Toolkit
The emphasis of the spares kit is to have a spare one of everything that can
fail suddenly and without which we won't get far. Brake and gear cables, brake
blocks, inner tubes, a tyre and a freehub form the basis of it. Plus plenty
of spare nuts and bolts, a couple of each length of spoke and a set of cones
and ball bearings. No point having the spares without the tools to fit them
so there is an Alien multi-tool which does most things, a Leatherman Juice which
does the rest, and the specialist tools like cone spanners and a spanner for
my Brooks saddle. The Deore XT cranks are splined and don't need a crank puller
to remove them. To remove the freehub cassette I have a home-made
Hypercracker (or you can improvise a chain whip)and
to change the freehub itself there is a 50mm length of 10mm allen key. There's
also things like string and cable ties which are simply essential and maintenance
kits for the stove and the water filter.
Embarrassing but true, I also have a gas powered soldering iron and a multimeter
with me. All those battery chargers are bound
to pack up sooner or later so I will be needing some way of trying to mend them.
All the rarely (I hope!) used stuff goes in a plastic box in the bottom of
a pannier:
And the puncture repair kit lives in a pocket on one of the panniers for instant
access.
Complete list
Spares
- Two sets of rear hub cones
- One set of front hub cones
- Freehub
- Folding tyre
- Two spare inner tubes (three once we left Europe)
- Two sets of four brake block inserts
- One set of four cantilever brake blocks
- Spare brake and gear cables
- Spare brake straddle cable
- Spare SPD cleats
- Spare Ortlieb pannier hooks
- Spare bottom bracket unit from Romania onwards
- Many nuts and bolts, including mudguard stay clamps
- Bulbs for bike lights (torches are all LED)
- Ball bearings for front and rear wheels (bottom bracket is sealed and headset
has rollers)
- Hooper's Saddlefood for the Brooks saddle
- Oil
- Grease
- Gaffer tape
- Insulation tape
- Cable ties (zip ties)
- String
- Touch-up paint
- Two of each length of spoke plus a few nipples
- MSR water filter spares kit
- MSR XJK spares kit
- Two spare tent pole sections
- Epoxy glue
- Super glue
- UHU general purpose glue
- Neoprene (wetsuit) glue for repairing camera pouch
Tools
- Hypercracker
- Cone spanners (ground out to fit Shimano 17mm cones)
- Topeak Alien multi-tool (with a Torx
bit added for Ortlieb panniers)
- Leatherman Juice XE6 penknife
- Brooks saddle spanner
- Small adjustable spanner
- Shimano bottom bracket tool (in case we ever need to remove it somewhere
remote)
- 50mm length of 10mm allen key for freehub retaining bolt
- Small flat and cross-head screwdrivers
- Tyre levers (initially three plastic one metal, but the plastic ones broke)
- Puncture repair kit
- Spokey spoke-key
- Gas soldering iron
- Multimeter
See the maintenance page to see what spares we
actually used.
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