Hello all, I'm 29 years old and just bought a hybrid bike. My wife and I were in Duluth, MN recently for vacations and rented some hybrid bikes for the week as a way to explore the city and I fell in love with it so I'm excited to explore it more. I went on a 14 mile ride around town and it was awesome but I am definitely inexperienced when it comes to vocabulary and the know-how as far as basics/necessities to pack while on rides so I'm looking for some tips and advice from more experienced riders that could help me out. Anybody have any good tips or advice?

Rubber side down.

Welcome to the forum! I think everybody has a different concept of what they want to bring with them on a bike ride. For health and safety reasons, water or other hydration is pretty essential, especially during the hotter months. Many riders have two water bottle cages on their bikes and have a water bottle in both. There are general guidelines on how much water you should be drinking (something like a liter per hour, or 20 oz per hour, something like that). I'm sure you can find differing suggestions online, but they'll all be more or less similar: drink, and drink probably more than you think you should be drinking (water, that is).

As far as other tools and supplies, most people will carry a spare tube or patches and a pump, so they can fix a flat while on the road. If your bike rides are relatively close to home, you may not feel that to be necessary, but even if you're just 5 miles from home and you get a puncture that you can't fix -- that's a long walk home. Certainly, as your distances grow, you'll probably want to carry some of those tools and spares. You can carry this in a saddle bag (mounted under the saddle) or in a trunk bag on a rack or in a water bottle-like container in one of your bottle cages. I carry my stuff in an SKS Cagebox, only because I have a few different bikes that I ride, and I just buy my tools and prepare my tool kit once, and then just bring it along on whichever bike I'm riding that day. If you do have or prefer to have one bike, something like a saddle bag may make more sense to you.

Depending on the length of your rides, you may want to have a rack and a trunk bag, so you can pack food and/or tools and/or clothing for longer trips. I have a rack on each of my bikes and, if I'm on a longer trip where I want to carry additional water or food, I'll put the trunk bag on and pack that trunk bag. I still have one water bottle and my tool kit in the two bottle cages on the bike, but additional water is in the trunk that I can switch out when I use up the first bottle.

As far as other things, you may find that you want to replace the saddle or grips or add a cycling computer so you can track your miles, etc. As you continue to ride, you'll discover what works for you and what's not working and needs changing.

And, of course, if you don't already have one, a good helmet.

Brooke and hokiefyd are giving you great advice. I disagree with hokie a bit about water (see below), but "be prepared to hear contradictory advice and experiment a bit to see what works for you" is part of the advice I would give you.

Rack--If you want to put a rack on and don't have disk brakes, I recommend the Planet Bike Eco Rack. It's light, cheap, and extremely durable, I've had them last decades of hard use. They're also absurdly easy to mount, all you need is allen wrenches and some machine oil for the bolts.

Lights--I find the easiest thing to do is to buy ones I can put on and off of my helmet. The USB rechargeable lights are the most economical long-run. Do not overspend to get ridiculously bright lights unless you intend to do mountain biking at night. Too bright actually creates unsafe situations on the road..

Clothes--I ride really long distances (several centuries a month, and none of that metric nonsense) and find no use for expensive bike clothes. I just buy air-dry t-shirts, preferably bright yellow for visibility, and gym shorts. You might find you feel better in bike clothes, but don't let anyone tell you it's a necessity.

Tools- get one of those combination tool things that look like Swiss Army Knives for bikes. None of the tools will be perfect, but the goal is to have just enough to get you back rolling when a minor mechanical issue arises--things can definitely work themselves loose over a long ride, especially on rough road. These usually have a full allen wrench set, phillips and flat screwdriver, some socket wrenches, and are also sold with a pair of tire levers, which you'll also want with you.

Bags - Banjo Brothers is the best combination of quality and price I've found. I have a trunk bag that folds out into a bunch of different configurations, so i can run it at just about any reasonable volume for a long ride.

Water - I definitely don't subscribe to the drink when you're not thirsty school. It is possible to over-hydrate, which can result in a condition called hyponatremia where your blood sodium is too low. I've experienced this and it's not fun. If you drink a lot of water, you should eat something with salt in it, you're sweating salt out too. I also only carry one water bottle with me, and if the ride is 30 miles or less, no water bottles unless it's really hot. I've just found that I generally don't get thirsty before 30 miles, and I generally wouldn't touch a second water bottle until about 80 miles, by which point, I would have stopped somewhere I could refill. I used to always carry two bottles, but realized that water weighs a lot, and when I carried less, I also needed less.

Lock - Alas, you will have to carry one if you're going on long rides unless you want to bring the bike into the bathroom with you (don't). Locks also let you take breaks and see things, or have a meal off the bike, or go to the museum, or any of the other dozens of things one can make a part of your trip that day. I keep my lock in my trunk bag because everywhere else, it seems to work its way loose and get in the way.

Food - Experiment. I find that a lot of the things people say will make you feel sick just don't have any effect on me. If you're biking for several hours, you will need to eat at some point. If you can't tolerate anything heavy, I recommend packing some apples. I can eat those while riding, and you get some hydration and a quick energy boost.

I'll amplify what Brooke said a little bit--practice changing a tire at home with the equipment you'll have to use on the road, including the hand pump (unless you're going with CO2), If you have Presta stems on your tires, you want to find out if your pump doesn't work for them at home, not somewhere where you might end up walking your bike 10 miles. Even if your hand pump says it works with Presta, confirm this. I've had a couple pumps where that has been a bit of false advertising. I definitely suggest taking off the rear wheel, deflating the tire, take the tube out, replace the tube back in, reseat the tire, and put the wheel back on at home so you can be sure you know how to do it. The back wheel is trickier, and make sure you don't let the chain get twisted. You'll want to make sure you know how to release your brakes to take the wheel off, and reset them when the wheel is put back on. YouTube videos are great for learning how to do this stuff.

Just ride.

Ride where you feel like, when you feel like, for as far as you feel like (though on that one, if you ride in a straight line try to estimate when you're only halfway out of energy so you have enough to get back home)

Don't ride like other people ride. They are doing it their way.

It's a fun hobby, not the Marines. Don't let others tell you how to ride.

Just go do it until you're tired of it for the day. Over time you'll develop preferences of what you do and don't like. Do that stuff more and less.

In short, enjoy it. Don't think of it as something where you have to conform to what everyone else is doing.

Yeah, but know how to fix a flat or know someone who can pick you up with your busted bike. "You will eventually get a flat" is not a personal preference issue.

Totally agree with you about the do what you find fun aspect.

I think one thing I learned that I wish I knew as a beginner is there are lots of different types of riding and lots of different types of bikes that go with it.

Hybrids are great for quite a few of those types but not optimal for all of them.

My advice would be try to spend as little as possible on accessories, gear, clothes, bikes etc until you know a little more about what kind of biking you want to spend your money on.

Maybe he enjoys carrying a broken bike home on his back! Don't live his life for him, man! hahahah



Seriously though...to the OP....spare tube and a pump at all times. That was really good advice.

Wow, that's a lot of great advice and exactly what I was looking for. So far the only accessory investments I've made have been a bike lock and a helmet but I will definite get a spare tube and pump my next paycheck and pick up other things as I go along. Thanks again to everyone that posted!

Just RIDE, If you want to know more about your bike,
consider buying a book like the Park Tool 'Blue Book of Bicycle Repair.