On the AIDS/LifeCycle ride, I’m going to be expected to do most of my own on-route maintenance.  Flat tires?  My problem.  Squirrely shifters?  My bag.  In the worst-case scenario, I can take the SAG wagon to the next rest stop, but for personal pride, I’d like to handle most anything I can on my own.  That means packing a few tools on the ride.

There are pre-made tool packs that get the job done (including some that fit into a water-bottle), but I’m a do-it-myself kind of guy, I made my own.  If you’ve seen my bicycle, the results are that little felt blanket burrito lashed under the seat.

My tool burrito

This is the burrito itself; roughly 6 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide, and 2 inches thick.  If I cut the size down a bit and used a thinner fabric, it would probably trim out a fair amount of the volume, but there’s only so much I can shrink it down, given the tools inside.

WORST. CARNITAS. EVER.

The guts of the burrito are a bunch of tools all stacked together.  The wrapper is an 18 inch square cut out of a very thick felt blanket.  It keeps the tools warm (not that they need it), but more importantly, it also gives me a large work space when it’s all laid out on the side of the road.  When I’ve got somewhere specific and clean to put tools and parts as I’m working on them, the whole process of replacing a tire or readjusting my derailleurs is a lot easier.

All of the tools and other accoutrements

Here’s what I keep in the burrito for now.  Spare tube, cigarette lighter, patch kit, multi-tool of allen wrenches, swiss army knife, pen, paper, tire levers, and $5 in $1 bills.  The tube, patch kit, and tire levers should be pretty self-explanatory.  The lighter is a personal quirk – I like to keep at least a source of fire with me in case civilization crumbles while I’m on the road and I have to provide my own warmth for the night.  The swiss army knife and multi-tools are both temporary measures until I find a more compact way to carry a useful blade, philips and standard screwdriver, and 4, 5, and 6 mm hex keys.  The pen and paper are there in case I find myself needing to take some notes on something.  And finally, the $5 serves a dual purpose – in a pinch, a couple of dollar bills can be used as a tire boot (covering a hole in a tire), and $5 is the cost of a daily pass on RT.

This tool kit isn’t complete yet.  I have a collapsible pen I’m going to throw in instead of the oversized Uniball and I still need to put in the wrenches I need to work on my brakes, pedals, and hubs – an 8mm, 13mm, and 15mm, if memory serves.  But for now, about 90% of the problems I can fix on the road are covered here, and I should be able to get that last 10% ready before June.

If I can find a way to source some cheap tubes, tire levers, patch kits, and fabric, I want to make a bunch of emergency burritos that I can sell as a fundraiser.