If Your Bike Falls Down a Cliff, How Do You Get it Back???

[Plaka]

A come-along, a fat roll of webbing and a Glock entrenching tool. Now you can pull, dig and cut things down (the Glock has a saw). If there is no anchor whatsoever to winch from you take off a wheel and bury it. You can cut, bridge, fill or dig out obstacles.

[eatpasta]

these stories are the best part of this thread! I no longer want to ride down a ravine for no reason

[rgoers]

Winch is the way to go. I have a small portable (2000lb) unit that could easily be hand-carried in. Could use the bike's battery to power it...

Around here, cliffs can be several hundred feet down, and very steep. I'd be more worried about dying than getting the bike back up.

[GusinCA]

As for going down ravines, a rule has to be "if you can't get back up it, don't go down it".

Learned that the hard way once in some snow.

I carry a towing strap in my pack, but I think one of those light pulley systems and maybe some spectra winch line (lighter and smaller than the rope in that product) would be a good idea...

[Ronin ADV]

From the bottom left clockwise: Pulley, wood dowel so I can get a grip on the thin spectra pulley cord, some medium daisy chains / runners, a couple carabiners, a long (12-15 foot) daisy.

The core of the system is a pulley combo made by Adventure Engineering.

The system is basically a small 5:1 Z drag pulley pre-strung with very thin but very strong spectra cord. The extra cord in this picture is wrapped around a white piece of plastic I cut to keep things semi organized.
Fully expanded it allows for a 12 foot pull. They report you can lift a 500 pound bike, and the web site used to have a picture of a guy lifting a 1200 GS straight up off the garage floor.
I use the daisy chains and runners to tie off quickly to whatever I can haul from (tree, etc). Then pull the system as much as I can, and then just move it up along the daisy chain so I don't have to re-rig the whole setup.
I have used this now several times on both bikes and an ATV I found stuck. I ride a lot solo in the mountains and (knock on wood) so far I have just had to recover other people's bikes, but I am sure my day is coming. If I drop my bike off the down side of a steep trail, I am confident that I can self rescue in many situations with this set up.
The whole thing packs small and the pulley weighs just a couple ounces. My whole kit is probably around 1 1/2-2 pounds.

I have this tucked in a Kreiga 10 tail bag that also holds 2 spare tubes, all my tire changing stuff (enduro stand, irons, patches, etc), my hand pump and my tool roll. I just strap the bag to whichever bike I am riding and I'm good to go. I consider my pin kit and self recovery a vastly preferable alternative to a very long walk out then having to go back and get the bike later anyway.
Unfortunately, the last I checked, the Adventure Engineering site is currently down for "restructuring". Hopefully they will get going again as this is a really cool piece of gear that works well. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who rides off the beaten track.

[ibafran]

I was instructed long ago to explore/walk the ravine for a ways. Often there is a place where soil erosion and stuff combine to make ridable animal paths for escape of the ravine. It is often possible to ride the bottom of the ravine to a place where it is possible to ride out. Going downhill, the ravine may silt up in a flat part and allow some escape in that area. Going up hill, the ravine may get narrower but the gentler slope compared to the sides allows for a climb out. Boulders and deadfalls may make the technique impossible. But why struggle with a heavy lift when a long ride-out is possible. Intersecting ravines may easier to climb out of?

Granted, having an extraction device and a few budds would be the hot set-up. If I was out trailing it with a few budds, dividing up extraction gear among the riders for easy carry would make a lot of sense. Why carry an electric winch when a small boat winch like found on a boat trailer might be worth one bike to tote it?

[Plaka]

Originally Posted by ibafran

I was instructed long ago to explore/walk the ravine for a ways. Often there is a place where soil erosion and stuff combine to make ridable animal paths for escape of the ravine. It is often possible to ride the bottom of the ravine to a place where it is possible to ride out. Going downhill, the ravine may silt up in a flat part and allow some escape in that area. Going up hill, the ravine may get narrower but the gentler slope compared to the sides allows for a climb out. Boulders and deadfalls may make the technique impossible. But why struggle with a heavy lift when a long ride-out is possible. Intersecting ravines may easier to climb out of?

