Tools for the big trip
 

Hi Guys and Girls…

I’m planning a RTW for a couple years time, lots of saving to do :) so, if your life depended on it, what make tools would you carry. I know most of you will all shout SNAP ON at me. And yes, you’re all right. But what if I’m on a budget? Recon my tool money will be about £300

£ 300 0n tools? How many tools would you take on a trip to say the North of England? I would say just take enough tools to do a bike service + a decent puncture repair kit. For anything major you would perhaps need special tools and uncarried spares, then you would find a mechanic who has the right equipment and that can obtain spares. About £20's worth of reasonable autojumble brought tools and convert the other £280 into fuel.
Enjoy the trip.:thumbup1:

Hi,

I would buy good quality, but not too expensive. You will not use your tools every day and as intensive as the pro's do.
And only take (and buy) the sizes that fit your bike, leave rest.

With preparation and maintenance of my bike i wrote down every size i used. That goes into my toolkit.

cheers,
Sander

only take tools you don't mind losing........ leave the Snap-On at home!

Go to car boot sales, autojumbles etc and put together a kit of ONLY what fits your bike, be Mercenary and set yourself a limit of 50 quid MAX! ( including chain rivetter!)

Martyn

One tip, take any tools that are specific to your bike - most tools will be readily available but if there is anything a main dealer would use for a tricky little job take it with you. Also think about spares and some improvisation materials - some wire to hold up an exhaust or bind a loose part and duck tape.

I've used and abused Teng tools for about five years now and they seem good quality at a reasonable price, Don't forget a few cable ties in the bag.

flevers, well, most of this is pictured.

What make??? Quality doesn't always have to mean Snap-On.

Forget new stuff anyway. I bought all my tools from used tool shops, car boot sales, etc. My socket set must be at least 40 years old and will last the same again. Old Gordon and Bedford tools are pro-quality and are the equal of anything you can buy today. My spare ratchet is an ancient one made by Gordon, bought for £2 from a car boot sale as it was slipping and was fixed by a good clean out. Unfortunately, these days you've got eBay and older professional quality tools are now getting harder to find. Williams SuperSlim were a budget brand when new. They're still common at car boot sales and are near indestructable for non-pro use. Avoid cheap imported crap from China, Taiwan, etc as it will let you down, that includes Machine Mart's budget ranges too.

It will be a few years before I do a RTW trip but my tool list for European trips is:
Multitool pliers
Cyclists tool with allen keys
8" adjustable spanner
3/8" knuckle bar with 3-4 of the most common sized sockets for my bike. You don't need to take the full set.
Gaffa tape, Tie straps, couple of Jubilee/hose clip, fuses, bulbs, spare split pin or R-clip for rear wheel
Motul tyre foam

Don't need to have a Snap-On van following you.

Hi. Thanks for the replies…sorry, I should have said that 300 was the budget for tools and spares. The tool kit will be for a KLR 650 with a few parts including two tyres. So might end up being more the 300. had a look at teng tools online today might go for them.

As well as Teng, Draper's Expert range is well worth a look. Halford's professional range is also not bad on a budget if you haven't got time to seek out used stuff.

Go for 3/8" drive socket fittings. Lighter, more compact and 1/2" drive is overkill for most jobs on a bike anyway. Decent quality sets are plenty strong enough, just get one that includes a knuckle bar or sliding T-bar for heavier loads.

I have the same size nut on my Husaberg. I found one of right size in a Jap bike tool kit, the kind that are supplied with the bike. The spanner part is pressed steel and fits into a pressed box spanner to form a handle. Very small, light and compact.

I think mine came from a Kawasaki if I remember.

I'll look for this wrench at a swap meet where you can find lots of old MC tool kits.

Tools
 

Hi.
A leatherman tool is a handy addition.
The leatherman crunch is a folding vise grip tool which can be used as a hex drive as well and the wave tool a useful folding plier type.
Some machine mart tools can be a bit crappy but I have good experience with their sockets and spanners.
A small right angle hex drive and a selection of bits is a good move.
Fixing tyre levers to your swingarm with jubilee clips keeps them out of the way, low down and unsprung.
Maplin do a few mini multimeters which, though not essestial, are handy to have when electrics play up.
A decent adjustable spanner has been of use to me a fair few times, handy for bending things back the way they should be.
Small roll of duct tape, wire, some form of chemical metal type compound, super glue, cable ties, hacksaw blade taped inside your pannier have all been useful too.
Cheers.
Dave.

