Originally Posted by T Stew

I was in your position recently. Some basic mechanic/tech skills and I had a decently stocked garage with basic tools. I had no bike mechanic knowledge whatsoever and didn't know what to even look for. So I figured one of those kits would be ideal. After looking at those pre made kits however, it seemed like 75% of the kit was stuff I already had (wrenches, screwdrivers, etc) and that I would have to buy several more tools to actually take a bike completely apart and put back together. I needed several more tools too, since I needed the tools for both vintage and modern components, as all my bikes are vintage but I upgrade some with modern parts. For example a needed a couple of tools to take apart a late 80's Shimano 105 crankset, and completly different couple of tools to install a 7800 Dura Ace crankset in its place. That was 4 tools total I think just for crankset, and none of them where in those 'kits'. I decided to actually look for each tool I needed individually and do some research on each one to find a good one for the best price. I found amazon usually had best prices and in many cases Park Tool was the cheapest and highly recommended (or only a few dollars more) for many things. Park tool also has great insturction and videos on youtube (and their website). Luckily I have lots of free time to surf the web on my nightshifts, and piece by piece I read over months and months to figure out what tools I needed and how to do it.