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I read a tidbit in Bicycling magazine entitled 5 Things You Should Have In Your Car obvious stuff, really. It reminded me that I wanted to write about one of my experiments/resolutions last year. I decided (maybe this idea spawned from a Fatty blog post?) that I wanted to always be prepared to go for a ride. If a friend called while I was at work or if I was out running an errand I want to be able to ride. Of course this meant I need a bike with me at all times… and last summer I did carry my road bike with me more often that not. I don’t have a canopy on my truck (and even if I did I’m not sure I’d tote my bikes around back there) so this means that I have to stow my bike on the floor of my back seat. Not super convenient when picking up my kids for the weekend! I’ll probably do the same this spring and summer even though it is a bit of a pain to have a bike taking up my entire backseat. The bike-in-backseat problem aside the best thing to come about from this experiment is that I had to get efficient with carrying all my cycling gear. I think I have a pretty good system down now. In my center console I carry my Sunglasses and my Garmin Forerunner 305. Floor pump – carrying a floor pump in your vehicle at all times is a great idea. I’d suggest trying to find one at an REI Garage Sale near you. I always see nice used pumps for dirt cheap at these sales. Riding gear – this is all the the stuff you don’t wash between rides. Instead of dropping $40 on the trunk organizer that Bicycling Mag suggests I use an $8 RubberMaid storage container! I see these on sale at K-Wal-Tar-Mart for $6 – $10. This is my essential kit… it is so nice to know that I have all my gear in my truck at all times. No forgetting my helmet, shoes or gloves. - Mountain Shoes
- Road Shoes
- Mountain Helmet
- Road Helmet
- Mountain Gloves
- Road Gloves
- Chest strap for heart rate monitor
- Water bottle or two
I found these AWESOME large Ziploc bags (also come in XL!) to hold the rest of my gear. They are made of much thicker plastic than gallon freezer bags and are great because they slide under and behind the back seats of my truck . 
Bag One (Gallon Ziploc) - Cycling Clothes: - Jersey
- Road bibs (I usually wear mountain shorts when mountain biking but I figure that in order to conserve space I’ll just carry road shorts (bibs) yeah in a pinch it doesn’t really matter!
- Pair of socks
Bag Two (Large Ziploc) – Miscellaneous Gear - Repair kit - simple stuff. Extra tubes for all my bikes, a rag, a bottle of chain lube, Ziploc sandwich bags a few extra wrenches and a screw driver. Although I already carry a nice multi-tool in my seat bag so I really only need to pack a wrench or two that I don’t normally carry.
- Wet Wipes – I’m currently carrying baby wipes but I prefer something with more alcohol like Wet Ones – more alcohol is better because they provide more and longer lasting “freshening” power.
- One large towel – yeah – to mop up my sweaty, wet, muddy self!
- First Aid Kit - I’m clumsy.
Bag Three (Large Ziploc) - Foul Weather - Gore-Tex Jacket
- Booties
- Arm Warmers
- Balaclava
Bag Three - Empty - One of the XL Ziploc bags… a place to put wet/messy clothes and/ or towels
The only problem I haven’t currently solved is this. If I carry my HRM strap in my truck for unplanned rides, it is near impossible to put it on for a planned ride (meaning I dress in the house) without stripping down (under jersey, under bib shorts – very complicated!). Not a huge deal I suppose but it does add time and effort to ride preparation. Conversely if I keep it inside for planned rides I won’t have it with me for unplanned rides.
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