pack super glue, good to fix parts and pieces, and can be used as first aid to seal up deep cuts. Just make sure to put it in a zip lock or something.... always seems to leak. :)

First post, normally just lurk.

lots of tips, lots I've used while camping. Here is one that was not mentioned.

Old inner tubes make great hoses. Just cut it in half somewhere (near the puncture if it has one) and stretch the end over any water tap / spigot. Sure it's only about six and a half feet long but it's works. Best if you have a zip strap or extra hand to hold it onto the spigot. Then just pinch the other end where the water comes out to adjust the pressure. It's nice to give your bike a quick wash, or yourself a shower.

I've been reading this thread in it's entirety in preparation for my first tour, so sorry for quoting an old post.

However, I had to say: this is nothing funny or embarrassing, really. People don't like to discuss this kind of stuff but I know from my own experience that constipation can ruin any outing, be it a hike, a bike ride, a game, a family picnic event. Even more so than diarrhea. With diarrhea you may go 3-6 times in a row but take some Imodium, drink lots of water wipe your butt clean with WetOnes, rest a bit and you'll be OK most of the time in an hour. Constipation can hold you down for hours and make you miserable for a day, so this tip is a very important one actually.

That's why I always cook up some oatmeal while striking camp.

The bags have a one way valve in the bottom. Squeeze, and air leaves. Open the zip top, and air gets back in. No vacuum required.

Since the late 80's I've routinely carried all 4 tools below the ruler.

Spring steel clip to hold pant legs out of the chain.
Hemostat to hold tire valve out while inflating an empty tube.
Blackburn brake holding block which is like the carved block of wood idea to hold caliper brake levers locked.
(Note the 3 steps to hold 3 different size levers in fully locked position, the two edges have two sized grooves to snap lock it on either a brake cable or a smaller shifter cable for storage).
Halt clip: one end clips on bars the other around can of HALT.

Thanks to this thread I am now throwing them all to the junkbox.
I find the rubber band on the left (size # 64) way better for all 4 purposes!
Rubber band on the right is size #62.
Both 62 and 64 are 1/4 inch wide.
Size 32 would be 1/8 inch wide.

One thing I learned during test-loading my bike, that I haven't seen mentioned (perhaps it's obvious): immobilize your bike when loading. I've put a Velcro strap around the front rim and the down tube to keep the front wheel from moving sideways and a rubber band around the rear brake lever and the handlebar to engage the brake. Loading stuff is much easier when the bike isn't moving.

Moving your loaded bicycle on the sand.
This is a very hard task when done alone.
If you have a partner, then the best way is to leave one bike to rest, and use the old 4x4 method ;-)
One is pushing from the back, and one is pulling from the front.
This is amazingly good strategy, and prevented us from a lot of agonizing bike towing.
Use it when you ride with a partner.
We learned it when riding from Italy to Spain through south of France. A lot of nights we spent on the sandy beaches ;-)

Regards,
Kfir

If it's been raining for a couple of days in a row, and you've been camping all that time, odds are your tent is getting wet from the inside too. Heat some (large) stones to scorching hot in campfire, then use sticks or something to roll them into an empty camp stove kettle. Carry the kettle in your tent, set it up in the middle of the tent floor. Be careful not to burn tent floor or walls. I use Trangia windscreen for support, it also prevents kettle from tumbling over. Leave it there for a couple of hours, make sure that you have some ventilation in the tent. The heat source will dry the inside of the tent (or inner tent entirely, if you have double wall tent like I do) . It's not enough to dry a sleeping bag completely, but will help there too.

I suppose if you have a couple of kgs of hot stones and a pan large enough, you can make a portable sauna like this! :beer:

(Actually tent saunas are great and have been around for a long time. I wouldn't try it with a normal tent though.)

--J

If you have some extra stones, you could also make a Hawaiian oven and cook a leg of reindeer too :lol:
http://www.pigonaspit.com/underground/kalua-imu.php

More seriously, if you bury a few hot stones a few inches under the ground, then place your tent on top you stay both warm and it helps dry out your tent. :thumb:

Hi everyone!

I took many tricks here and elsewhere and I have compiled them on my website : cyclolivier.jimdo.com
I could have copied/pasted them here... but i want this site to appear on Google (eventually :p )
So please go and visit!

To get you there, I'll put those I have about animals: ;)

Animals

In countries where mosquitoes carry diseases (malaria, dengue...), trying not to be bitten is the best way to avoid being infected. So use strong mosquito coil and a good mosquito net.
There is a treatment against malaria, but it just prevents the symptoms, not the infection. It is a kind of hoax mounted by some large pharmaceutical companies to make money on the back of Western travelers ...
Most long-time travelers do not take these drugs, partly because they know the severe side effects (big sunburns, psychotic deliriums, etc ...).
Also, malaria mosquitoes bite only at night, but the dengue ones bite anytime, and there is no vaccination against dengue!
Mosquitoes usualy live near stagnant water and in the forest/jungle so don't camp near these places. Generally, there is no dangerous ones inside the main cities.

