What wrenching skills/tools do I need for independent touring?

[mariposa]

Hi,

I'm just starting to go on short, independent tours, either to campgrounds or to visit relatives. Great fun!

The only thing that scares me at this point is that my bike wrenching skills are only mediocre.

I'd like to learn the skills (and buy any associated bike tools) one by one, in order of importance.

For instance, I would guess that tube changing and bike cleaning/lubing skills/tools are at the very top of the list. And checking/tightening bolts. All that, fortunately, I have covered!

I just re-learned the various ways to adjust my brakes. Also just learned how to true my wheels (although I suspect the latter is not the *most* important skill for touring).

If you were to list the skills/needed for independent touring in descending order of importance, what would they be?

Awaiting anxiously...thanks :)

[Veronica]

I did a 21 day tour of Nova Scotia with no more than that knowledge really. Bikes really aren't that complicated. If you have patience you can figure out how to fix most things.

When I was doing double centuries I went out for a training ride and my front derailleur snapped about 15 miles from home at the top of a big hill I had just climbed. Fortunately, I had cell coverage and Thom was around to come get me. I started working on removing the derailleur since it was hanging in the way and prevented me from being able to pedal. My reasoning was, I could stick the bike in the middle gear of the triple and be able to ride most anything back home.

I had never taken a derailleur off before. But it's just screws and such. What else I was going to do, hanging out by the side of the road? I almost had it all off when Thom got to me.

So my advice, just sit and look at your bike. Notice what's connected to what and how.

This is the tool kit (http://www.topeak.com/products/Tools/SurvivalGearBox)I had with me.

Veronica

[Eden]

hmmmmm from the experiences of things that can go wrong on a tour.

Change a flat - of course #1

Adjust brakes - no one has fun riding with a rubbing brake

Adjust derailleurs - know how to use both the barrel adjusters and the limit screws

basic wheel truing - doesn't have to be perfect - just know enough about a spoke wrench to get yourself to a populated area/bike shop. Think about carrying a temporary kevlar spoke and know how to use it, if you'll be in very remote areas or gone for a significant amount of time.

spare cleats - cleat bolts. Really ruins the fun when you can't connect to your pedals...

chain maintenance - I've never snapped a chain, but I know some who have.... again for remote areas or long tours, I'd carry a chain breaker (the Park Tool Pro one rocks!!) and a spare link. For really, really long/remote tours perhaps a spare chain.

derailleur hanger? Again - probably only necessary for long tours or very remote areas, but I have know people who've bent a derailleur hanger just by having the bike fall over (and with panniers there's more weight if the bike falls on the wrong side)

know how to tighten your headset. This only requires allen wrenches, which any multi-tool should have, but there is technique involved. I've learned this one pretty well as mine seems to loosen a bit more often than I like... though I don't want to over tighten, as I have a carbon steerer...

Those are the things that I can think of. Some of them I'd only worry about for tours of longer than a few days or in areas where you'd really couldn't get any help in the case of major problems. Haines (yeah the automobile manual folks) actually makes a quite good bicycle maintenance manual. I've used to quite a bit. Park tool has good online tutorials.

[OakLeaf]

To Eden's list I'd add one brake cable and one derailleur cable and the knowledge to replace them. If a cable should break at the lever (which is where they're most likely to break), it may not be immediately obvious where the new one attaches, so it's best to know this in advance.

The advice Eden gave about headset adjustment really goes for any fasteners - it's just more critical when you're talking about carbon parts. No one's going to advise you to carry a torque wrench on a tour ;), so you'll need to get a feel for when a fastener is tight enough to hold, and don't tighten past that point.

[Melalvai]

Know how to adjust your seat height & tilt. The best way to get that perfect fit is to make about a million tiny adjustments. You might not know until mile 40 that it's not quite there yet. SO much easier to just do it than to have to take it to the bike shop and say "another 2 millimeters please".

What type of tool(s) depends on your bike seat and the seat clamp.

[DebW]

I did a tour a couple years ago with some people that were rather novice at bikes. Seemed like I was adjusting someone's brakes almost every day. And did one major wheel true when a guy put his bike in a bike rack by one wheel with loaded panniers and it fell over. Here would be my recommendations, most of which have already been mentioned:

at least 2 tubes
patches, glue
2 power links for chain
kevlar spoke
1 gear cable (single ended)
1 brake cable (single ended)
spare bolts for attaching the rack
chain lube
zip ties

tire levers
allen wrenches 3, 4, 5 mm and any others to fit your bike
8, 9, 10 mm open-end wrenches if needed
spoke wrench
compact chain tool

Be sure you have the right wrenches for everything on your bike, including the fender and rack connections, and the tiny screws or bolts that center your brakes, and your cleats. Check that not only are the wrenches the right size, but they fit in the right places (multitools sometimes don't) and give you proper leverage. Even though my bike doesn't need any open-end wrenches, I carried one tool with 8, 9, and 10mm wrenches on it and used it many times for other people's bikes.

[malkin]

Credit card and all that other stuff.

[MomOnBike]

At the risk of sounding irresponsible, you don't need to carry a whole repair shop for the short (overnight-ish) tours you seem to be doing. Yep, if you were heading out across the state, country or Mongolia you'd need all those things and more. Really, though, a bike is a pretty sturdy piece of equipment, and you won't be far from home. Worst case, you can either limp back or call for a rescue. In that case, your pride will need repair, but we all deal with that.

