The Pontificato

I'm looking to buy some tools and am bewildered by the array of tool kits out there in both the "premium" brands (Park, Pedros) and "budget/2nd tier" brands such as Nashbar, Sette 7, Dimension.

I'm concerned about cost/quality factor esp. in the "budget" tools (which appear to be all made by the same Taiwanese mfr. regardless of brand).

I'm also concerned with the value factor of buying tools in a kit. Yeah, you get a kit with a lot of tools but how much have you saved if half the tools in the kit are ones you'll never use?

The kit I'm presently considering is the Park Tool AK-32

https://www.parktool.com/products/det...6&item=AK%2D32

Greenfishsports.com currently offers this kit for $250 less an additional 15% off promotion (Total before shipping is around $212). That's pretty hard to pass up and from looking at the kit it appears that for the "average Joe" it's got everything needed and not too much "fluff".

Opinions?

shaq-d

i suppose a kit is fine, but i go on an as needed basis. especially with hex keys and the like. i've built up things to the point where i now have the tools necessary to build my bikes, nothing more. but i guess if you get a kit yo'ull have everything you need too, and every tool at some point gets used...
thing with buying your own tools is you have more choice.. for example my bottom bracket wrench, which goes on to bottom bracket tools, is 13" long and i love it, lol. makes sure i get enough torque to take off stuck bb's, and i can easily put on a bb to the proper tightness...

the other thing with buying on an as-needed basis is that you may not know how serious you are about this how home-mechanic thing.

but on the othe rhand it's nice to have tools there when you need'm...

sd

Grand Bois

That's a very nice set. I collected my bike tools over the years on an "as needed" basis and I know I spent way more than the price of that set. Some of my tools are inferior to park tools because I needed them "right now" and they are all the LBS had in stock. I wish I had those cone wrenches! You'll end up adding more stuff, but that would be a great start. Go for it!

When it comes time to get a repair stand, don't settle for anything less than a Park. I like the PCS-4 for home use. You'll get other opinions, but that's mine.

mmerner

I'll second what dirtdrop said.

top506

If you're going in cold (ie: have NO tools) it looks like a good deal.
Top

The Pontificato

Yeah, actually, I am pretty much "going in cold".

I have a metric socket set for working on my car along with the usual screwdrivers, Crescent wrenches and the like. I

Last week I got a Crank Bros Multi-19 tool. I've got some different sets of plastic tire irons and that's about it.

Sheldon Brown

Those are both very legitimate concerns, and are the reasons I generally advise against buying kits of tools.

OK, for example:

This kit contains 7 cone wrenches, one of every size from 13-19. However, you hardly ever need the sizes larger than 15, and you really ought to have two 13s!

Some people like the "Y" wrenches AWS-1 and AWS-3, but I'm not among them.

The CBW-1 and CBW-4 open end wrenches are kinda chesy, you'd do much better with Craftsman or other good quality combination wrenches.

The GP-2 patch kit sucks.

The PW-3 pedal wrench is one of my least favorite pedal wrenches due to the awkward angle of the jaws.

Of the three spoke wrenches included, the SW-1 is pretty much useless, and the SW-2 is only useful for low-end asian bikes.

My advice is to buy good tools as needed for the jobs you have to do.

Sheldon "A La Carte" Brown

The Pontificato

Good points all around, Sheldon. As I am also looking at purchasing a workstand, they money saved NOT buying a giant kit might better be parlayed into a park stand of better quality than the PCS-9 (the one I'm considering).

Avalanche325

I like the idea of starting with a SMALL kit. It can save you a lot of money in the long run IF you buy a kit that generally fits your needs. For home repair and maintenance, one of the small toolkits will fill 95% of your needs. You don't need to go out and buy the super duper professional toolkit unless you are going to be a professional. If you need a tool one time, well.....you need the tool.

I started out with the Park roll-up toolkit. This is a very small kit that I got for $100 about eight years ago. I have added a "real" spoke wrench, another 13mm cone wrench (like Sheldon said), and another size 30 or 32mm, can't remember, headset wrench, and a chain checker. So I am not in very deep, and have used all of the tools.

One thing on that kit in your link is that most of those tools are "shop quality" which is a step up from what you get in the rollup kit. It is a nice kit, but do you really need coated handles for occasional home use?

HillRider

Having used both, I'd say a very enthusiastic yes. The coated handles make a world of difference when you are trying to torque down or loosen very tight lock nuts. In fact, I have a couple of Campy double-end cone wrenches (the world's finest according to Campy lovers) and the Park SCW-series wrenches are far more comfortable.

BTW, I've never come across a hub that needed two 13 mm cone wrenches but I have worked on some (9-speed Dura Ace) that needed two 14 mm wrenches so you never know.

