If you don't mind walking your bike to work or home a few miles every now and then, or you can call someone to come pick you up, then you don't need to take anything at all. Just be ready to be late for work or dinner every now and then.
I prefer to not smell like BO at work, be able to fix things like flat tires when they happen, and worry less about getting hit by an automobile when it is dark outside when I get off of work late. I fit all of this repair stuff into either a medium-sized seat bag, or the outer-pockets of my trunk bag.
- Two spare inner tubes that fit the bike that I'm riding. I carry four tubes in my trunk bag: two 26-inch, and two 700c tubes. I also stop to help people stranded with flat tires.
- Patch kit with at least four patches, and 2 tire boots (goat-head thorns here - yes you can get 6 flats in one day here).
- Small mini-tool and tire levers.
- Topeak road-morph tire pump (on the bike frame).
- CO2 tire inflator, with two spare cartridges (for rain/sleet/snow/cold conditions, and helping other people in a hurry).
- A small inflator adapter, that allows you to fill presta-valve tubes with shrader-valve air pumps that you find at gas stations. Yes, I've had a flat tire where the CO2 inflator was empty AND my frame-pump was broken. Handy, very small item.
- About a meter of duct tape rolled into a flat-square. This REALLY comes in handy sometimes.
- Small first-aid kit with a few finger/knuckle bandages, small and flat roll of gauze, and antiseptic wipes.
- Two 9-led bulb flashlights. One attaches to my helmet, and the other to an adapter on my handlebars. These take standard AAA rechargeable batteries.
- Two planet bike superflash tail lights (also takes standard AAA batteries) (one attaches to the seat/trunk bag, the other one either to my jersey pocket or on the belt that holds up my work trousers).
- Four fully charged, rechargeable AAA batteries.
- Two sets of ANSI reflective yellow ankle bracelets, that close with velcro (when dark, one pair goes on my ankles, the other on my wrists). These can also be used to temporarily hold broken things together on your bike/gear following a little tumble.
The above goes with me everywhere that I ride. When I'm commuting to work, I take along a work shirt, maybe some rain gear, etc.; depending on the weather conditions.
Last edited by Pinyon; 08-14-09 at 03:52 PM.