So, my personal list:

Patch kit/pump
Small screwdriver (if you can get one with the interchangeable flat/Phillips head, so much the better)
multi hex wrench

You can do a lot of damage, er, repair with just that much. Once you start going further afield, you will find out for yourself just exactly what tools you need for your particular style of touring. Take those.

[NadiaMac]

Others have covered the tool/skill question, but I thought I'd chime in with the points that resonated because they are also pretty straightforward to learn how to do:
-chain tool (can fix damaged/broken chain, obviously; can also use to render bike functional if DR breaks/malfunctions-- chain will need to be shortened)
-spare spoke(s) and spoke tool
-spare cables- brake and DR
--lube (squeeky chain is annoying and hard on your drive train)
--boot material/spare tire (if tire rips or tears)

Also super handy to have on hand is duct tape (wind some around a pen to make it easier to carry)-- it's amazing what you can do with duct tape and it saved my ride when my glasses snapped at the nose piece as I crested a mountain pass in the rain on a recent tour (I am blind as a bat and had forgotten my spare glasses).

-a couple of zip ties-- plastic doohickies, can use to lash things down and as emergency fasteners.

[sfa]

A lot depends on where you're going. When I toured heavily, I pretty much just carried the tools to fix and patch flats, lube the bike, and a multi tool and allen wrench set to adjust things on my bike as needed. I didn't carry spare cables, tires, spokes, chains, etc. because I knew that I'd never be too far from a bike shop and I'd rather trust those sorts of repairs to a professional (and would rather not be dragging the weight around for things that I likely wouldn't need). I knew that even if I did do a quick repair by the side of the road, I'd still take the bike to the next LBS and make sure it got done right.

But I was traveling in populated areas, never more than 30 or 40 miles from the next town, so it wasn't likely that anything much would happen that couldn't wait until I got to the next town (and didn't--I've had just a few flats, had to adjust the brakes and derailleurs a few times, and had to tighten a few attachments. The worst damage to my bike - stolen handlebars - I wouldn't have been able to fix on my own under any circumstances!). If I were in less populated areas, I'd start adding to my tool list and bolstering my mechanical knowledge. But I've also discovered, after reading way too many journals on Crazyguyonabike, that most people, when they run into mechanical problems, either put up with the problem until they get to the next LBS, or do a quick field repair to get the bike as far as the next LBS, or they call for assistance. It's a balancing act between wanting to be prepared and not wanting to overpack, and where the balance lies depends on the likelihood that you'll be stuck by the side of the road with no way to get the bike into a shop.

[jolie]

You shouldn't take too many tools for there is a long riding distance for you. Just take the basic repair tool is ok.

[PscyclePath]

What I pack around for touring/commuting/whatever:

--- Park MTB-3 multi-tool. Can just about disassemble a bike and put it back together by the side of the road with this thing.
--- Leatherman multi-tool. Good for the pliers, cable cutter, and knife blade tools. Also kewl every now and then for the wine corkscrew ;-)
--- 6" crescent wrench. Used mostly in good Samaritan mode, sometimes there are things your standard bike multi-tool just doesn't fit, quite often on kids' and box store bikes.
--- Park patch kit, with tire levers, micro-inflator, and a handful of CO2 cartridges. Couple of spare tubes.
--- Topeak Road Morph frame pump. (Yes, I have CO2, but I'm a belt & suspenders type of guy. The number of flats you're subject to having can be mathematically defined as the sum of the spare tubes and patches/cartridges you are carrying, plus one.)
--- A Surly Jethro Tool. Just because it's cool.

Haven't had but one problem where I had to replace a spoke, but if I were out on a long, long loaded tour, I'd probably pack along a cassette lockring tool and maybe a chain whip...

[OakLeaf]

Haven't had but one problem where I had to replace a spoke, but if I were out on a long, long loaded tour, I'd probably pack along a cassette lockring tool and maybe a chain whip...

Have you, or has anyone here, tried one of those temporary cable spokes that the ACA has in its catalog?


ETA - sounds like DebW has, how far would you ride on one? Is it like a spare car tire, just good enough to limp to the next shop?

[DebW]

Have you, or has anyone here, tried one of those temporary cable spokes that the ACA has in its catalog?


ETA - sounds like DebW has, how far would you ride on one? Is it like a spare car tire, just good enough to limp to the next shop?

Actually, I tried one while wrenching for a charity ride. Good points: small, light, folds into tiny tube for carrying and includes a spoke wrench, fits any size wheel, can be installed without removing the cassette. Not needing a lockring tool or chainwhip is a huge deal if trying to keep weight light on a tour. I found it doesn't work as well as a normal spoke, doesn't take as much tension, and may take some fiddling to install correctly. You need to set the length to have enough windup left to add the tension - took me 3 tries to get this right the one time I used it. I have heard of people riding 100s of miles on one of these, and I wouldn't hesitate to ride however far I had to on it, but I'd replace it with a normal spoke when I could.

[Eden]

I don't know if he ever needed to use it, but my hubby has carried one of those kevlar temp spokes when we've been touring - being a big fellow in the first place, plus added weight of gear makes him susceptible to broken ones (of course after two in one weekend, he had tandem wheels built for his tourer and its not been so much of a problem since)