Originally Posted by
hockeyref
I'm planning on getting the dust off of my bike - quite literally - after about 20 years of inactivity. I figured that I would do complete tear down for cleaning, inspection, and adjustment and realized that I have no idea where my old bike box went..... and therein lies my initial problem....
A little background first. I worked in a shop through the 80's, then life happened in the early 90's and I put the bikes away cuz I had no time (or partners) to ride. I did all of my own work (as well as a lot of stuff for the folks I rode with) down to building the wheels (wish I never sold the Park Pro truing stand but ya do what ya gotta do). When I got out of it, my toolbox had what I needed to do just about any adjustment, install, or maintenance task on the current equipment (short of facing the tubes or tapping the BB). I will say that the box was a no frills, utilitarian collection of tools and I made due with some less than optimal solutions - always wanted a complete Park tool kit but never got around to buying it.
So, multi-part question:
1) Since I have been out of the game for quite a while, what's changed? Yeah, a bit open ended... At some point I will most likely upgrade to modern parts or add a new bike to the stable if I keep riding. I will be doing all of my own wrenching.... If I can't find the old box I'll need to start a new one. So what's the list of the minimum tools I'll want and what are the new "must have" tools.
2) Sources for (old\vintage) parts, tools, detailed instructions.... Anything out there available online like the old Park manual? I have about 20 years of dust on my memories of how to do stuff that I used to be able to do in my sleep so I might need to look at something to help me remember... Yeah, getting old sucks!
I'm looking for a truing stand. I assume that as a minimum I'll need cone wrenches, BB specific wrenches, chain breaker, Chain whips to loosen the cogs, various size allen wrenches, nipple wrenches, cable cutter, Grease (still have some green Phil Woods stuff), chain lube?
What do ya think?
If you're going to work on the bikes you learned on, nothing's changed. Toolkit can still follow all the old rules: try using whatcha got until you find a specific lack. Don't bother with buying Torx until you need them or need a set for car work. My pedals at least always surrender to an 8" or even 6" adjustable wrench - a pedal wrench is not necessary, though the integrated headset octal is still needed for full teardowns.
When I went back to wrenching on my own bikes after a 15+ year hiatus (all that life stuff!), I found my sense of how tight was distorted, and I was over tightening. Once I fractured a few seatpost binders and a Cinelli handlebar binder, I bought an inch-pound 3/8 drive torque wrench, a Craftsman clicker 25 to 240 inch-lb. I have a much older long half-inch drive which I use for BBs as well. I haven't checked calibration since I bought them, but I also have not broken anything since the purchase.
Another improvement was a set of long-handle L-shaped bent metric Allens. With a few of those and a few other pieces, I can do any roadside tuning or fitting adjustment without a multi-tool, with the good quality of a Craftsman or Park tool which will not destroy bolt heads. Those plus a small pliers, a small adjustable crescent, and a small screwdriver fitted to your derailleur screws sets you up for the road.
Clinchers still need a triplet of small tire irons, too.
Books: Zinn's Road Bike and Mountain bike books are excellent, and reminiscent of the still-useful Tom Cuthbertson books (Anybody's Bike Book). Modern tools and their uses are well=handled by the Park Blue book. Zinn's A Cycling Primer covers a lot of what he learned as a young professional racer 30 years ago, and reminded me of a lot that I'd forgotten since my high-school days.
I prefer books to the 'Net when I really just want to read valid info and not have to filter what I read, but I'm sure lots of folks have sites to link you to.