Transcontinental Race No. 7 - TCR7 - #TCRN07 - 2019

That trick would've saved me hours of swearing and wandering around the place looking for half a quicklink over the last 20 years...

Whilst we are sort of here, what are people’s favoured multi tool

Aerobars so I can hang the battery light centrally. Same as all my other bikes pre-dyno.

I've had an Alien II for years and years but also now use the Park one because it has Torx-25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4aHi7jx­Y2I

Genius!

I got showed this years ago but then again this was when I was riding MTB a lot and still carried a spare mech cable in my bag for emergencies. Turned out the only emergency I ever needed one for was taking a link out though

I wonder if my Di2 cables are strong enough for this trick :)

I suppose a shoe lace would work if you're in a bind and have lace up shoes

Who has lace up shoes? Crazy talk.

But, any piece of wire would work, probably even a small zip tie which I tend to carry.
In the past I would use pointy nose pliers, which I also tend to carry on long stuff.

Who has lace up shoes? Crazy talk.

Not me, but just sayin

Any other cool tricks to avoid carrying tools?

I'm sure there's a few (the cut presta lid as garage pump adapter springs to mind) but almost always I'd prefer to carry the tool(s). Everything else I build strong enough that it shouldn't need tools.

Spare brake cable bent and stored in the handlebars? Emergency tenner in the steerer?
Disappointed you ultra lot don't have more secret tricks

Maybe we do.. but they wouldn't be secret tricks if we told you.

I use hydro brakes - no spares.
Also, I race across many foreign countries - spare tenner ain't gonna do much in Bulgaria.
My trick is to not skimp on anything that if it fails could prevent me finishing.

My trick is to not skimp on anything that if it fails could prevent me finishing.

That's the best approach.
I mostly get new stuff to reduce failure risk, entire new drive train, brakes, etc. Rims will be pretty new. Will have new set of bags this time, searching for perfection in cycling luggage!
Frame and di2 will be old.

The weight weenie approach is wrong. I think back to my first tcr when I only realised at the hotel in geraadsbergen that I didn't have enough physical space in my bags to carry what I wanted if I also wanted to eat overnight. So I had to dump spare garmin, spoke key, chain tool, bigger tyre levers, etc.
Will have more bag space this time.
Trouble is deciding exactly what to take. Decision inevitably based on what has failed in the past rather than what is most likely to fail this time...

Who has lace up shoes?

Me!

Whilst we are sort of here, what are people’s favoured multi tool

I just use an old one that I've had for years that's not massively heavy, has decent quality metal and has screw driver bits, needed for tracker batteries, although new spots prob won't need new batteries.
some people take separate allen keys not multi tool

It's probably not sufficient for a transcontinental race, but this has saved me quite a bit of room in my tool bag.

How far out from the start would you replace the drive chain?
I’m thinking of fitting the new bits now.
Then replace chain before the start..?

I change my chain and cassette 2 weeks before the start so they have a few 100 km's in them.

Now would be fine, apart from chain. I'm still using the chainrings that have done tcr, indypac and loads of other rides (but will replace before this tcr). And I'm still using the cassettes that I used for each too.
New chain immediately before for me. Chain will be shot by the end so want as little wear as possible at the start.

You're proper weird though.

Decision inevitably based on what has failed in the past rather than what is most likely to fail this time...

Kinda. The discussion about gravel tyres means some of us are thinking about what is likely to fail this time :)

I’ve done this loads with KMC but my new Shimano one was much stiffer and needed the proper tool to break and close it.

True.
Given my tyres failed on TCR and IndyPac, I'm trying to resist urge to go for too-tough tyres on the grounds it can't possibly happen again...

Depends on what riding you're doing before but I'd go a couple of weeks so that I got a couple of long rides in on it and commutes (when I was commuting on the race bike).