I work on my Bike Friday and sometimes I have a really hard time removing parts because I'm old and weak (not really, but I am a female and a senior so I just don't have the arm strength all the time). Particularly if the bike has been worked on at a shop - they torque things down so tight I can't do my own maintenance.

Is there a tool extension or specific tools (hex, wrench) that are affordable and would provide the leverage I need? My standard hex keys and wrenches just don't cut it all the time. I've got a bikehand pro stand that works quite well but I hate asking my adult son to come over and loosen a bolt =).

Yes. You can get metric hex bits for a rachet. And there are long arm open ended wrenches available. Your local Harbor Freight carries both.

Once you have the sockets and hex bits For the bolts with sunken hex heads ..

A 1/4" drive (might as well get a beam torque wrench , to not break things)
3/8" drive for most bigger bolts. ratchet handle ..
Non ratcheting handles are called Breaker Bars , there you can add a 'cheater Pipe' - over the handle to get even more Leverage.

Sears Craftsman is decent tools ..

You can also get a "T" handle driver; this will allow you to use both hands to turn sockets or hex driver bits. It is also easier because you are exerting a balanced force on the tool. Like this: https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/pr...sp?RecID=10646
You can also get T-handle hex/star drivers, like so: https://www.harborfreight.com/18-piec...set-96645.html or 6 Piece Offset Star Drive Wrench Set
which are easier on the hands than the typical L-wrenches.


Greasing your fasteners will also make them easier to drive and remove.

For very little dough you can buy a short length of steel pipe (aka cheater bar) that's a slip fit over the arm of standard hex keys. This won't be as convenient as hex socket bits and a wrench but may make sense for some of the less used keys. Bring the keys to the hardware store and buy the smallest pipe that fits all of them, probably 6" or so long will do the trick.

I picked up a 3-foot-long piece of pipe at Home Depot. I chose one that was dented at the end because I figured it would be useless as a pipe but fine for a cheater bar. The cashier asked me what size it was so she could charge me the proper amount. I said I didn't know. She asked me how, then, I knew it would work for me. I told her I wouldn't be using it as a pipe, and now I wish I had told her I'd be using it as a weapon, but that's hindsight for you.

I will add that tools specific to the job are easier to keep secured while applying whatever torque you can, then multi tools can. So "L" hex wrenches are easier to control with cheaters then a ratchet wrench IMO.


BTW I do have some customers who ask me to limit the tightening levels I aim for when working on their bikes. Good service is more then doing the mechanically correct job. Dealing with your customer's limits and abilities but still remaining in the working tightnesses is another aspect of best service for some. Andy

Hopefully the OP doesn't need a 3 foot cheater bar.

Good for some things like a stuck bottom bracket... maybe. But for ordinary bolts, if they're that tight, something is wrong. Maybe a foot or so??? A special pedal wrench?

I've heard people at tire shops asking for car wheels to be "hand tightened".

Alloy wheels won't stand the air-impact wrench torque a lot of tire shops use so, unless the shop knows (or cares) enough to dial down the tightness, they can be distorted. Also, if the shop uses an air wrench to tighten the lug nuts on steel wheels, it may be nearly impossible to remove them with the car's included wrench to change a road-side flat.

For years I used an independent auto mechanic for Deb's and my car. Knowing that she was often driving alone, we brought her to the shop and Chris would mount a wheel and she'd try to remove it. We'd do this trial and error until he found Deb's torque limit.

He made a note, and for years, her wheels would be torqued to the Deb spec, and mine to the normal spec. Unfortunately we never found out if it made a difference because while she had flats, she wasn't fast enough to get the car onto the jack and the wheel off before someone would stop and help (take over).

I have an extra long set of metric hex wrenches I bought at (of all places) Aldi's. They also have a removable/interchangeable handle as well. They really make things easy.

But a Hex Bit Socket Set with a nice long handled ratchet will bust anything loose.

This is our duty and we are happy to perform it.

[QUOTE=CliffordK;19131848]Hopefully the OP doesn't need a 3 foot cheater bar.

I can't remember a time when a "too long" cheater was a problem. 3 foot is probably excessive but it sure would be easy.

