Are you traveling on the bike or in the car? I wouldn't carry any on bike but if cage and you are going into remote areas pack is an obvious choice.

As others mentioned battery fails are rarely sudden if you have old battery with aging signs replace it before the trip good luck.

Where you are correct that prevention is better than cure; there can be many reasons why you can end up with a flat battery.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Batteries are strange things. A few years ago I had one about 18 months old and working perfectly. One day it started the bike normally, I rode a mile to the local garage for fuel and it was completely dead when I came to restart again. I had to push the bike the mile home. No bike / charging fault, just a sudden death AGM battery.
On the other hand I left the ignition turned on on one of my bikes by accident over the winter 19-20. It was under a cover so I didn't notice for over three months. That should have been the kiss of death but it charged up ok and I'm still using it.

Never had much luck with bike jump leads (or car ones come to that). Back when bikes had kickstarts and carburettors I used to pack lightweight DIY 'jump leads' to 'borrow' a battery from another bike / car - and even used them once that I can remember, but mostly it was easier to bump start. Battery packs yes but only to charge electronics - phones etc - when there's no mains electricity

.... torque wrench, spare drive shaft, revolver, replacement tyres, Kendal mint cake mixed with pemmican, spare torque wrench, OBD reader, tea bags, marmalade, baked beans, 2nd spare torque wrench, clean underwear with your name and blood group stitched inside, condom...

I'll see your cultural divide and raise you one self fulfilling prophecy that the weight and time spend shopping instead of preparing helps finish off any minor niggles. I'll additionally raise you a prediction that a couple of lads in downtown Delhi know more about sourcing the bits you need but failed to find a space for than is ever necessary.

Andy

Nah. No "culture divide:" just some folks concluding differently from others. Your caricature is just a caricature, and while it may attract laughs it really doesn't further the discussion at all. There are reasons to carry cables (I do), and it's not because I'm afraid to ask for help IF anyone else is around. There are reasons, I have no doubt, to bring GoPro, auxiliary lights, merino wool, fancy helmet, GPS, and alarms (I don't).

Few of us fit neatly into cute categories--I no more than you or anyone else posting above. Fewer still fail to have fun riding, with or without spare tires.

In the car we always carry jumper cables, and have used them frequently, nearly always to help others. I've never carried cables on a bike.

Good example by Mark: Flat tires? Happens rarely, right?

Learn how to change/fix it, and carry your tools, including a pump, and it's an inconvenience, a minor hassle.

Depend on your phone, credit card and the help of strangers? It could easily be hours, or even days and a fair amount of cash to get back in motion.

Back on the topic of batteries: don't set off without a fairly new (but proven) battery. Replace it on the road, if it shows any signs of weirdness. I don't wear my tires to the cords, and I don't wait for battery failure to replace them either.

....................shu

You can bumpstart bike and you can't car unless it is manual and you are looking downhill. As for carrying a brick just in case you might need it once you start on that pass there's no end; you end up with broken frame or leg or both. If you are carrying more than 10-15kg you are carrying too much wise guy.

There is always a tradeoff. More weight, volume and clutter - that has adverse effects on the usefulness of those very items.

But, if you were to take jumper cables - then a valid question is if it wouldn't be better to take a jumper pack instead?

The way I look at it - jumper cables require a second vehicle. If there are other vehicles around, then money, time and patience can be thrown at your problem. If you ride with someone - have them tow you, ride into town and aquire cables or a battery, etc. Same goes if you have to flag a car down - hitch a ride for you and/or the bike, get a tow, etc.

Now, if you are in the boonies, and you are riding alone, jumper cables will be as useful as an empty jerry can when you run out of fuel. The way I look at it - a jumper pack wins. It can get you out of the boonies, it has other applications, etc.

There are many ways that you can loose your juice. Batteries usually brakes down slowly, but your stator can go in an instance. Similarly you can have sudden faults with your electrical causing a draw. Or like in my case - I just bought a brand new bike that was delivered right on the day I was going on a trip. The idiot of a dealer had connected the OEM heated grips directly to the battery instead of via the ignition without telling me - probably because they forgot to order the harness. The lit diodes are almost invisible in direct sunlight. One lapse of judgement after a hard days' ride and I could have found myself stuck alone in the boonies - luckily that did not happened. (I got pissed of course, and it will be rectified this week).

