As part of the refurb of our touring bikes, now complete, I am also looking at sorting a revised, more efficient toolkit. We normally tour for 3 months at a time, but only within Europe, where bike shops do exist. Previously I have used a multitool, with a few extra bits and pieces, but as some work is needed on every tour, and multitools are rubbish to actually use I want to sort a kit where I will not end up swearing everytime a repair or tweak is needed. We tour as a couple and tools and spares fit in a seatpack on each bike.
This is what I am thinking of:
Each:
Spare tube
Tyre levers
Self adhesive patches
Shared:
Ball-end allen keys, 3,4,5,6mm in a decent length (have checked bikes and these sizes cover everything)
Spanners, 8mm, 10mm, 17mm (these again cover everything, 17mm is for the Pletscher stands)
Torx 25 driver in a decent length (for adjusting Avid BB5 brakes)
Small long nose pliers (are any of these strong enough to cut gear/brake cables?)
Screwdrivers, phillips and straight (anyone know if/where I could get a reversible blade one in a sensible length?)
Any ideas of the best kit to sort? Anything important missed? I think this would cover every repair we have needed in the last 3 big tours apart from when we needed new parts (wheel rims!), or special tools (Hollowtech needed tightening up) - I don't need to cover every eventuality, as that is what bike shops are for!
