• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Tips sought for riding solo

Nordic

Nordic

Husqvarna
A Class
Although I have found a partner a couple of hours away, I have not had any luck finding others to ride with in my immediate area. So, it is either go on my own or stay home. I am used to training alone as a trail runner and cyclist, but it seems like the odds of getting hurt are much higher riding the machine. I suspect that others are in this situation and was looking for some suggestions. I have a full set of safety gear, always know where I am going etc. Any other suggestions? Thinking of getting a small tank bag to carry my phone (as much as I value getting the hell away from that thing). It is not all that remote here compared with the mountains etc.

thanks
 
I would definitely recommend carrying a "spot shot" emergency signaler or something like it, as well as your cell phone. Also let friends or family know where you're going (at least the location of the trail-head) so that someone would have a clue if you never came back. I will always tell a friend if I'm heading out alone and he expects me to check in with him when I'm done-if he doesn't hear from me he'll either come looking or send out the cavalry:)
 
I ride solo but am overly cautious of where I ride. No room for errors and mishaps at 57. I purchased the Inreach SE since I am always out of cell range whether on MTB or Husky. It allows Text Mesaging so you can send a custom message to anyone and receive them. Not simply a one way SOS but more a useful 2-way sattelite messaging unit. They have cleaned up the website and one can synch contacts between the web admin page and the device. You can send a message and each message includes map and location. The Safety Subscription is $10 monthly and if used on occasion not terribly expensive and could be a life saver. http://www.inreachdelorme.com/

Staying home is no fun at all. I just dial back the adrenaline a bit and take as few risks as possible.
 
As above, I ride solo more often than not. The cell is with me plus plenty of water. I also have a lighter. I am always careful not to go too fast or take nasty trails. I always let my lady know my planned route and check in where I get cell service. I've been considering taking my little ham radio, but don't wanna smash it. I even thought of bringing a avalanche locator but figured the local LOE's don't use that band down here. That in reach sounds cool though.
 
I ride solo most of the time. Just think about what you are doing and carry a SPOT so they can find the body if you care. It is almost always more fun to have someone to ride with. But the thing that is worse than riding alone is not going riding.
 
Not a good idea IMHO. When happens if you break a leg or arm or get knocked out or get you bike off the trail and cant get it back on? I have done it but try not to do it.
 
Nordic said:
Although I have found a partner a couple of hours away, I have not had any luck finding others to ride with in my immediate area. So, it is either go on my own or stay home. I am used to training alone as a trail runner and cyclist, but it seems like the odds of getting hurt are much higher riding the machine. I suspect that others are in this situation and was looking for some suggestions. I have a full set of safety gear, always know where I am going etc. Any other suggestions? Thinking of getting a small tank bag to carry my phone (as much as I value getting the hell away from that thing). It is not all that remote here compared with the mountains etc.

thanks
Click to expand...


I am riding alone too. No choice. :(
 
Depending on what kind of riding you do, I carry a spark plug and a 1/4" length of rope with a small pully(for hoistng deer) in my camelbak.
I've gone off trail before and had a hell of a time dragging my bike back up by myself. I wasn't injured and and didn't want to call SOS. Sometimes you could use a hand but not be seriously injured.
 
I have a SPOT, but it is unreliable in canyons and forestry canopies. I will be upgrading to the Inreach. I also carry a 2m radio, cell phones are pretty worthless out of range. Rope, water, space blanket, my .45 on occasion, tools, tubes, flash light, fire strtr, ziptys, epoxy stick and rations.
 
Some great advise.. I ride solo allot (200+ mile dirt day rides) and had to learn to slow down and use much more caution. That fun, near race pace that I'd ride with a friend had to change. Was the reason I sold my TE510 and went to the TE630. Also I carry some snack bars, plenty of liquids, a well thought out tool kit, prescriptive pain killer for unexpected injury and a lighter to build a fire. My close calls have been with those pesky deer that seem to want to play tag with me in the woods.
 
I haven't tried it but I'm told that a flare will start a fire even in wet wood. You could easily zip-ty it to your fork leg......
 
I carry lotsa tools, water, snacks, cell phone and or satphone. I try not to ride gnarly stuff, and often walk up an unknown trail first, before committing to riding it. Any overly technical section, and I'm not going any further. Still, sometimes, a freak bad crash can sneak up on you in a decievingly easy looking section. I'm glad that somebody was with me on that last ride, or else I would have had to leave my downed bike and hike out.
 
