What's In a Toolkit?

People always ask what should be in their motorcycle toolkits, so I'm going to show what's in mine. I'm sure that I'm missing things too, so feel free to comment on what else is useful. Everything I'm going to show is on my motorcycle at all times, no matter where I ride. Thankfully, the BMW R1200 GS has plenty of carrying capacity, especially with the Jesse Odyssey cases.

(click images to enlarge)

Let's start with the right sidecase:




In this sidecase I keep my tire pump, small tripod, a bungee net and a rag.





The pump is a BestRest CyclePump:


I also have a gauge with the tire pump:


The tripod (Joby Gorillapod) can be used as a normal tripod:


or wrapped around some object:


Now, on to the left sidecase:


The left sidecase contains my tools, a flashlight, a locking cable for my gear and some paper towels:


The flashlight has 9 LED's and 3 brightness levels, and can be either handheld, or stand on the built-in tripod:


I carry a pen-type multimeter in case I have to debug an electrical problem:


The toolkit contains almost everything needed to completely disassemble my motorcycle and put it back together (though I don't carry a torque wrench, it loses its calibration from all the bumps and vibration):


There's a ratchet and Torx sockets (everything on the motorcycle is Torx), wrenches, pliers and other tools:


I keep more essentials in the small compartment under the top box:


There are some zip ties, the owner's manual, the original BMW toolkit, a medikit and a tire plug kit:


Medikit:


Tire plug kit:


The original BMW toolkit:

Garmin Zumo 550 Submerged

I've had this Garmin Zumo 550 GPS receiver for over 10,000 miles on my BMW R1200GS motorcycle. I dropped it on asphalt from about 4 feet sometime during the first few thousand miles - all it got is some scratches on the plastic - the screen is fine, and it still works fine. I've had it in blistering heat for hours (highway 50 through Nevada in June), and I've had it in thundershowers so thick, that I could barely see the taillights in front of me. It worked through all of that without any problems. Now I decided to see if it's really waterproof. Garmin says that it's waterproof to IPX7, so I submerged it in the kitchen sink to test that. Here's a video:

As you can see, it still works. I do have a few complaints about it - sometimes it'll take a minute to draw the map after turning it on or after it loses satellites - it seems that it won't draw anything at all, instead of just drawing the last position. My other complaint is that the screen is a little small and the resolution could be higher. I may just go back to using the Garmin GPSMap 378 that I used before.