today we're going to talk about the tools I carry on my motorcycle welcome
to my day job this is classroom for Puget Sound safety
by day I'm an instructor by night I'm a YouTube sensation I'm gonna share with
you what I carry in my toolkit on my 2008 1200 GS BMW so this one's built
specifically for my bike if I need repairs on that bike on the road
this is just a Personals back for toothbrush and so here we go inside the
tool bag I have everything in Ziploc bags this tool kit resides underneath
the seat of my bike which means it does get wet and it gets moisture and I keep
it on the bike all the time so this just helps keep from rust and decay on the
tools
voila my magic toolkit so here's the way I built this what I did was I went to my
motorcycle I went to my toolkit and I would find things like a wrench and go
to the bike find all the nuts all the screws all the bolts and I would put a
wrench on it and I would take that number and I'd write it down on a piece
of paper so I know exactly if I needed a Phillips or flathead
how many sockets I needed and that's how I actually chose the tools that are
sitting on this table your particular bike will probably be somewhat different
if you take a look at these you'll notice all of my tools have red stripes
on them this bike has two red stripes one of my other bikes has single red
stripes and my wife's bike has white stripes and what that helps us do is if
we put all the tools out on the ground especially for sharing tools or if I'm
helping somebody else when it's time to clean up the mass I know exactly which
tools belong to me and which tools belong to the other bike each bike has
its own special tool kit the first time I start carrying a hammer was when we
had bent a rim down in Mexico we had to go purchase a hammer so we could
actually bend the rim back to straight every time I bend something metal a skid
plate or an aluminum pannier this helps straighten it out this one is a
lightweight Stanley and it has a very small steel shank that goes through the
handle which makes it very lightweight but it opens up very large and that
allows me to use it for the back axle nuts and because it's adjustable I can
use it as secondary tool if I need an additional I also carry a smaller one
this allows me to get down to the smaller sizes that may not be typical
metric or for some reason I have a piece of kit that uses standard that's an
adorable little wrench this is for the spark plug so this spark plug required a
special spark plug socket to get into the heads to pull that out so this one
I've actually shaved the outside off with a grinder I'm pretty well known for
adapting tools to my bike rather than hunting around to always find the
perfect tool this is a one of those really
inexpensive cheap factory toolkit plug socket for a Yamaha TW 200 the outside
edges of this fit my front axle nut perfectly when I do service or
maintenance on my bike you know locally I pull out the toolkit
that I carry with me and that way if I find myself having to go to my big
toolbox to get additional tools then I need to figure out do I need to add that
that particular tool to my toolkit or am I just doing that because the tools of
my big tool kit are nicer than the tools that carry with me so I want to make
sure I can make all the repairs needed while I'm actually I've probably I do
carry extra light in case I need to do some kind of repair or a fix a flat tire
on the side of the road after dark this one here allows me to check for
voltage so if I have any kind of electrical system problem but also for
troubleshooting if my electric gear goes out any of my charging items go off for
charging my computer and the allen keys I select the same way I select the
wrenches I just go around the bike I have a Leatherman that I keep in the
tool kit on the bike and then I also have one they keep in my jacket in my
riding suit so it's actually kind of a backup but I want to make sure that if I
forget want to lose the one that's on me I always have one for the kit so this
has the needlenose it has wire Clippers it has you'll notice there's no
screwdriver in this particular setup so right now I'm relying on this tool for
the Philips and for the flat heads this here is a box cutter it's small it's
thin it's light and just having this to trim if I need to make repairs and trim
off wire ties and it just weighs nothing so there's no reason not to just alright
so the tape measure this allows me to just make sure I don't get too fat white
Ravel seriously though the the tape measure I use for setting suspension so
I can check sag on the bike the other reason I started having this is when I'm
traveling sometimes I have to make repairs and I don't have everything with
me so I need to go to a hardware store I need to fabricate something having a
tape measure allows me to get more precise measurements for either buying
materials or to your things on the valve stem I always
keep a core tool for removing the valve stem but I always also keep a higher
quality one in the tool kit here so that it doesn't spin off or damaged so this
is for doing flat tire the inevitable flat tire
calling AAA or calling for help isn't going to work if you're up in the
mountains and you have no cell service and most of those places carried a set
of tools to break the beat to pull the tire off and a set of tire irons is
pretty critical for me I carry the motion Pro bead Pro not an inexpensive
tool but worth every single penny this is one of the best tools I've seen on
the market in a very long time this side slides underneath this slides in so this
slides between the tire and the rim itself this goes in and sandwiches and
then all you do is squeeze them together and it pops it off the rim the backside
of these are set of tire irons knowing how to pull a tire off even if you have
a tubeless tire I carry a tool for pouchy tubeless tires
if I happen to pick up a nail on the pavement this tool allows me to punch
through the hole and plug it as an adventure rider this usually isn't what
I need if you end up with a flat is because you've hit something and you've
either cut a tube if you have a tubeless tire or you may have actually sliced the
tire itself so having a tool that you can remove the tire so you can put a
tube inside is something you need to know how to do and have the right tools
for to air it up I have a regular air compressor this is a Slime pump it was
inexpensive I removed all of the casings on it there's lots of different moving
parts so you need to be very careful also these pumps can get very hot but
most importantly the modification is the power supply I have got my bike wired in
all over the place so I've got this SAE plug let's me plug into any one of those
points these are the tools oh oh oh wait wait wait this is a magnet and drop the
screw we're not down inside the motor somewhere or where it slipped down
between absolute gold so this toolkit is for my shaft drive
1200 but if you have a bike with a chain there's a couple other items that you
need now I don't recommend using this once you've used it on the chain but if
you really need to I suppose you could multi-purpose it but I take a tooth
brush and this allows me to clean the chain if you have a chain failure or a
bad link you may have to cut out that link and splice the chain back together
or to actually splice in another section of chain I always carry a little section
of chain to do that I have a chain removal this actually pushes the the pin
all the way out so it's a chain breaker and I also have a chain press and make
sure you have a wrench that you can adjust your spokes with this is almost
everything I carry whether I travel local or whether I travel international
the only difference is really the other items I carry for repairs these tools
because they're always with me and under the bike and they're going to be damaged
these are pretty much a low end to mid-range the wrenches work pretty well
but these were maybe eight dollars for the set of wrenches dollar ninety-nine
or two from about six dollars there's a couple items that I would make sure you
have good quality I wouldn't go too cheap on a cruddy ratchet that breaks is
gonna make for a bad day if you got to carry a multi-tool go with something
that's a high end but the rest of these every time you do service take the
toolkit out of the bike and do the service with the tools you carry I'll
put a list of these tools in the show notes below and some of the links or
some of the nicer tools like the motion Pro if you enjoyed this video click like
and let me know what you think in the comments below