I'm still on the fence on the battery pack though. I am not too concerned with the consequences of my battery going flat - wherever that could happen. Nor do I find it so probable that my battery will go dead - so much that the inconveniences of carrying around jumper pack measures up against the inconveniences of not having one when I could use one.

I have been riding for decades and never once have needed jumper cables - whether in the boonies or at home. I have however helped plenty others bump start their bikes - because they have not kept up with maintenance or because they have some creative DIY electrics - like always providing juice to their connected electronics, auxiliary lights or heated gear connected directly to the battery, heated gear, - all requiring manual off switches or unplugging. Others draw more juice from the battery than the stator reliably can replenish.

For me having either a booster pack or jumper cables becomes a bit like buying monster insurance or alien abduction insurance - just in case. I do however like to have a power bank on hand (and use it frequently) - and if I can go just slightly bigger and have the benefit to power more gear and also have a backup to make starting a bike more inconvenient - then why not?

On the other hand, I am considering dropping my power bank to save the weight, volume and clutter - and just get in the habit of becoming more frugal with the juice I use on my gadgets where I am not connected to either the bike or the grid.

I am adding a USB socket to my bike, complete with a voltmeter (only on with the ignition) - which is an "ounce of prevention" worth a "pound of cure". I do believe you can find one with an ammeter in addition to a voltmeter (indicating net draw/chargibg), but don't see how a built in shunt that small could have any accuracy or reliability. If you have any experiences with those - please let us know.

__________________
Blog: www.bamakobyvespa.no
My Youtube Channel

Some good thoughts. I had that happen discharged battery sitting in traffic jam. Apparently my heated grips and jacket were drawing more than electric system were able to provide at idle. It was in the middle of tall single lane bridge. Luckily I was able to turn bike and bumpstart when angry cop came and threatened me with tow truck. Now I just turn jacket off when come into town. My bikemaster grips have voltmeter so I can watch and drop load if voltage drops below 13.1V.

List of breakdowns from last 8 day trip:
- busted kickstand switch; fixed by cutting wire
- lost master link clip; fixed with a piece of safety wire and quick epoxy
- blown shock
- engine casing crack; fixed with epoxy.

If you are set to carry a jumper pack find small ~1-2lbs and preferably with usb ports so you can change your equipment if need and wire SAE connector both to battery and pack. I have seen someone making a battery with built in pack; you have to reconnect manually to use. That was for car but not the bike. Perhaps a combination of lithium battery and the pack would be an option because there would be no net weight gain.

IMHO any additions to your carry kit need to be looked through weight prism especially if you ride in conditions where bike drop is likely. Being able to walk bike out of difficult situation and pick it up without unloading shouldn't be lost if you are riding solo good luck.

I am going to give one more point to cables that has not yet been brought to light - before shooting down cables in favor of tow rope and/or battery jump pack.

Cables best with a faulty alternator... if you have more than one vehicle
A battery pack might in some cases be able to provide any electric pumps, fans and electronics, with enough juice to get you back to safe ground - i.e. in the event that your alternator should die. Still, in such event, and that you are also travelling with more than one vehicle - swapping batteries is likely better than a battery pack.

Why battery swap with a friend is best when you have a faulty charging system:
The vehicle's original battery has far more juice stored than the jumper pack, and can keep you going for quite a long time before you need to recharge. You can do this procedure over and over until you get back to civilization - however far that might be. I once had to do this twice over on an old classic car I was transporting quite a distance - it worked like a charm.

The procedure:
Connect the dead battery from the vehicle with the faulty alternator to the vehicle with a working alternator. Then one would use starter cables from the fully charged battery to start the vehicle with the working alternator. Afterwards one would put the fully charged battery onto the other vehicle with the broken alternator.

If the batteries don't fit on the other vehicle, then you would need to charge the dead battery in the vehicle with the working alternator, before swapping back - and hope you have enough fuel afterwards to get you all back to civilization.

The Achilles heel of the cables:
On the beaten track, support from the outside world is ample. Not having cables might get a little inconvenient, but sooner or later you will get the help you need.

