Apart from being a great individual sport, mountain biking is also a fun and healthy activity for the whole family. As mountain biking is quickly becoming one of the most popular family activities around the world we decided to write this simple five point checklist to help you plan your first or next family mountain biking excursion.
This is in no way an exhaustive list, but will give you a good idea of what’s important to remember.
1. Essentials
The two things on the checklist you’re most likely not to forget, but frequently do, the bikes and helmets. Get your bikes out of storage, and put them where they belong before you doing anything else to avoid having to explain to mom and children how you forgot to bring little David’s bike to the biking trip. If you don’t have helmets yet, get them, most trails will require that everyone in your group wear helmets and it’s a good thing to teach children to wear helmets from a young age.
2. Personal Health
A helmet will protect you and the family from a hard fall, but as mountain biking is inherently an outside activity you’ll be exposed to the elements throughout the trip. These items aren’t required, but will save you a lot of problem later on. A hydration pack or water bottle for hydration, gloves, eye patches or face mask, first aid kit, weatherproof clothing, sunscreen and footwear made for biking!
3. Protection
If you’re really serious about protecting yourself and willing to go full out with your kit, you can look at taking some of the following items with you. Insect repellent if you’re in an insect prone area, camoi cream for sores or inflammation, a full face helmet for complete face protection, cell phone to call emergency services, extra food in case you need to survive somewhere for a while and toilet paper to protect your dignity.
4. Navigation
Mountain biking is great because it takes you into nature away from the bustling city, but this also means that there won’t be signs showing you where to go, so knowing where to go is up to you.  If you can afford it take along a GPS with your route planned out beforehand, but if you don’t get the GPS at minimum you should have a compass which you know how to use. Also take a taillight, headlight, emergency whistle and lock if you plan on sleeping over somewhere.
5. Repairs
There’s a 99% chance you’ll have to stop somewhere to do repairs to one of the bikes, that’s just part of mountain biking, fortunately, if you have the right gear, you can repair nearly anything right there next to the road. Some of the most important repair items to take along include a spare tube, pump, multi-tool and patch kit. If you want to be over prepared, which is a good thing, you can also take along brake cables, chain tool, pressure gauge, and replacement chain links and spoke wrench.
Jason O’Reilly is an avid bicycle rider, professional product reviewer and all-around outdoorsman.
