It’s What We Do
- Advrider Older Magazines
- August 26, 2023
I’m often amazed by the sheer mass of tools some riders carry.
I’m the first to admit I’m often the one who benefits from the hardware others have on board – hardware I myself neglected to pack or declined to carry. But it’s not always the catalogue of tools I see that amazes me.
Sometimes it’s the individual tools that have me goggle-eyed.
I come from a predominantly enduro and trailriding background, so in my formative years I was taught to fight against every gram of unnecessary weight. It was ingrained into me that every skerrick of additional ballast, no matter how tiny, would contribute to the overall difficulty of steep hills, bogholes and dealing with obstacles. From a racing point of view that extra weight meant more energy I had to expend to keep the bike moving as fast as I could, and it meant a sacrifice in handling and performance from the bike itself.
