My friend Tomm’s motto is to always ride with someone who’s carrying tools. That would be me.
For my bikes I have a nicely assembled tool kit. I also accumulated a nice tire changing set of tools too. It seemed to me that the two were always going to be separate. You either needed one or the other, right?
When I decided to go down the Tool Tube route I naturally went with two. One for the common tools and one for the tire changing tools. I did the same thing for the 950 as I had done for the 690. I was looking for a secure way to carry and that seemed like the right idea.
I could mount both low on the side racks and there seemed to be plenty of room.
I first ran them in earnest for the Garberville Spa Enduro where I lost a cap by the first gas stop. Lucky for me the cap was the only thing I lost as the tool bag was wedged in there pretty good.
For the rest of the ride I simply stuck the tools in the Mosko 40 I had on the top rack.
When I got home I figured out how to lock the caps with a little bit of 3M Super Velcro. Everything was working well on my tool system. I was wrong.
Riding with Tomm the other day we at least 20 miles down a bunch of dirt trails when I found out that a simple stainless steel clamp on my Tool Tube had failed.
That allowed the Tube to rotate down where it struck my disc and caliper repeatedly until is smashed a hole in the canister.
This allowed the tools to slowly drop out into the dirt for who knows how long over the last 20 miles of dirt.
I was editing video of the ride that we had captured and could see the tube was dragging in the video here: https://youtu.be/kFm7OXdnjcw?t=204
We didn’t discover the loss of tools until we got down to crossing Cache Creek but by then it was too late. That’s why Tomm suggests in the video that we could trim a branch if we just had tools. 😉
All I was left with was an empty and broken tool bag.
Moving Forward
It is what it is. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to piece together a comprehensive combo tool kit and I think I have it. It’s tough as you might think you have everything until you realize you are missing this or don’t ever need that. It’s over years of use that the tools get refined into a exactly what you need – and that’s when you lose them to a tool tube!
Instead of the Tool Tube, I am going to go with a Tool Roll and naturally I think it’s going to be a Mosko Moto. I was looking at the Fatty but I want to keep it small so I am going to try the Pinner first.
The Pinner will be easily transferred between bikes and as a bonus it has Molle straps so I can mount it directly to my Reckless 80 bags when I’m out camping!
- The NORCAL BDR (part 3) - October 29, 2024
- The NORCAL BDR (part 2) - October 21, 2024
- The NORCAL BDR (part 1) - October 14, 2024