/ Tips & Advice
Essential motorcycle tools you didn't know you needed
Think you collected all the right tools? Here are a few essentials you may have missed.
If you’re into motorcycles, you’ve probably got some kind of toolkit lying around, whether it’s inside your motorcycle compartment or in your garage. Toolkits are often quite standard across the board—you’ve got your trusty handheld wrench and allen key sets, your flatheads and phillips screwdrivers, perhaps a few socket wrench sizes, and a bit of elbow grease to make it all work. However, there are still quite a number of tools which don’t seem to be standard picks for your average rider.
If you’re looking to give your toolkit a pretty decent upgrade, there are a number of tools you can get which can save yourself a trip to the mechanic and a few thousand pesos. Instead of stressing over a trip to the shop, you’ll be able to work your way around your motorcycle repairs and maintenance tasks with much ease at home instead. Here are a few essential motorcycle tools you didn’t know you needed.
Assorted cleaning sprays
Working on your bike can be a serious mess, with various types of oils and dirt getting on all kinds of parts. Using water and soap, or other common cleaners may not always be the best choice when it comes to cleaning, since certain components may be sensitive to specific chemicals. As such, we recommend getting contact cleaner spray when cleaning parts that have electrical components, regular degreaser for metals and plastics exposed to oil, brake parts cleaner for cleaning your brakes and other heavy stains, and WD40 to clean all kinds of surfaces.
Thread repair toolkit
If you’ve over tightened a bolt on a rusty frame, you might already know the feeling of stripping your bolt hole threads. While it may feel like the world has ended with stripped threads, you may not need to replace your entire frame or engine part for just one thread. Instead, grab yourself a thread repair tool in order to fix stripped threads in under a minute. Thread repair tool kits are relatively inexpensive at around P400 to P1000, and will be able to repair most of the bolt holes on your motorcycle. Simply insert the proper size into the bolt hole and twist the repair tool inward to create a new thread.
Hex key socket set
Many riders out there keep a variety of handheld wrench tools, allen key wrenches, and possibly a socket wrench set for bolts and nuts. However, a very underrated tool worth buying would be the hex key socket set – where hex keys are found on the tip of a socket which can then clip onto your ratchet wrench. The hex key socket set can be purchased for around P1000 to P2000, and can save you a lot of time when taking down parts on your motorcycle due to the ease of use when tightening and loosening parts.
Assorted lubricants
Apart from cleaning oil and other kinds of dirt from your motorcycle, it may also benefit riders to keep an assortment of oils and lubricants for the different moving parts of your motorcycle. Silicone grease spray is incredibly friendly and useful for rubber components and parts that sit near electronics, such as your handlebar switches. Manual transmission fluid for cars due to its thick viscosity can be used to lubricate your chain, sprockets, and clutch cable. Penetrating oil is also very useful for bolts or nuts that won’t seem to kick loose, and lithium grease spray will come in handy for metal-on-metal components where rust prevention is a must.
Torque wrench
If you’re looking to avoid over tightening bolts and nuts to begin with, you may want to look at investing in a torque wrench. The idea is simple—a bolt or nut often needs to be twisted into a specific tightness. Too loose and the bolt or nut can shake itself loose. Too tight, and you risk stripping your threads or seizing the thread in the long run. A torque wrench aims to secure the bolt or nut with a specific torque specification—a specific tightness, which is often recommended by the manufacturer through service manuals or owners manuals. If you plan on doing heavy DIY work on your bike involving the engine or frame, a torque wrench would come in handy in order to make sure all threads are secured properly.
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