Bike Spares
 

Hi
I am planning a trip through Iran Turkmenistan Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Russia Slovakia Czech republic Germany Luxembourg Belgium France UK,
I am happy with the routes.

I am thinking what bike Spares to take with me I am competent on the spanners just cant decided what spares to take

If any one has any thoughts it would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Peter

I'd start the trip with as many new normal wear items installed on the bike as possible. If you carry spares, make them the used takeoffs. You'll have the investment in the bike. not in your panniers. You'll know they fit, work and how to install them. There will be less heartache should you have to part with them.

daryl

This makes good sense and is what I do. If you have a chain drive, run two chains from new, that way when the chain needs adjusting, switch to the second chain ( very easy and quick) without making adjustments. you can then really clean and oil the one you removed. when the second chain needs to be adjusted switch chains first then adjust. that way you need only adjust every second time plus get a chance to examine your chain from time to time. If you are using tubed tyres, fit new rim tapes and tubes, carry spare tubes. and remember to powder liberally the tube and inside of tyre with talcum powder when installing.
This is also important if you have to fit a tube to a tubeless tyre.

Actual spares used
 

I'm just completing a trip which is the rough reverse of what you've got planned - my case Vladivostok to the UK - on an old KLR 650. The bike started with 130,000 km on the clock and is now at 154,000. So it aint new!

Like the others said I started with all new consumables plus new clutch and throttle cables and wheel bearings. So in 24,000 what has been my actual spares usage?:

- puncture repair kit - several times.
- rear tube (old one destroyed beyond repair by a screw through the tyre picked up at speed on an autoroute).
- clutch cable (yesterday - old one now refitted).
- two oil filters
- one set of rear wheel bearings
- new diaphragm for the vacuum fuel tap.
- 2 fronts and 1 rear tyre

Of the above what I wasn't carrying was the tube (stupid) and the diaphragm for the fuel tap (not surprising - and a roadside bodge got around that one until I managed to get one) and the tyres.

So the moral of this, I think, is that as long as the bike is reasonably well prepared, treated kindly on the road, and has any known issues addressed before you go, just take the obvious and don't load your bike down with "just in case bits". Remember also you can buy most of the consumables on the road - though a bit of pre-planning for things like tyres is required.

Other advice - take the bike manual as a .pdf and Walter Colebatches set of GPS waypoints for Russia/Mongolia/Kazakstan (see the sticky on the Russian Forum page) which has a lot of useful mechanics and workshops listed.

Hope this helps.

I'm really only replying because I seldom hear of a KLR with as many miles as mine. We're about even, at 95,000 miles/153,000 km.

I carry a diaphragm for the fuel petcock (with a rebuild kit) on my KLR. Never used it, but it's easy enough to carry. I've also taken to carrying two clutch cables following a series of failures. One stays zip-tied to the cable in use; the other rides at the bottom of a pannier. A spare tube (or two) is a no-brainer, and I bring fork seals and wheel bearings because I've got them. Sizes on the latter are pretty standardized, and failures aren't sudden, so carrying them isn't really crucial...but I once spent two days looking for fork seals in Bulgaria, so I learned my lesson.

Some other stuff I carry just to save the trouble of thinking about it or searching when I'd rather be sleeping late: oil filters, a pre-oiled air filter, a spark plug, and about twenty thousand nuts, bolts, washers, pins, circlips and other such. Oh, and a few valve cores: they go bad, you know.

That second chain thing sounds like a royal pain. I just buy another one a couple of thousand miles before I think I'll need it, then wait. They don't need adjusting for thousands of miles, and cleaning consists of spritzing with WD-40, then wiping with a rag if I happen to feel like it. They last 15,000 miles/25,000 km; why switch it out when a couple of spins of each nut adjusts it just fine?

I used to talc my tubes, until a mechanic pointed out to me that "talc" is really just cornstarch these days. Ever notice what cornstarch does when you mix it with watery gravy? That explained why whenever I patched a tube in the rain or after a river crossing it was always all gooey.

YMMV.

Mark

Edit to add: I looked at oldbmw's post again. If I want to change out a chain I need to loosen (i.e., un-adjust) it and pull my axle, or remove a link. Is that really worth doing before the chain wears out one or two continents later?

To make things clearer, my bike is an Enfield Electra and there isn't room to use x or o ring chains, so they are a bit labour intensive using the old style chains. By running two from start, I can just unclip the split link and I use the current one to pull on the replacement, takes about 2-3 minutes. no need for any spanners or adjusting. On a new chain I can usually manage about 3-5 K miles before I need to do this. chains have a working life of 6-10K miles. If only they left enough room for a modern chain. The bad side is any chain fitted to an Electra HAS to be split link type as it is necessary to dismantle all the primary drive to get at the gearbox sprocket. saying this I now realise that changing x or o ring chains is a lot more work than a split link chain.
What I offered as advice, whilst good for my set up may well not be the best thing for a more modern bike :(
My next bike will be shaft drive (one good thing about the BMW) unless I fall over a nice Meriden Triumph :)