Cycling First Aid Kit Contents List

Weather conditions, environment, terrain, distance, time of day, animals, insects, and even plantlife can present hazards to cyclists. Commuters face different dangers than mountain bikers. What goes into your cycling first aid kit depends on the risks you face.

At Sterosport, we put time and effort into creating the best cycling first aid kits for a wide range of common cycling sports. All of our kits are based on feedback from real cyclists and the dangers they’ve faced on the road (or off of it).

In this guide, we’ll go through a comprehensive list of first aid supplies that cover cyclists for virtually any eventuality.

For a more stripped-back bare essentials first aid kit list, including the types of first aid kits needed for common cycling sports, read our blog Cycling First Aid Kits.

Risks and Hazards of Cycling

Your first aid kit will depend on the dangers you face on your bike. See some cycling-related injuries in the table below and what supplies you may need to deal with them.

The Cycling First Aid Kit Contents Unboxed

Sterosport Activ Expedition Kit features our most extensive cycling first aid kit list and is specially designed for a wide range of eventualities that cyclists face. Here’s a breakdown of our recommended bike first aid kit contents.

Hygiene

Hand Sanitiser

Working with clean supplies when treating an injury is important. You want to ensure you can clean the wound as much as possible so avoid using dirty hands as you could end up passing bacteria on to the wound. Hand sanitiser means you don’t need to worry about finding a sink with soap and water to wash your hands before treating an injury.

Nitrile Gloves

Putting on gloves to deal with a wound is important, especially if you’re treating someone else and you’ll be touching body fluids like blood. Nitrile gloves are graze-proof and puncture-proof meaning you’ll have a durable barrier between your own skin and potentially infectious fluids and sharp objects that could pierce your skin.

Wound Cleaning

Tweezers

Tweezers are one of the most versatile and useful pieces of equipment you can carry in a cycling first aid kit where common injuries often result in gravel, grit, or splinters in a wound. Use a pair of tweezers to thoroughly, hygienically remove debris from a wound before dressing it.

Eye and Wound Wash

Once you’ve used your tweezers to remove material from a wound it’s important to wash it. Washing a wound removes smaller particles that are more difficult to see and helps to shift bacteria and harmful substances from the area. Eye and wound wash like ours comes in ampoules that can be used with precision to squirt the solution over the trauma site.

Alcohol-Free Cleansing Wipes

For cleaning cuts, grazes, insect bites, and even making adhesive dressings stay in place more easily, cleansing wipes shouldn’t be overlooked in a first aid kit. Choose alcohol-free wipes as those that contain alcohol can be damaging to open wounds.

Burn Cream

Sub burn, other heat burns, and grazes can be soothed with an effective burn cream like our Burnshield Hydrogel. The cooling gel dissipates heat more effectively than water, moisturises the skin, and helps to prevent infection.

After Sun

When suffering from a burn, soothing, cooling, and moisturising the area helps to mitigate damage and reduce the chance of infection. Our Burnshield Sun Cream creates a protective barrier that prevents a burn from progressing into healthy tissues. It is suitable for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree burns.

Dressings and Bandages

Washproof Plasters

A good supply of plasters should be in every cyclist’s arsenal, used to quickly and easily deal with a variety of minor injuries. Choose waterproof plasters that will retain a barrier between your wound and the elements, preventing water from soaking through and bringing bacteria with it.

Blister Cushions

The repetitive action of pedalling can cause friction between your skin and your clothes or shoes. Even the highest quality, best-fitting kit can result in friction blisters. Carrying some blister cushions means you don’t have to suffer.

Sutures

Sutures help to keep deeper wounds closed and prevent them from re-opening—something that can easily happen if you need to get back to riding after suffering a cut. Our medical-grade sutures are made from nylon strengthening fibres.

Wound Dressing

For injuries that require more than just a plaster, wound dressings are vital. Dressing a wound will keep it safe from germs that could result in infection, provide padding that can absorb the impact of getting knocked, and help the body to get on with the natural healing process while you’re still out on the road.

Having a selection of dressings in your first aid kit is a good idea. We recommend thick, padded dressings capable of absorbing heavy blood loss and cushioning the area, adhesive wound dressings that can be stuck directly onto the skin, and thinner dressings for smaller wounds that can be used as the primary layer underneath bandages.

In our first aid kit, we include the following:

• Steropax Medium Wound Dressing x 1
• Steropad Wound Dressing x 2
• Steropore Adhesive Wound Dressing x 2
• Steroswab Wound Dressings x5
• Sterile Trauma Dressing x 1

Eye Pads

A specially-designed oval-shaped eye pad dressing is invaluable if you’re dealing with an eye injury. Make sure you use only individually wrapped sterile eye pad dressings when it comes to eye injuries.

Conforming Bandage

A bandage is important for holding dressings in place and ensuring wounds are securely cushioned and protected. Conforming bandage is a good choice for your first aid kit because it is so versatile. Conforming bandage is very lightweight but also flexible and stretchy making it easy to apply even to awkward areas like joints.

Zinc Oxide Tape

Zinc oxide tape is used to strap joints to provide additional strength and support. Use zinc oxide tape for relief of strained joints. Opt for a tape with serrated edges like ours, making it easy to tear on the go.

Triangular Bandage

A multi-purpose triangle bandage can be used to sling an arm, hold a splint in place, or stem heavy blood loss. It’s a useful addition to your kit which doesn’t take up much space.

Microporous Tape and Safety Pins

When applying a bandage, use microporous tape to hold it in place on the body. Microporous tape like our Sterotape is hypoallergenic and doesn’t hurt to remove from the skin. Safety pins can also be used to fasten a bandage together or used on a triangular bandage.

Scissors

Multi-purpose scissors can be used to cut strips of bandage, cut dressings down to size, remove old bandages more easily, customise plasters for difficult areas, and much more.

Ice Pack

An ice pack is the best thing to bring down swelling caused by impact. This not only reduces pain and discomfort but improves the healing conditions of the trauma area. Our instant ice pack eliminates the need for a freezer. Just shake and squeeze it to activate the cold compress.

Survival

Glow Stick

You never know where you’ll be or in what conditions you might need to carry out first aid. A small glowstick means you’ll have a light source to work to if you’re in an isolated place at night.

Thermometer

Temperature is one of the first signs of infection. Keep an eye on yourself or other members of your group who have suffered an injury or exposure. Our thermometer is unbreakable and gives fast accurate readings.

Foil Blanket

The national governing body of cycling in the UK, British Cycling, recommend cyclists carry a foil blanket, and with good reason. A foil blanket is capable of trapping 90% of the heat radiated by the body and helps to keep you warm, something vital if you’re suffering from shock or exposure.

We also create first aid kits to support a wide range of other sports suited to individuals from grassroots all the way up to elite levels of play. Browse our sports first aid kits.

Having the first kit is only half the solution to dangers on the road. Read up on our cycling first aid guides so you know what to do in an emergency situation. Knowing basic first aid could make recovery much quicker and easier, and even save someone’s life.

• Essential First Aid Skills for Cyclists
• How to Treat Common Cycling Injuries
• Preventing Common Cycling Injuries

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