g is never enough, I have never blown 2 at once and find the Big air leaks out before I flat again.

  7. 7 Arleigh Jenkins  on Dec 12th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

    Do any of you guys have a hand pump preference? That is something I am working on for another post.

  8. 8 Choke  on Dec 13th, 2007 at 12:54 am

    Being poor, I always carry a hand pump. I’ve a free co2 inflater that I got for free for joining NORBA back in the day, but I don’t like the idea of shelling out cash every time I flat. I normally carry 1 tube, hand pump, park mt-1, chain tool and tire levers, gerber multi-plier, and an avenir multitool. That’s prolly a lot of stuff, but it’s stuff that I have with me at work and tooling around town, so I like to stay versatile.

  9. 9 Ross Nicholson  on Dec 19th, 2007 at 2:36 am

    Helium would be lighter and preserves rubber better. (Leaks back out faster, though.)

  10. 10 Ben L.  on Dec 19th, 2007 at 9:42 am

    I don’t have a hand pump or a flat kit yet. I guess I’ve been lucky so far, but I need to invest in them before my luck runs out.

  11. 11 Brian  on Dec 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 am

    I’ve been using a Topeak Turbo Morph for a long time. It’s the best hand pump I’ve used, and I seem to use it at least once a week. Also Topeak is an amazing company to deal with if their stuff ever goes bad. Always a plus. I prefer hand pumps to Co2 since I flat so often.

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