TAZTRAX - Stuff to Bring
Once you have booked a tour, its important to work as a group.
Group Cohesion is vital to the success of your tour, both in terms of equipment, spares, personalities and mentalities.
The most important thing to bring, is a positive attitude, as Tassie can throw some wild stuff at you ranging from weather to wildlife. if you have booked to do St helens to Strahan, its as much a challenge as it is a ride, so attitude is an area you need to be a 'glass half full' person, not half empty.
You need to communicate with your group in the weeks and months prior to your ride. All groups have a 'Contact' person, usually the person who makes the initial enquiry, and we will work closely to determine the best range of options to suit your group and work with your contact throughout the preparation and lead up period.
We have our own Basic checklist for personal requirements eg spares, supplies etc, but it's important to pool your resources and instead of everyone having tyre levers, work toward having a more diverse range of capability by co ordinating a spares and supply list for you, as a group.
Some basic rules we must cover are;
This is best done as a group effort in regard to making sure you dont double up and all end up carrying the same things. Although we will have a comprehensive spares list, try and cover Make and model specific items. As long as your routine maintenance is up to scratch you should be ok, if there a several on similar bikes, try to throw in a cable or two and any items that may suit more than one of your bikes.
We recommend having a spare set of wheel bearings ( most of this stuff will be stored in the support vehicle) and for those who absolutely have to change their oil at 500kms, have all filters etc ready.
You should carry one spare tube per two people minimum (if using super or ultra heavy duty tubes, should be right, but we should expect at least one flat per day, if not more)
Carry spare clutch / brake levers .
If your brake pads are not new, carry spares as some parts of the course are hard on them...remember it is only 800km
You should try to have a basic first aid kit, even though we will have supplies.
At least one small set of vice grips
Any personal tools that may be specific to your bike, like crazy 13mm spanners.
We will do a collective gear tally on the night before we leave to ensure that we have the stuff we will need, and not two rows of the ballards store. Its best to view the ride as 5 one day rides, so what you would normally take on a one day ride.
We would prefer if you stuck to exactly what you took and used on your last 'full day ride', as we dont want people making changes to their regular routines. What seems like a clever addition in the garage can turn into an annoying pain in the bum and distraction on the track.
As much as we'd like to give you a hundred line list of stuff to bring, we dont want you being pack horses, so again, plan for 5 one day rides.
©2009 TAZTRAX.com.au