Small Toolkit for Touring

[mjr]

As a sort of aside, which may be of use.

I keep my tools and a spare tube in one of those screw top water bottle size containers. I have 2 bottle cages on my bike and carry the tools in one, the water bottle in the other.

This makes it easy to transfer your basic toolkit to another bike. Also to remove when you leave your bike, if worried about theft.

Not that easy as the folding bike has no cages. A seat pack or bar bag seem much better toolkit containers to me. I've never understood why people would want to fit two bottle cages (often ugly) but not be able to carry two bottles.

[simonhill]

How foolish of me not to have excluded folding bikes from my post. There must be so many people who tour on folders.

It was meant to be a helpful suggestion for anyone interested from someone who does a fair bit of touring.

When I'm touring, I normally carry one water bottle on bike then any extra I need in a rear pannier pocket. This may be a small 500 ml emergency bottle or if in more remote areas a large 1.5litre one. I find this much more flexible than extra frame bottles.

[foxyrider]

How foolish of me not to have excluded folding bikes from my post. There must be so many people who tour on folders.

It was meant to be a helpful suggestion for anyone interested from someone who does a fair bit of touring.

When I'm touring, I normally carry one water bottle on bike then any extra I need in a rear pannier pocket. This may be a small 500 ml emergency bottle or if in more remote areas a large 1.5litre one. I find this much more flexible than extra frame bottles.

Well i'm a +1 for touring on a folder (in my case an Airnimal Chameleon) and i often curse the inability to fit more than one water bottle cage.

IMV the use of a bottle cage to carry tools harks back to an age before seat packs, never a nice or particularly elegant fit and IME not very secure either. A nice seat pack with everything inside looks like you know what you're doing,they cost little, last a loooong time and sit out of the way. FWIW, each one of my bikes has its own tool set / pump, so i don't have to keep trying to remember to swap stuff around every time i change bikes.

[vsmith1]

I'd echo much of what has been said, especially the nitrile gloves. Very light, very small and saves getting hands and then gloves all mucked up. I would also say that preparation is also a good thing to do, on one of my first tours near the end I lost the nut and bolt holding the rear rack on one side. A zip tie had to be used, and a penknife to trim off the zip tie. But when I got home, I went round replacing some of the nuts with lock nuts and checked the tightness of most of the others. It's a bit of preparation that will pay dividends. Just add it to the check and lube chain, cables, etc.

I do take a spare set of disc brake pads (my tourer has Avid BBs) just in case. Never yet have I had to replace them mid-tour. I also carry a very small adjustable spanner which would help hold a variety of sizes of nuts etc. with the usual Allen keys and Torx in a mini kit. The spanner is a multi-purpose tool.

[Psamathe]

.......
I do take a spare set of disc brake pads (my tourer has Avid BBs) just in case......

Likewise (though different brake callipers) mainly because mine are hard enough to get in the UK delivered by carrier to my home a few days after ordering. I've never had to use them but lots can go wrong with the pads e.g. get contaminated by mistake ...

Ian

[50sbiker]

That was a bit unlikely, but punctures that instant patches won't cope with aren't that rare. For example you could get a normal puncture, and then 2 or 3 snakebikes before you manage to stop.

Where "aren't that rare" means "hasn't happened in 40 years of riding". I've had more complete blow-outs than multiple snakebites. It's worth carrying a tube on tour but having to use it is pretty rare. Carrying tubes to the local shops seems like nearly paranoia to me.

The voice of reason..I thought I was going mad...3 spare tubes is nuts for a 2week tour in France...unless entering the annual ""lets cycle over multiple sharp things"" competition...

[Brucey]

FWIW if you tour with a load on, and use relatively narrow tyres, it is indeed not unusual to have multiple snakebites as you slow to a halt when a tyre deflates suddenly. Exactly as andrew_s suggests.

I normally don't mind fixing the odd puncture but carrying a couple of spare tubes on tour seems like a no-brainer to me. If nothing else, punctures tend to come in clusters and if you are riding in any size of group it is pretty antisocial to expect others to wait whilst you faff about.

However 'just whacking a tube in' brings with it the possibility that you missed the culprit and this practically guarantees a repeat performance shortly afterwards. So two tubes is good practice; you only need to get the patches and glue out if you get a third puncture in quick succession.

cheers