Tool Kit (2009)

Imagine my suprise when I found my MK III came to me with no tool kit. :shock: I mean, this bike has probably not had more than four or five owners. How could it not have a tool kit.

Since it is now road worthy, I am having a blast, but don't like leaving home with no tools at all. What is everyone else doing. Are you buying some type of after market tool kit? What kind? Are you building your own? What do you store it in?

Inquiring minds want to know :roll:

I bought a cordura nylon tool roll bag and put in a few open ended SAE wrenches, ratched with spark plug socket, pliers, short screw drivers and a few extra fuses. I had an original tool kit with my first Commando and it wasn't much to brag about. The plastic roll bag it came with lasted about six months rattling from the engine vibration then was shredded.

calbigbird said:

What is everyone else doing. Are you buying some type of after market tool kit? What kind? Are you building your own? What do you store it in?

Inquiring minds want to know :roll:

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Initially, I planned on getting my bike back to "as original" condition. So, I bought a tool bag (from Old Britts, I think) and pieced together an original kit buying the individual tools as I could find them. I then found a small zippered pouch (it's actually an in-flight give-away bag from an airline) and added small vice-grip pliers, a crescent wrench, spare fuses, some insulating tape, tie-wraps, a plug-gap gauge. I keep adding to it: It's a work in progress. The pouch fits neatly under the seat on the fender. The original tool-bag fits inside the LH side cover. Spare cables are taped under the seat.

IMHO the tool kits for sale (such as Cruz) are over priced and not really a good match for a Norton. They seem to be set up for either a Harley or a metric cruiser. You're better off assembling your own. Someone regularly sells a "vintage motorcycle" tool roll on eBay. The vendor is in New Zealand. It looks authentic with old King-dick adjustable wrench, wooden-handled screwdriver, etc. but I don't think it's really practicle; it's more cosmetic than useful.

I haven't ridden for 25 years (slowly starting to get my bike ready) but I used to pack a set of 3/8 th. sockets, some combo wrenches for the common sizes, an adjustable lock wrench that stayed square to the nut and those multi tip screw drivers. It all fit in the side compartment and above the battery. The nicest tools that came with the bike new were the tire irons. Wish I still had those.

Reading through the Norton Service Notes they mention using the toolkit screwdriver as a drift to get the footrest rubbers off a broken footpeg, and advise hitting the Phillips end with a hammer.
They clearly state that it will bugger up the screwdriver, but this is deemed OK as the screws on the bike are Posidrive!

Maybe not a particularly useful toolkit - for its intended purpose, at least!?

For those who MUST have the right stuff (or just want one that fits) I have a few of the correct, Brass grease guns for the Norton toolkit.

www.caferacersoftexas.com

Unclviny

I've been making one up.... extra sparkplug, adj. wrench, all of my screws and most bolts have been converted to allens... so a few allen wrenches, and a couple sockets.....don't know what else I would need

There wasn't any grease gun in the '71 and '72 toolkits anyway.

There were some neat extras though besides the wrenches - see http://www.oldbritts.com/1972_g29.html

I have an assortment of open enders, sparkplug wrench, screwdrivers, and a spare sparkplug. That's enough for most jobs, in fact, I even rebuilt my rear brake master cylinder at the rally in Watkins Glenn, some years ago, with that kit. I absolutely feel naked without a swiss army knife and a flashlight!

RennieK said:

I haven't ridden for 25 years (slowly starting to get my bike ready) but I used to pack a set of 3/8 th. sockets, some combo wrenches for the common sizes, an adjustable lock wrench that stayed square to the nut and those multi tip screw drivers. It all fit in the side compartment and above the battery. The nicest tools that came with the bike new were the tire irons. Wish I still had those.

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With today's tires, tire irons would be useless, the carcass is way too stiff. I tried to mount my own tires last year and even with longer tire irons I could not get them on, had to take them to a garage with a powered machine.

A bit of nostalgia: On one trip from home (Montréal) to Trois-Rivières, which is about 150Km, my brother and I were two up on the freeway on our way to retreive his stolen Atlas which had been recovered there when I felt the back end trying to overtake the front, I managed to stop only to realise we had had a blowout on the back wheel. We were close to a garage so with the stock toolkit we were able to remove the rear wheel, remove the tire and take the tube to the garage to have a patch put on. We were back on the road and a short time later the same thing happened again, this time we were far from any garage so we took off the rear tire and rode it on the rim in the grass until we got to a garage. Obviously they didn't have any motorcycle tubes and the one we had was unfixable. Someone in the garage was going to a nearby town for parts and he picked up a tube for us which got us back on the road and we made it there and back without further incidents. The first tube that blew was one I had fixed with a patch a few days before and ever since then, I never fix tubes, always use a new one.

A second bit of nostalgia: My brother and I were on a trip when we came uppon a stranded biker in Maine, the guy was on a Commando and for some reason, his fuse had blown, I had a spare, so I gave it to him, he restarted his bike and was on his way, all in a few minutes. I sometimes wonder what are the chances of two Nortons stopping for a disabled Norton with just the right part on hand :?:

Jean

I just carry a cell phone and a credit card. I figure if something breaks I won't be able to fix it alongside the road anyway!

So far, the only time a Norton has stranded me is when my first 850 had the layshaft bearing come apart. No cell phones in those days. :?

Debby

I love that story Jean! I have an old featherbed frame and I have the stock tool compartment filled, even a spare chain link. I also have a little belly bag that fits between the battery compartment and the rear fender with tools, wire, fuses,electrical tester, etc. So far I've been getting back with this bike but I've been happy to have stuff to tighten and adjust with.
I have some replacement type small whitworths but I'd really like to find those few that came in the original kits as they were short and had the most common ones I needed. I also recall using that little cone thing to get the timing cover on, but you don't need that on the road.