The usefulness of cables "off the beaten track", where outside help is scarce - it presupposes that you travel with more than one vehicle. At the same time it presupposes that any vehicle in the group can always rely on being being rescued by others in the group (always in close proximity, means to get in touch, and a reliable pre agreed upon search and rescue plan, people not getting lost, knowing where the other is, etc).

If you can rely on your group you can benefit from sharing tools of all sorts - and thereby cut back on clutter, weight, etc. In this case cables might be great.

When I ride with my girlfriend for instance, we are always in sight of each other at every junction, and otherwise never out of sight of each other for more than a few minutes before stopping or turning around. On these rides we share everything.

With some other people I ride with, it can sometimes turn into a race to the finish line - where we might not see each other for hours. On my trip last month one person did get lost from the group - in a location with no cell coverage. More than an hour was spent searching for him before we finally were able to get in touch by phone and agreed to rejoin at the end of the day. On this trip I was 100% self reliant. Still, neither I nor anyone else in the group carried any form of starting aid - this as we were not too far into the boonies that we felt it necessary.

Why the battery jump pack is the best alternative:
It offers the best versatility and self reliance - even when travelling amongst a group of vehicles. Sure, cables are undoubtedly best in the event you need juice and also have access to another vehicle. It is however its only use case (where a battery jump pack has many more).

It is however quite unlikely that you will need to provide juice to a well maintained bike at all. The probability of such an event also happening in a location where you can't get help from the outside makes it lower still. Add to that, the unlikeliness that this also happens in a way that a battery jump pack can't help you out with, but in a way that cables can (including you having access to another vehicle) - now we are getting into the realms of extreme improbabilities.

A jumper pack offers convenience, self reliance and support in way more different scenarios than cables do. As a bonus, it can be used to charge and power your electronics when off the bike - which you are likely to on occasion if you carry one. In fact, these other uses might be your primary reason for carrying one, with starting aid capabilities becoming the bonus.

Relying on bump starting has a high failure probability where outside help is scarce
Presupposing you have a bike that can readily be bump started: Trying to bump start a bike is not possible on all types of terrain. In some locations it would be a mammoth task to push your bike to suitable ground. These locations are usually the very same locations where you can't expect to find another vehicle to flag down - i.e. for cables, a tow or a ride into civilization (even less so if you hope to take the bike with you).

What about a tow line?
A tow line can be used for far more rescue cases than jumper cables, including aiding in bump starting. The likeliness that you will need a tow is far greater than the probability of you needing a jump start. However, a tow line still requires another vehicle, same as cables do. Because of this, I would rather take a tow line over jumper cables any day - and I don't see the need to carry both. In fact, I most often carry something I can fashion into a tow line should I need one. I usually also usually carry some spare wiring that in an extreme emergency could be used to slowly transfer juice from one battery to another. In other words, I can't see why one should ever want to take jumper cables over a battery jump pack. As if that was not enough - if I had to choose between a tow line plus some extra wiring and a battery pack, I would have chosen the prior. In all likeliness I would carry a tow line and wiring in all cases where I would carry a jump pack anyways - covering every scenario that I can think of.

Surprising stats so far
Looking at the stats from the poll so far, I am quite surprised of how many (60% of total) say they carry either jumper cables and/or a jumper pack. I am also surprised that almost three times as many favor the battery jump pack over the cables. It is still early days, so the stats might still change.

__________________
Blog: www.bamakobyvespa.no
My Youtube Channel

Don't I know. This is the terrain I had to try bump starting my XR600 on - after the kickstart snapped off. And no it wasn't possible for me on my own to do it. I was stuck there for about 15hrs before another vehicle came along and tow started me.

Why asking on The hubb if an average professional youtube adventurer motorist would advise you with several hours of preparation videos like:

"My Gear"
"How to protect your motorcycle for riding remotely"
"Camera set up for adventure motorcycling"
"My ultimate & essential travel packing list"
"The ultimate all weather set up"
"How to protect your feet for adventure motorcyling trips"
"Spare offroad tire - are they really necessary?"
"Beginner adventure rider - what do you really need?"
"How to drone yourself on an adventure motorcycle trip"
"Where to hide your money on an adventure motorcycle"

__________________

That's the next few months of discussions (redis)covered then