Here’s how to pack an adventure bike tool kit for a motorcycle trip, tour or even a round the world adventure. You’ll find advice, tips, info and all the tools, spares and equipment we carry and use on our RTW trip here.
Mad or Nomad guides are built on our round‑the‑world travel experience and professionally testing adventure bikes and motorcycle gear. We’re independent, not sponsored and all opinions are our own.
Contents
The Ultimate Adventure Bike Tool Kit
By Andy Davidson
Mad or Nomad: Round the World Motorcycle Traveller
Words of Dakar Rally wisdom
Dakar Rally Racer, Simon Pavey once showed me the tool kit he uses on the Dakar – and it’s tiny. He once fitted a new engine with his kit and can fix pretty much anything on the bike with it because he has already done so. He’s practised with it, taken his bike apart and put it back together, and anything he didn’t use he didn’t take.
His other bit of invaluable advice was not to tighten anything up on your bike using a tool that isn’t in your kit, there’s no point tightening the rear axle spindle up with a huge bar if you’ve only got a ¾ inch driver in your tool kit to undo it with.
Remembering those pearls of wisdom will really help when packing your kit as knowing what tools to take can be daunting, and if you’re not careful you can end up pulling a mini workshop on a trailer.
How to build your own motorcycle tool kit
Here’s how to build your tool kit. Take your adventure bike to pieces (as close to pieces as you can). Take everything off that you think is likely to go wrong with your bike within reason, there’s no point taking the engine apart as you won’t be taking it apart on a Namibian hard shoulder. Then put your bike back together, putting only the tools you use into one box.
By the time you’ve finished you should have all the tools needed to put your bike back together in one container. Now go through that pile and condense even further. You can do this by swapping out attachments, buying 2-in-1 parts and so on.
By doing this, not only will you build a solid and lightweight tool kit, the process will also build your confidence in using those tools and fixing anything that breaks.
Our RTW motorcycle tool kit
Here’s a complete list of all the tools, accessories and spares we use on our round the world motorcycle trip. Have fun building your own!
Adventure bike tools
- 3⁄8-inch ratchet with sockets and extension used to remove any bolt on the bike
- Spindle key and 1⁄2-inch adapter for front
- 3⁄8 Torque wrench adapter (new addition and not pictured. There’s a 1/2-inch version available too if preferred.)
- Set of spanners
- Pin punch to remove brake pin
- Phillips and flat head screwdriver
- Tweezers
- Hex head bits
- Rear axle bolt spanner
- Attachments to remove header pipe
- Multi tool (with pliers, file, knife, saw and tin opener)
- Chain split link breaker
- Spark plug remover
- Chain measuring tool for chain tension (or simply use a cut off piece of measuring tape)
READ MORE: Kriega Tool Roll Review
Accessories
- Mr. Funnel (review). This funnel is a water and dirt filter with no changeable or serviceable parts. It filters out water and debris which can contaminate fuel in areas with poor petrol or when buying fuel stored in Coke bottles on the side of the road in Uzbekistan.
- Large, medium and small cable ties
- Duct and electrical tape
- Ratchet strap (used to tie down your bike on ferries or for towing, strapping broken parts or fairings together. It’s one of our most used tools – couldn’t live without it!)
- Jump cables. Can come in very handy.
Spares
- Bulbs
- O-rings and washers for oil filter changing/ nuts, bolts and washers
- Clutch and brake levers
- Universal cable repair kit (for clutch or throttle)
- Or run a spare clutch or throttle cable alongside the working one for a quick roadside replacement. Incidentally, I did this for 6 years, changed bikes and didn’t bother doing it on the new one because I hadn’t needed it before. A few months later we were stuck for 7 days in El Salvador without a replacement.
- Spark plug
- Inner tubes – you can get away without a rear as the front tube can always be put in the rear tyre (if you want to be minimalist). But it’s easier to carry both – saving you having to just change it later.
Tyres
- Rocky Creek light weight tyre pump (review) – compact, light and cheap at around £30. We are now using version 2.
- Three tyre levers and one rim protector
- Puncture repair kit (tubed or tubeless kit depending on your bike)
- Tyre pressure gauge Very handy when dropping and increasing your pressures for off-road riding and also for when fixing punctures.
We recommend having a read of this guide as it lists other tools for changing tyres that you might need as well as info on choosing tyres.
READ MORE: The Ultimate Adventure Bike Tyre Guide
Lubes
- Silicone grease for air filter sealing
- Standard grease, Loctite and copper grease
- Metal epoxy (cheap one from Halfords, but very effective at sticking metal together)
- 3-in-one multi-purpose lubrication
- We also carry a small amount of two consumables: engine oil and WD40 (we don’t carry spare Scott Oil as the reservoir carries 10,000 miles worth of oil).
