Re: Min Tools Two Week Tour ?

hi Bill!

     just my choice, but i travel lighter by comparison. i try to set up 
and maintain my bikes in such a manner so that i am unlikely to need to 
carry more weight in tools than the rest of my gear weighs.    ;-)
     i really don't want to be messing with my bike while on tour, so i 
try to make sure in advance that i won't have to. (naturally, things 
might be set up different if traveling in severely remote areas, out of 
the US, and/or on longer trips.)

     for starters, my touring bikes (and several others) typically get 
Phil hubs, so there's no messing with cones there. worst comes to worst, 
i can change bearings on their "Field Serviceable" models with a pair of 
5mm Allen keys in just a couple of minutes, but it's never been 
necessary. that's only happened on the trail once and it was more of a 
luxury than an emergency issue at the time.
     several Phil bottom brackets in the fleet, too; i know you need a 
special set of lock-ring removal tools to remove them, but i can't 
remember ever having the need to and i've been using them (on and 
off-road) since the early 80s.
     headsets; i've never had a problem with any of my Chris King 
headsets, and i've got them in mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes, road 
bikes and and a drop-bar mountain tandem. at least one of them has been 
in use for over 2 decades, with a couple of others that are easily over 
a decade old.

     typical things i'll take:
     - patch kit and a spare tube. it's infrequent that i'd take 2 
tubes, since i'll patch whatever i can when i get to camp and put the 
patched tube in that night and put the spare back into reserve. i want 
to know that my patch and my spare both work, and it'll be obvious if my 
patch didn't work when i get up the next morning. if i trash a tube 
beyond repair i'll pick up another along the way, but i got pretty good 
at patching when a group of touring pals had a contest to see who could 
get a tube to last the longest. i came in second-place with 12 patches 
on a tube to a friend who got to 14 when i got an unrepairable tear near 
the base of a stem. silly, maybe, but we were having cheap fun with 
it.    ;-)
(NOTE: i don't carry tire levers since i use folding tires, and don't 
use levers to do a tire change.)

     - a small piece of a tire cut to use as a boot in case of a slice 
that i can't fix with a patch, dollar bill, or candy/snack bar wrapper. 
(Mylar-type candy/snack bar wrappers seem to work well for this in my 
limited experience using them, though currency paper is surprisingly tough!)

     - since i use folding tires i might carry a spare on longer trips, 
but have never needed it.

     - i carry a rear brake and rear gear shifter cable just in case, 
since the long shifter cables used with bar-end shifters aren't always 
easily sourced on the road. of course, the only time i ever broke a 
cable on the road it was the front der, so i just wedged something into 
the front der to keep it in the desired ring until i could change it in 
the relative comfort of camp. i looped up the excess length in case i 
were to need it again for the rear before i could replace it along the 
way, with the plan that i'd just wedge the front again if necessary (as 
i'd done before).

     - i do carry a bike-specific multi-tool these days, though i got 
along fine for years with just a few Allen keys, leatherman-type tool, 
mini-sockets and a basic chain breaker tool. these days, a good bike 
multi-tool covers almost all of that and some other things as well.

     - i used to carry spare spokes in all the 3 sizes necessary for my 
wheels (front, non-drive side rear, and drive-side rear), but found i 
haven't used them since i found better wheel-builders.    ;-)    might 
as well still carry them since i already have them; they don't weigh 
much or take up much room. were i to start over again i'd probably look 
into some of the fiber-type options that are available now.

     - a couple/3 links of chain.

     again, this is for a short trip, and all this would change if i 
were to be doing more remote and/or extended tours. generally, i try to 
make sure i use good equipment and (most importantly!) make sure it's 
all shaken out far enough in advance of departure that i avoid starting 
a trip with anything new or recently changed/adjusted. beyond that, i 
only carry what i need for routine issues (tires, cables, chain) and 
what i need to change those out.

we can't possibly prepare for everything, and one way or another, i'll 
find a way to deal with whatever comes up. (for example, people have had 
frames break; i'm *not* carrying a spare! ;-) )
along that train of though, i think most importantly is to take the 
advice of G. K. Chesterton:
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An 
inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
FWIW, some of my 'inconveniences' have led to some of my best and most 
memorable Adventures.

     have fun/be careful!


cheers!
e


On 03/Feb/11 15:57, Bill Chiles wrote:
> As the risk of being blasphemous, do people consider a min tool set and parts for a "short" tour?  I'm thinking the following is probably good enough:
>   * allen wrenches, box wrenches, screw drivers for everything (be this in the form of tool pod or some individuals)
>   * everything for flats
>   * spokey
>   * two spare spokes each for front and back
>   * cassette cracker and chain whips (if bringing rear spokes, silly if can't install them)
>
> Can't decide but seems silly not to bring for weight:
>   * gear cable
>   * brake cable (figure can always move rear to front if need be)
>   * snips
>
> I'm explicitly thinking of punting:
>   * cone wrenches
>   * bottom bracket tools
>   * spare tire
>   * head set tools
>
> Ok, entered this of the top of my head without my packing list in front of me, so I may have forgotten something important.
>
> I'm really curious what folks think.  I didn't search on this because my experience is people are normally posting and discussing full tooling and backup prep for cross country or bigger touring where time and mileage wear on your machine farther from home or "real" towns.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
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