One Road One World

Tag: technical

Motorcycle road trip | What spare parts to carry
We are on a motorcycle road trip to travel around the World. When we where preparing our motorcycle long distance trip we had a few questions in our mind one of them was what spare parts to carry with us during such a long road trip for our motorcycle.

When you decide to go on a road trip by motorcycle in Europe, USA or Australia you don’t need to think so much about what spare parts to carry on motorcycle to repair or for your routine control. But if you are in the nature and your motorcycle breaks down there is an option your phone is not working. At those moments small spare parts or tools can make your life very easy.

Also it can be more difficult to find spare parts of motorcycles in some countries. Believe us we have a lot of experience about it on our Africa trip, which was travel around Africa by motorcycle for two years, 50.000 km and 33 countries. Yes it was a long distance motorcycle road trip to Africa.

After all our experience on the road we can tell a lot about it so our advice will be to carry some parts with you on the road. We made a list what we carried or learned to carry (the hard way) with us.

What spare parts to carry with you on motorcycle for long distance trip?
- Inner tube
- Fork seals
- Wheel bearings
- Valve (extra for your inner tube)
- Oil filter
- Chain
- Set of sprockets
- Clutch cable
- Spark plug
- Fuses
- Break pads
- Clutch pedal
- Fuel pump
Motorcycle spare part oil filter change

These are mostly small parts and easy to carry, of course it depends on how long your trip will be. For example you can only carry a front inner tube as they can fit (for a while) in your rear wheel as well.

If you are visiting our website first time you don’t know which kind of motorcycle we choose for word trip and why? Both of us have been riding Honda CRF 250 L. When we started our motorcycle world trip I had no experience to ride motorcycle. She had a little motorcycle experience from 10 years ago but only how to ride motorcycle on a tar road.

Not many people travel long distance trip with 250 cc motorcycle therefore it wasn’t easy to learn what spare parts to carry with us specific for our Honda CRF 250L. After write some blogs and friends who travel some part of Africa by motorcycle we learned and decided what to do.

Doing maintenance on our motorcycle in Tanzania

What spare parts to carry for a Honda CRF 250L on a motorcycle road trip?

We wanted to travel around Africa. (West, South and East) So, we checked how many km we were going to ride in Africa. After a rough calculation we came to 40.000 km. We checked the technical book of Honda CRF 250L what is the routine maintenance. After that we took spare parts what is writing on the list.
- Two extra chains and a pair of chain sprockets for each motorcycles.
- Two rear break pads.
- Six oil filters.
- Two air filters.
- Two spark plugs (iridium).
- Extra two front lamp (not necessary to carry).
- Extra fuses
- One pair extra inner tube.
Motorcycle spare parts air filter change on the road

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough what spare parts we carried for our Honda CRF 250L. Because in Nigeria, we didn’t know that a truck pushed me from the road and I entered a deep pothole. After that I had a problem with one of the fork seals, we ended waiting for it two weeks in Lagos, Nigeria it needed to come from South Africa.

Also, we didn’t know that we could have fuel quality problem in Sudan and our motorcycles could stop after buy petrol because of a fuel pump problem. We didn’t have a new fuel pump, luckily we could just clean it but it didn’t work well we changed them as soon as we had one. Fuel pump was okay but we stuck a while in Khartoum, Sudan.

You might think you are able to find most parts somewhere and sure you can for some of them in bigger cities, but do you want to wait 2 days in the middle of nowhere for a inner tube while you can carry 1 with you as well? We don’t want to either, I broke my valve in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) in the middle of a village believe me I was very happy I could just put in a new one.

Flat tire in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC)

This crew surrounded us in just a few minutes of time, in 20 minutes we had a hundred people around us (all very friendly).

Broken valve Ultra heavy duty inner tube in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC)

Another story is about our clutch pad problem. When we arrived in South Africa our Honda CRF 250L motorcycles were already 48.000 km. So, we knew that it can be problem with our clutch pad soon because we already ride 50.000 km on our motorcycle road trip. They have a Honda motorcycle service in South Africa but spare parts were really expensive, much more than in Turkey, nearly 50% more. Now we got lucky as her father was going to visit us in South Africa therefore he carried 2 sets clutch pads for us. 🙂 Her Honda CRF 250L’ s clutch pad we changed in Tanzania at 58.000 km, mine we changed in Ethiopia when my motorcycle made 65.000 km. We really don’t like to change parts when it’s not necessary so we just carry them with us if that’s possible.

Changing clutch pads Honda CRF 250L in Ethiopia

You can also check what spare part to change and which kind of maintenance we did in 70.000 km for our Honda CRF 250cc.

