Maintenance

Once it was clear Lina & I were both interested in doing a long bike trip, I figured it would be prudent to try and learn a little bit about bike maintenance. I’m pretty sure with a year of bumpy African roads there’s going to be plenty of opportunity to gain some more experience. As a part of this effort, I set myself the goal of taking my bike completely apart and putting it back together. This gave me at least a passing understanding of how each component works and how to set them up.

Below is a sped up video of the reassembly. I can’t remember how long this took, but more than an hour; you’ll see I have to frequently go to my laptop to look things up.

Something I’ve come to really appreciate about bikes is that the mechanisms seem complex at first, but upon inspection even I can grasp what each things does. For most components, you can play around with it, move it back and forth and deduce how it functions just by observing what happens.

Tools

I’ve tried to strike the obvious balance between being able to repair enough ourselves whilst keeping the toolkit small and light. If anything that I can’t handle happens (mechanically at least), we’ll just have to hitch, push or carry until the next town with a bike shop or mechanic. I hear there’s a very can-do attitude in Africa, so I’m sure the locals will help us to bodge something together to get us to the next place we can make a permanent repair.

• Pump (Topeak Road Morph G)
• 3x Tire levers
• Ratchet Multitool (Topeak Ratchet Rocket Lite), includes allen keys, screwdriver and chain breaker
• Adjustable smooth-jaw wrench (Knipex 86-100)
• Cassette lock tool and spoke key (Unior 1669/4)
• Hydraulic brake bleed kit
• Chain wear gauge
• Brooks saddle tensioning tool
• Cleaning brush
• Glove

Parts & Spares

Lina and I have very similar bikes, which helps a lot when it comes to which spares to take. All of these items are compatible with both bikes.

• 2x Inner tubes
• A whole lot of tube patches (Rema, BBB)
• 14x Spokes (various lengths to cover all our needs)
• 2x Chains, one each. We probably could have found replacements there, but we have these now.
• 2x Chain quick-links
• 2x Shifter cables
• 8x Brake pads
• Chain lube & Wax (Squirt)
• Small tub of grease (Parktool)
• Threadlocker (Parktool)
• Leather conditioner (Brooks)
• Assorted nuts, bolts and washers

Other

There are some other repair bits and pieces that are not non-bike related (stove, air mats, tent, etc).

• Stove repair kit
• Assorted Thermarest patches
• Tube of seam sealant (Gear Aid)
• Tenacious Tape (Gear Aid)
• Duct Tape
• Zipties

Let us know if you think we’re missing something important, or if there’s something you think we’ll never use. In the next post I’ll talk a little about our bikes and some of our gear choices.