Tool Kits - Beyond stock for emergency road or trail side repairs

[Rotten_Ronnie]

I posted this on another forum that I frequent, but I'd value your input and opinions on what you carry and why. The tools pictured here are for the riding that I like to do, namely long distance riding with some light off road thrown in on a dual sport bike that mounts tubed knobby tires.

I bought some electrician's bags, the kind that they keep on their tool belt or close at hand with zip ties, marrets, cable markers etc. They worked really well as on board tool bags over the past year, and today I found some at Lowes while Suzi was in the tender care of the Vet...



At the same time, I decided that their welding rod tube at $14.98 would make a great place to store my "excursion" tools. So I hope to be able to use some stainless pipe clamps and fit this on the bike somewhere. It's a bit on the thin side to be attaching to my bash plate, as if it came in contact with a rock, there's a 50/50 chance that I'd be picking up sockets out of the mud, but should mount well up on the rack somewhere. For touring and gravel roads, it can be attached anywhere on the bike. Willy's from KLR650.net suggested that I put all the tools in an old sock, so that when the cap comes off, I grab the end of the sock and pull, plus it'll cut down on noise and vibration related wear. That's a great idea in itself.

Note the thread locker and high temp silicone that will be making it's way to Labrador with me.


The utility blades pack very nicely into a road side kit, and brand new will be sharp enough to cut through rubber hoses, tires, string etc. The screwdriver is a four tip one, phillips and flat tip. It's not perfect, but I found I need a prybar of some sort for the brake pads when putting the rims back on the bike. If you have a better idea, then I'd like to know of it. The LED head lamp is very small and for six dollars seemed like a great way to get enough light on a repair, yet not spend fifty dollars on a headlamp that I never wear. I had one on my last two trips and didn't use it ever. I keep a pocket light in my tank bag and a mini light in my shave kit. Yeah, I bought another gear wrench set. This one I'm going to rip down to precisely what I need on a Kawi. If you use torx fasteners or SAE, then bring the sockets and I can help you out, otherwise you're on your own. :devil:


I freely admit that I have drawn from Z1K's experience and have used some of his ideas for my new and improved tools, as well as the advice of Big Will among others.

Here is what I've been hauling so far in the electrician's bags



The smaller of the two bags holds this:


While the larger of the two holds this:


In the stock tool box on the KLR are allen keys, slip joint pliers, some wrenches for tire rim removal, an 8" adj wrench that I cut the end off to fit into the box (Hey, why not heat it up the cut end, beat and grind it into a tire iron?), stubby wrenches in the common sizes 8, 10, 12, 13, 14mm, and a few loose allen keys in the 5, 6, and one wee one for my carb.

Two nine inch tire irons are zip tied to the frame under the seat.

This is constantly evolving and I have to credit Frost for suggesting that you use your bike tool kit to work on the bike. If it's not in the bike kit and you take it out of your tool box, what are you going to use on the roadside in it's place? Obviously you have to keep weight down and be sensible. I'm hardly going to crack my engine cases on a trip in North America unless my survival depends on it. [hr]
Oops, I forgot to mention my experiment with spare tubes and a bicycle pump.

There are numerous threads on dirt bikes about needing spare tubes and tire equipment while riding off road. Typically they lower the pressure in the tires to 15 lbs more or less depending on the tire and the terrain for more traction. Well can you imagine striking a submerged or grass covered rock at 30 kph only to have your rim crush against the rock pinching the tube between rim and rock? It's called a pinch flat, and along with regular punctures can be hard to ride away from, so they have a few ways of caring spare tubes like this:

http://www.aviciouscycle.ca/klrfenderpack.html


or this one:
http://dirt-bike-gear.com/front_fender_bags.html


Note the straps that secure the second bag to the front forks so it's secured in three directions? The moose racing pack uses clips that attach to your fender. So you need to make sure they're really really secure, and that you don't overload the fender as on a KLR it's held on with four screws that aren't meant to be load bearing and the weight and vibration could easily rip the fender off if you don't keep that in mind.

Now for my experiment. I put the tube and a bicycle tire pump into a tool bag I had, then I very securely zip tied it to the front fender, emulating the the Moose racing pack, but my zip ties obviously went all the way around the front of the fender, whereas the the other uses clips to attach to the edges of the underside.

The very first jump I took, the aggressive knobs of the Trackmaster2 tire ripped two ties off, and the the bag began to slide and droop it's way off. I noticed immediately and secured it to my back rack. Of the two bags, my choice is now limited to the second type that secures to the forks, as the KLR fender is just too floppy with any kind of weight on it. Another option would be to install washers or a lower plate onto the bottom of the fender.

Fender Bag Fail

[matthew]

Don't forget zip ties and extra wires

[Rotten_Ronnie]

Zip ties are in the shot, small ones are in the bag, larger ones are zip tied to my subframe.

The wire is totally out of shot, but very good call. I have a piece long enough to go from dash back to tail light.

Can anyone recommend a tiny multimeter? I was looking in Home Depot and Lowes, and all I found were analogue boxes that are huge and ancient, as well as one digital one at 60 dollars. Think vibration, size, weight and volt ohm meter and you'll get the idea.

[CanadianBiker]

I carry a simple continuity tester rather than a multimeter. Odds are if I need to chase down something electrical on the side of the road, if it ain't obvious, I ain't fixing it. And unless you get a really expensive (and really large) Fluke field model, the vibrations will kill it within a few weeks, probably just when you need it most.