What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

FS
November 25, 2018
What do we control daily/routine on our motorcycles to keep them good condition?

We want to be on the road many years with our motorcycles. Therefore, we need take care of them very well. Also, it’s not easy to fine a lot of parts for the motorcycles in most West-African countries.

Tires:

We check tire pressure every 2 days. If we pass really bad road we check them to make sure we don’t have any needles, small rock or something stuck.

Chain and Sprockets:

We clean the chain every 1.500-2.000 km. At the same time we control in front sprocket to make sure.

We look how much tide our chains is 3 times a week.

We oil the chain every 200-500 km. It depends on the weather and road condition.

Fluid, Oil, etc.:

We don`t have anything routine time for that. They are in front of us. When we stop on the road she always turn around the motorcycles and looking break fluids, radiator and engine oil.

General Control :

Maybe the most important one is that we listen to our motorcycles when riding, if we hear anything different we try to figure out what it is. Apart from the every week or after a bad road bumpy, rocky, dusty, etc. we look almost all screws, breaks, engine. To see anything we lost or has damage.

Following Technical Book:

Also, we look to technical book when we need to change parts or what we need to control.

Looking Our Notes:

We have been writing notes when we changed something (engine oil, oil-air filter, sprockets, chain…etc.) on our motorcycles. So, we check our notes and motorcycle km to don’t miss anything.

What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

March 25, 2017
How much technical knowledge do you need for a World Trip by motorcycle?

To be honest, We didn’t know anything about technical service when we started our world trip in Europe. We were thinking we could learn on the road. On the other hand, it was easy way to start our motorcycle journey from Europe. Because If we need technical service We can find easily 🙂

We want to write our comic experiences which You can have fun and understand that We really didn’t know anything.

GS started to ride from Turkey and We met in Germany. We went together to Holland to get ready for Nordkapp.

Our first day for motorcycle journey to Nordkapp from Holland:

We were almost German border and stopped to buy petrol. Her motorcycle didn’t work again! We have no idea what happened. GS wanted to call her brother to ask. Her brother said that look for insurances. We have no idea where they are. We had guess and open to side. We were just looking them without took our and check they broke our not. Because we didn’t know that J After a while we called a technical service in Holland and They said that This is battery problem. They said that “go to second gear, push motorcycle and turn engine. After work it wait a while.“ Yes, we did it. It worked but engine sound wasn’t good. So, we went to the technical service and learn that the battery was dead. Her motorcycle is second hand and we had to change the battery……

(We were in Africa and a motorcycle had same problem who was in Africa by motorcycle. We said him that He has a battery problem we need push it and after that wait a while to get the battery full, it worked :))

We are in Norway and Time to change oil filter and engine oil:

We never do that before. But GS saw when her brother did. So, First GS changed her oil filter and engine oil. But no way to open his screw to took out dirty engine oil. Screw was stuck and we didn’t have good tools to fix it. GS walked around the village to ask tools and GS found one. We changed two motorcycles oil filter and engine oil almost in a half-day.

(For Africa journey, we have new tools :))

Ferry, my motorcycle doesn’t wan to go anymore:

We were riding on Finland highway. Suddenly, my motorcycle started to jump. I was telling to FS on intercom that “Something wrong! My motorcycle doesn’t want to go, engine will stop soon.” I went to emergency line and stop. He asked me first about petrol. I told him I have 2 draws more. He got surprise because He was using reserve. He looked to the tank and saw zero petrol. He went to look petrol and I understood that Don`t trust what showing my motorcycle for the petrol line.

(In Africa, We just check how many km. we go with petrol)

The Chain is getting big and a lot of noise. No idea what happening:

GS called again her brother to ask what we can do. He send some photos and We learned that we need to take tire bag to tide chain again. We found a Wi-Fi in Tallinn and look some YouTube videos. After there we started to work on it. It took more than half a day. But It was to late we had to change the chain in Poland.

(In Africa, we can control chain a lot and if we need to tide the chain It can take 10 minutes now 🙂 )

Actually, we didn’t have more problems during our 20.000 km ride in Europe. GS wanted to go Istanbul, Turkey before start our Africa journey. Because GS has friends in Istanbul who has technical service and help us to learn technical details for motorcycles and also we can check up motorcycles and modify a little.

We went to `` Ersoy Moto“ in Istanbul. Owner name is Gokhan. We were in his technical service a week. He showed us everything what we need to know and how we can fix our motorcycles on the road. Also, He checked up them. We changed our chains, tires…etc. there. We bought a lot of thing there what we need necessary on the road from him. Also, we went to some store and modified our motorcycle to be more comfortable. All stuff is really cheap when you compare to Europe.

What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

March 25, 2017