What tools and parts should a Royal Enfield motorcycle rider take along on a cross-country trip?
My favorite answer to this question appeared years ago on the Royal Enfield Yahoo message board: "Take a spare Royal Enfield."
The suggestion was meant to be funny, but I suspect there's good advice in the attitude expressed. Whatever you do, don't forget to take along your sense of humor.
But, what else should you bring?
John Powell's description of his trip the length of Old Route 66 brought this question from reader Bob Slovey:
"I was wondering about what type of modifications he may have made to prepare his Bullet for the trip? The photos don't show much, if any, modifications. I am extremely curious about how he fastened that huge bag (in the upright position) to the back of the bike. Did it ever fall off? Did he use a special rack? Did he carry emergency supplies, such as: gasoline, extra oil, tire repair kit, air pump, etc.?"
Powell graciously replied:
"The only preparations for this trip was buying a Route 66 guide, the book The Grapes of Wrath and breaking in the bike before I started out.
"Everything on this bike is stock. The first modification I will do is change out the mirrors and then maybe some foot pegs further up so I can stretch my legs more on the long rides.
"I just bought this North Face Big Shot backpack from REI on sale and it has a bunch of straps on it. Because of the well placed straps and the way my laptop was situated in the bag, I only needed two ratchet straps to hold it in place. It never came loose and it doubled as a good back rest.
"Inside the backpack was an oil filter, a spare tube, throttle cable, clutch cable, brake cable and few random tools. In one of the outer pockets I kept the chain lube. I figured I wasn't too far from help if I needed anything more than that and luckily I didn't.
"I did convince a Walmart manager to let me use some of his tools and let me change my oil behind his building.
"I also almost lost my heat shield on the second day of the trip. I had to look all over a small town trying to replace two of the three bolts that had fallen out. Luckily I found the replacements at Tractor Supply Co. Other than that, I had no issues."
There's a lot more bullet accessories available in india (duh!), and my favourite for touring is this. Can hold a week's luggage by my standards, is fairly roomy, and doesn't get in the way of driving at all. Making one isn't rocket science, but the build quality of the bags are really good, and they fit snugly to a bullet. The only gotcha is that they won't play well with the solo seat models.
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