Howdy.
This is Lem with Revzilla.
And I'm Spurge.
And we're here to talk to you about how to put a tool roll
together for your motorcycle.
So most modern motorcycles don't even
have the basic tools included with them to do simple tasks
on the side of the road.
So the point of this video is to break down
some of the items you might want to consider bringing with you
as you're building out your own toolkit.
It's true.
We get lots of questions from riders who are wondering what
to put in their tool rolls.
And because there's lots of different riding disciplines,
as well as lots of different motorcycles,
and even wildly varying skill levels, it's really hard for us
to give out one size fits all answers.
So what we're going to do in this video
is actually show you some of our own tools
that we use we're on the road.
And some of the things that we think about
are going to come up in discussion.
And hopefully, they sort of spur you to think
about some things as well.
So keep in mind, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
And you can see even in the way that Lemmy and I pack
our tools down, it's going to be a completely
different approach.
I have one universal bag, and I change out my tools
depending on the bike that I'm on
and the type of riding that I'm doing.
Lem, on the other hand, clearly takes
a much different approach.
It's true.
I actually have three main components.
And I'll switch them in and out for various things
that I have laying around.
The first component is usually a fuel bottle.
I tend to be on either choppers with tiny, tiny tanks,
or on off-road and dirt machines,
also with tiny, tiny tanks.
So I have either a bottle a four-stroke fuel
or two-stroke fuel that will come with me.
The next component I usually have with me
is what I'll call my universal pack.
There's some stuff in here that I'm
going to bring with me almost regardless of what
kind of motorcycle I'm on.
I've got things in here like a Throttlemeister
and then I've also got parkie pucks, ROK Straps--
things that I'm going to use when I'm
just out there on the road--
Chapstick, tire tools, stuff that I'm going to use
irrespective of motorcycle.
Now, the third component to my kit is the tool roll itself.
And this is probably the bulk of what I'm going to be carrying.
Today, I brought with me the tool
roll that I carry when I'm out on my old Harleys and choppers.
However, I have other ones, too.
I have metric tool rolls, stuff for modern bikes.
I also have some for dirt machines.
I've got a tool roll for just about everything in my garage,
customized to the particular machine I'm going to be riding.
Which makes it really important for you to know your bike.
For example, I'm not riding old Harleys,
so I have no SAE tools with me.
I'm primarily packing mostly metric tools.
And these are going to help out myself my bike
as well as my buddies-- folks that are primarily
on Triumphs or BMWs or KTMs.
They'll work across the board.
So at this point in the video, what we're going to do
is we're going to take our tool bags.
We're going to open them up.
And we're going to show you exactly
what Lem and I are packing as far as tools are concerned.
Spurgeon, show me your tools.
So you're going to see a swath of tools spread out all
over this table, but the number one fix you're probably
going to run into the side of the road
is going to be tire repair.
So having the right items with you to fix a flat tire
is going to be paramount when you're on a motorcycle.
Now, we've got some varying degrees of how we do this.
I have my kit set up specifically for off-road bikes
that are going to using tubes.
So I'm not going to have plug kits or anything like that.
Instead, I'm going to carry a spare tube.
And you're going to notice this is packed a little bit odd,
a little bit differently than you might have seen.
So what I do is, I actually take a tube
and I pack it up in plastic with a bit of Anti Monkey Butt
powder.
That acts as a lubricant, really easy
to get the tube in on the side of the road, I'm on the trail.
And I wrapped the entire thing in gaff tape.
Now, I do that so I don't have to run
the risk of actually getting a pinch flat
before I ever put this in the motorcycle.
And it's just something I've learned
through many, many errors along the side of the road.
Now, Lem, I think you have a different approach
for how you tackle this.
Indeed, I do.
This is crazy.
This thing takes up a bunch of room, and not all of us
have an Adventure bike with 973-liter panniers.
74-liters, Lem.
Instead, what I do is, I just carry patches.
