Tools - workshop

The BBB TorqueSet Adjustable Torque Tool is easy to use and it might just save you a whole lot of cash in the long run.

If you don't own a torque wrench, get one. Bike manufacturers often tell us about people who have written off components or even frames by overtightening bolts. Gulp! It won't happen to you? I hope you're right, but even very experienced mechanics shouldn't rely on feel when going just a touch too heavy can result in a parts failure.

This is a solid, easy-to-use chain drive for a Campagnolo 11-speed chain, which comes with the rivet peening function you need and also, as a bonus, four spoke wrenches.

When you put a Campagnolo 11-speed chain on your bike, you first press the connecting rivet (or 'pin' if you prefer) into the link, snap the end off, then you have to 'peen' it – flatten the end off a touch by squashing it down to prevent chain failure. This last bit is something that you don't have to do with a Shimano chain, for example.

Lightweight of the WD40 family, WD40 Specialist Anti Friction Dry PTFE lubricant is designed for inner cables, locking mechanisms, pivot points and derailleur/brake springs that need to remain clean, smooth and squeak free.

The Fenwick's Stealth Road Bike Kit is a huge array of environmentally friendly bike cleaning and lubrication products that are all acid and solvent free making them safe to use on any part of your bike including carbon fibre.

Now, thanks to a range of kits you can buy pretty much everything you need at a 20% discount. We've got our hands on the Stealth Road Bike Kit which contains:

1 litre of FS-10 Bike Cleaner

1 litre of FS-1 Bike Cleaner Concentrate

200ml Foaming Chain Cleaner

WD40 3 in One Professional Bike Maintenance Spray is supposedly cycling-specific, but it does a whole lot besides and very well too.

Frankly, aside from the handy size 250ml aerosol, performance wise there's a fag paper separating it and the wealth of chemically similar products arriving at the Road.cc offices these past few weeks. No excuses for sticky shifts, scabby fasteners and squeaky cleats in my fleet then.

WD40 Multi Use 420ml is the ubiquitous and iconic maintenance spray that takes its name from the 40 attempts its inventor made to perfect the formula.

Old as the hills, it remains a godsend for everyday jobs such as freeing sticky control cables, driving moisture from electrical contacts or just keeping pesky squirrels off garden hardware (no joke - here's a video).

Lezyne make some excellent workshop tools and this CNC chain whip is certainly a first-class option.

It's built to be very tough and durable. The handle, which fills your palm so you get a firm grip without it digging in, is made from CNC-machined aluminium while the business end is heat-treated steel plate – precision stamped and CNC machined. Four meaty bolts hold the two ends together firmly. The whole thing is 33cm (13in) long so you get a whole lot more leverage than with most other chain whips.

Got a fixed gear bike? you need a nice sturdy 15mm wrench then like this one from VeloSolo, to get those nuts nice and tight – you won't find many better.

Inspired by the classic Campag track nut wrench this VeloSolo unit is made not from steel but a 7075 Aluminium billet. It's CNC machined to a nice tight tolerance and anodised in your choice of black, silver, gold, red or blue.

If you get into building wheels and you're anything like me, you'll probably do the first couple in your bike frame with allen keys blu-tacked to the fork blades as primitive gauges. Form there it's a leap into the buying of a jig of some sort, and once you're at that point the next thing on your list should be a spoke tension gauge, like this one from Park.

One23 is a brand that you've probably never heard of, but it has a vast catalogue of bike components and ephemera to choose from and flicking to the 'Tools' pages you'll find this cheery multi-coloured Hex-Key Set.