Mosquitoes and other insects don't like smoke. In Thailand, people burn coconut shells to create a thick smoke and keep insects away (choose your death: infection or suffocation :twitchy:).

Beware of cattle, especially females with babies and males.
Young ones are not really aware of their weight and can easily jump on you for playing... forgetting that they weight 200 Kg!

Poultry and other animals on the road can also be dangerous, thus a "tssskk-tssskk" will usualy make them move off your way.

Dogs can be a real threat for cyclists. If you see one running at you, you'd better stop and get off your bike. Always look straight in the eyes and NEVER look away before him. If you look away first he'll consider that he his the leader and doing anything else will be useless. If there are several dogs, try to stare at the one that seems to be the leader.
Don't be affraid of him and never run away!
Most dogs that know humans will be affraid if you pick a rock or a stick
Also dogs hate water: they calm down or flee if you spray them with your water bottles (if water is scarce, use rocks!).
Another solution is to spray hot sauce in their eyes (if you find this cruel, use rocks! :thumb:)

I think most women on a tour just squat in the bush if there are no other facilities available.

Not sure if this silly thing has been mentioned yet, but it's a nice little tip.

Camping & Drinking 101, The shoe trick:

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e.../shoetrick.jpg

Just wondering what kind of bottle holder your using on the bike..... :D Cool picture!

I like the shoe trick! I will definitely use it! Thanks!

Heh, you can't see it in the pic, but I have an old biscuit tin that just happens to fit around a wine bottle perfectly. I then make sure it is well-stuffed in my panniers with clothes and other soft stuff in the unfortunate event of an accident. Have never broken a bottle yet in the few accidents I've had (wood summarily knocked). And thanks!

Happy to be introduce it! Enjoy!

I really think this thread should be restored to sticky status. I admit to not having perused it until recently, but I enjoyed spending a couple of hours reading many of the tips, and it truly is too good a resource to be buried deep under other threads.

Anyway, my contribution....

We get a lot of stuff delivered that is wrapped in cling wrap, or as you probably know it, saran wrap.

On our recent trip to Canada, I thought I would give it a whirl as a means to protect various items in the bike box. It's cheap, and helped keep metal from rubbing on metal.

I wrapped my Carradice in it to keep it compact, and the same with a Shimano shoe box with various small, easy-to-lose items inside. And i wrapped our pairs of pedals in it to keep them together.

It's cheap, readily available in just about any supermarket or corner shop, easy to wrap, and easy to unwrap. If you are very seriously enviro-conscious, it might not be for you, but I was happy with how it worked on our trip.

This deserves a bump. Stunning in it's simplicity, I never thought of it. Prolly shouldn't have admitted that...

Thanks for posting this! I haven't used it while out on the road, but it came in handy the other day when my wife informed me that a hose from our air-conditioner was dripping water on the balcony of the nutty guy who lives under us.

I slipped an old inner tube over it, secured it with a couple of twist ties and the problem was solved.

A makeshift drinking glass for wine is a plastic 600ml drink bottle cut off about three inches from the bottom. If you want to drink scotch and a mixer, then do the same with a one or two litre bottle with the wider base.

I've only got one tour under my belt but one thing I found out during it was to trust the bike route signs if they are there. The first day I wound up going my way I picked off google maps because it was a little shorter than the way the bike route suggested and wound having to ride 2 miles of loose gravel road. The second morning I got on the road and the bike route sign looked like it was taking me on to the on ramp of the freeway. I road around for at least an hour on both sides of the freeway, checking my phone map, my gps map, trying to figure out how to get the half mile up the freeway to the next road that I needed and couldn't get there. Finally I said F it and went for it. About 50 yards down the freeway on ramp a small slightly overgrown bike path appeared off to the side behind some barriers. From there on out if I saw bike route signs that was different from my planned route I followed the signs and always made it to where I wanted to go.

Hey Jayr, was that in Northern Calif? My daughter and I did that very thing a few years ago. Frustrating and amusing at the same time.

Yep. Trying to get to Hwy 12 toward Napa/Vallejo from Cordelia.

That sounds about right...not sure exactly where we were since we were exploring (ie; lost) at the time.

[QUOTE=mechanicalron;8486099]Ever break a spoke on the drive side of your rear wheel? Buy a handfull of spokes a bit to long for your wheel and put a "Z" bend at the end to hook into the hub flange. You can use the spoke nipple from the broken spoke and you wont need a free wheel tool or need to even take your wheel off the bike! This spoke will out last a reg spoke and it works great.

