I thought I could get away with just a bike and a helmet when I started mountain biking years ago as a beginner. I wore basketball shorts, a tshirt, old shoes, sunblock, bugspray, and brought a disposable plastic water bottle. That’s it. It worked, but it wasn’t fun when I had flats or needed to make on-the-fly adjustments to my bike because I didn’t have any tools.
I was once no-joke-broke so I know what it’s like to just wing things and use what’s already lying around the house. It makes a person more creative to be honest, not a bad trait if you ask me! But…
I learned the hard way – through pain, but not much glory. Once you get hurt or get into mishaps, like my shinners or blistered hands, and flat tires miles out – things really start to click and lessons are learned FAST. I found out what MTB gear I needed pretty dang quickly, and since I didn’t want to spend an arm and leg, I’ll tell you what I did:
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10 No-and-Low Budget Items For Beginners Mountain Biking: You May Already Have Them At Home
So if you’re truly a beginner, here’s a list of items that might already be lying around the house so you don’t have to go out and buy stuff, I would dare say this is with a no-budget situation:
- Budget mountain bike… you do have to spend a little bit of money here to get something trailworthy, but you don’t break the bank. You don’t want walmart stuff trust me.
- Helmet of any kind. I wore a snowboard helmet for a few weeks once, I thought about using a construction site helmet too.
- Shoes of any kind: maybe cowboy boots for more protection, or an old pair of shoes like the ones you use for mowing the lawn
- Gloves, your dad’s garage work gloves would be fine
- Disposable water bottle.. with, you guessed it, water
- Eye protection, probably in the garage or from chemistry class
- Knee and shin pads of any kind.. volleyball, flooring work, bedsheets
- A patched up bike tube that holds air.. at least temporarily
- A cheap hand pump from a garage sale or clearance item
- Basketball shorts
- Bonus: Garage tools to fix your bike, hex allen keys that fit “kind-of”
I really should make a video wearing this stuff on a trail ride. I think it would go viral: Budget bike, construction helmet, chemistry lab class eye-protection glasses, cowboy boots, work gloves, contractor flooring knee pads with some basketball shorts, and using old L shape allen keys in the garage. Totally budget. Totally ready to hit the trails baby. I can see that being a hit. Hey, it’s works!
My MTB Gear I Actually Take On Trail Rides
I don’t consider myself a beginner anymore after riding so many years, but I am still pretty very frugal about what I buy for cycling. I didn’t know whether or not I would enjoy mountain biking back then so didn’t want to end up with expensive bike gear that would never get used again. So I only bought things that are in my budget – and surprisingly I still use the same stuff and they have held up super well.
Here’s my frugal low-budget gear that I actually take out onto the trails myself these days:
- Budget bike with better upgrades
- Helmet – decent full face or clamshell
- Eye protection – I wear a pair from home depot that’s a little more stylish. It’s comfortable and works well… and were cheap. I think I paid $19 versus bike branded eye-protection that could be $50 – $200.
- Gloves – I’m going to admit: I wear Grease Monkey Gloves… used to work on cars. They breath so well, give me decent protection, full fingered. As much as I would like fingerless gloves… I still found myself getting scraped so it’s better to go full fingers if possible.
- Bike shorts – with the gel pad stuff I bought from Amazon. Necessary with a hardtail and protects the jewels
- MTB shorts – zippered pockets are essential.. for me. I love having the cargo and side pockets zippered. MTB shorts also use adjustable velcro for EASY waist adjustment without having to wear a belt. I got some from Amazon of Chinese origin… I LOVE them. 4way flex is so important, breathable, sweat wicking, and I believe their water resistant… believe me I tried it wearing them in the rain. It works. Geez, I could write a whole new post about my shorts. I probably will now.
- Shoes – I wear Merrel hiking shoes. I’m a flat pedal rider. I’ve never tried clipless, so I can’t knock clipless, but I like being able to easily reposition my feet and getting off before crashing. At one point I purchased some Fiveten Freerider MTB shoes, but they didn’t feel comfortable to me, if I had to jump off the bike my toes would smash against the top portion of the toebox and hurt like hell, and they’re not the greatest for doing hike-a-bike stuff.. espeically when the ground is loose and/or rocky. Geez! I went on too long – I guess this could also be another post one day.
