Raddel

I notice some brands are better (i.e. fewer proprietary parts/tools) than others... but I am a beginning mechanic and would like to know what the more experienced folks here think.

aggiegrads

Are you looking to buy a new bike and want to know what is most compatible with existing standards?

Raddel

looking to buy both new road/gravel and also maybe mtb (just have road bike now and some old junkers). I have been doing work myself and like doing it so I wonder if some brands/companies just lend themselves better to home maintenance and work.

Unca_Sam

My experience is that it's not necessarily a brand, but an era. As you get to more current technology, there are more and more specialized tools that make the jobs easier. I haven't worked on a bike with technology earlier than 2005 stuff for Shimano, which was an early offender for proprietary splines on things, but has used some of those standards for decades.
AFAIK it's the same with automotive mechanical work.

Raddel

thanks- and the analogy to car work makes sense

Russ Roth

Easiest for a home mechanic will be threaded bb, cable brakes. Press fit BBs can be their own nuisance, nothing a home mechanic can't easily figure out and fix with the right tools but the tools do cost more for decent ones. Hydraulic brakes are easy to set up but are more difficult to bleed when it comes to it though it too can be done with a simple bleed kit and some basic wrenches; though 6 and 7mm wrenches aren't common to a lot of sets so you may need to buy those.
Beyond that each era of bike has always needed its own set of tools if you want to word it that way; though in the last 30 years most basic maintenance on mid to upper level bikes can be solved with a set of allen wrenches, a few combo wrenches, the right cone wrenches and a spoke wrench. The deeper you want to get into maintaining your own bike the more tools you will need but it isn't always that bad. Newer bikes can even be easier, BB on a shimano hollowtech 2 bb thats threaded can be done with 2 tools, an 8mm allen wrench and a bb cup wrench. Go to an older bike or even low end modern and you may need an allen wrench or socket for the bolts, crank puller, lock ring tool, pin spanner, and fixed cup wrench. There is no one bike in this regard to pick. Get a set of wrenches 8-19mm, a set of bondhus or similar quality allen wrenches from 2mm-10mm, and a basic repair stand and buy from there what you need as you need it and you'll do fine.

HillRider

Volume bike manufactures (Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Fuji, etc.) pretty much only make the frame and fork. Everything else on the bike is sourced from an outside vendor and the choice of vendors for major items is limited. For drivetrains the real options are Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo and everyone uses one of them. There are proprietary items like the bewildering number of bottom bracket "standards" but otherwise the similarities exceed the differences.

bluehills3149

If I were building a bike purely to be easy to work on and easy to get parts for in the future (although I would never buy a bike with just this criteria in mind) this is what I would look for .
Wheels: Shimano style splines (not Sram XDR ) laced with 32 J-bend spokes and low profile Aluminum rims (can install tubes with any length valve stem).
Frame: Steel or Titanium will last the longest and can survive crashes but if you don't crash, carbon or Aluminum will last decades too. Frame should take English threaded bottom bracket, standard round seatpost (27.2 or 31.8mm). Tire clearance for 28mmm+.
Brakes: Rim brakes still more common and standardized than disks. Easy to get parts. Avoid direct mount brakes or calipers in non-standard locations like under the bottom bracket or behind the forks for example.
Cranks- 24mm spindle cranks.
Bars/Stem. Separate bars and stem. 1 1/8 diam. No integrated stem/bar combo, no hidden cables.
Gears: Cable actuated Shimano 11spd easiest to get parts for and most common. Sram OK but less common. Campagnolo is reliable and you can get spare parts but needs special cables, cassettes, tools and skills.

ramzilla

Get a 1/4" ratchet & metric socket set. Look real hard and you can find a set of metric allen wrench sockets that will fit the ratchet handle. It will really speed up working on things. Small little phillips head & standard head screwdrivers are nice. A big 14" adjustable wrench will help you bust freewheels loose. Needle nose pliers with long handles are always nice for fiddling with things like brakes & cables. BEST ADVICE: Never buy a tool until you absolutely need it. Then, buy the least expensive one you can find.

capnjonny 

One little thing I would recommend highly for any tool box is a set of picks. Harbor freight had them for $1 the other day for a set of 4 - the ones with yellow handles. I work on a lot of bikes and I use them every day for something. They are good for reaming out lined cable covers after you cut them, I use them to hook on to chain as I am trying to feed it through chain rings or rear derailleurs. I use them to help scrape dried grease off of bearing cups , get into crevasses other tools won't.

Retro Grouch 

A bicycle is a simple machine but the devil is in the details.

You will be surprised at how far you can get with just a 5 mm Allen key.
The second thing to buy is a really GOOD cable cutter. To cut cleanly through a newly installed shift cable, all except for one little wire, is bike mechanic hell and the only solution is to buy a better cable cutter.
Everything else you're only going to use every once in a while.

Ironfish653

As a general rule, avoid bikes with proprietary features or integrated components. Mid-90s -2006 (pre-buyout) Cannondales are some of the worst offenders. Actually there were a lot of evolutionary dead-ends in the Y2K era, so tread cautiously with ‘unique’ bikes from that era.

Frankly, among the current mid-range bikes from the major manufacturers, there’s not a whole lot of surprises, it’s mostly standard layouts and sizes. Things like 1x drivetrains and hydraulic brakes have their peculiarities, but they’re pretty simple, once you know what you’re dealing with.

HillRider

Yes and absolutely not. Yes to don't buy a tool until you have a need for it. Absolutely no to buying the cheapest. Cheap tools are poorly made of low quality metal and are likely to damage the parts they are used on. The worst cheap tools are Allen keys and other wrenches as they can, and will, damage the fasteners. You don't need to buy the most expensive tools out there but at least buy a decent brand name. The expression "Only a rich man can afford cheap tools" is very true.

JustinOldPhart

I wanted to say that, but you said it first and said better, so I can only say "What HillRider said".

That said, I have this medium-sized box filled with various splined and notched tools to remove a wide variety of different clusters, free-wheels, and cassettes from varying standards over the past 50 years. I think that the first specialized bicycle tool I bought was a cluster tool to remove a Regina in 1971. Things have gotten better with respect to the number of specialized tools one needs.