Preparing a motorcycle tool kit for your trip
The above is what you’ll find in our tool kit. You may need a little more or less than we do. It depends on your bike, how much you want to carry, what work you want to or are prepared to do yourself, where you’re going and how long for… there are a lot of factors.
But to help gauge the size of your kit… this kit is about as big as you should need to go and that’s for a round the world trip that takes in plenty of off-road riding.
And at the other end of the tool kit spectrum, if you’re heading off on a touring trip to Europe for a couple of weeks and mainly riding asphalt, then this is massively overkill. Just take a puncture repair kit, compressor and a multi-tool with perhaps a few other basics.
Still undecided?
If you’re still not sure what you should take, check out our adventure bike reviews by real world travellers section and see if your bike has been reviewed. Each review lists the type of repair work and spares needed for that specific bike on a big trip. And you could always go for a pre-prepared high-quality tool kit specifically setup for your motorcycle from a company like SBV.
READ MORE:
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Read more on motorcycle tools and gear
Thanks for checking out our Ultimate Motorcycle Tool Kit. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more articles on packing for a motorcycle trip and adventure bike gear that we recommend you read next.
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If you enjoyed this motorcycle tool kit guide or have any questions, please post your comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
Great write up and very useful ideas on how to pack an adventure bike tool kit. There’s quite a few bits in here I didn’t think of. Thanks a lot.
Hi Damien! Thanks very much! I’m glad you found it helpful. Good luck with your travels 🙂
Just ordered a Rocky Creek motorcycle pump after reading your recommendation. I particularly like your whole puncture repair kit setup. Cheers for putting this all together.
Hey Mac, thanks! Yeah the Rocky Creek pump is a brilliant bit of kit. We use it way more than we’d like to haha but are really glad we have it. Thanks again
Hey! how much does your complete kit weight more or less? I am trying to be as minimalist as possible but there is always some new tools to add :/
Thank you for the great blog,
Cheers
Hey Ezequiel, Good question! I’d say about 4-5Kg – including the tool roll, tyre pump, tyre levers, ratchet and extras. When Covid hit, we were in Thailand and had to leave our bike there, as soon as we get back out there I’ll weigh the tool kit properly for you.
Haha yeah, it’s hard not to add new tools. It all depends on how long and where you’re riding, if it’s a short trip (few months up to a year) and in countries where spares are readily available then you can half this kit easily. Long-term travel needs a lot more I believe. What weight have you got it to now?
And many thanks very much! Really glad you like the blog 😀
Andy
Hey Andy,
Sorry about that. Im sure soon you’ll have your motorcycle back again! Totally agree, everything depends of the lenght of the trip. The problem comes when you have no idea about it haha. My tool kit is at the moment about 3 Kg but still are mising some spares so it’ll go up quickly. We’ll see how that goes. Thank you for your help!
Cheers
Ezequiel
Haha yeah you’re right! We had the same issue when we left as we had (still have) no idea we’d be gone for. 3kgs is a good weight for a kit. A couple of extra kgs for spares etc is totally fair and understandable so you’re definitely on the right track. It’s much better to be with than without, especially in some countries.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing more about your trip sometime! Please feel free to message me anytime if i can help with anything.
Cheers,
Andy
Whats with the tiny spanners?
Hi Liam, the spanners are for adjusting the chain tension and a few other niggly areas on the bike that are hard to reach with a wrench and socket.
Cheers
Hi Andy, maybe I missed it in all the comprehensive info but might it be an idea to include info on dealing with health issues? I used to travel extensively in India for business (albeit staying in 5 star hotels) but the same precautions applied wherever you were. Things like; don’t trust the water unless it comes out of sealed bottles, keep your mouth shut when showering, only brush your teeth with bottled water or from a trusted source. Believe me, a 5 star hotel is NOT a trusted source. How do you quickly and effectively deal with Delhi Belly? What happens if you do get sick or injured like poor Alyssa? I was lucky enough to have full company insurance, but how does a lone traveler ensure they get the same level of support?
Keep up the great work on the blog!
Hey Paddy, thank you for your kind words on the blog!
Great point and great tips too – thank you! We do have multiple guides on this very subject!
They live under the Admin guides. There’s a section on the Admin landing page called Health and Safety.
There are guides there like How to Stay Healthy on a Motorcycle Trip / How to Stay Safe on a Motorcycle Trip and about half a dozen others including guides on Emergency satellite devices and motorcycle travel insurance for emergencies etc.
Have a read of those and see what you think – and please do feel free to add any tips you like in the comments section of those guides as I’m sure readers looking at those guides will find it helpful too!
Cheers and all the best,
Andy