[KDee]

It’s my birthday soon and I’ve been asked what I’d like. I’m sure there are a few tools I could probably use (but haven’t yet), so let’s spend someone elses money! I have quite a few bits and pieces already:

• Workstand
• Floorpump
• Decent allen keys / screwdrivers / wrenches / cable cutters
• Split link tool
• Mini ratchet
• Torque wrench
• Chain whip
• Chain measuring tool
• Brake bleed kit
• Spoke keys
• Tubeless stuff (inc. Airshot, hose cutters, hose insert press, bleed kit)
• Shimano cassette and BB adapters
• Digital caliper
• Digital pressure gauge
• Ultrasonic bath

Anything obvious missing? Good bike has a press-fit BB so possibly a tool-set to switch that out soon (and maybe the headset too)? Perhaps a nice toolbox as most of the above is rattling about in a couple of small plastic boxes? I don’t think an air compressor is necessary…I haven’t been defeated by the floorpump and Airshot yet (plus, the office has a compressor in the bike garage!).

Are there any little handy things you swear by? Something like a chain-keeper for when the rear wheel is out of the bike? Internal cable/hose routing kit?

Or maybe just a voucher as I think I will need new pads and rotors for the race bike at the end of summer.

Topic

[mark1a]

hawkinspeter wrote:

Copper based grease is a good call – I’m not so keen on a spray version as you typically only want to use a tiny amount in a specific place.

A word of advice ref copper grease, always use sparingly and with gloves if possible. Have a rag handy to wipe off excess, and whatever you do, don’t touch anything else until you’ve thoroughly washed your hands. 

Me before learning this lesson:

 

[hawkinspeter]

Cugel wrote:

Have these been mentioned?

Copper-based anti-seize stuff (spray or grease). 

A spoke tension measuring device

A wheel bearing extraction & instalation kit.

I use a copper anti-seize spray on things like pedal threads or anything else that might see spontaneous metal-gluing i’ the threads but haven’t got a spoke tension measurer or the wheel bearing tools. However ….

I do true wheels (without anything but a spoke key and a temporary summick stuck to the fork or seat stay as a guide) if they show a wobble or if I ever snap a spoke (only three snaps in 64 years cycling, mind – yet all relatively recently). Would a spoke tension measuring device help to avoid flop-wheel or a potential snapper-spoke? I have a suspicion that one pair of inexpensive wheels I have (came with the bike) are not really tight enough in their spoke tensions.

All the wheels I have now use press-fit bearings of various sizes. I even have some spare bearing sets (for Hunt wheels, as they came with one of their “offers”). But so far there seems no sign of wobble, drag or graunch to justify changing any wheel bearings. Surely, though, the time will come?

Has anyone found a wheel bearing kit (for both extraction and press-in) that doesn’t cost well north of £100? I often wish I had a metal-working lathe as it can’t be hard to turn the pressing parts to use for bearing extraction & installation with a length of standard M8 threaded rod and a few M8 nuts.

Copper based grease is a good call – I’m not so keen on a spray version as you typically only want to use a tiny amount in a specific place.

REMINDER – if you’ve got crappy Shimano cheese-head retaining pad pins on your brakes, then check that they haven’t fully seized. (That’s one place where a tiny bit of coppaslip can be helpful)

I’ve got a spoke tensionometer but found it a pain to use when building/truing a wheel, so I just go by feel rather than muck around with it. The problem that I had is that you can end up focussing on trying to get the tensions equal, but often there’s differences in manufacturing tolerances which mean that there’ll be slightly different spoke tensions required to keep the wheel trued.

[Cugel]

Have these been mentioned?

Have these been mentioned?

Copper-based anti-seize stuff (spray or grease). 

A spoke tension measuring device

A wheel bearing extraction & instalation kit.

I use a copper anti-seize spray on things like pedal threads or anything else that might see spontaneous metal-gluing i’ the threads but haven’t got a spoke tension measurer or the wheel bearing tools. However ….

I do true wheels (without anything but a spoke key and a temporary summick stuck to the fork or seat stay as a guide) if they show a wobble or if I ever snap a spoke (only three snaps in 64 years cycling, mind – yet all relatively recently). Would a spoke tension measuring device help to avoid flop-wheel or a potential snapper-spoke? I have a suspicion that one pair of inexpensive wheels I have (came with the bike) are not really tight enough in their spoke tensions.

