Are you prepared for trouble?

Not talking about hand sanitiser, face masks or foamy soaps. I’m talking about your backpack and whether or not you have what it takes to get out of a sticky hard enduro situation?!

Recently, my backpack game has been shit, limited and far from what it used to be. It’s been way too light and unprepared for real trouble. With real trouble I’m talking about destroying your chain, just like what I did 4 years ago in Brazil.

Me and my kiwi friend Mike Skinner fixing a broken chain on a stupid difficult hill. I was on a KTM 350 with no kickstarter and it ended up running out of battery, so we rode one bike out at a time with the light of mike’s phone. Cause none of us had lights on. We thought we were prepared, but still not 100%.

Luckily I had with me my MotionPro chain-snapper tool (very similar to this one) as well as 4 extra chain joints and a piece of old chain with me, “just in case“. Yes, my backpack is normally a lot heavier than yours, but that day made up for all the heavy backpacks I’ve ridden with over the years. On the same ride in Brazil, Mike Skinner accidentally rode his bike straight into a crevasse (picture below) and had it not been for our strong rope, we wouldn’t have been able to pull him out.

*Very easy mistake and thankfully, the strong vines prevented him from falling deeper into the crevasse. It could have gotten real messy.*

I made a video about being a Track Manager in Brazil back in 2016 and when I wanted to share the link from YouTube, it turns out that I uploaded it to some other account. So I found it in my old Hard Drive gems and uploaded it all over, here it is if you want to have a look:

I’m in Mexico right now and I’m not here to find new tracks and survive 8-12 hours of unknown scouting missions. So my backpack is kinda meeh at the moment and as I can’t get to my stuff from Denmark with a snap of my fingers, I want to upgrade my backpack right now. I guess Mercado Libre or Amazon will be my rescue. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m missing, but I’m actually more interested in knowing what YOUR MOST IMPORTANT thing is and WHY?!

*My weak backpack game at the moment. Not even a machete or handsaw, let alone pain killers and aluminium blanket. I can do better!*

Here’s the things I SHOULD be bringing each time out:

Basic tools + the tools your specific bike loves
Chainsnapper
Chain pieces and new joints
Spareparts (levers, gear shifter, brake pedal)
Rope (don’t be cheap, get a good one, you’ll thank me later)
Fuses
Sparkplug (2stroke only)
Mixer oil (2 stroke only)
Duct tape (the good one + some electric tape)
Zip ties (again, don’t buy the cheap ones. Get strong ones)
Wire
Aluminium blanket (I still haven’t slept in the mountains, but I’ve had to seek shelter once in Brazil and slept in a strangers house)
Lighter (for making fire if you do have to sleep out)
GPS + extra batteries
Water (2-3 liters)
Food & snacks
Wind & waterproof jacket (so nice if you ride home on the highway)
Air Pump (unless you run mousses)
Cash (is king, everywhere in the world!)
Pain killers

What did I miss? Put it in the comments below and let me know your MUST-HAVE backpack item.

This masterpiece in engineering was created just few minutes before the finish line of one of the days of Minas Riders in 2016. Mike and I found Graham Jarvis sitting in the grass and when asking him what the problem was, he said he had run out of gas. Friendly as we were, we ripped off the gas hose on my bike and desperately tried to fill up a bottle for him, only to hear his bike start and see his dust. Apparently, there was a little bit of gas left in the tank, and it only just entered the carburetor after having been on the side for a minute. And the story behind the camel bag mouth piece as a fuel hose… We destroyed the original one in our eager to help him and only realised afterwards that we needed to get real creative to continue.

Alright that’s it for now, thanks for reading along, stay safe and remember to wash your hands with plenty of foamy soap 🧼🧼🧼

Are you prepared for trouble?

Not talking about hand sanitiser, face masks or foamy soaps. I’m talking about your backpack and whether or not you have what it takes to get out of a sticky hard enduro situation?!

Here’s the things I SHOULD be bringing each time out:

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