- Hydration pack – I got a proper camelbak for Christmas and love it, model: LOBO
- Knee and/or shin pads – I have a pair of fox launch knee/shin pads. Super affordable, and easy to strap on and off without having to take my shoes off. I really wish I had these in the very beginning, the 6 inch scar on my right leg can tell you all about that. Thank god for these or I probably would’ve stopped biking. shins would be even worse
- Bike pump/C02 – my girlfriend at the time had a small frame-mount hand pump she never used, guess who got to keep it?
- Bike tube / or patch kit – I love patches, because I’m too cheap to buy a new tube after every puncture repair.
- Multitool – I’ve owned the Crankbrothers M19 in gold for so many years and it’s held up great. I got it on amazon off a lightning deal at a great price that I couldn’t refuse.
- Pocket Knife and Pepper Spray for basic protection because you just never know
- Bug Spray and Sunblock – I’ve had a tick bite before from riding, that was not fun and got scary when it turned into a bullseye. I was negative for Lyme’s disease, but still took antibiotics. Always got the bug spray. I carry 100% deet since it’s so lightweight and just a little will scare away the little bastards.
- Smart Phone or GPS – because if I’m 3 miles out and there’s a fork I didn’t know about, I don’t want to take the wrong fork and end up somewhere I didn’t want to be. Technology is awesome.
That pretty much sums up what I carry with me EVERY time I go out riding. Most of the time I ride by myself out on trails I’m not too familiar with, so I do carry a little bit of extra weight. But the peace of mind is worth it.
MTB Gear: What’s In My Car
Most of the riding trips I take are by car. There’s still quite a bit of cycling related stuff that I take with me, they’re just not physically ON me when I’m on the trails.
So here’s the list off the top of my head:
- Bikehand Toolkit – this thing is loaded with tools, but I also added to the box.
- Full size bike pump, Electric 12v light socket pump
- Extra knee pads, extra tubes
- Medical Kit
- Extra socks and gloves
- More sunblock and bugspray
- Fabreze, ya know cuz sweaty stuff smells
- Sometimes I’ll bring my bike repair stand if I’m there a while, or know I’ll need it
- Bike cleaning stuff, chain lube, degreaser, rags, towels, paper towels
- Bike Hitch to carry my bike – sometimes I’ll take the roof cargo box
If I go on any sort of mountain biking excursion, this what what I normally take with me.
Biggest Fear Out on the Trail
Getting attacked by an animal or some psycho. That’s why I have pepper spray.
Since I’m alone most of the time when I’m out riding a new trail, I don’t ride as hard as I’d like in fear of getting hurt. Maybe I should join or start a meetup with random people.
I’m actually not even phased if I run into mechanical or bike problems… it’s just part of this sport. I think it’s kind of cool to have the skill and aptitude to fix a problem with the bike when I’m miles away from my car.
Conclusion
It didn’t take long before I realized I needed things like shin pads after getting pedal slapped, knee pads after taking a corner too fast, and gloves after bracing myself from the fall. So hopefully you learn from my mistakes and get some of the items I’ll be talking about.
If anything, I have no problems wearing reasonably safe attire ALL THE TIME. It’s usually overlooked and is the big reason why I carry more items with me. At least I had a helmet in the beginning.
I’ve gotten by with bare-bones budget items I still use. I’ve been riding for a number of years and still don’t need to upgrade certain things unless I know it’s essential to future rides – those items like the multitool have been pretty much bulletproof!
Also, for example, my Camelbak (model: Lobo) holds 3 liters of water, has some decent storage for all my stuff. I don’t need to get more space. I don’t NEED the very best gear either. I’m just an intermediate level rider, who rides a hardtail budget MTB, who needs a bike upgrade, but won’t do it because full suspension carbon bikes are really expensive…
I need to get one. I think my goal is to make extra money on the side in order to pay for it. I’m not a big fan of using my salary to buy something that won’t appreciate in value. That’s a whole other topic for another day, though.
Anyway, that’s what I carry on me when I ride, and that’s what I take with me in my car, and that’s what I used when I was a total beginner. The list is still applicable today.
I’m still Arkansas, it’s currently 59 degrees and cloudy on a mid October day. Yesterday was perfect weather, sunny, 60 degrees, but I had to go to work – the cost of being a slave.
So.. I’m going to go ride Burns Park in reverse with all the gear I listed up there.
RIDER UP