All the wheels I have now use press-fit bearings of various sizes. I even have some spare bearing sets (for Hunt wheels, as they came with one of their “offers”). But so far there seems no sign of wobble, drag or graunch to justify changing any wheel bearings. Surely, though, the time will come?

Has anyone found a wheel bearing kit (for both extraction and press-in) that doesn’t cost well north of £100? I often wish I had a metal-working lathe as it can’t be hard to turn the pressing parts to use for bearing extraction & installation with a length of standard M8 threaded rod and a few M8 nuts.

[mark1a]

David9694 wrote:

DP-2 – I’ll venture that this costs more than…a pair of cheapey pedals. 100% niche. 

Very much niche, I think I paid about £11 for it. I must have saved actual minutes of my life being able to hand turn it in and not having to check it’s RH thread.

[David9694]

DP-2 – I’ll venture that this

DP-2 – I’ll venture that this costs more than…a pair of cheapey pedals. 100% niche. 

“Have you finished servicing the only loose r/h pedal in our workshop, Brian? Another half hour? Darn, I’m right at the gear indexing stage – if only there were something I could screw in temporarily. That busted/cheapey pedal Brian, good call, mate but we lost the pedal spanner and the new one won’t be here until tomorrow…”

Hanger alignment tool could save you a lot of expensive grief particularly if your bike spends time in close company with other bikes when not riding. 

[Ride On]

Dont get a voucher. Get cash
Dont get a voucher. Get cash. It’s like a voucher except you can spend it anywhere.

[Sredlums]

Good to see more people

Good to see more people liking Decathlon’s chain ‘whip’. I swear by it too. Cheap, yet sturdy and very handy.

[David9694]

you sound pretty well set up 

you sound pretty well set up 

https://road.cc/content/forum/those-go-bike-tools-296611

[hawkinspeter]

wycombewheeler wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

if they were LGBT rainbow ones. I’d consider my hex keys to be male/hetero as they only work properly with female socket bolts etc. but maybe they’re also LGBT allies.

maybe they used to be a socket set, before being reforged.

Possibly, but makes little difference to me as long as they’ll still do their job with the female sockets. What’s more of a problem is when the size of male tools are exaggerated  – all sizes are equally valid but certain jobs require certain sizes.

[Cugel]

wycombewheeler wrote:

Cugel wrote:

I can change one bearing (you don’t usually need to do both at one time) 

By the time I’ve got the tools out and the cranks off, I might as well do both, rather than have to do 3/4 of the job again in 6 months time

That makes sense if the bearing wear rate and/or mileage is such that both bearings need swapping at more or less the same time.

In practice I ride four bikes and my mileage is only around 5-6000km in a year, these days. So, after changing the one obviously graunchy bearing in one side (the non-drive side) of the BB of a Trek Domane, the other side bearing (drive side) is still completely smooth probably about 1500km/a year later.

The same syndrome appears to be happening with the other Trek Domane. It’s the non-drive side bearing that’s recently gone and been replaced yet the drive side bearing is still completely smooth. You’d think it would be the other way ’round, eh?

 

[wycombewheeler]

hawkinspeter wrote:

if they were LGBT rainbow ones. I’d consider my hex keys to be male/hetero as they only work properly with female socket bolts etc. but maybe they’re also LGBT allies.

maybe they used to be a socket set, before being reforged.

[hawkinspeter]

wycombewheeler wrote:

But the free hub can just be pulled off and swapped with a new (steel) one. Add a few grams but no more notches from the cassette. no need to build an entire wheel.

Yes, but Cugel mentioned the possibility of stripping the centrelock side of the hub

[wycombewheeler]

Cugel wrote:

I can change one bearing (you don’t usually need to do both at one time) 

By the time I’ve got the tools out and the cranks off, I might as well do both, rather than have to do 3/4 of the job again in 6 months time

[wycombewheeler]

hawkinspeter wrote:

Hubs aren’t too expensive to replace but it takes a bit of time rebuilding the wheel.

But the free hub can just be pulled off and swapped with a new (steel) one. Add a few grams but no more notches from the cassette. no need to build an entire wheel.

[wycombewheeler]

Cugel wrote:

.. that Hambini chap, who is selling over-engineered lock rings with a greater thread penetration.

Because, as with so many things, more penetration is always a good thing.

[Author]

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