They're much, much smaller.
And they're usually fine for getting
a tube back into service.
Now note, too, the other thing I've got as well
are tire plugs.
Now, even though these are for tubeless type tires,
I wind up riding some bikes that have tubeless type tires when
I'm testing out motorcycles.
And I ride with a lot of people who are on modern bikes.
And most modern bikes do have a tubeless setup.
And I've found that a lot of the times, the fastest way
to get off the side of the road is to just fix my buddy's bike.
Yeah.
One time, I let him fix my bike.
One time.
But I had the tools.
And one of the tools that I had with me was an electric pump.
And this actually fits perfectly underneath the back seat
of my bike.
And I can pull this out, plug it into the battery,
and then I'm set to go.
And it's usually going to be faster
than using something like, you know,
25 pounds of CO2 cartridges.
Now, again, this is an area where we differ.
That thing's really cool, only a lot of my choppers and dirt
bikes don't have the electrical system
to support something like that.
So that's not really that helpful to me.
So instead, as Spurgeon noted, I use CO2 cartridges.
These, again, don't take up too much space.
I have enough CO2 with me to fill up all sorts of tires.
Add in a small inflator head, and I'm pretty much
set to rock and roll.
Now, the other tools I have for tires in my kit really
are pretty simple.
It's a pair of mismatched tire irons.
I've had them for a long time.
They work just fine.
Spurge has something similar.
So I've got a set of spoons as well,
but you'll notice that mine are a little bit more specific.
And they've actually got special hexes
on the back, which allow me to remove the axles, which takes
us right into the next point.
Before you can ever actually start working on your tire,
you need the tools to be able to remove
the wheel from the motorcycle.
So there's a variety of different tools
that you're going see on the table right now.
And there's two different ways you
can go to building these out.
For example, you can go my route,
where I bought a prefab toolkit, and then I
supplemented in the extra tools that I
knew I was going to need.
Or you can go the old cheapskate McGee route over here.
Get a hodgepodge of crappy tools, throw them into a pile,
and just duct tape them together, I guess.
You know, Spurge has a great point.
There is something to be said, though, for kind of piecing
your toolkit together.
So as Spurge mentioned, these are cheapo tools.
But A, I have a lot less money in my toolkit than Spurge does.
And B, I don't really feel so bad
if I happen to leave one of these crappy wrenches
behind on the side of the road when I'm performing a repair.
Now, the other reason I like to kind of piece my kits together
is because I need a lot of tools that
are just very vehicle-specific.
Let me show you a couple of them.
First is this huge hex key.
You're not going find one of these in a hardware store
on the road or a Wal-Mart somewhere.
But that's used for checking the drum bolts that hold
the drum to a Harley wheel.
It's a really important piece of kit.
Another one is this puppy right here.
This is a little tiny T27 torx driver.
Now, this is used on much, much newer Harleys,
but I do ride with people who need help who
are on newer Harley Davidsons.
That's a really weird size, and it's not found in most kits.
So if you don't have one, you're kind of hosed,
because Harley uses them all over the newer bikes.
Another important tool to have that's not going to be included
in any kit that I've seen from an OEM
is going to be this hollow axle tool.
And there's a lot of bikes out there
that utilize this to actually get
the wheel off the motorcycle.
If you're trying to fix a flat tire
and you don't have this little guy with you,
you're going to be up a [bleep] creek without a paddle.
That's entirely true.
Now, of course, too, there's some tools
that you can just make that will work really well for you.
For instance, check out this spark plug socket I have.
I welded this piece of scrap steel onto a cut
down spark plug socket.
This allows me to easily access the spark plugs
on an older Harley that's still wearing
its original Fat Bob tanks.
That's not always possible with a standard toolkit.
Note, too, I also have this wrench here with the bottom
cut off.
Nope, it doesn't help the tool work any better,
but does help it fit easily into my tool roll.