Great idea with the hose clamps on the swingarm. Hose clamps was going to be my suggestion but using them for the tire irons is even better. Hose clamps can be great for so many fixes. JB weld (a metal grip 5min expoxy) has saved the day on many dualsport events.

All good points above. Not sure if it was mentioned, but be sure to bring an electric tire pump. I used to use the cheap $12 chinese models with the case removed, and it suited me well. I gave it away to a guy who really needed it (Dirty!) and bought the Slime pump. I like it, it's cheap, compact, comes with all the fittings and comes in a nice protective case. It was only $35 from a BMW dealer, so i'm sure you can find one cheaper. Trust me, you don't want to be in the middle of a dessert pumping your tire up by hand :(

Tyre pump
 

Here's a good alternative to the cheaper chineese or dedicated MC pumps.
VW/Audi make (or used to) an electric pump that they used to supply with some cars, it used to sit in the spare wheel.
Anyway, you can cut off the plastic casing and it's a smashin bit of kit. Not too big or heavy and seems to last the distance.
As a back up there are some powerful mountain bike pumps out there which are quite small and durable
Dave.

Put all of your sockets on a length of bungie cord. (undo a bungie net for cheap cord) then you can get them to fit around other stuff but they're kept together. Get some heatshrink tubing (electronics store) then you can twist wires together and shrink it on with a lighter for a good bodge.

When checking wiring out, most of the time all you need to know is if there is power or not. With one piece of wire and an indicator bulb you can check this. Hold the wire against the side of the bulb, put the centre contact to earth and use the other end of the wire to test for power. (check the bulb works first!)

strip your bike first!
 

Depending on how you travel and where you are going there are two basic schools of thought on how many tools/spares you carry:
1."It is always possible to get a bust bike onto a truck or similar and taken to a place with tools" in which case you carry essentials only (tyre irons, spark plug socket and wheel adjustment spanners)
2."I will be in the arse end of the middle of nowhere and might need to rebuild my top-end in my tent" in which case you pack everything but the kitchen sink

Before I went away I stripped the bike to a certain degree and rebuilt it, marking essential tools with insulating tape (out of a halfords pro. tool set, very very good value at 100 quid for a fairly comprehensive set). This way I knew what I needed for each job so was confident I could do it all, plus got a very good look at the state of the bike and replaced a lot of crapped out bits as I went. Also sometimes one type of spanner might fit in a space while another wont, so you can't assume that your 12m ratchet spanner will do all your 12m bolts

Although overlanding isn't rallying it is still a good idea to lockwire all bolted on components onto the frame. Trust me, crawling through sand dunes in the midday sun in full bike gear searching for the footpeg that just snapped off is no fun!

Mole grips are useful for lots of things, take some!
Two universal joints and an extension bar makes a wrench, as well as being a flexible extension (very useful on a bike)
Lots of jubilee clips, store around a bottle/can/round tube of some kind
Gaffa tape-essential for all walks of life. Araldite adhesive or simlar (i.e. two part epoxy), take a few tubes - this can be used to repair plastics, broken fuel tanks and even holed exhausts (use a bandage from your first aid kit covered in it, then wrap it round tight, sets like rock, heat proof, tough and sticks to metal and plastic right well)

Both have their obvious advantages and drawbacks. A bike that has been designed as field maintainable would be a bonus. As an old friend who used to work on landy defenders for a living once said "I can remember the exact size of every bolt I put on those things........ they were 10 mil". A chieftain tank only has two tools, a double-ended spanner for all jobs and a huge one for adjusting the tension on the tracks, we should get the manufacturers to do an overlanding bike!

There is the small matter of the 10 REME guy's following behind with a few extra tools! I can still smell the diesel and burning oil now :rofl:

a bit like the 'flawless' reliability of the Ducati powered dakar winning Elefants. I mistakenly bought one for overlanding only to remember far too late that they had Cagiva support trucks to service them every night.....

