10 Essential Cycling Tools

Cycling Weekly

2 years ago

Top 10 essential home workshop tools and how to use them

Transcript

00:00 (bike wheels whirring)

00:02 (upbeat music)

00:05 Not everybody can have access to a full bike shop

00:09 spec'd workshop in their own home.

00:11 And if you were to have every single tool

00:14 that's needed to work on bikes,

00:16 you're gonna need a pretty big space

00:17 and more importantly, a really big wallet.

00:20 But there are some tools or types of tools

00:22 that we feel are the essentials

00:24 that everybody should have in their collection.

00:27 And with these, you can pretty much strip down a bike

00:29 or do any home maintenance jobs.

00:31 So here's a rundown of those tools.

00:33 (upbeat music)

00:36 Probably the number one tool or type of tool

00:40 that everybody needs is the humble Allen key or hex key.

00:45 Now, a good set of hex keys means

00:48 that you can pretty much do any maintenance job on the bike.

00:51 It is the most important type of bolt head

00:54 that you find on bikes.

00:55 And so therefore, you need to have certain sizes.

00:59 Now, most kits go from about a two millimetre

01:02 up to an eight or a 10 millimetre.

01:04 But the most important ones are four, five and six.

01:07 You can buy them as separates.

01:08 So obviously you can have separate ones like this.

01:10 These are really, really easy to use in the workshop.

01:13 Or you can buy them as part of a multi-tool.

01:16 And obviously everybody carries multi-tools.

01:19 So you'll see that you'll have these at all times.

01:21 So those are the two types

01:24 that you really should be looking at.

01:26 If you're gonna do things at home,

01:27 then separates work better.

01:29 If you want to do something where you're out and about

01:31 or just have the convenience,

01:33 then a multi-tool with hex keys on there is an essential.

01:36 (upbeat music)

01:39 Now, Torx keys are those funny star-shaped tools

01:45 that you see that a lot more bikes are starting to use.

01:49 They're a bit of a safer option

01:50 if you're a bit ham-fisted when it comes to maintenance

01:52 because they're less likely to round out.

01:54 And what you'll find is that more and more

01:57 expensive components tend to come with this type of bolt.

02:00 The most common size that you find,

02:02 especially if you use disc brakes, is a T25.

02:05 But often a kit will have everything from a T10 up to a T30.

02:09 But T25 is the important one

02:11 to make sure you've got in your collection.

02:13 (upbeat music)

02:16 If you're planning on doing lots of maintenance jobs

02:20 when it comes to looking at your cables,

02:22 then you'll know the importance

02:24 of having a good set of cable cutters.

02:26 So a good set of cable cutters

02:28 will allow you to cut any type of cable

02:30 perfectly straight and perfectly accurate,

02:33 allowing you to make sure that your gears and your brakes

02:36 are going to be working spot on.

02:38 Most tend to be sprung loaded,

02:40 and what you'll find is they have

02:42 very, very sharp cut-in edges.

02:44 Some will have then a little tool that you can use

02:47 to poke the hole back in the cable,

02:49 just in case it does get scorched a little bit.

02:51 But the main thing that they do

02:53 is they cut perfectly straight,

02:55 and they shouldn't really squash your cables at all.

02:57 (upbeat music)

03:00 Okay, so this next one isn't technically

03:05 a proper workshop tool,

03:06 but you cannot survive without one.

03:09 You need to make sure you've got a really good track pump

03:12 if you want to keep your tires inflated properly.

03:16 And as anybody has tried to pump up a normal road tire

03:19 with a little hand pump,

03:20 you'll know how hard that can be.

03:22 A good track pump will make an absolute doddle of the task.

03:26 (upbeat music)

03:29 When you're swapping tires and tubes around,

03:33 then you'll find sometimes that those tires

03:36 are very, very hard to get off.

03:38 And this is where a good tire lever comes in.

03:41 Obviously, if you can avoid using tire levers,

03:43 that's the best solution,

03:45 but if you can't, if you've got a really, really tight setup,

03:48 then good tire levers will help save your fingers

03:52 and will help save your rims and your tires themselves.

03:55 There's loads of good tire levers out there.

03:58 The important thing is that they're strong enough

04:00 and stiff enough to be able to cope

04:01 with taking the tires off,

04:03 but soft enough in terms of not being able to damage

04:07 any delicate carbon rims or expensive tires.

04:11 You can get different styles of tire levers,

04:13 and some have different widths.

04:15 So it depends on which style works best for yourself.