Regardless of whose pile you're looking at, though,
you'll notice one theme--
Lem and I carry enough tools not just to fix our bike,
but to also fix our buddies' bikes as well.
So if you look at my toolkit, you'll
notice that I've got the torx heads for those of you
out there on BMWs or KTMs.
I could help anybody with roadside repairs with that.
If you've got a Triumph, I've got
the hex heads, which-- because a lot of their bolts
will use that.
So, really, it's going to be a variety of different tools
that we have to fix a variety of different options.
Now, Spurge, let's not forget why we have all these tools,
and that's specifically to hold parts onto our motorcycles.
And we're both going to have different parts with us.
I mean, I'm riding adventure bikes off road,
and normally I'm crashing and breaking things-- things
like levers and controls.
And having these in my bag setup is going to make it really easy
to make a trail-side fix and get that bike out
of the middle of nowhere.
Now, I don't really carry those things.
Well, in my dirt bike kit, I don't need them,
because my bikes are a little bit tougher
than some of the more delicate adventure bikes
that Spurge is flogging and beating on the reg.
Crashing.
And in my old Harley kit here, well, I don't really
run over tree branches and baby head rocks,
so I'm not really too concerned about snapping
off levers and pedals and such.
Instead, what I'm trying to do with my old Harleys
is kind of keep them running keep them on the road.
So I have things to help prevent against mechanical breakdowns.
Note that I have a set of spark plugs here.
These fit flatheads, knuckleheads, panheads.
So even if I don't need these, a buddy might get out of hock
if I have a set in there.
Another thing I carry, again, that's fairly universal
among me and some of my riding buddies,
are spare points and condenser for a magneto.
A lot of us run mag-fired bikes, and it
can be helpful to have those parts
sort of in somebody's tool roll if we're out for a ride.
Now, one of the specifics that I am not going to show you
on the table right now, because this is my adventure kit,
is going to be a spare clutch cable.
Now, when I'm out there on my T100,
I always have a spare clutch cable with me,
because if you blow a clutch cable in the middle of nowhere,
having that spare with you is just cheap insurance
to get you home.
Now, that's going to be some of the specific parts
that you're going to see on the table that Lem and I have.
But there's also some generic stuff.
For example, I see that, Lem, you've
got some zip ties over there.
I mean, these are just cheap plastic pieces that can get you
out of a jam really quickly.
I've got some baling wire.
I've got some electrical tape.
This is all going to be stuff that if you need to,
you can fasten stuff down in emergency to your bike.
Man, when it gets down to using that stuff in the kit,
it can be a little bit ugly.
However, it can also be the stuff that gets you home.
In addition to a handful of, say, somewhat
generic and specific hardware, I might also
encourage you to carry another piece in your tool roll
that straddles that line between generic and specific.
And that's fuses.
Fuses can be the thing that make a minor electrical snafu,
a minor electrical snafu, rather than an item that
makes you call a tow truck.
Now, the reason I say these straddle the line
between generic and specific is because I carry a wide variety
of different amperages here.
I'm not exactly sure what fuse might blow at any time.
But they are kind of specific in that you do need to know what
style of fuse your bike uses.
So, hopefully, by this point in the video
you're catching a theme.
And that theme is the fact that you
need to know your motorcycle, but then
you also might want to carry a few extra parts
for your buddy's bike as well.
But really knowing what tools you're
going to need to make that repair on the side of the road
is going to be the real first step in being able to put
your toolkit together.
Now, you should remember, your tool set
is probably going to grow as your skill set grows as well.
The most important tool you have doesn't live in your tool roll.
It lives between your ears.
Now, if you want to educate yourself a little bit further
on this, check out Common Tread, where we've
got an article covering a little bit more
in-depth some of the philosophies
we have regarding our tool rolls.
Remember, too, we've got lots of other cool videos.
Subscribe to us on YouTube so you can check out those videos
as we roll them out.
I'm Lem.
And I'm Spurge.
Enjoy the ride.