ZIPP2001

This was by far the craziest ride of the year for me. First my old riding partner Chris comes out for our first ride together in 10 or 11 years. He buys a bike the day before our ride and then gets a flat about 4 or 5 miles into the ride. We won't get into why I have nothing to change or fix a flat, as I always do on with my road bike. But I did take two bikes so we go back to the cars and grab my fat bike for Chris to use. That's where trouble number 2 starts as I took my keys out of the bike bag I left it 3/4 open, but for some reason when done with them I put them in the fat bike bike bag instead of my bike bag. Meaning we started to ride with my wallet in the bike bag 3/4 open. We hit the trails about a 1/2 mile in a proceed to do some single track and then come into a crazy flooded section where we have 6 big puddles we went rolling thru. All the time the wallet was making it's way out of the bag and I didn't notice. Well 2 miles in I stop to do a ride by shot of Chris and then realize my wallets gone. We then head back to the car thinking it fell out early in the ride. We ride right by the wallet on the side of the trail (brown wallet covered by fern) hard to see. No luck so we decided to do our ride and had a blast for 2 hour. Left the area changed and went out for pizza. After pizza I told Chris I was going to walk the whole trail puddles and all to take a closer look. He came along and at about the 1 3/4 mile mark Chris spots the wallet under a fern. Now that was a crazy fun adventure.

70sSanO

Glad you found your wallet.

I have learned that I need to follow a specific sequence and I really have to focus on that sequence when riding a new ride with someone else, or a different bike setup, or whatever.

I’ve never lost a wallet, but invariably I’ll miss a step when I get distracted.

John

Mark Stone

You're right, that was a crazy ride! I never dropped a wallet, but found one (full of cash!) on a Denver area MUP a coupla' decades ago. After a few minutes, a guy comes riding the opposite direction slowly, scanning the path with his eyes - goodness was he glad to get that wallet back!

ZIPP2001

I've had many people come out and ride with me thru the years and never put my wallet in that bag. Just wasn't even thinking about it when I did it, lesson learned to not ever wander from my routine.

rsbob 

Routines as we get older become even more important especially when there are distractions, like friends. Glad you found it, enjoyed your pizza and didn’t panic.

gthomson

That's a good story and glad it had a happy ending. I am the exact way when I lose something, as i will trace every step until I find the darn thing or exhaust myself in the effort.

Regarding the wallet, I often bring some kind of payment or money in case I need to purchase something but do most people carry identification?

Flip Flop Rider

no way I could have rode and gone to eat before looking for it. Good find!

MinnMan

I second the opinion about routines preventing errors. I'm forgetful as con be. phone, money+ID go in one pocket, garage door opener goes in another. Food goes in the middle pocket. I never want to lose my garage door opener when reaching for food or my phone. And I know that every time I reach for my phone, I have to check the location of the bag that's got the money+ID. etc.

zacster

Everything has its place both riding and just in general. My wallet is in the front left pocket of my jeans or the left pocket of my jersey. My keys are in the right, my phone too. Center pocket has my regular glasses. The new addition of a KN95 mask is always with my wallet. My wife OTOH can't ever find anything. She never puts things in the same place. "Where's my glasses?", "where's my keys?", "can you call my phone?"

One day we were at the beach, having taken our bikes on the ferry. She gets a call from an unknown number but answers it anyway. It was someone at the next beach over saying she had her wallet that she just found on the ground. We had stopped there briefly and she futzed around with her stuff, dropped it and never even noticed it was gone because there isn't a consistent place for it. I freak out whenever I realize my wallet isn't in my pocket even if I just pulled it out.

gthomson

LOL same situation in my house.

I like your methodology of organization but wondering if you consider some kind of bike bag?

That being said, what do other people do to carry items on their bike? I have several options that I use, depending on what the excursion demands.

• bike panniers on my grocery getter bike for picking up groceries or going on longer rides with my wife and carrying lunch and clothing (for when she gets cold)
• I have this nifty little cross bar carrier bag I keep on my casual rider which holds my phone, car keys, wallet and mask
• I have my saddle bag which holds spare tube, CO2 cartridges and tire levers on my road bike for the longer rides

zacster

Oh no, no bike bag on a road bike. Just a seat pocket to hold a spare tube and some tools. I have a convertible bag on my commuter bike though, but I'm retired and no longer commute. I use that bike for errands occasionally but I can't remember the last time. I bought myself a nice retirement present that I like to use instead, a Tesla Model 3,

gringomojado

I carry an old/expired driver license
gm

big john

I dropped my wallet in the road after I forgot to zip the seat bag. Whoever found it used my I.D. to start credit cards, accounts, and phone numbers all over the state and even some on the east coast. I was kept busy for a few weeks cancelling stuff and they eventually stopped.

ZIPP2001

Dang that sucked !

BlazingPedals

Wow. Disaster averted!

JehD

I've ever lost anything of importance on a ride but found a guys phone a few weeks back. I managed to find his name in the Medical ID and was able to look him up on my phone. I was able to return it to him at his house before he even knew it was missing.

big john

I was riding in the mountains about 50 miles from home and found a phone on the highway. After calling some of the numbers on the phone I found out it belonged to a forest service employee who was based in a station a few miles from my house on my usual Wednesday ride route.
I took the phone to the station and the guy wasn't there but he left an envelope for me with a thank you note and a ten dollar bill.

big john

I found a purse on the street where I lived and there was no cash but there was a checkbook and some ID and personal stuff. I called the number on the checks and the husband came over and picked it up. He said it had been stolen.

I was driving down a busy street and I saw a meth head on a beater bicycle take some ladies purse so I chased him in my car. After a couple tries I got in front of him and got out of my car and was ready to punch him but he threw the purse down and rode off. He looked sickly and pathetic so I didn't hit him.
I couldn't find the lady he took the purse from so I took it to the local police station and the officer at the desk treated me like I stole it. After he saw there was a few hundred dollars cash he realized I didn't steal it. He took my name and number and the lady called me later to thank me. That felt pretty good.

ZIPP2001

This is a photo from the video showing the wallet bouncing off the front wheel when it fell out of the bike bag. Then it drop down to the ground and landed under a fern. Photo sent to me by forum member Rumrunn6. .