Grand Bois

The ones I have hurt my hands and are too short for decent leverage. That's why said that I wish I had those cone wrenches. I might maintain my hubs better if I didn't hate my cone wrenches.

I think that if you add up the cost of the individual tools, you'll find that the set is a good deal, even if there are some tools you rarely use. Sets are always cheaper.

I don't like the "Y" wrenches either.

Joe Dog

I had a hodge-podge of tools I assembled on an as-needed basis and finally bought a kit on sale at REI this summer. I really like having the complete kit - the quality of the tools is generally better than what I was using and I now have fixed rather than adjustable wrenches, which I really appreciate. If you can swing it, I'd recommend a kit.

The Pontificato

The big attraction to the AK-32 kit from this particular vendor is the $212 (after discount, before shipping) price tag. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't bite.

Robert Gardner

I don’t think much of buying a complete tool kit for all kinds of bikes. I am a buy as you need it guy. The tools you need for a bike keep changing with time. I have accumulated a tool kit over the past 50 years that has tool which will never be used again. I have three or four kinds of free wheel removers which are absolutely useless unless you are a specialist in old bikes. Two whip chain wrenches for free wheels but cassettes only need one. I have special tools of threaded headset adjustment which are now useless. I am sure there are many more if I look in my tool kit. What you need is an Allen Wrench for every screw head on your bike. You need a good pedal wrench, a good cable cutter, one chain loop wrench, a long handled crescent wrench, one proper sized spoke wrench, a twelve inch steel ruler, a chain tool, and a damned good bike work stand. I would hope you already have a good tire patch kit and a set of screw drivers. Anything else you buy as you need it.

khan

I started out getting tools that I would use frequently and that fit my particular bike at that time. In some cases you're going to want duplicates (hex wrenches or one of those multi wrench kits, chain tool, correct size spoke wrench) for carrying a "mini-kit" in your seat bag on rides (training or touring around...chains break, cables break, etc). As you become more proficient, add new tools. Time for a bb overhaul, get the right bb tool for your set-up (though cartridge bb's have put short shrift to overhauling those things). No need for the huge outlay for tools you won't use for a year or more. Invest money in a good shop stand (as was stated before). It's soooo much easier to work on your bike if it's securly supported and easy to get to all the bits. That's the biggest change to my purchases I would have made if I did it over again. Would have bought the stand way earlier in my self repair life. It's worth the money just because you'll be that much more likely to use your tools if the bike is easy to work on and all the parts are easy to get to. Some kind of a stool to use w/ the workstand is great for saving your back instead of bending over 1/4 of the way to get to the bottome bracket or deraileurs (and for sitting there staring at something for hours trying to figure out how to get it back together;-)). Most importantly, get tools that will get the job done and last (Park is good in most cases). You'll enjoy your bike that much more because you've done the work and given it the care and attention it deserves. Something about knowing you've done all the work on your bike yourself gives you just a skosh more spring in your peddle stroke (worth at least .25 mph).

shaq-d

out of curiousity, can you explain this? how do you loosen one end without having a wrench on the other end?

sd

Don Cook

Sets are especially nice if you don't already have a garage full of mechanics hand tools. For non-mechanical types, apartment dwellers, I'd think they make sense. But, I'll tell you that over the last dozen years or so of maintening my family bicycles, the only bike specific tools that I use with any regularity are, cone wrenches, chain tool, casette lockring socket, and crankarm extractor. Even when restoring and rebuilding a bike from scratch a couple years ago I thought it made more sense to spend $30 dollars for my trusted bike mechanic to chase the BB threads and install the new crown race, or I could have spent close to $80 for special bike tools to do it myself.

MrCjolsen

A year ago I got the $39.99 Ascent Kit from Performance. It's served me well and there's not much that I can't do to my bike with it. The only thing it was missing was a good long cone wrench for r&r pedals. I would also think about getting a truing stand.

HillRider

Easy. You put a cone wrench on the cone flats and another wrench (regular box end or another cone wrench depending on the shape) on the locknut on the same end of the axle and turn in opposite directions.

Most older Shimano hubs required a 13 mm on the front hub cone and a 15 mm on the rear hub cone but had 17 mm locknuts that had room for a regular open end or box wrench.

Newer hubs have thinner locknuts with flats that require a second cone wrench. The 9-speed Dura Ace hubs I have use a 13 and a 14 in front and two 14's for the rear hub.

OrionKhan

I'll second that. I got once of those kits, but I think it was the Supergo branded one. Just built up a bike using it. Had everything I needed. I think it also depends on how much you ride and how often you need to make repairs. It its a lot, then you might want a better one. But every kit will have a few items that you might not ever use.