Not everybody can have access to a full bike shop
spec workshop in their own home.
And if you were to have every single tool that's
needed to work on bikes,
you're going to need a pretty big space and more
importantly,
a really big wallet. But there are some tools or
types of tools that we feel are the essentials that
everybody should have in their collection.
And with these, you can pretty much strip down a
bike or do any home maintenance jobs.
So here's a rundown of those tools.
Probably the number one tool or type of tool that
everybody needs is the humble Allen key or hex key.
Now a good set of hex keys means that you
can pretty much do any maintenance job on the bike.
It is the most important type of bolt head that
you find on bikes.
And so therefore you need to have certain sizes.
Now most kits go from about a two millimetre up
to an 8 or A10 millimetre.
But the most important ones are 4-5 and six.
You can buy them a separate.
So obviously you can have separate ones like this.
These are really, really easy to use in the workshop
or you can buy them as part of a multi
tool.
And obviously everybody carries multi tools.
So you'll see that you'll have these at all times.
So those are the two types that you really should
be looking at.
If you're going to do things at home,
then separates work better. If you want to do something
when you're out and about or just have the convenience
than the multi tool with hex keys on there is
an essential.
Now tools keys are those funny star shaped tools that
you see that a lot more bikes are starting to
use.
They're a bit of a safer option if you're a
bit ham fisted when it comes to maintenance because they're
less likely to round out
and what you'll find is that more and more expensive
components tend to come with this type of bolt.
The most common size you find,
especially if you use disc brakes is
AT25, but often a kit will have everything from AT10
up to AT30,
but T25 is the important one to make sure you've
got in your collection.
If you're planning on doing lots of maintenance jobs when
it comes to looking at your cables,
then you'll know the importance of having a good set
of cable cutters.
So a good set of cable cutters will allow you
to cut any type of cable perfectly straight and perfectly
accurate,
allowing you to make sure that your gears and your
brakes are going to be working spot on.
Most tend to be sprung loaded and what you'll find
is they have very,
very sharp cutting edges. Some will have then a little
tool that you can use to poke the hole back
in the cable just in case it does get squashed
a little bit. But the main thing that they do
is they cut perfectly straight and they shouldn't really squash
your cables at all.
OK, so this next one isn't technically a proper workshop
tool,
but you cannot survive without one.
You need to make sure you've got a really good
track pump if you want to keep your tyres inflated
properly.
And as anybody has tried to pump up a normal
Rd.
tie with a little hand pump,
you'll know how hard that can be.
A good track pump will make an absolute doddle of
the task.
When you swap in tires and tubes around,
then you'll find sometimes that those tires are very,
very hard to get off,
and this is where a good tire lever comes in.
Obviously, if you can avoid using tire levers,
that's the best solution. But if you can't,
if you've got a really,
really tight set up, then good tire levers will help
save your fingers and will help save your rims and
your tires themselves.
There's loads of good tire levers out there.
The important thing is that they're strong enough and stiff
enough to be able to cope with taking the tires
off,
but soft enough in terms of not being able to
damage any delicate carbon rims or expensive tires.
You can get different styles of tie leavers,
and some have different widths,
so it depends on which style works best for yourself.
These are two very, very common styles and you'll see
that they come in sets.
So if you're finding that the tie is really stubborn,
you might need to use more than one to do
the job.
One of the most important things to do on your
bike when it comes to maintenance is to look after
your chain because that is the one bit that can
let you down more than anything else.
And also, if you use a chain for longer than
its life expectancy,
you can wear out those expensive chain rings and cassettes.
So the next two tools I will recommend are tools
that will help you to keep on top of chain
maintenance.
Number one is a good chain checker.
This is a very, very simple tool that you use
to measure how badly worn your chain is.
They only cost a few pounds,
but can help save you hundreds of pounds if you
use it regularly.
You literally put it on top of your chain and
you can see how much your chain is stretched and
how much life is left.
So a very, very simple but effective and essential tool,
the chain checker. Then if you do need to change
your chain,
you're going to need one of these,
a chain tool. And a chain tool will be the
only way that you can cut your new chain down
to the correct length and in most respects,
to be able to actually connect the chain properly.
So you can buy chain tools in different sizes and
different shapes.
If you're going to use one at home,
you want to go for a good workshop on.
This will make it a much easier job to do
and can be used on several different types of chains,
from 6 speed, 7 speed,
8 speed, 9 speed, 10 speed,
11 speed to 12 speed.
A good set of screwdrivers is going to help make
gear maintenance a absolute doddle.
So you're going to need to have a good set
of screwdrivers when it comes to adjusting your limit screws,
for example. And obviously there's a few other different areas
on your bike that you will require these.
You can get Phillips screwdrivers and obviously the standard flatheads.
And there's also something called a JIS,
which is a Japanese industrial standard screwdriver,
which Shimano use for their rear derailers and for their
front derailers.
But you don't necessarily need to have that,
just a very good set of cross head and Flathead
screwdrivers.
A decent set of pliers is then going to help
you with those little fiddly jobs,
especially things like cable routing and when it comes to
putting cable crimps on the ends of those cables as
well.
You can get different types of pliers,
but our perfect ones to use for bites are the
needle nose pliers.
This means you can really get into those tiny little
hard to reach places and you can do all of
those essential jobs.
They can double up as cable cutters as well.
So if you've got cable ties or anything else that
you want to be able to cut,
then a lot of them do have the facility to
do that as well.
And last but by no means least,
probably the set of tools that are the most specific
in the entire list.
And those are the tools you're required to take your
cassette off and put a new cassette on.
There's two tools that you need.
You need a cassette tool and a chain whip.
So these are ones we have here.
Again, they come in different styles.
This is Park Tools version.
So rather than a normal type of chain whip,
this grips holder the cassette on both sides and means
that you can loosen it without the whole thing spinning.
You will then need one of these little tools here
and an adjustable spanner to be able to actually do
the job itself.
This then is used if you want to put your
new cassette back on.
You can buy these with handles built in or as
it is like this,
a very simple small effective tool that you use with
a spanner set.
So that is the only specific tools on the list
really.
Everything else is something that you can use for multiple
types of jobs.
So there you have it,
a simple rundown of the 10 most essential types of
tools that every rider needs to have.
Now, if I've missed anything out or you think there's
another tool that you think is an essential for everybody
to have,
please put it in the comment section below.
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