Tool kit and essentials to be carried while touring!

Whenever I look at the tool kit supplied by any motorcycle manufacturer, I feel sad. Sad because they built a really competent product, and give tools that hardly make a difference. In the middle of a tour or a road trip, if your motorcycle fails you, face it my friend, you're screwed. However, we've been touring for a long time now, and it is possible to fix your motorcycle in the middle of a road trip if it fails.

Remember in our intro to motorcycle maintenance, that a motorcycle is made up of a bunch of parts moving at high speed? So something or the other is bound to fail.

Let's look at this from an FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis, engineering jargon) perspective, starting with failures that are highest risk, going down to the lowest in a descending order.

1. Punctures
2. Chain slack
3. Dead battery
4. Blown fuse
5. Electrical issues
6. Cleaning out a carburetor
7. Broken fairing (due to a crash)
8. Maintenance interval (i.e engine oil change/Brake pads change/Coolant change)
9. Blown engine internals (valves/piston rings)
10. Fuel Injector malfunction (for FI equipped motorcycles)

These are typically the type of mechanical failures you would encounter on road trip. You might also freeze your fuel when you ride in Antarctica, we can't help you with that though! Now, do you think you'd be able to fix all these issues with the help of the basic tool kit provided by the manufacturer? I think not! It's metaphorically equal to measuring the length of the great wall of China with a half burnt matchstick!

We've come up with a list of essential tools to be carried whilst on a road trip. Now, don't go and blow a whole lot of money on those fancy tool boxes you see online, that cost a bomb! You do not need that! We're gonna list out a kit, that is easy on the pocket for the average economical tourer. 

BTW, if you own a Harley, well, God save you! They have custom everything, and a Harley tool kit costs around a lakh rupees ($1489.22) or so! And is only available at Harley Davidson stores. Talk about capitalism will ya! Geez!

Tool list as follows;

1. Two sets of spanners, one set crescent (open) and one set closed type.
2. One set of Allen keys or Hex keys. (Do not buy the 'L' shaped ones, they are just a little more useful than a banana. Go for the hex keys with a 'T' shaped handle)
3. Screw driver - To screw things when yo can't do it with your bare hands.
4. 'T' shaped rod spanners. For places you cant reach with a normal spanner.
5. Pliers - One nose plier (to pull out those nasty nails out of the tires, or a million other uses) and a cutting plier.
6. One complete puncture kit with two sets of puncture strips (for tubeless tires)
7. One set of Tire irons and a puncture kit with at least 20 patches, and rubber adhesive or rubber cement. (For tubed tires)
8. Air pump - Manual or electronic. You won't be able to blow air into the tire orally, trust me, we've tried it.
9. Fuses! They're small, they're pretty and come in a lotta colors! But please check the amperes on them, and make sure they match your bike's specifications before you buy them.
10. Building grade electrical wire, preferably 5 meters in length. (This will save you when your battery dies!)
11. Insulation tape. You can never have enough of it!
12. Duct/Cellophane tape, it has a million uses that may seem mysterious to the untrained eye!
13. Wire cutter/blade/ scissors.
14. Bottle opener. Face it, those beers aren't going to open themselves right? And i'm not a fan of biting them off!

 Hex key with a 'T' handle.

'T' shaped spanner

Tubeless tire punctre kit

Spanners - Closed and open type

Cutting plier and a nose plier

Screw driver

A standard box to hold all your tools, and make it easy to stow away in your luggage.

Fuse

Notice the amp rating on top Make sure it's the same as per your bike's specs.

Now that we've got our tool kit sorted out, let's figure out where to buy them from! If you're a resident of Chennai, there's a shop near the Kilpauk Cemetery in Kilpauk (next to Chinthamani). Right opposite to the cemetery, you will find a lot of auto spare part dealers, just go there and ask for "Tools Bhai kadai" (Tools brother shop - Literal translation), they will point you out towards the shop. We've been buying tools from this guy for years, he has everything from a needle to a petrol driven chainsaw. If you're planning a massacre of some sort, I'd advise you to buy your power tools from this guy as well.

If you are a resident of other parts of the world, well then, I guess you'd have to do some recon! The above mentioned tool kit isn't going to cost more than Rs. 1000 ($14.89 to be specific) for the whole lot. 