My first time on this thread and I feel like I struck gold on the first try. That is a brilliant idea and will save me having to carry a small channel lock, small chain whip, and cassette tool. Definitely top 3 bike related solutions and I am having a hard time remembering the other two right now.
Thanks.

Pedal brakes off in the middle of no where? Tape it to your shoe and make due.

Need an extra water bottle mount? Use a 1.5L bottle, cut it in half and tape it to your handle bars. Now u can carry a 500 or 600 mL bottle no problem and its super easy to access too.

Electrical tape and hose clamps are avaiable worldwide and can be used to mount 3rd world country backracks to anything... No rack mounts required

Rice bags make suitable panniers and usually free

Where'd you get that chess board? I want that. Does it weigh a lot? Its obviously smaller than a shoe, so that's great news.

My friend came up with a great idea for a traveling chess board. She took an old bandana and colored in squares to make a chess board (proper calculations were taken to get the right number of squares and to make sure they were all the same size). Then she bought a set of tiny plastic chess pieces so when you're moving, you just wrap the pieces in the bandana and when you're ready to play you just find a relatively flat surface, stretch the board out, and secure it with some rocks!

When the liner strips in your helmet have reached the end of their life, don't buy new strips or a new helmet. Just fold a wash rag and and insert it in place of the strips. This works as well as the strips and also keeps the sweat out of your eyes.

I bought it through some online vendor back in 2005 or so. Weighs 9.9 ounces. It's a really common board, actually, and there are many similar to it. Its best feature is that the magnetic pieces really stick to it. You can turn the whole thing upside down and they won't fall off, but they also have a tendency to want to stick to each other, so a pegboard set might be smarter.

It has since gone up in price quite a bit though. When I bought mine it was $15; now it looks like this same set is $45 at common online shops like this one: http://www.chesshouse.com/travel_chess_sets_s/77.htm

Fortunately there are cheaper sets available, if price is an issue. Google "travel chess sets" and you'll be able to shop around, if none of the sets in the above link are agreeable to you.

I like your friend's idea! You can also buy roll-up boards from these same chess set vendors in standard sizes or make your own in any number of ways, just like she did. One of the great things about chess is that where there's a will, there's a way to make a set. One could even paint bottle caps for pieces, or any number of other things. You could even just bring a sharpie pen and collect smooth rocks of contrasting colors and draw the pieces on top of them, and forgo the need to take a set of pieces entirely. I always used a Crown Royal bag with the drawstring (I used to collect them when I bartended for just such purposes) to hold the pieces for my larger sets.

Cheers!

Great thread.
spent all day reading it and I don't think these have been captured:

BUY EGGS FROM ROADSIDE STALLS (AND OTHER PRODUCE FOR THAT MATTER). PACK NEWSPAPER ON TOP OF THE EGGS AND PUT RUBBER BANDS AROUND THE CARTON. I’VE CARRIED EGGS FOR DAYS ON ROUGH SINGLETRACK AND THEY’VE BEEN FINE! CAN BURN THE NEWSPAPER (& EMPTY CARTONS) AS A FIRESTARTER TOO

IF ITS PISSING DOWN USE PLASTIC BAGS OVER YOUR SOCKS (CAN SECURE WITH RUBBER BANDS – NOT TOO TIGHT) THEN SLIP THEM INTO YOUR RIDING SHOES. WORKS A TREAT AT KEEPING DRY AND WARM!

USING TYRE LINERS (LIKE MR TUFFY) ADDS ROLLING WEIGHT BUT HELPED ME TO NOT SUFFER ONE PUNCTURE ON A 4000KM TOUR….

IF YOU GET SICK OF DRIVERS GIVING YOU NO ROOM INVEST IN A GOOD MIRROR (HELMET MIRRORS SEEM TO HAVE THE LEAST VIBES) AND SWERVE WHEN CARS ARE APPORACHING AT A SAFE DISTANCE LIKE YOU’RE DRUNK AND THEY ALMOST ALWAYS GIVE YOU A WIDE BERTH

WEAR 2 PAIRS OF KNICKS WITH HQ CHAMOIS…AFTER MONTHS IN THE SADDLE ITS EASY TO END UP BADLY BRUISED!

LEARN TO BE OBSERVENT. MANY EDIBLE PLANTS OCCUR ON THE ROADSIDE. I’VE FEASTED ON MANY WILD FRUITS AND HERBS. YOU ALSO OBTAIN A KNACK FOR LOCATING TAPS.

USE LAKES, STREAMS AND THE OCEAN TO BATHE AND FRESHEN UP AFTER A LONG DAYS RIDE. ALSO MAKE THE BEST SPOTS FOR CAMPING!

KEEP YOUR TYRES WELL INFLATED – I KEEP MINE NEAR MAXIMUM PSI….FIT COMFY GRIPS AND A SUSPENSION SEATPOST TO COMPENSATE