Top 5 Mountain Bike Accessories To Make Your Ride Better [Video]

What Mountain Bike Accessories Can Make Your Ride Better?

The mountain bike riding experience is not always about how good your bike is, who has the newest parts, and if your bike is better than your friends. Well...that is a lot of it, but there are some other off the bike upgrades that can have a massive impact on your time riding. MTB accessories like riding gear, tools, GPS units, and just how you transport your bike, can make your day go from good to great! We went ahead and listed the best mountain bike accessories that can make your riding experience that much better. Check it out!

Frame Straps: 

First up and relatively new to the mountain bike world are frame straps. Made popular by modern enduro bikes and racers, a frame strap helps get stuff off your back and eliminate the need for a hydration or hip pack when you ride. One of the most popular straps is the Backcountry Research strap and we happen to have a custom Worldwide Cyclery X Backcountry Research strap you can buy as well. This is a simple strap that has some velcro, a d-ring, and some straps to hold your needs. What does it hold? Well, it can really hold anything you need it to. For myself and many others, it holds my emergency tool and tire repair kit, I have in there a Turbolito tube, a CrankBrothers Multi-tool, a 20g c02, a Lezyne C02 head, Stan’s DART tool, and some zip ties. My multi-tool also has a chain breaker as well as master link storage so you can fix just about any trail side issue quickly. All Mountain Style and OneUp have a very simple rubber strap that works & RaceFace also makes a great frame strap with a mini pouch if you want to put some smaller items in there as well. With the frame strap and all the emergency tools in there, if your bike holds a water bottle you should be able to hop on your bike for a quick 1-2 hour ride and not need any other bits in case of emergency. This keeps you light and able to shred without a backpack hitting your head off every rock. 

Booster Floor Pumps:

A boost pump, compression canister, or whatever you want to call it, is a floor pump that has the ability to trap compressed air in a large canister or cartridge and then release all the air with the flip of a lever, allowing you to seat a tubeless tire anywhere you have the pump. This is a must have for any rider that is going out for an overnight trip or even a day trip to the bike park. Getting a ride ending flat tire can be a bummer and setting up tubeless tires with just a floor pump can be a huge pain. That is where boost pumps really come in handy! Some of our favorites include Lezyne, CrankBrothers, and Topeak as well. One thing I really like about the CrankBrothers is its ability to remove the canister if you only want to use the floor pump. If you ever go out on trips or are always the person who gets a flat at the bike park, I suggest picking up one of these before you miss out on the next prime riding day! 

Mountain Bike Shoes & Pedals:

Since I have been riding for many years, this is always a given to me but I forget to realize that new riders might not get the education on how important shoes & pedals are for safety and just riding performance. 

For experienced riders, having a solid set of MTB shoes is a no brainer. But for new riders, the importance of this upgrade can sometimes be overlooked. Not only will a good set of riding shoes provide much more grip, they will also keep your feet safe in the event of a crash or random tree stump. When it comes to picking a pair, it really comes down to personal preference. If you don’t have the best shoe/pedal connection it can throw off your whole riding feel and make you less confident. The biggest shoe & pedal topic is flats vs clipless pedals and we have a full video on that alone so check that out. I’m personally a clipless rider and feel most comfortable on clipless pedals. With my racing background, I learned a lot of skills and pedal stroke this way, and when there is an issue I can get out quickly. For clipless mountain bike shoes, the top shoe brands are very much the same as flats, and that is Crank Brothers, FiveTen, and Afton shoes. Clipless pedals you have two big brands, Crank Brothers and Shimano, and some smaller like iSSi, Time, and HT. 

As mentioned, the flat pedal shoe brands are Crank Brothers, FiveTen, and Afton shoes, but the list of pedals can go deep! Our top 5 favorite and most popular flat pedal brands, Oneup Components, RaceFace, Deity Components, Crank Brothers and DMR. But finding the right feel for you can take years, and I suggest trying out a few and even borrowing some from a friend. Try and try until you find that perfect fit, it will go a long way when it comes to your riding experience. 

Mountain Bike Gear:

Riding gear might seem obvious but when talking to new riders, many don’t know the importance of a solid set of bibs, a comfortable helmet, or quality glasses. Not only do these pieces of equipment help keep you safe while riding, but also they help make you more comfortable. Any piece of gear that doesn't fit quite right, or is not the correct style for your intended use could take away from your riding experience. 