Still, swapping engines on a bike is a one-man job, doubt the same is true of a tank!

"There is the small matter of the 10 REME guy's following behind with a few extra tools!" - if by Extra Tools you mean a large Adjusi (adjustable in normal parlance), and a hammer - and if that didn't work, a bigger hammer... then yes, the REMF's would work wonders (or backload to 2nd line)!

I'm not going to rise to the bait of being refered to as a rear echelon MF. My experience was Tankies and REME alike had great fun spending those tax payers pounds, every last one. The biggest toys for the biggest boys!

thanks for the tips
 

Thanks for all your replies, in the end I got a TTR600RE for my trip.

I liked the post made by henryuk about striping the bike first, good thing to do I recon! Going to start doing all my work from now on, save loads and learn loads.

I’ve got to get one of those halfords pro tool kits for about £100 quid, and over time I’ll figure out the best tools and parts list.

Thanks for all the tips guys
Shaun

good choice on the bike, you will have a riot!

I snapped a torx bit out of my halfords tools the other day (using all my force applied through my foot so not surprising), took it into halfords and said 'this snapped' they replaced it straight away! Think they have some kind of lifetime guarantee. I always thought halfords stuff must suck because halfords is where clueless 17 year olds go to get fibreglass crap to glue to their vauxhall nova, but have been very impressed so far...

The more expensive stuff isn't bad at all. Better than Machine Mart anyway.

If you're very,very lucky, you may find a branch with a couple of staff who are genuine enthusiasts and know what they're talking about. If not, that Nova outside probably belongs to one of them.

Whatever you buy, remember that anything you buy cheap can and probably will break when you need it most, like when fixing a car on a Sunday night and you need it for work on Monday morning. :censored:

You’re so right
 

You’re so right!!

I gave up buying cheap a long time ago.

I’ve got a few basic sealey tools but it’s been a few years since I had a full kit. going to get a nice halfords pro set and one of them nice little boxes for 45 quid :)

You don’t need much. With the tools on this picture I can do all major service jobs and a lot more:
http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/v1.jpg

All tools packed, various chemicals and Tip-Top wrapped in plastic and goes inside the frame:
http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/v2.jpg


Packed in the toolbox, the Vaseline-box contains grease.
http://www.actiontouring.com/pic/v3.jpg

Take a look at Tools :: Prevent Or Repair :: Aerostich/RiderWearHouse Motorcycle Jackets, Suits, Clothing, & Gear they have some tools that will work. Dont like the idea of using your bikes motor to pump up a tire in the long run.
Price has little to do with quality check around for good used tools. I have tools I have used almost every day at work that are older than me or my dad. Got some from 2nd hand shops my grandpa and yard sails. I have cut down some tools to work for the job at hand like hex keys to fit a socket and wrenches to fit in areas that bigger ones will not go. A good used $.50 wrench cut down is a better way to go than a new stubby set for $50 when you only need one or two. Also a small pipe smashed down at one end to fit you wrench and give the extra force you need will go along way to making your kit smaller and more useful.

Get some bolts and nuts that fit your bike as well I seem to lose mine on the road from time to time a real life saver. Wire ties to.

The stock KLR tool kit will do quite a bit actually. Make sure you take a wrench for the front wheel axle - there is no wrench in the tool kit that fits it. I carry a 10" adjustable wrench which often comes in handy. Spare master links, tubes, tube repair kit spare bulbs, etc. All of these are a good idea. I also carry a small tire pump among other things.

Halfords Pro tools
 

Afternoon all,

I've been reading through this thread with interest and there are some great tips which I'll be sure to employ!

I've been looking into tools to buy for our UK yo Oz trip. Given that the stock tool kit in my XT is pretty rubbish and mu home set is 'sparce' I was thinking of getting a decent set and then doing a strip down/rebuild of the bike and putting aside those tools used for the trip.

Halfords have currently got sales on their Advanced Pro tool kits, 3 of which I've linked below. Which, if any, would you recommend as a home kit (source for travel kit?