Jeandr said:

With today's tires, tire irons would be useless, the carcass is way too stiff. I tried to mount my own tires last year and even with longer tire irons I could not get them on, had to take them to a garage with a powered machine. Jean

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I have a feeling I'm going to finding out a lot of things that are different. I definately will be needing new tires. The tire irions I had that I'm sure came with my 72 combat were cast double enders painted black. One side was hooked like the illustration of the Old Britts irons and the other side was more straight. These cast ones had a raised edge all around and I used to file that off. I had one that was filed really thin so you could get it into the bead were there wasn't any gap. I also had a tire iron for doing car tires that was a treat if you were at home working on flats (it wouldn't fit in my tool box).

Jeandr said:

A second bit of nostalgia: My brother and I were on a trip when we came uppon a stranded biker in Maine, the guy was on a Commando and for some reason, his fuse had blown, I had a spare, so I gave it to him, he restarted his bike and was on his way, all in a few minutes. I sometimes wonder what are the chances of two Nortons stopping for a disabled Norton with just the right part on hand :?:
Jean

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That is cool and it reminds me of one of my last road trips from Prince George B.C. to somewhere in the Peace River district of Alberta (3-400 miles). I was coming down a real snaky hill plastered with SLOW TO 20 KM/H signs all the way down. It was just about straight down and my bike had Dunstall 2 into 1 exhaust which had this very throaty drawback sound when you let off on the throttle. When I got to the bottom and crossed a bridge 2 guys were franticly waving at me from down the river bank where there was a point of interest lookout. I turned off and as I got closer I saw their 2 Nortons. We ended up hanging out a couple of days together on my way back and had a great time.

debby said:

I just carry a cell phone and a credit card. Debby

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That does sound like the best kit yet. My problem is my credit card is usually more deflated than any flat tire I'd have and I never carry a spare.

I have been buying an earlier version of this kit

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ROYAL-ENFIELD-TOO ... 27aced8f23

Spanners are good qualitty but the rest is adequate, overall a good starting point. The sets I bought came with a tommy bar but no pliers, sparkplug spanner in mine was tube only with no handle, into which the tommy bar fitted for leverage. The tommy bar fits the rear wheel spindle on BSA Unit Singles with the 7" brake.

I still carry the factory toolkit that came with my '74, plus and minus a few items. A jack knife, pliers, some fuses, a very small adjustable wrench, and a couple of allen wrenches were added over time. The tire irons and cam seal tool stay home. This stuff fits into a pouch in the side cover that is actually a small auto litter bag that I've had for many years. The original bag ripped loong ago.

I also carry a big exhaust nut spanner, a small flashlight, tire gage, and a couple of rags in a separate roll bungee'd to the back. On long trips I'll add a tiny Radio Shack DMM.

The factory kit had fairly well made tools. The nifty screwdriver with removable bits fits inside the spark plug socket to conserve space in the roll. I saw a complete original toolkit go for $400 on eBay in a bidding frenzy last year. Then suddenly there were a dozen of them listed lol.

The guys I ride with know I have some tools... "Got any metric wrenches?"... umm, no.

ludwig said:

A cell phone and credit card is nice , but it won't help you much if you are stranded here :

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I was just teasing when I said that.

I do carry a cell phone, but the one time I needed to use it (this summer, on my now-sold KLR650), of course I was out of cell range. A rider on a VStrom came along and rescued me. Then a friend with a pickup truck came up and brought me and my dead bike home. What a guy!

I agree that an ounce of prevention is worth 10 lbs. of cure. I do carry some tools, although my toolkit is perhaps a little sparse. As you point out, no need to start walking if the problem can be fixed by tightening a loose screw.

Awesome photos, BTW. Where is that?

Debby

I don't agree with Jeandr about modern tires, I change my own on the Nortons, AM26's and K81's with some Motion-Pro irons (but have used the one's from the toolkit) with no problem at all. However, I'm with Ludwig in that it makes no sense to try to change them on the road unless you carry an air compressor.

I have my original tool roll on my '73, but for the others I carry a few cheap SAE open end wrenches, allen wrenches, pliers, small adjustable wrench, plug socket, and reversible screwdriver. More importantly, I carry spare fuses, small roll of electrical tape, a couple zip ties, Also, I carry a spare clutch cable and throttle cable with twistgrip ferrule.

I don't know if they are till available but you used to be able to get tire pumps that screwed into your spark plug hole. They were little more than a spark plug end, a length of hose and a valve stem fitting. You could kick the bike over or start it on one cylinder to work it. I agree fuel/air mix is not the best for a tire but if it gets you to the nearest service station ..well hey.

Ron L said:

I don't agree with Jeandr about modern tires, I change my own on the Nortons, AM26's and K81's with some Motion-Pro irons (but have used the one's from the toolkit) with no problem at all. However, I'm with Ludwig in that it makes no sense to try to change them on the road unless you carry an air compressor.

I have my original tool roll on my '73, but for the others I carry a few cheap SAE open end wrenches, allen wrenches, pliers, small adjustable wrench, plug socket, and reversible screwdriver. More importantly, I carry spare fuses, small roll of electrical tape, a couple zip ties, Also, I carry a spare clutch cable and throttle cable with twistgrip ferrule.

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What can I say, I'm a weakling :cry: Then again it could be the tires I am using or the rims (Sun alloy) or a combination of both. I used to be able to change the tires on my Nortons even with alloy rims (Akront) and on my RD400, but I can't anymore.

Jean