04:18 These are two very, very common styles,

04:20 and you'll see that they come in sets.

04:23 So if you're finding that the tire's really stubborn,

04:25 you might need to use more than one to do the job.

04:28 (upbeat music)

04:31 One of the most important things to do on your bike

04:36 when it comes to maintenance is to look after your chain,

04:39 because that is the one bit that can let you down

04:42 more than anything else.

04:43 And also, if you use a chain for longer

04:45 than its life expectancy,

04:47 you can wear out those expensive chain rings and cassettes.

04:50 So the next two tools I will recommend

04:53 are tools that will help you

04:54 to keep on top of chain maintenance.

04:57 Number one is a good chain checker.

05:00 This is a very, very simple tool

05:02 that you use to measure how badly worn your chain is.

05:05 They only cost a few pounds,

05:06 but can help save you hundreds of pounds

05:09 if you use it regularly.

05:11 You literally put it on top of your chain,

05:13 and you can see how much your chain is stretched

05:16 and how much life is left.

05:18 So a very, very simple but effective

05:21 and essential tool, the chain checker.

05:24 Then, if you do need to change your chain,

05:26 you're gonna need one of these, a chain tool.

05:30 And a chain tool will be the only way

05:32 that you can cut your new chain down to the correct length,

05:36 and in most respects,

05:38 to be able to actually connect the chain properly.

05:41 So you can buy chain tools in different sizes

05:44 and different shapes.

05:45 If you're going to use one at home,

05:47 you wanna go for a good workshop one.

05:49 This will make it a much easier job to do,

05:52 and can be used on several different types of chains,

05:55 from six-speed, seven-speed, eight-speed, nine-speed,

05:58 10-speed, 11-speed, to 12-speed.

05:59 A good set of screwdrivers is gonna help

06:06 make gear maintenance a absolute doddle.

06:10 So you're gonna need to have a good set of screwdrivers

06:13 when it comes to adjusting your limit screws, for example.

06:16 And obviously, there's a few other different areas

06:19 on your bike that you will require these.

06:22 You can get Phillips screwdrivers

06:24 and obviously the standard flatheads,

06:27 and there's also something called a JIS,

06:29 which is a Japanese industrial standard screwdriver,

06:32 which Shimano use for their rear derailleurs

06:35 and for their front derailleurs.

06:37 But you don't necessarily need to have that,

06:39 just a very good set of crosshead

06:42 and flathead screwdrivers.

06:44 A decent set of pliers is then going to help you

06:52 with those little fiddly jobs,

06:54 especially things like cable routing,

06:56 and when it comes to putting cable crimps

06:58 on the ends of those cables as well.

07:00 You can get different types of pliers,

07:02 but our perfect ones to use for bikes

07:05 are the needle nose pliers.

07:06 This means you can really get into those tiny little

07:09 hard to reach places,

07:11 and you can do all of those essential jobs.

07:14 They can double up as cable cutters as well,

07:16 so if you've got cable ties or anything else

07:19 that you want to be able to cut,

07:20 then a lot of them do have the facility to do that as well.

07:23 And last but by no means least,

07:30 probably the set of tools

07:31 that are the most specific in the entire list.

07:34 And those are the tools you'll require

07:37 to take your cassette off and put a new cassette on.

07:40 There's two tools that you need.

07:42 You need a cassette tool and a chain whip.

07:45 So these are ones we have here.

07:47 Again, they come in different styles.

07:50 This is Park Tool's version,

07:52 so rather than a normal type of chain whip,

07:55 this grips hold of the cassette on both sides

07:58 and means that you can loosen it

08:00 without the whole thing spinning.

08:02 You will then need one of these little tools here

08:04 and an adjustable spanner

08:06 to be able to actually do the job itself.

08:09 This then is used if you want

08:11 to put your new cassette back on.

08:13 You can buy these with handles built in,

08:16 or as it is like this,

08:18 a very simple small effective tool

08:20 that you use with a spanner set.

08:22 So that is the only specific tools on the list really.

08:27 Everything else is something that you can use

08:30 for multiple types of jobs.

08:33 So there you have it,

08:34 a simple rundown of the 10 most essential types of tools

08:38 that every rider needs to have.

08:40 Now, if I've missed anything out

08:42 or you think there's another tool

08:43 that you think is an essential for everybody to have,

08:46 please put it in the comments section below.

08:48 And don't forget to like and subscribe,

08:50 and more importantly, click on that notification button

08:53 to keep up with our latest releases.

08:55 But until then, we'll see you soon.

08:57 [WHOOSH]

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