Granted, having an extraction device and a few budds would be the hot set-up. If I was out trailing it with a few budds, dividing up extraction gear among the riders for easy carry would make a lot of sense. Why carry an electric winch when a small boat winch like found on a boat trailer might be worth one bike to tote it?

A boat winch has to be anchored to something...like a mount plate on a bike or you have to add a beefy a-frame handle. A come-along doesn't need this. They use the tension in the cables for torque control. I believe they come in strap (rather then cable) versions. Handy for moving fallen trees too. I suppose you could rig a boat winch like a come-along.

Then there is the Cobra winch and variants, if you are doing a lot of winching..
http://www.lewiswinch.com/

[whitham_wannabe]

My mate Ben took an unintended left turn off into a gully. Every time we tried to move the bike it slid further down, so we ended up going for help. Found a couple of local hunters, and for the price of buying them dinner, they used their come along to haul it back out. There's always a way.

[Coachgeo]

Originally Posted by Ronin ADV

From the bottom left clockwise: Pulley, wood dowel so I can get a grip on the thin spectra pulley cord, some medium daisy chains / runners, a couple carabiners, a long (12-15 foot) daisy.

The core of the system is a pulley combo made by Adventure Engineering.

The system is basically a small 5:1 Z drag pulley pre-strung with very thin but very strong spectra cord. The extra cord in this picture is wrapped around a white piece of plastic I cut to keep things semi organized.
Fully expanded it allows for a 12 foot pull. They report you can lift a 500 pound bike, and the web site used to have a picture of a guy lifting a 1200 GS straight up off the garage floor.
I use the daisy chains and runners to tie off quickly to whatever I can haul from (tree, etc). Then pull the system as much as I can, and then just move it up along the daisy chain so I don't have to re-rig the whole setup.
I have used this now several times on both bikes and an ATV I found stuck. I ride a lot solo in the mountains and (knock on wood) so far I have just had to recover other people's bikes, but I am sure my day is coming. If I drop my bike off the down side of a steep trail, I am confident that I can self rescue in many situations with this set up.
The whole thing packs small and the pulley weighs just a couple ounces. My whole kit is probably around 1 1/2-2 pounds.

I have this tucked in a Kreiga 10 tail bag that also holds 2 spare tubes, all my tire changing stuff (enduro stand, irons, patches, etc), my hand pump and my tool roll. I just strap the bag to whichever bike I am riding and I'm good to go. I consider my pin kit and self recovery a vastly preferable alternative to a very long walk out then having to go back and get the bike later anyway.
Unfortunately, the last I checked, the Adventure Engineering site is currently down for "restructuring". Hopefully they will get going again as this is a really cool piece of gear that works well. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who rides off the beaten track.

(sorry the pun) Knot knowing much about climbing, rigging etc. Could you kindly lay out for us inmates generic names of the above items we would search by; if different that you labeled above, and types of stores that carry the stuff etc. so we can copy your brilliant idea?

. Aren't there pulleys that only go one way? They clamp the rope if it begins to reverse directions?

Random thought......... if your alone.

. Instead of dragging bike up on its side........ how about lashing two out riggers to it that will stand it up? Maybe pull it up backward so front wheel follow steers?

. Smaller bike maybe enough rope to sit on the bike lightly say idling in first gear if possible and pull from the seat as you flat foot the bike up. Would require one way pulley I suspect.
.... Second thought still might have to have bike off in neutral and pull bike up backward this way so you dont have to worry so much about steering. Just pause occasionally and lift/slide over the rear tire to point it where you want to go?. Would of course require another pulley or two I think. to get pull in right direction. Or would the rigging of the ropes negate this possibility all together?

[Coachgeo]

A good read here on Z drag line pulls. All mention pulleys that lock for one way pulls.

http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f...drag-6933.html

http://wheelsandwater.blogspot.com/2...ag-system.html

http://www.highpeaksclimbing.com/Training/ZPulley.htm

A video series from Crevice rescue part 1 of 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbJ2Y3t_NkA

And if you didn't practice your knot tie enough........ looks like their is an IPad app to help you if you take that along. Maybe by the time you find this in an archive search the app will be available for other devices

http://www.animatedknots.com/