Dirtdame said:
I carry lotsa tools, water, snacks, cell phone and or satphone. I try not to ride gnarly stuff, and often walk up an unknown trail first, before committing to riding it. Any overly technical section, and I'm not going any further. Still, sometimes, a freak bad crash can sneak up on you in a decievingly easy looking section. I'm glad that somebody was with me on that last ride, or else I would have had to leave my downed bike and hike out.
Click to expand...
This is all great information. Thanks. What tools are in the toolkits that you carry into the woods? Also, what kind of bags are you using to carry them?

Thanks again for your responses.
 
Wow, checked the site for InReach. A very cool product!

Looks like they have a stand alone unit and one for use with a smartphone. Seems cool, but I'd like to see one in person. I guess the price is OK, but I'm cheap. $250 for the phone version and $300 for the SE are pretty steep, plus a minimum of $120/year for service. I'd have to ride LOTS more to jusify that kind of expense.

My Bao Feng 2m, 220, 440, GMRS radio is only $50. Then again, you do need your Technician ham ticket to use it legally.
 
Nordic said:
This is all great information. Thanks. What tools are in the toolkits that you carry into the woods? Also, what kind of bags are you using to carry them?

Thanks again for your responses.
Click to expand...
I carry everything for most local trail and DS rides in a Fox waist pack. I carry small tire irons, patches, CO2 tire inflator, JB Weld Quik, tweezers for pulling cactus spines, vise grips, adjustable wrench, screwdriver with bits, pliers, allen wrenches, zip ties, rescue tape, tiny flashlight, tow strap, spare levers, a few small metric wrenches, ratchet and a few sockets, spark plug, sparkplug wrench....yeah, it's not too light or compact, but I had to disassemble a bike to get it out of a bad spot by myself one time, and I have carried a bunch of tools ever since.
For longer or more serious excursions I use the largest waist pack that Malcolm Smith makes, and add even more stuff!
 
Nordic said:
This is all great information. Thanks. What tools are in the toolkits that you carry into the woods? Also, what kind of bags are you using to carry them?

Thanks again for your responses.
Click to expand...



I'm sure there is a thread here with this subject but here are some photos of what I carry.

edit .. here is the thread http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/trail-tool-kit-help.19936/








along with a spare tube, pull strap and bike tire pump packaged in a Kriega 5 tail pack on the rear rack

 
Dirtdame said:
I carry everything for most local trail and DS rides in a Fox waist pack. I carry small tire irons, patches, CO2 tire inflator, JB Weld Quik, tweezers for pulling cactus spines, vise grips, adjustable wrench, screwdriver with bits, pliers, allen wrenches, zip ties, rescue tape, tiny flashlight, tow strap, spare levers, a few small metric wrenches, ratchet and a few sockets, spark plug, sparkplug wrench....yeah, it's not too light or compact, but I had to disassemble a bike to get it out of a bad spot by myself one time, and I have carried a bunch of tools ever since.
For longer or more serious excursions I use the largest waist pack that Malcolm Smith makes, and add even more stuff!
Click to expand...



what about medical stuff?
 
The risks can come from the most unusual things. When I was 15 years old I was riding my SL100 a short distance from our house and snagged my toe on a bundle of barbed wire sitting on the ground. That wire then proceeded to catch on my tire and turn into a tourniquet as I rolled forward (slowly, fortunately) until my foot was locked to the peg and the bike halted. I looked like the tricycle guy on Laugh-In...plonk. While bleeding, with a bike partially on me I had to unwind the wire by hand and then hobble a couple hundred yards to the house...where nobody was home and then jump in my parents pickup and drive myself 5 mile to the doctor. The scars on my ankle are still visible 40 years later, the cuts weren't trivial.

No matter where you are going, leave a plan with someone and give them updates when you can. I think others have pretty much covered all the other precautions....
plan to survive the unforeseen risks.
 
Motosportz said:
what about medical stuff?
Click to expand...
I used to carry it, but I quit. Stuff took a beating and got ruined. I got tired of updating and repairing it over and over. I carry eye drops, band aids, lip balm and sun screen. And those little hand towelettes in the packages, and TP.
 
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