Checking Your Bike Before a 10-Day Tour

The checks that matter before a 10-day tour aren't exotic — they're the ordinary maintenance items that are easy to skip when a bike feels fine on a short commute, but that a long tour will expose without mercy.

Before you leave

• Chain tension and lubrication, checked properly, not just glanced at.
• Tyre tread depth and a genuine look for embedded stones or early sidewall damage.
• Brake pad thickness on both wheels — not just whether the lever feels firm.
• All fluid levels: engine oil, coolant if applicable, brake fluid.
• Battery terminals clean and tight, especially if the bike has sat for a while.

What a short ride won't reveal

A commute doesn't load a bike the way a fully packed tour does. Extra weight changes how suspension behaves, how brakes bite, and how the bike handles at low speed on a loose surface. If you can, do a short loaded test ride with your actual luggage before departure day — not empty, and not for the first time on the tour itself.

Carry the tools and spares that match what actually tends to fail on your specific bike, not a generic kit bought for the trip. And confirm, before you leave Kathmandu, that whoever you're touring with knows the plan if the bike that fails is yours — a 10-day route through Mustang is not the place to improvise that conversation for the first time.