coldehammer

I've been riding road bikes for the last 2 years now with great appreciation and fondness, doing simple maintenance checkups. I've been searching all over the place on what basic tools are needed to build a basic 10spd road bike up from scratch and have come to dead ends. Everything from videos and books will show you depending on what headset, component set that you have but I'm sure there's some basic ground tools one would need to have to get started.

With your help, I'd like to make a basic list of things I would need (do not consider special tools for groupsets). What would you consider are basic tools one would need to build a road bike up @ home.

Wrench sets, pliers, wire cutters, chain tool, bottom bracket tool, etc??? Responses like Park Tool kits are null, as one cannot just purchase this and get to work.

Thanks in advance!

Yan 

This should get cover you for everything except headset cup installation and removal.

Set of allen keys
Set of screw drivers
Cable cutter or dremel
Scissors
Headset wrench
Adjustable wrench
Bottom bracket spanner and pin spanner (varies widely)
Crank puller
Spoke wrench
Cone wrenches (sizes vary)
Chain breaker

I_like_cereal

My tool box.
Screw Drivers Phillips/Flat
Socket set
Jewelers tools
Pliers - Needle/Blunt
Dremel
Headlamp
Chainbreaker
Pedal Wrench
Freewheel tool
BB tool
Spare chain or cassette removing chain
Hammer
Adjustable Wrench smooth jaw
Monkey Wrench aka pipe wrench
Wire cutters
Torque Wrench
Electrical tape
Chain scrubber

igknighted

Good list... I would add a few things though:
Cassette tool (or lockring tool if riding fixed)
Chain whip
Torque wrench (especially if dealing with ANY carbon parts)

Note that many of the tools listed above have many versions for various brands and standards (eg, a square taper crank uses a different tool than an octalink crank, 10sp chains often need different chain breakers than older, wider chains, etc.), so if you work on multiple bikes, you may have multiple versions of the same tool.

nhorton

I'm not sure if you've thought of it, but one thing in the future you may wish to add is a bike mechanic stand. It sounds stupid, but having something to hold your bike is almost priceless

Now this isn't an absolute must, just an idea.

JonathanGennick 

+1. Having a stand turned working on the bike into pure joy, at least for me. Wrenching is now a fun hobby.

dabac

Well, the answer would pretty much depend on where you're starting from. Much of a bike can be assembled with what I'd consider generic tools, although they are available as bike tools too. You'd need some Allen keys, maybe even torx. Screwdrivers - phillips. Some specials, like bb and lockring tools, cone wrenches. Bike specific cable cutters will make the job easier, although a Dremel will also do the trick. Reamers and facers for headsets and bbs you have to be fairly dedicated to buy. Even I bring those jobs to the mechanics.

skilsaw

The philips screwdriver is small, for the limiting screws on the derailleurs. This is the only place I can remember using one.

Cyclist01012 

Frame jig, miter saw, welder, mill, lathe.

bent-not-broken

I consider a set of basic metric combination wrenches as a near neccessity.

cyclist2000

Headset press

coldehammer

Thanks all for your words of wisdom. I do in fact have a bike workstand and your basic wrench and allen sets for diy type stuff. I think other things from these lists are a headset press, chain removal tool, and cable tools will be helpful as well. I was really worried about torque type wrenches because on almost all group-type hardware, they spec it with nM torques and I'd hate to screw up a frame or component because of this.

HillRider

Your comment about "...videos and books will show you depending on what headset, component set that you have..." is very true.

Campy lockrings and cartridge bottom brackets use different tool than Shimano and external bottom brackets use different tools than cartridge-type square taper and Octalink/ISIS use different ones altogether as do cup-and-cone bottom brackets. Cone wrenches are necessary for cup and cone hubs but cartridge bearing hubs need different tools. Headset wrenches are needed only for threaded streers but not for threadless fork/headsets. And so on.

If you give us a better description of the bike(s) you want to work on we can give more specific recommendations.

coldehammer

I'm working with Campy Record groupsets and threadless forks. I have been building up my tool kit with minor maintenance and replacement jobs and would just really like to attempt at building a bike from scratch. From doing general maintenance, I'm sure you all can sympathize with me when you are almost complete with a step and then figure out a specific tool is needed and you're pushed into a corner of going online or to LBS to purchase it (worse part is that now your bike is in handicap mode).

Here's what I have so far:

Campy Bottom Bracket Tool
Cassette Puller Tool
Chain Whip
Pedal Wrench
Various Allen Heads
Various Wrench sizes
Bike Stand
All types of flat heads and philips screwdrivers
Wire Cutters
Torque Wrench - do all torque wrenches fit this bill? I have one by also owning a motorcycle, what's the max spec of nM one would need for bikes?


I wanted to concentrate all my effort on getting the right tools, as the right tool for the right job will just make it all that much easier when building it. What else would I need for campy comps?

HillRider

To add to your list, based on a Campy group:

Chain tool. Either a standard Park CT-3 if you are using a Wippermann or KMC chain or a Park CT-4.2 if you are using Campy 10 or 11-speed chains plus a Park CT-11 pin riveting tool for the Campy 11-speed chains or Campy's wildly overpriced equivalent to the Park tools.

Wire cutters aren't the right tool. A cable cutter is needed to do the job right. Park makes OK ones and Shimano and Felco make excellent ones.

Campy hubs don't need cone wrenches so you are alright there.

Torque wrenches. You need two, a 1/4" sq drive with a range of 0-60 inch-pounds for small delicate things like stem and handlebar clamp bolts and a 1/2" sq drive with a 0-600 inch-pound range for high torque jobs like bottom bracket cups and crank fastening bolts.

Drew Eckhardt 

Not needed. The only places with wrench flats on my bike are the brakes (where holding the brake with your hand works as well to keep the brake from moving on installation, and you only need to put a wrench on there when disassembling the brake for spring replacement every 15 years or so), pedals (where an 8mm hex socket works too, a standard open ended wrench doesn't always fit, and a pedal wrench provides more leverage), threaded headset (obsolete, and it takes a pair of 32mm wrenches which aren't in a basic kit), the cones and lock nuts (where only a cone wrench fits), and the nut holding some of my freehub bodies on (where a cone wrench fits and which you don't need to monkey with when building a bike).

An open ended is nice for cassette removal (you can see the tool is still seated well in the lock ring, and can even clamp it on there with a quick release if you want) although that's a 1" wrench not in metric sets and missing from small sets and using the same 1" socket you'd use with a torque wrench for installation works almost as well.

cyclist2000

You will also need T30 Torx for the brake levers and calipers. get L shape allen style torx not a socket, it will work better with the brake levers

catonec 

you wont, atleast I find myself not needing alot of the speciality tools on a daily basis. I normally dont remove cassettes or bottom brackets (although I bought the tools). I also dont build wheels, once a year (middle of winter) I bring my wheels to my lbs and have them true and tension them (I do own a truing stand). so a basic bicycle building toolset includes:

allen keys
torque wrench (if you have a carbon frame or components)
chain tool
small screw driver
wire cutter
pliers (cables)
hammer (handlebar plugs)
tire levers/pump

thats it.

coldehammer

Thanks for the tip!

coldehammer

Thanks everyone for your advice and suggestions thus far, will be posting in the future should I come into any issues/challenges. This type of input is much appreciated from the BF world!

HillRider

When did Campy change the brifter mounting bolts to Torx heads? My '06 vintage Chorus still used regular allen heads.

cyclist2000

My 2011 11-speed chorus brake levers that I placed on my bianchi this winter had torx screw for mounting. My 10-speed record brake levers from 12-08 has allen heads so I would suspect that the change happened with the 11 speed gear.