What should I carry on a long trip?

A tyre repair kit with a way to inflate, a pressure gauge, chain lubricant, the few tools your own machine’s adjusters need, documents, and a way to keep a phone alive. Everything beyond that depends on where you are going.

The puncture kit, and the part people forget

A plug kit is small and useless without inflation. CO2 cartridges are light, fast and finite — a motorcycle rear tyre takes several — while a small 12 V compressor is heavier, needs power, and does not run out. Whichever you carry, count it against the size of your tyre rather than against the packaging.

A pressure gauge, with an angled chuck

Pressures drift over a week of riding, and a gauge is the cheapest instrument that changes how the machine behaves. The chuck has to reach a rear valve sitting close to a disc and a hugger, which a straight one does not.

Chain maintenance, in miniature

A small can of lubricant published as compatible with your chain’s rings, and whatever your adjusters need — usually two spanners and the torque figure from the manual. A chain that has not been touched for two thousand kilometres of touring is a chain you will notice.

The tools that are specific to you

Not a general kit. The sizes your own axle nut, adjusters and bodywork fasteners take, which you find out by doing the jobs at home once. A tool roll assembled that way is a fraction of the weight of a bought set and covers more of what you will actually face.

Documents and power

Registration, insurance and licence in a waterproof pocket — a tank bag exists partly for this. And a mount and a charging arrangement if you navigate by phone, remembering that a cradle in rain is a cradle full of water unless it was designed otherwise.