likesbikes36

I have noticed that there is not a real place to discuss the tools, pumps, miniature and full size stands, workshop setups, and storage. There is just a couple here and there posts that I have seen. I know the Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets says it is about tools also but it is WAY too cluttered with all of the lights and lumens and gadgets and what not. I am just saying there should be a place for all those DIY people to talk about the tools that are worth talking about. I just think there are too many people that may want to find out about how to make a good home workshop and what tools to get or what stand to buy (or make). Basically I am saying the tech should be separate from the tools.
Anybody think it’s a good idea to make this a sticky on Bicycle mechanics where we can discuss about Tool reviews, experiences, buyer bewares, tool orginization, home workshops, road tools, pumps, stands, and all of that fun jazz?
Let me know your thoughts and lets see if we can get a sticky.

3alarmer 

If we do get a dedicated tool forum, or subforum,
or whatever -- God help anyone who enters it.

In my own experience, few things are more likely to
bring out the absolute worst aspects of "this is how
I've done it for the last forty years and this is what
I use and anybody who thinks otherwise has his head
so far up ...." I think you get where I'm going.

worthlees

Tools, like talking religion or politics get's people "Fired Up" fast. For me tool sections in a store are my "candy"!!
Would be interesting for me, a greenhorn to wrenching bike's with more than one speed. What specific small bike tools should one have beside a chain breaker. Are there tools needed to remove & check bearings in the forks,
cranks & wheels. With pics, a pic is worth a thousand words here!! The day of a screwdriver,monkey wrench &
pliers are but fond memories of my childhood!! Oh! Left out bailing wire & penny bubble gum & twine for repairs!!
LMO!!! Thanks for opening up fond memories!!!

Amesja

Where is that Carlton guy when we need him?

clasher

Learning how to make all your owns tools in secret is what gets you into the uber-mechanics cabal!

Amesja

I remember the first bike-specific tool I ever encountered a need for: The Cone Wrench.

My youth was spent racing (and working on) motorcycles. I rode a bicycle back then because I didn't have a license to drive a car (or a motorcycle). But eventually I began to ride the bike as a way to train for racing motorcycles. It became more than just a childhood fascination and bicycles were more of a life-long addiction among my many other mechanical addictions. The need for special tools that were not also tools that could be used for working on motorcycles or other things first intruded into my consciousness back in the 70's with that cone wrench.

Even now I probably only have a dozen or so "strictly bicycle" tools.

They are:

1. Park Bike stand.
2. Crank Puller.
3. Pedal wrench.
4. Freewheel wrench assortment.
5. BB wrench assortment.
6. Pedro's Cable cutter.
7. Bicycle-sized chain tool (my MC tool by Motion-Pro works well on bike chains but it is bulky, over-sized, and takes too long to set up/assemble while a bike-specific one is very handy and quick.)
8. Park chain wear gauge.
9. Third-hand cable tool.
10. Full set (including duplicates) of cone wrenches.
11. Pump that does presta -plus another small pump for carrying on the bike. (I do own a really nice compressor tricked out with all the bells and whistles but I find a hand pump more "handy" than compressed air sometimes).
12. Pedro Trixie tool.
13. Patch kit with bicycle levers (rarely needed as most tires are so easy no levers are needed but moto-specific levers are too big and heavy to carry on a bicycle.
14. A full set of portable tools that I carry in my pack that live to serve if I break down on the road.
    

I'm sure there are a few other things that I left out.

Tools are something you collect over a lifetime (minus theft issues where you go backwards and some bum sells your stuff for pennies on a dollar to a pawn shop for booze money) and I've got many of them for the various types of work I like to do that spans the gamut from construction tools to working on clocks and watches (yeah, I've got a mainspring winder I made myself).

But the above list contains the things I needed that I didn't or wouldn't have already from one of my other "tool sets" used for other purposes.

I like tools. One of the things I noticed and was impressed with my wife when I first met her was that she owned a router table and a full set of router bits to go with it. Oh, what an interesting an exciting woman!

No wonder tools are something that gets people "fired up." Works for me...

mercator

I'm a tool junky, I'd subscribe to a tool-specific subforum.

JohnDThompson 

What would a "tools" sub-forum add that could not be discussed here in the Mechanics forum?

reptilezs

a tools sub forum would just be filled with "which cheapo crap bike tool kit should i get?" threads. my blog has some stuff. im trying to share tips/tricks that you wont find on sheldon's site or park tool's guides. not trying to reinvent the wheel but share some of the good stuff

BCRider

To the OP. You obviously didn't look too far into the posts here in the Mechanic's forum. Try some Searches for what you want. Threads about tools, stands and other such things is one of the major topics around here. This IS the right forum.

And before you say that there isn't a major amount of threads about it consider this... .there is as many threads as needed. If only a couple a week show up then why would there be any more threads in a separate tool subforum? There wouldn't, or at least SHOULDN'T be any more threads since the ones we have are sufficient to answer the questions. And with so few new threads few would stop in all that often to check it out. So really keeping the tools and stands topics here in the one more general mechanics forum gets the topics FAR more exposure than splitting it up.

Now if you want to go by popularity of topic then there should be a separate chain forum for all the cleaning, sizing and other angst posts. Yeah sure.... and I would NOT EVAR! want to go into such a sub forum either....

skilsaw

Lots of the discussion on tools is associated with a bike mechanics problem, or question... For example: My rear hub is loose. How do I tighten it? Then comes the answer that mentions cone wrenches...

Is this thread more appropriate in "Bike Mechanics", or "Bike Tools".

As I see it, the mechanical problem came first. It belongs in "Bike Mechanics".

A purely "Bike Tools" thread without relating to mechanical questions, would discuss tools like they were a stamp collection, or art. Not what they are used for.
...I keep my tools in a box lined with foam rubber so the tools don't get scratched. I keep a plastic dust cover over the box so the tools don't get dirty.... My tool kit is nicer than your tool kit.

TurbineBlade

Hey, which cheap, crappy tool should I buy?

wesmamyke

If you need to geek out on tools alone these guys will help, plenty of bike guys over there too: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4

There is a thread on that forum where a guy made a shimano splined BB tool from scratch just because.

3alarmer 

Hey, back off. I resemble that remark !

DieselDan

I like the Northern Tool bike repair stand. Not as well-polished as Park's, but does the job just as well.