noglider 

Everyone here has such good points.

I'm glad I have my Pedro's cable cutter. At the time I bought it, people were saying that the Shimano one beat them all, but Pedro's is a good name, and it cost a lot less. Works great.

I prefer diagonal cutters for cutting housing.

531Aussie

I bought some cheap-ish, Asian-made, King Roy chrome-vanadium (chrome-coloured) hex tools a while ago, and they are great. When I say cheap, they were $2.50 for each individual hex wrench, which is a little more than regular 'decent' hex tools.

I like them, mostly because they're a teeny bit large, and fit super snugly into the bolts, so they're much less likely to round the hex heads.

I also assume, rightly or wrongly, that chrome vanadium steel is harder than regular steel hex keys. Right? :-)

noglider 

I pay $1 each for allen keys, if that's what you're talking about. They work fine for me.

531Aussie

Yeah, but I didn't think any Americans call them allen keys, like we do

Bikegeek1968

I'll nth the repair stand. The only reason I did not buy one was that I was waiting until I bought a house with a garage. As soon as I got the keys, I went out and bought a Park repair stand.

One tool I wish I had bought was a Hozan lock ring tool. Nothing special about the tool, but the letter forged on to the tool said "Rock Ring Wrench". This was back in the mid 80's. The bad English translation was fixed in the next batch of tools, so I never got one.

mechanicmatt

I bought two pairs of generic Nashbar cable cutters (Lifu) on sale one time for $6 each 6 or 7 years ago and only use them for cable housing. Usually only for derailleur housing. I am happy to say that they still look brand new, and this coming from a guy who thought the only decent ones were made by Shimano and Park.

That said my first bike tool was a Lifu 4, 5, 6mm Y-wrench, and I consider it still probably my most used tool in the pack. When I was 15 and learning to wrench, the shop I worked at gave every new grunt one of these and a 4 in1 screwdriver. I could practically do everything on the bike back in the day with it.

mechanicmatt

I didn't have all the tools, I just started with metric combination wrenches, metric hex keys, and some screwdrivers. That really takes care of the bulk, but the best day I ever had was the day I brought that PCS-1 home. I felt like a total pro, it is definately worth saving for.

due ruote 

I don't think brushes have been mentioned yet. A small paint brush in a tub of grease makes bearing work so much easier. A good stiff parts brush for knocking major grime off filthy parts is a huge time saver. (see the opening shot of A Sunday in He'll if you can find it; the whole film was taken off YouTube last I checked.)
OK I just checked and the intro is still there.

repechage

The Campagnolo Tool Chest came with a bottle brush, great for cleaning out BB shells. I worked for a shop that had one, convinced another shop I worked for later to purchase one and finally found one for myself a few years ago, with extra cutters and inserts for all threadings save Swiss. A big spend, but it has appreciated in value and is a pleasure to use.
The other two tools I want and have so far missed my chance to get was an old cast Iron wheel truing stand, I purchased a later aluminum cast one of similar design a year ago, but it is just a bit less to use. I missed my chance (forgot to bid) when one came up on ebay a few years ago.
I have a Park home shop stand, that folds, which is okay, but I would prefer the full on two bike shop unit. There again I missed my chance, and it was near enough too, I would not want to ship that unit even knocked down.
So, I have 1.5 of the three top tools I want.

rootboy 

Good brush points, Due Ruote. I do the stiff acid brush in the grease pot thing.
I also like jeweler's brushes, in nylon and ultra fine brass bristle. Or even steel.
I have all three. The brass ones aren't cheap but extremely handy.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BRASS-HAND-B...item35cb36703e

peter_d

Cut-off wheels for my dremel and as others have noted, good quality dedicated cable cutters. Soon to be bought ... dedicated pliers for removable chain links.

markk900

Tool I wish I had bought sooner: Work stand.....got a park tools one a couple of years ago and my back has been thankful.
Tool I hope to get soon: dish gauge - take the guesswork out of it!
Tool I bought first and still have: Cyclo chain breaker - 42 years and counting...

Grand Bois

VAR lock ring tool. It's crude looking, but it never slips and gives plenty of leverage. I learned about them while working at a shop in the seventies. I put off buying one for a long time because they're expensive. I fianally bought a well used one and it still wasn't cheap.

noglider 

It is an excellent, excellent tool, along with all the other VAR tools. I haven't felt the need to own one yet, though. My Hozan is pretty good, and vise grips are good sometimes. I bought smooth-jaw channel lock and plan to grind the jaws down such that I leave a couple of teeth for gripping lockrings.

bibliobob

Go Bucks!



A good truing stand is a close second to a good work stand.

JPZ66

rsacilotto

Cable cutters, spoke tensiometer (might have tried to build a wheel earlier)

cbresciani

A good bike stand... still on my list!

degan

I think what I wish I had bought earlier, other than some bike specific tools and stands and whatnot, was quality tools. When I first started wrenching I bought a lot of cheap tools whenever possible. I once had a wal-mart chain breaker literally tear in half as I used it. After that I decided to bite the bullet and get a nice one, which is still with me years later.

bikemore 

After loosing a few crank arms from loosening up I use a torque wrench all the time when putting crank arms on.