Pump, tubes and patches

The planner writes this from the ride you describe, so there is no version of it that is true for everybody. Here it is worked against one ride, named below, with a single answer changed at a time to show what moves.

2 nights · wild camping · cold but not freezing (8 °C) · gravel and tracks · towns daily

The single most likely thing to go wrong, and the easiest to be ready for. Levers included on purpose: a tyre you cannot get off the rim is a tube you cannot change, and thumbs alone do not do it on a cold day.

On that ride the planner marks it essential.

The same requirement, reasoned again from a different answer. One answer moves at a time, so what each one adds is attributable to it and to nothing else.

• Night low · Below freezing

  Below freezing at night, and that makes the repair a stop you have to survive rather than a job you have to do. You are standing still and sweaty, and the fine work is the first thing to go — so get out of the wind and put the insulated layer on before your hands stop working, not after. Thin gloves for the fiddly parts, and warm your hands between them: cold hands work slower, and working slower is what makes them colder. The tube you are about to fit rides against your body rather than in a bag on the bike, because cold rubber goes stiff and tears over the levers. The rest can travel cold. The spare lever is on the list for the same reason — cold plastic snaps, and one lever short of a tight tyre is a repair that stops halfway. Patch cement will not cure in the cold, so the patch is the one repair the weather can veto, and it gives you no sign it has failed until the tyre goes down again. Swap the tube and patch the punctured one later somewhere warm. That is why the spec asks for one more tube than the same ride in summer: with the glue out of the plan the tubes are the whole count of punctures you can fix. What the extra one costs you is bulk you will most likely carry home unused.

• Resupply · Rarely, or not at all

  You said remote. A second puncture on the same day is not unlikely, and out there it is the difference between an inconvenience and a walk.

The ride above

one spare tube · tyre levers

Night low · Below freezing

two spare tubes · tyre levers, and a spare lever

Resupply · Rarely, or not at all

two spare tubes · tyre levers

These add up rather than rule each other out — carrying two is the ordinary practice here. Every one carries what it costs you as well as what it gets you.

• Mini pump

  Never runs out, and it will seat a tyre as many times as you need.

  but Slow and hard work on a wide tyre.

  A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.

  Find one ↗

• CO₂ inflator

  Full pressure in seconds, and it fits in a pocket.

  but One cartridge is one puncture. Miss the seal and it is gone.

  A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.

  Find one ↗

• Tubeless plugs and a spare tube

  Most punctures never stop you, and the tube is there for the one that does.

  but Only if you are already running tubeless, and sealant dries out unnoticed.

  A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.

  Find one ↗

We hold measured dimensions for bags and for nothing else, so this hands the requirement to a search rather than picking something for you. Nothing on this page has a price, a weight or a maker attached to it, because none of those were measured.

That depends on the ride, and this page does not know it. The interview does, and it is the only thing here that can answer the question — no account, and every line it gives you names the answer that produced it.

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