Top 10 You need to Travel with You Bike (part 2)
These are the 5 through 10 of the most important tools you need to travel with your bike. These ten tools are the bare minimum tools you need to travel with to fix your bike if something goes wrong. Click here for part one.
Click Here for the YouTube video with this article.
6. Disc brake pad guide
Setting up disc brakes can be a pain. I am a rim brake for until I die guy but the entire industry informatively is moving to disc brakes. Lining the brake pads and rotors can be very tricky since it is easy for the pads to rub and make noise. Therefore, cyclist invented a guide that spaces the pads evenly to ensure both pads are equal distance from the rotor. The guide is easy an
d is light weight.
7. Spoke wrench
The bike wheel is held in place by the tension of the spokes. When you hit a pothole or just normal riding the spokes loosen and the rim has a small hop. Unless the rim of the wheel has been severely damaged like in a crash, then the spokes need to be tightened or Truing the wheel. If the wheel is straight it is called truing the wheel. You can do this with a spoke wrench. Wheels going out of true is very common and it is easy to fix. I will do a video soon on how to true a wheel without a truing stand.
8 Chain whip Cassette tool
I am putting these two together as you normally need both to take the cassette off. Changing your chain and cassette is a common maintenance action needed as those components will wear down your more expensive components like the crank chainrings. We have already talked about the chain breaker to replace the chain. The cassette and chain wear together so you change them both at the same time.
The cassette tool is the tool that you use to take the cassette off plus if you have a disc brake road bike with a Center lock you can use the cassette tool to change your rotor. Generally, when the rotor changes color and the width is less than 1.5 mm thick. Most higher-end group sets (Dura Ace, Ultegra etc) with Shimano Freeza rotors will have center lock and lower end like Tiagra and below will have 6 bolts.
9 Old toothbrush with a degreaser
As you ride dirt and grit get into your drivetrain and will prematurely wear out your expensive components like your cables, chainrings etc. So you need a degreaser to and a toothbrush to clean your drivetrain. A toothbrush is lightweight and you were going to throw it away anyway. You spray the degreaser on the chainrings pulley wheels etc to break up dirt that is clogging the drivetrain and use an old toothbrush to scrub the dirt off.
10 Bike Lube and bike grease
After you have cleaned the bike, you need to lube up the drivetrain. The bike grease is important as you need to apply it when taking your pedals off the bike.
In conclusion, the longer you travel the more tools you need. Sometimes it is more cost-effective to take the bike to the bike shop instead of bringing tools to fix every problem you could encounter on the bike. The most common problems you will face on the bike are, changing the tires, worn old cables and truing the wheel. Most other issues that require expensive tools like a bent derailleur hanger is best to take the bike to the bike shop.
If I am living overseas for years at a time, I normally start the new spring season with a new chain and cassette. If I am in a developed country, I will take it to the bike shop and the shop will do a comprehensive tune. The comp tune is normally a deep clean and adjustment of all components on the frame bike clean and some times a hypersonic wash of components. Normally, I send my bike to the shop in the late spring for this yearly maintenance and many times they will change the chain etc for a fee. Comp tunes normally cost around $100.
