Tools (including spares)

Tools and spares weigh a lot so it is best to minimize what you take, but without them you could have a real problem.

We limit tools and spares to those things that you can change whilst on the road such as a broken spoke, brake or gear cable, inner tube, brake blocks. If anything more serious than this happens then you are into major problems and unlikely to have the right tools with you to make repairs. In such circumstances, the best recourse is to find the nearest bike shop, getting a taxi if necessary. We have done this several times in the past when we have had wheel bearings collapse.

If you are going into more remote territory, then you may need to take a few more items such as wheel bearings, headstock bearings, bottom bracket bearings. This of course also means taking the necessary tools to be able to remove these items, which also adds extra weight. Currently, for our purposes we don’t need to take such things.

Our tool kit is also kept to a minimum, but again there are certain things that are necessities. Lubricant being an obvious one. We have found Bike Medicine’s “Purple Extreme” to be really good. It is a synthetic lubricant that has the sticking power of oil and endures for up to 400 miles between applications.

We also have to change the oil in our Rohloff hubs every 1000km. We purchase the oil change bottles from SJS in the UK and have them shipped to wherever we are staying in the World.

We carry a general tool kit with wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers etc and various consumables such as tiewraps, tape, cord, etc. We keep them all in a waterproof bag inside our panniers.

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