Halfords Advanced Pro 120 piece (RRP £189, now £100)

Halfords Advanced Pro 55 piece (RRP £109, now £49)

Halfords 95 piece Tool set (£119)

I Have the 150piece kit (not sure if its still available but the same gear), best toolkit i have ever bought!! Used the 3/8 ratchet to undo cylinder bolts with a 2foot bar on the end.. Very good quality and tuff

Must have is: duct tape (buy good one! not cheap). You can put the duct tape on the handles of your tools to save space. I also carry a set or two of these:

Touratech Webshop

And they proved to be very usefull to keep the back of my frame attached to the rest of the bike after it broke. Probably they don't do miracles, but they definatly worth the buck.

Other aspects have been touched here.

Good luck!
Adrian

I tend to keep the older bikes, for some reason Im stuck in the 80's so I try to standardise nuts and bolts so i can take minimun tools and all good quality. But you cant go past fencing wire and baling twine for tempory fixes, just ask any cocky and now keep some of each attached to the bike somewhere.
Ernie.

Consider welding your wheel nut socket to one end of your tyre lever to create a kind of multi tool. Jim

Tools for the trip
 

Call me over cautious, but I always carry a multi meter.
Good for tracking down electrical gremlins.
It doesn't take long to learn how to use one.
Cheers Errol

Halfords Professional.....
 

Halfords Professional Mini socket set, top quality, small, compact, bullet proof and comes with a lifetime guarantee! Plus you will be able to ditch half of your standard tool kit. Supplement that with a pair of mole grips and decent puncture repair kit and you will be ready for almost anything.
The secret is not to take take useless heavy tools you will never use.
I know people who have ridden around the world using nothing more than the standard tool kit! Tools are available in most countries!!!!

Good luck

Forgot to mention.....
 

The obvious...

WD40
Cable ties
Gaffa tape
Black electrical tape
Super glue
35mm film container of a) multi purpose grease b) swafega
Jubilee clips - various sizes
Solder
Lock wire
Araldite or similar

Stainless lockwire is crucial, takes up zero space. I lost the clip on a split link fitted to the chain on my GSX-R1100 in the south of France. I wrapped a length of wire around the grove in one link pin, twisted it along its length, wrapped it around the other pin, few more twists & rode home to Oxford.

Personally I'm all for taking decent tools but only the ones applicable to the bike in question. I try to replace as many fasteners as possible with the same type to reduce the number of tools.

My girlfriend's currently in Chile on her DRZ, I made a puller for the front spindle & welded it in place. It can't be lost & reduces the size of the toolroll.

For a long trip you need to carry tools for servicing and more major repairs that you can do yourself as well as tools and materials for makeshift repairs at the side of the road.

You don't need a complete socket set, just the sockets that fit your bike, usually 10,13 and 17mm suffice and 3/8 drive ratchet is heavy duty enough. Torx and allen keys can also be sockets spanners. I find a double ended ratchet ring spanner with 8, 10, 12 & 13 mm on it is very useful and lightweight.

For roadside, get you home repairs, obviously you have to carry everything you need to change and re-inflate a tube or tyre. Also carry a puncture repair kit as a back up or to repair punctured tubes when you have the time. Lockwire (and pliers) plus soft iron wire are very useful. Duct tape is multi purpose and much stronger than insulating tape which isn't very useful. Super glue (can be used as threadlock if the threads are clean) and epoxy are handy. Jubilee clips and various bits of radiator hose are good for patching burst hoses. A chain link extractor and a section of new chain with 2 split links is also a good idea although I would rely on replacing the chain before it is knackered.

For electrical repairs a bulb with two wires soldered to it for testing for bad connections and earths and a torch can easily be adapted to make a continuity tester and still serve as a torch. A selection of chocolate block screw connectors and a good length of insulated wire. Don't clutter things up with any of these if you don't understand electrics.

I wouldnt bother with snap on, they're far to expensive. Cant fault the Halfords professional and advanced tools. We use them at work and never had any problems

Yep don't wast money on Snap on, might look good in a big red shiny tool box, unless a bike mech you will still carry too many tools.

