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forum
Those Go-to bike tools
Show us your favourite tool. I'll start, with my collection of tyre levers.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
Latest Forum Topics
Latest Comments
- Justanotherhuman 1 hour 17 min ago
Looks like it has terrible pinch points like normal, if cyclists start using nice conflict with pedestrians
- Martin1857 6 hours 8 min ago
I did a Cytech 2 course some years back with a mechanic from Wiggle who told me that he'd seen bikes in Halfords with the forks mounted back to...
- Backladder 6 hours 46 min ago
I don't disagree with you about drivers but surely the whole point of manslaughter is that there wasn't an intent to kill and what I saw on the...
- leedorney 7 hours 3 min ago
NEVER understood narrow shoes, never still I ever, Lakes all the way, even the Lake 333 is possible to get in wide, these no, poor show Decathlon,...
- jbuckx2 7 hours 8 min ago
Your right, it's not finished, but if this was road works (for motorists) would this be acceptable? ...
- Rendel Harris 7 hours 18 min ago
Well that's some pretty spectacular nonsense you've got going there. Everyone I know who uses Zwift is also a keen road rider with multiple bikes...
- David9694 7 hours 36 min ago
and we're all left squabbling over drivers' leavings as ever...
- Backladder 7 hours 54 min ago
But how many drivers are they actually locking up, they can barely be bothered to fine them!...
- Mr Hoopdriver 8 hours 11 min ago
Typically, for dodging a £2.00 ticket on the railway, fine will be £50.00 + prosecution costs of £hundreds. Same for private hire drivers picking...
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80 comments
Yes - a also couple of Allen bolts rattling around your bag also useful esp if you run mudguards and carriers.
A few of my favourite things:
Tyre Seating Tool, really cuts down on the swearing
Coloured hex keys with the sizes printed on them
Pedal spanner with the direction you have to turn it printed on it
All your Allen keys present and correct in their holder? 🧐
One we can all relate and cannot have enough of, the 6, 5 and 4mm Allen key. The 6 is is only for seat posts and quill stems, the 4mm is for the things that aren't 5mm. One in each coat pocket.
For the removal of square taper cranks (unless you have a self extracting bolt). one end functions as a socket wrench to remove the axle bolt/nut; the other screws into the crank and you tighten the two parts to take the crank off the axle.
The lower one is useful if you have broken crank threads. Ebay Frame buyer rule #5 : if it comes with a bottom bracket, seatpost, or even cranks, is that because they are stuck? This one got a very stubborn Octalink crankset that came with a frame.
Two bikes of mine run the modern Shimano b/b and cranks; my only beef is that with these I'm over-geared - I seldom get above 16th / 26th gear.
I went for the Park CCP-2 (now apparently the 22) handled crank puller. Even though I have Middleburn extracting crank bolts, I opt for the aforementioned ti crank bolts and some lovely blue anodised allow screw in crank bolt covers. Which were very difficult to find.
Unfortunately with the first crank remover I purchased, the pusher was to big to fit through the square and ripped out the relatively delicate alloy thread of the crank, (non drive side so cheaper to replace the arm), continued to use the puller for many years by adding a spacer.
Crank dust caps seems to be a real gap in the market and they're very pricey when you do find them.
Cone spanners for ball bearing hubs and peg and lock ring spanners for ye olde bottom bracket bearings.
"No, no, no, Smithers, there aren't nearly enough freewheel or bottom bracket body designs - go back to your drawing board and come back with more."
Mainly from Repair cafe jobs requiring the removal of a freewheel to service the hub. A lot of job satisfaction here in conjunction with the vice - sorting out a stiffie and bearing down on and turning the wheel feels like you're raising Tower Bridge.
The ridiculous and expensive Park Tools 14mm hex key.
You have quite happily used a trusty and common 10mm hex key, for decades, to remove your Shimano freehub, for cleaning, replacing or in desperation very temporarily rejuvenating with spray lube until you can source a new one. And then after a disappointingly short period after getting a new hub on a newly hand built wheel, the freehub locks up/destroys itself, but you've got an old freehub sitting around, so cockily you think you can sort everything out, sit down with all of your cone spanners and new 1/4 inch bearings. But what's this!! Everything is different. No nice steel spindle, there's a big fat alloy pipe, tiny bearings that have no place on a rear wheel and then the 10mm hex spins in the bolt.so you then discover not only that you need a new freehub and cannot get going by using the one in the parts bin, you will have to get the 14mm hex key.
But it's actually alright, because the new freehubs never last as long as the old ones because they have made them much thinner and more delicate. So more use.
When I got a set of Mavic crossmax to do a winter so I didn't destroy my last set of xc717s, (had to bring the Getting to Work bike out of retirement whilst waiting on a warranty replacement in the world wide bike COVID boom) I brought them in full knowledge that if anything went wrong then that was it, very little replaceable and/serviceable. Lasted the 4 months that I needed. They were nice enough wheels while they lasted.
Indeed - I've no idea what most of these are for any more...
The original Cool Tool, constantly in my bag from the early 90s, lost the 6mm crosshead key, replaced with a standard 6mm hex, and broke the headset spanner addition. The 15mm crank bolt socket is still my go-to to remove/tighten the specialized ti crank bolts on my Getting to Work bike (retired)
Next up, this fearsome duo - those of you only ever running 1 1/8" threadless should look away now.
Fat tyres on repair cafe jobs, my own 700c tyres, my one pair of Marathons: a different tyre lever does the job best. My Bikes have generally got the black plastic levers that come with a Weldtite kit - these are the ones I seem to have lying around.
I'd say my patch repairs are about 50% successful, whether glued or glue-less - I find a lot of patches won't conform to the curvature of a thin inner tube. Planet X Vavert tubes are the cheapest individual tubes that are consistently available for 700c that I know of, at £2.99 a time. You can of course hunt around Ebay.
My favourite lever is the green Btwin set that clip together nicely, offer a simple spoke hook and the business end is the right thickness and bend to obtain and hold a good purchase on a wire bead. I can't always get a good purchase with the Pedros, which is also very chunky.
The blue Park is a rare fail I find - too thick and the tyre hook is the wrong shape.
Finally, sometimes only an old school metal lever will do for some jobs - you know the ones I mean.
Had a Park Tool fail myself today, refitting a (not usually awkward) used GP5000 to a Hunt 4 Season, snapped getting the last bit of bead on. Continued with the no-name Cycling Plus mag freebie you also have there and all was fine.
Have also had good results with the Crankbrothers Speedier lever on my (very brief) foray into road tubeless too, for tyres that refuse to go onto the rim.
https://road.cc/content/review/crankbrothers-speedier-tyre-lever-273873
Pedro's Milk Levers.
Have three, still going from the mid to late 90s, unfortunately I took off one of the "seating" ends this year, sigh, tubeless tyres...
The milk comes from being made from recycled milk bottles.
Haven't tried Park but I think you're right with BTwin / Decathlon, I don't think I've broken one of them. Hmm... time to check the toolbox!
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