Hi guys,

During the last week a friend and I changed the steering head bearings and front wheel bearings on a 2010 Yamaha XTZ660 Tenere.

It was a bit of a case of the blind leading the visually impaired, but we got there in the end. One of the problems was the lack of suitable tools such as steering stem bearing installer, long punches and so on. We worked through them and part of the process included making a press for the races using 12 mm threaded rod and steel tube. It got me thinking about different jobs I would like to do in the future and the required tools. There is no way I will buy them all but next week I am up back on the farm and I will have a few spare hours on Saturday and be able to do stuff in the workshop, so I can make some of the tools up. So here are the questions:

Steel tube for the steering stem bearing. What is the ideal size for the inner diameter. I think its 25 mm but not sure. I'm guessing that the length should be 35 cms but would appreciate any advice on that too.

Cartridge road holding tool for the DRZ400s. How wide should the centre slot be? I was thinking 8 mm but something nags me that it may need to be as small as 6 mm and so I thought I should check.

Are there any other basic hand tools that I should be looking at making that I haven't thought of yet?