Now we got the tools, awesome! What do we do when we need spare parts?! What spares do we need to carry along?! 

Harken, my dear friend... Let us enlighten you!

List of spares:

1. Accelerator and clutch cables (For both FI and carb equipped motorcycles)
2. Copious amounts of Chain lube! I cannot emphasize on this enough!
3. Spare tubes (for both tube and tubeless tires)
4. Cable ties (large and small)
5. Engine oil (you might need to top up every 1000kms on long highway runs)
6. It's also safer to carry spare headlight or tail light bulbs when on a very long tour, involving night rides.

So there you go! A tourer's essential tool kit all wrapped up! In our next blog we'll cover details about medical kits to be carried on a tour. Hariathoo till then!

The joys of Motocamping!

(WARNING: Epic photologue!)

On the road, with a bunch of rather sane humans, who spend all their livelihood in fuel bills and motorcycle spare parts. A bunch of misfits, lost hope in finding any meaning in life. Stopped trying to maintain order and chaos, even though both of them are the same.

All lined up for another epic Motocamping experience!

It's good to laugh out loud! All the time!

This here, is our two wheeled brethren!

We were never meant to sit in one place for half our lives and work to pay loans off. This earth is our inheritance, and we aim to see it as much as we can before they hammer the final nail onto our casket.

I don't know about my neighbor's lawn, but this one sure is greener!

Everyday, on the road to our workplaces, we come across those traffic signals that try to maintain the chaotic traffic. Try to control the angry civilians, snarling against each other for an inch of space. That red light is like an angry moon up in the blue sky. We have to get out of this killer cycle that we've set up ourselves!

What is Motocamping? Why does one partake of it? What is the purpose? Motocamping is nothing but strapping your camping gear onto your motorcycle, and hitting the road in search of mountains and valleys to rest our heads upon at night. Why do we do it? It's got us hooked, to be honest. We're Motocamping addicts.

To stare at the stars in a perfectly dark night, not needing our creature comforts like wifi or a soft bed with air conditioning. Spending time, truly at peace with nature, and who better than to share it with our fellow brethren and a mug of beer! That my friends, is Motocamping!

Packing up camp!

Our den for the night.

Rolling meadows, on rolling wheels! Cool right!

Star gazing anybody?

The Earth is a beautiful place by itself. Until we came along that is. But there are still a few places untouched by the human feet, perfectly hidden out of sight from prying eyes. Those prying capitalist eyes that see money everywhere. We want to see the Earth in it's own beauty, to see the work of God in it's purest form.

To go where, not many have gone before!

Motocamping isn't much to explain about, let the pictures do their own talking! Cos at the end of it, the smiles on our face are priceless!

Motocamping is a lot like yoga. It clears your mind from all the fogginess of everyday life, and not to mention the smog hanging over metros. We are so used to paved roads and tarmac, that little do we think about exploring. We are entrapped in our own devices! What is freedom, when all we do is limit ourselves by drawing lines, be it on roads or in life? There is a path less taken, how about a path never taken? Do we evolve or break when pushed to a corner?

They said a Harley would never make it on sand. We said, really?

Camping in the mountains is so refreshing that it could revive Egyptian mummies and restore them to their youth! The air is so clean and fresh! Why shouldn't it be? It's almost the same air as angels breathe! And what better way to do it with our own trusty steed by our sides!

The place where we ride with clouds!

In the old days, in the west, cowboys embark on long journeys seeking gold and riches, or maybe a beautiful woman. That essential drive still lives in us, difference being, they used a single horse, and we use multiple horses (all tied up within the engine! seriously!). They looked for gold, we look for peaceful, green mountains and are rewarded with experiences that we could call our own!

Companionship and brotherhood is everything to us.

And all along the way, through this sojourn to discover ourselves, we often meet a lot of inhabitants of these wonderful places!

And as we ride into the sunset, we bid adieu to another day, only waiting for the sun tomorrow!

And at the end of it, if your motorcycle doesn't look like this, you my friend have not had any fun!

Motorcycles are probably the best invention by man, (at least according to us!) however, they are risky and will kill you unless ridden sanely and safely. So please wear your riding gear and do not attempt any racing or stunts on public roads. All the gear, all the time! Hariathoo!!!