Miniature 1/4in Socket Kit

Last updated: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:31:00 GMT

A cheap and easy hack to complete your motorcycle's toolkit.

One of the things I love about about the DR200 is that it's so simple. One aspect of that simplicity is that you can do just about everything you might need to do with the toolkit that comes on the bike. Not that you would -- bike toolkits are usually not made of the best materials, and the DR's is no exception. But the toolkit is just about sufficient, which is an important consideration if you're going to do silly things like ride it into a swamp.

I had already established that the one tool missing from my DR's toolkit was an 8mm spanner. There are a few 8mm bolts on there, nothing to turn them with. The first to really bite me were the battery connectors. They're 8mm bolts slotted for a cross-head screwdriver, but the vibration they're subjected to is such that they really need to be tightened with a spanner. So I threw an 8mm ring and open-end spanner into the toolkit and thought no more about it. Until my clutch failed. That's when I found out that it's not possible to get either the sprocket cover or the clutch cover off with an 8mm spanner.

What's needed is an 8mm socket. I have a decent socket set at home, including a cheap and cheerful 1/4in drive T-bar and an assortment of small metric 1/4in sockets. That's what I've been using in my recent attempts to finally fix the clutch problems that started back then. On subsequent rides, I've carried the T-bar and the sockets, but the T-bar's a bit... non-minimal -- it certainly won't fit in the toolkit carrier on the bike.

Last time out, I had an idea.

I bought another cheap and cheerful 1/4in T-bar set, with a small selection of metric and imperial sockets and some random flat-, cross-head and torx drivers. It cost me $10 from the bargain bin at my local boy-racer emporium. I should have taken a photo at the start, but I got all excited and got stuck straight in. Here are the bits that I don't need:

Don't need any of the drivers, but the bigger flat- and cross-head might come in useful, so I cut the rest off the strip. I don't need the imperial sockets. I took the T-bar and heated the top half of the shaft over a vigorous flame. Holding the shaft in some locking pliers, the plastic handle came straight off when the heat from the shaft started to melt it.

I continued to heat the shaft until its colour indicated that it was hot enough to start bending. I started to bend it. After putting about a 110 degree bend in, I placed the bent end of the shaft into a vice and pinched it into a loop around the shaft of one of the screwdrivers from the DR's toolkit.

Job done. Here's the cut down toolkit: the now minimal 1/4in drive shaft; five metric sockets at 12mm, 10mm, 9mm, 8mm and 6mm; various screwdriving bits and the socket to fit them.

Cheap, strong enough for the low-torque operations I'll be using them for, and it fits right in the little toolbag that fits right in the DR's toolkit carrier. Here's hoping I won't need to use them, but I'll be glad when I do. You can tell I'm pleased with myself, eh?