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!