The company PB Swiss makes hex wrenches that are longer than normal and work really well. Not cheap but they are the best in the business. Getting stuck nuts and bolts off with a cheater bar is fine but definitely do NOT use a cheater bar to put them back on (it's easy to strip out threads), use a good quality torque wrench for that. In your case a 16" long piece of the heavier duty 1/2" copper pipe (there's standard and heavy) or galvanized pipe would probably work fine as a cheater bar for bike work.

OK, I'm going to try the cheater bar first as it seems to be the least expensive and simplest solution. It will also work with my special locking seat post and collar bolts, which I cannot tighten sufficiently by hand with the tool that came with. Thanks for that idea!

Now for ease of working, are l hex keys better or worse than a ratchet? I've seen a tiny ratchet (prestacycles prestaratchet) with bit heads that looks pretty good. Would I need to worry about the tool breaking if I slipped a cheater bar over it?
Bicycle Tool Set - Prestaratchet Hand Tools - Prestacycle LLC
I'm sure my son would love to get it for me for Xmas, so he could borrow it =).

Those plus a small cordless impact wrench will loosen basically anything. DO NOT use to tighten, you will break things.

+1 on the cheater bar or pipe. One shop I worked at had the downtube cut out of an old Cannondale frame, fit over huge adjustable wrenches and anything really that a reasonably sized cheater bar wouldn't work for.

I keep a long titanium seatpost with clamp head broken off in my tool box, works great.

As far as ratchets go it's generally a bad idea to put a cheater bar on them. You can get what's called a breaker bar though, essentially a non-ratcheting bit handle. Either 1/4" or 3/8" drive breaker bar and a set of bits + cheater bar would do it.

Good idea! I have a pneumatic impact wrench.... and have rarely ever used it.

My 18 volt Makita impact gun will bury a three inch sheet rock screw into oak.

Its never been allowed near bicycles.


-Tim-

I've never used an impact wrench to tighten anything... ever.

This is a VERY BAD idea. You need a new mechanic, because no competent mechanic would do something like this. Correct torque on lug nuts/bolts is SO critical for the safety of your vehicle, and the acceptable torque range is quite narrow. This is life and death type of stuff here. This is why I NEVER allow an independent automotive shop to put my lug bolts on my cars with an air-impact. A 1/2" Snap-on gun is capable of 1,000 Ft Lbs...I sure don't want a shop using that on my car which calls for 103 Ft Lbs. Especially on certain Japanese cars, an extra 20 or 30 Ft lbs can damage the alloy wheel studs, causing the possible loss of a wheel. Too high torque can also contribute to warped brake rotors and/or warped hubs. At any high end factory dealership, they use torque wrenches everywhere.


And there is no "Usual" torque for a lug nut/bolt. It varies by vehicle. Sometimes by quite a bit.


If your wife is not strong enough to remove a properly torqued wheel....get her AAA. But you could also teach your wife the technique of stomping on the S curve lug wrench that comes with the car to break it loose, and the reverse to make it tight. But strength is also a factor in lifting the flat tire off the car, the rears on my car are VERY heavy, (335's on 20" x 11" x rims), no way my wife could get one off. With so many cars coming with large, low profile tires these days, undoing the lug nuts is not the only issue.

On bikes, there is a proper torque for every bolt. Leaving them too loose can cause a mechanical failure, and too tight can also cause a failure. On ordinary bikes, a good mechanic will go by feel. Once you get into bikes with uber expensive parts, mechanics will use a torque wrench constantly. Strength of the customer simply does not enter into the equation; you use the proper tool to deliver the correct torque, and if strength limits you, simply get a tool with more leverage.

^^^ I'm with ExperTools. Proper torque is proper torque, regardless of the strength of the customer.

+1

I have a hydraulic car jack at home in the garage (much easier to use than the dinky jacks that come with spare tires), and it has a two-piece handle so you can pull half the handle off and put it all away and it won't be sticking out.

Well that removable part of the handle is basically a pipe maybe 1cm diameter and 18" long. Sometimes I'll slip that pipe over the end of my short allen key to get more leverage.

Any strong metal pipe will do (i.e. I wouldn't try pvc or copper)