I would suggest you do the following get your tool role off your bike check the sizes then replace them with 1's from your tool box older 1s so if you do loose 1 or 2 don't it matter, would also suggest u take a couple adjustable spanners 10 or 12 ich I prefer to use open ended spanners, as I know the sizes i carry if not sure then a few ring spanners & metal glue of course the 2 must have are cable ties & some masking tape

Ha yes the good old Irish Spanner lol
I remember my 432 linkedge snapped once REME came along cut my antennae in half used that! lol worked

I use Draper Tools, Sealey Tools, telescopic Ladders, Stanley tools, dewalt tools, shops in PVR Direct.co.uk for all my tools...i mostly have the draper expert sockets / spanners and pretty much every thing else. this website gives them too you half the price...cant complain at that now, can we???

Toolsfor RTW
 

I have a 1200GS Adv. I only carry the tools that fit something on the bike. I have made the tool pouches out of thin silver nylon stuff, when opened & rolled out it also acts as a big"table cloth" so you don't loose things. One under the seat and the other in the pannier. Instead of a hammer I have a small axe fitted on the right side in front of the pannier. This serves as a hammer, anvil or a "Axe". I have also made two holders for 5 ltr plastic canister that slides over the rear foot pegs on both sides, one for 5 lt. water & one for 5 lt. fuel.

This. Very much so.

Do your pre-trip servicing/prep with the tools you'll be taking. If you can't do something, you might need to add to your kit. If there's something in your kit that doesn't fit anything you are realistically going to fix yourself, then leave it behind.

Halfords Pro stuff is great. However the massive hundreds-of-pieces kits, unless they're on an extremely good discount, are a bit of a false economy - they will contain an enormous pile of stuff you will never use - all the stuff in imperial sizes for a start. I've bought quite a bit of Halfords Pro stuff, but most of it has been individual tools, or rails of sockets, etc. Not much of it is in my travel toolkit these days though.

After years of raiding my garage toolkit when I went away, a couple of years ago I sat down and built a proper dedicated one for the Tenere. The core of it is:

- Motion Pro spanner/tyre levers in 22 and 27mm (Tenere with a KTM front end)
- 3/8 drive adapter for the 27mm lever
- Motion Pro 'Trail tool'
- Gerber Suspension multitool (Cheap leatherman-type thing).

The Motion Pro stuff isn't cheap, but it is *really* good. They boast that with the 'Trail Tool' and a Leatherman-type multitool you can take most of your bike apart, and it's true.

I then added to that anything I found I couldn't do with the above while working on the bike. It's a surprisingly small pile - a few open-ended spanners for things like the chain adjusters, plug spanner, valve core extractor, pressure gauge, small bicycle pump, and a few other bits and bobs.

My toolkit, along with a spare front tube, fits in a Kriega US-5. I'd have a few extra spares for a long trip, but not a huge amount.

Agree about the Halfords Pro stuff, not to be confused with their bargain-basement stuff, which is of very variable quality.

I've never been able to afford top-flight tools (Snap-On etc) but have always followed the 'best you can afford' mantra. I look in my toolbox, and the battered old things that get used again and again and never seem to let me down mostly have 'Draper' written on them.

Me too, BDZ. I don't know whether it still holds true with Draper's "almost top quality", but I always found them to be be about twice the price of the 'bog standard' cheapos, but probably 5 times the quality... Whereas the Snap-On, etc. were probably 10 times the quality but 20 times the price ('wet-finger-in-the-air' estimates, of course).

The other one was Kamasa, 20-odd years ago, which actually were almost the same price as the 'cheap crap', but the high quality only applied to their German-made tools - which were packaged similarly to the ever-more-prevailent Taiwan-made (I think - may even have been Japan) line which was a very pale imitation.

halfords also do a stubby ring and open ended socket set, takes up less space n still pretty good.

Hand tools for our trip, not RTW but about halfway. These will do any minor roadside repairs and punctures. Both bikes have had a full rebuild and we know them inside out. If we break it then well tow each other to a town and fix it there at a garage. Draper quality tools, old adjustable spanners are the best, look for ex engineering/marine company ones if you can.

Consider using hex head bolts, Allen keys are a lot lighter than spanners/sockets.

(Non-hand tools are electric pump, pressure gauge, tape and adhesives etc)