Common Questions on Bike SAR
1. What is the best method for carrying gear?
This depends on personal preference. I carry a smaller Lowe-Alpine Contour 30 on missions and use an Ultimate fanny pack when I'm just riding. The best bet for most people would be a smaller pack or a large fanny pack. Treknology out of Seattle makes a fanny pack with shoulder straps that keeps the pack around your waist better. I haven't tried one yet, but the Moab Mountain Bike Patrol uses them extensively with around 20 lbs of gear in them (according to Treknology).
Most police and EMS teams use bags mounted to the bikes, but for SAR if you have to leave your bike and go cross country or up a steep trail you leave your gear. Plus I hear that bike mounted systems have a tendency to come off during riding.
What about riding at night?
This is important since most searches seem to occur at night. The best thing to have is one of the NiteRider lights. The drawback is that they are very expensive, use waterbottle size batteries, and don't have an extremely long life. I beleive their bottom line one costs around $150. Most people won't want to spend that, but a team may want to buy one or two of those lights to use. I have found that a basic bike light with a headlamp seems to makedo enough to stay safe.
But with any light system it isn't as safe to ride at night as it is during the day, so extreme caution should be used. Plus it goes without saying that the probability of detection goes down significantly.
Bike SAR equipment
Repair kit contents