First up is an enduro bib, or storage bib/chamois. This is a newer way to store things that might go in a short pocket or hydration pack, but more importantly for myself is a quality chamois. I never ride without wearing some type of chamois, most of the time I am wearing a full bib with storage pockets as well. The KETL Canyon Bib is my personal favorite, the material is lightweight and comfortable, the chamois is quality and provides that padding you need for 1-5 hour rides. It has 3 pockets on the back - you can throw in there your phone, keys, a few nutrition bars, a multi tool or spare tube. The thick leg grippers are great and make sure it stays where it needs to be as well.

Next, is having a quality mountain bike helmet and pair of glasses. I think the helmet part can speak for itself, it protects your brain! Personally, I try to replace my helmet about every 12-16 months. There are some studies that say time in the sun can actually reduce the protection quality of the foam that is used in helmets. While this may or may not be true, I’d take the $100 replacement fee to not find out. I also look for helmets with new technologies like MIPS. Last on helmets, each is shaped differently and your head is also different from others, so try on a few and see if one is perfect or might have some pressure points which makes it uncomfortable. I really like the POC Tectal and the Smith Forefront 2, both fit my head well and offer great protection.

Riding glasses are a mixed bag, but really having solid glasses not only helps keep dirt, little rocks, and bushes or bugs out of your eyes, but also can either brighten shadows or dim bright spots on the trial, making you ride better and safer. Then there are the style points too, and my motto is if you can't be fast, look fast. 100% glasses and POC offer great quality glasses and have a ton of styles and colors to choose from! 

Going on about looking fast, your riding gear or kit is the last thing to this equation. Not only does it help keep you safe in the event of a crash or hitting some branches, but it also makes you stylish and most of us do actually think about that more than we would like to admit. Of course, we are partial to KETL MTN gear and we think it's amazing, but also 100%, Fox Racing, and POC make some awesome riding gear too! Look flashy or blend in, whatever you choose, think of both style and safety. 

Cycling GPS:

Something that I find mountain bikers often overlook is a cycling GPS. It’s much more common in the roadie/gravel world but there is a ton of use for a mountain biker of any level. Not only does it track your riding time that can help you stay hydrated and fed based on time, but also can track your miles, elevation gain, track your rides, and so on. One thing I find super useful and fun to use is a pre-set map. Many of these units now offer navigation and when exploring new areas it's a great way to stay on track and make sure you don't get lost and possibly get into a bad situation. Both Garmin and Lezyne offer GPS units in a huge range of price and feature options, from basic time, mileage and elevation tracking to basically a cell phone without 4g service. 

Bike Transportation:

Lastly, is how you transport your bike. We have a full video going over this and showing you how and what might be the best option, so check that out. You have 3 options depending on what type of vehicle you have, a hitch rack, a roof rack, or a tailgate pad. Tailgate pads are only for pickup trucks, so if you do not have a truck, those are not for you. If you do, there are a ton of options from RaceFace, Thule, Yakima, Fox Racing, and more! Then you have hitch racks which are probably the most popular option. These can pretty much go on any car with a rear hitch receiver, from 1-4 bikes and even some upright options that hold 6 bikes, these are great for easy loading, keeping the dirty bikes away from anything that you don't want to get dirty, and everyone knows you shred some bikes! Last and slowly becoming less popular are the roof racks, mostly found on cars, sometimes the back of pickup trucks or the top of vans, they hold the bike on top of the car. If it's your only option it works great, but I find that they are hard to load, especially a bigger enduro bike plus they create drag and if you are road tripping could drop that MPG that you want so badly! 

Worldwide’s Final Words:

Did you know there were so many off the bike products you can buy? There you have it, we have quite a few products you can buy that could help make your riding experience that much better. Riding gear, cycling gps units, shoes, and pedals are things you use while you ride. Boost pumps, bike transportation and tool storage is something you might not use every time but you will be super happy you have them when you really need them. Pick and choose, get colorful to stand out, or stealth colors to blend in. If you have any questions on what might work for your car or bike, or maybe what our personal favorites are, contact our customer service team, the guys and girls would love to talk your ear off about what they ride.