tools - cross country

[stolzberg]

making my first cross country trip this summer.
any lists of tools necessary would be most helpful.
thank you.
best,
david: )

[mjarvis]

You can find a lot of that info right here on the site.

Here are two good links:

http://www.adventurecycling.org/features/selfcontainedtips.cfm

http://www.adventurecycling.org/features/packing.cfm

Hope this helps...  Matt

[biker_james]

Thinking about what I carry on tour. Topeak Alien multi tool covers most things. Chainring bolt wrench-never needed it on the road, but its small and light. Lifu brand cassette lockring tool incase I need to pull the casette to change a spoke. Its a 1 piece stamped metal unit, not like the Park unit which requires a wrench as well. I don't take a chain whip-you can hold the cassette with the chain itself if you need to. Of course, a patch kit & tire levers. I carry two of the kevlar "Fibre-Fix" spokes for emergency repair of broken spokes. I also carry a couple replacement spokes. Never used either out on the road. I carry an assortment of nuts and bolts in relevant sizes, as well as duct tape and a few "zap straps", and a couple replacement chain links. And chain lube and maybe a little thing of degreaser. Latex gloves can be handy to keep your hands clean, but I always seem to forget about them till after I start the job, so the "handy wipe" napkins are handy.
I'm sure half the people out there think this is way too much stuff, and the other half think its not nearly enough.

[pmspirito]

I am part of that second half.  Your list is very good. I ride an EZ racer recumbent that has a 16 inch front wheel and a 20 inch rear wheel.  I carry 3 spokes and 2 tubes for each wheel, and a patch kit. Several CO2 cartridges of bottled air.  I also picked up at a  Walgreens drug store a bicycle sized can of fix-a-flat. I figure it might be good for the slow leak till I get to camp. Park Tools makes a "tire boot" that looks like a thick piece of wide scotch tape you apply to the inside of a tire if the tire sidewall or tread splits.

I believe the more you carry the less you need.

Peter Spirito

[rootchopper]

Bike touring puts stress on your bike big time so think about the worst disaster you can deal with and plan accordingly.  Anything beyond your mechanical capabilities will have to be dealt with by other means (such as hitching a ride to a bike shop).  (So if you don't know how to remove a cassette don't bring the tools.  They'd be dead weight.) On my recent trip (see www.indc2003.crazyguyonabike.com which includes a list of equipment) I took:
assorted allen wrenches, a Swiss army knife, electrical tape,  spare tubes, a patch kit, assorted nut drivers, tire levers, a spoke wrench, kevlar replacement spokes, replacement cables, some spare nuts and screws, a Zefal pump, and a chain tool.  

I wish I had taken spare tires and duct tape.

Good luck.

[Peaks]

So, if you took all those tools, which ones did you actually use?

[pmspirito]

Which tools did I use?   Why none of them of course.  Thats why you bring all of those tools and spare parts.  What you bring you don't need.  Its like always having a jack and spare tire in the trunk of your car.  How often do you use it?  I haven't had a flat tire in my S-10 pickup in 114,000 miles. But if I decided to leave that spare tire at home tomarrow I'd have a blow out half way to work.  Thats how life works.  Ask me how often I have helped a stranded biker who didn't have tools and spare parts.......

Peter (well prepared) Spirito

[biker_james]

What did I use. I only ever need a couple of the allen keys from my Alien, and about once a year my flat repair items. I agree that if you don't have it you will need it though.
I think a big part is properly maintaining your bike before you head out. Properly cared for bikes don't give you many problems.

[DaveB]

One tool I'm very fond of is the Park MT-1 "dogbone" type multi-tool. It's about 4" long, weighs 50 grams and costs under $10.  

The MT-1 has 3,4,5,6 and 8mm hex keys, 8,9 and 10 mm box wrenches and a small flat blade screwdriver, The best thing about its design is that the larger hexes, 4-8mm, are at the ends of the tool and at right angles to its length so you can get real leverage if needed.  I once used the 8 mm hex to reinstall another riders crank that had come loose.  Try that with your Alien.

I also carry Richey's tiny 25 gram chain tool (CP-5?).  The combination of these two tools does almost everything the massive multi-tools do at a quarter the weight and half the cost and bulk.

Finally, the question as to which tool do you use.  You are not a carpenter, you don't expect to use your tools, but you better have them just in case. I rarely have had to use them on my own bikes but I've bailed out several other riders over the years.

[Jackalope]

Maybe I was just lucky and naive, but I got away just fine on my TransAm tour with using nothing more than a Topeak Alien multi tool.  That piece is amazing

[stanurycki]

Some very good answers on tools preceded me. A clean drivetrain is also important. After some nasty weather left us covered with road gunk we stopped at a convienence store/gas station for a sm. bottle of auto degreaser.  The attendant gave us some semi-cleam shop rags and we were on our way. Little expence and nothing to carry!