[frekeyguy]

Why the loctite and RTV? the RTV will act like loctite....you could eliminate one small thing

[Rotten_Ronnie]

As I ride a Kawasaki KLR650 the rule of thumb is you never touch a fastener without hitting it with blue med strength thread lock. So I know I have to take it. The Silicone was the kitchen sink for a trip to Labrador and Newfoundland this coming summer.

How good is the silicone as a thread locker, and will it adhere to an oily fastener?

[Jayv]

I noticed the "hello" sign from the latex glove.

[skip]

Light source. Chem lights or one of those no battery flashlights. Being caught somewhere just after dusk trying to figure out a problem is a pain without one.

[Ash]

Zipties are good, but I also like to pack a couple of metres of stainless steel wire wrapped around the screwdriver handle. I found a spool in CanadianTire in the sporting goods section (sold as snare wire).

[Rotten_Ronnie]

That DMX2 caused me some real tool drool a couple of years ago. Parts of my kit are a direct result of that.

The tow rope I have covered off, tie wrapped to my passenger grab rail and I almost used it in the Catskills this past fall.

The wire! I had to stop for some galvanised wire in Pennsylvania on my way back from the Gap to hold my heat shield on. Thanks for catching that. Let's add duct tape and string to this as I don't leave on a trip without it.

That glove is for their protection as much as mine. :P

[Sabot03196]

Zip ties are in the shot, small ones are in the bag, larger ones are zip tied to my subframe.

The wire is totally out of shot, but very good call. I have a piece long enough to go from dash back to tail light.

Can anyone recommend a tiny multimeter? I was looking in Home Depot and Lowes, and all I found were analogue boxes that are huge and ancient, as well as one digital one at 60 dollars. Think vibration, size, weight and volt ohm meter and you'll get the idea.

Canadian Tire has a smaller meter for $20. I carried mine under my tail section for my long trip this summer with no issues.

[frekeyguy]

As I ride a Kawasaki KLR650 the rule of thumb is you never touch a fastener without hitting it with blue med strength thread lock. So I know I have to take it. The Silicone was the kitchen sink for a trip to Labrador and Newfoundland this coming summer.

How good is the silicone as a thread locker, and will it adhere to an oily fastener?

you should be cleaning the bolts before using loctite.

if you can get theRTV to stick to the fastner it do just fine

[Rotten_Ronnie]

I found one on FleaBay for $20.00 shipped out from Hong Kong.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...#ht_1494wt_698


If that's a POS there's another at Princess Auto I'll toss onto the bike for longer trips.

[Torren]

I found one on FleaBay for $20.00 shipped out from Hong Kong.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...#ht_1494wt_698


If that's a POS there's another at Princess Auto I'll toss onto the bike for longer trips.

I've got the same one. But mine says Mac tools on it. It was in a flyer a few years back and was only $20 so i gave it a shot. It works and continues to work suprisingly well. The only limiting factor is the short leads. For your purpose it will be more then you ever need.

As far as tie-wire is concered, takea look at this kit

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...,59452&p=59452

It's a neat little tool. The SS wire that comes with the kit is quite strong. The nice thing about this tool is that it allows you to really tighten whatever you want to clamp. I've used it to replace rad hose clamps during roadside repairs.

[Rotten_Ronnie]

Why wouldn't you go for safety tie wire pliers and wire instead of the Lee Valley setup? I like it, and really like their marketing and tools, but throwing 33.50 out for them, then needing a set for the track later may be counter-productive?

[Rotten_Ronnie]

Light source. Chem lights or one of those no battery flashlights. Being caught somewhere just after dusk trying to figure out a problem is a pain without one.

I did mention the $6.00 led head lamp that I found at Home Depot and the two flashlights that I keep, one always on the bike and the other in my shave gear. I know what you mean about late night repairs!

This mid-repair in the catskill mountains chasing an electrical fault...


This is just after Humpty Dumpty got put back together again...

[CrazyKell]

I lost my tool kit!

I had it in the truck from a track day a couple of years ago. Couldn't find it. found it again about 8 months later....never to be seen again. It's probably sitting right next to my passenger pegs.

[daught]

I had to ride at night from Tobermory to Orangeville without a headlight. The bulb blew up so no high beam as backup. I stopped at almost every gas station on the way and not one had a H4 bulb until orangeville. Definitely take a bulb with you.

[Rotten_Ronnie]

Yeah, I've blown a fuse by messing up my heated grips install, and ended up following a cage home so I could see wtf I was going. This past year one of my two breakdowns was losing my 1157 tail light in Drummondville QC, and I had no run light until early the next morning in Granby QC. I've an 1157 and 1156 in the spares now.

I need a better way of packing them then sticking them in the finger of a rubber glove. Newspaper and tape?

[Torren]

Why wouldn't you go for safety tie wire pliers and wire instead of the Lee Valley setup? I like it, and really like their marketing and tools, but throwing 33.50 out for them, then needing a set for the track later may be counter-productive?

It's not something that at first look i would buy either. I got it in a stocking one xmas from my father who almost lives at Lee Valley. The advantage this tool has over a safety tie wire pliers is it's ability to tighten multiple wraps of wire at once. If you put a doubled up clamp on a rad hose, you have to cut it off. It won't come apart on it's own. It has enough clamping force that you would have to use care on a plastic rad as to not damage it.

http://www.clamptool.com/pages/uses.html

That's either the inspiration for the LV or the knock off but lots of pictures on that site for different uses. The other bonus over pliers is it's size. It's about 3" long, easy to carry in a tool kit.


As far as bulb storage, perhaps an old plastic film container stuffed with some newspaper?. Or pick up some cheapo LED 1157's and 56's from Princess. They are not as delicate as the traditional bulbs, so they can bounce around in a tool kit and survive.