Spares, Tools & Manuals

I must be a bit paranoid because I end up carrying so much shit with me that I don’t use, but it is comforting to have spares and tools. I met Matt in Finland on a CB500 honda and he practically only had spare pants and a toothbrush. His trip to Nordkapp went smoothly and he philosophically dealt with the idea of potential mishap by saying ‘something comes along’ (too much time reading horizons unlimited J ). That approach makes me feel queasy and I just couldn’t do it, so this is what I took (road trip around the EU):

Spare brake/clutch levers (ebay) Spare cables (all) (www.wemoto.com efficient company) Spare wheel bearings (www.wemoto.com) Spare igniter unit (black-box) (ebay) Spare fuses and spark plug Spare ignition coil, HT leads and Caps (ebay) Split link Crafty Plugger puncture repair (amazing device 100%) Bulbs Pack of assorted nuts/bolts/washers/circlips/etc

3/8” sockets and wrench

3/8” allen set

3/8” chain adjust socket

Spanner set

Big adjustable

Philips & Flat T-bat screwdrivers (home made)

Small flat & Philips screwdrivers

Screwriver/allen/torx bit set and T-bar handle

Needle and big pliers

Mole grips

Junior hacksaw

Wire cutters

Folding Stanley knife

Multimeter

Gaffer/insulation tape, araldite, zip ties

Feeler gauges

C-spanner for head bearings

Foot pump

Plug spanner socket

Batter acid mini funnel (useful)

Circlip pliers

Copper grease

Lighter

Bit of electric wire

Digital pressure gauge

Kawasaki GPz900R Service Manual (amazingly useful books to have anyway. like a Haynes but 1000x more detail)

In just shy of 6000 miles I used the araldite (wilkinson’s own brand) on the broken indicator lens and nothing else. Though the front bearings did go about 1000 miles after the trip and 50,000 miles after Mr Kawasaki fitted them. The head bearings started to go near Latvia but these things are never as bad as they sound (so that’s what the MoT advisory was!). It just meant clonking noises and at least one hand on the bars. By Italy 2 hands on the bars was preferable J It’s not a race bike, it makes solid progress… what does it matter!