Basic Tools - Cone Wrenches - What's your advice?
 

I am reading, Bicycling Magazine's "Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair" (1990) with a cover recommendation by Greg LeMond no less, I found this book in a used bookstore in pristine condition. So the first thing I will try to learn how to do is service my vintage hubs (they range from Campagnolo, SunShine, Shimno, etc.) and wondered which size and what brands of cone wrenches you would recommend and how many of each? Also will they all work on the different hubs I've mentioned, my guess would be yes, but again a guess, as I will be servicing bikes ranging from 1972 to the late 1980s.

As to brand I am more a quality vrs a. vintage name person, but if they both match up that's fine too. By quality I mean my S&K socket set I got at 16 which 50 years later works and looks like new. You can get what you pay for.

My thanks for your advice and for any suggestions on tutorials/YouTube videos you've found that were helpful in learning how to service hubs.

I have Park and Pedro's cone wrenches and like them. They're not too pricey and work well.

The standard basic cone wrench set was a pair of 13/14mm double sided, and a pair of 15/16mm double sided. For example: (2) Park DCW-1, and (2) Park DCW-2. This will be sufficient for most vintage quality hubs, campy, normandy, etc. You may run into 17mm lock nuts occasionally, but you can use a regular 17mm combination wrench for those. Metric combo wrench set also recommended.

Thanks exactly what I hoped to learn will add these tools to my Bike Tool box. :thumb:

For a front hub , a skinny cone wrench I use for the inside cone . For the skinny nut that goes on the outside against the fork , I use a thicker wrench . Easier for me to keep the thing on .
Tools are a collector item for me , It's hard for me to have too much . I'm almost to the point of needing one more tool box .

I have a pair each of 13/14s and 15/16s that are nothing special and that I have been using since the early '80s. Never saw any need to go better, They have held up just fine and work as well now as when new. I sometimes use a 17 for the locknut, but almost every locknut I've seen has been quite hard and ordinary crescent wrenches work just fine. Which ever is closer I use. I don't use the cone wrenches for the outside nut. Good chance of slipping and damaging the wrench.

Ben

You only need nice cone wrenches in a shop setting since the cheap ones tend to wear/round/bend quicker due to being so thin. For annual hub rebuilds for the home mechanic, cheap ones that come in a $50 bike tool set work fine. Just don't try to abuse them as pedal wrenches. What will make hub adjustment considerably easier though is a way to keep the axle in place while you manipulate the cone and the locknut.

Buy the best tools, and just buy once.

My no-name cone wrenches have sloppier tolerances than better cone wrenches, but so far it hasn't been a problem because cones and locknuts don't involve too much torquing. The problem is with the same kit's no-name thin stamped metal wrenches intended for bottom brackets and other components where the sloppy tolerances can result in slippage and rounded off nuts or even bending the tools.

Ditto the advice to try a generic tool kit. I got a kit labeled Venzo VPT from Amazon a couplafew years ago and most of the tools have been very good. In particular the chain tool is so good it makes up for the less satisfactory bottom bracket tools. I've added a few better quality tools here and there but only after determining the kit tool wasn't quite stout enough, particularly for bottom brackets. Nashbar used to sell some pretty decent tool kits, but the Nashbar marque is in semi-limbo at the moment, no idea whether the new owner will stock the same tool kits.

Pedro's was mentioned here, but didn't the brand go under or was absorbed by another, a couple of years ago??

I have some Pedro's stuff .
https://pedros.com/about-us/

Not bad for $20 .

https://www.jensonusa.com/Bike-Hand-...iABEgKJ0vD_BwE

I bought a set of Ice Toolz 13x14x15x16x17x18 on eBay. Good value, but they are pretty thin, so if you abuse them they'll get damaged.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/37X3-37A1-3...cAAOSwdx1aDs1R

+1 that is what I roll with

A proper bench vise is a huge asset here. Clamp it on the far locknut and accurate adjustment is a piece of cake. Bench vises, The single biggest reason I bought a house. Both houses I have owned had the existing workbench modified or a new one built early on to mount that vise.

Ben

I have a set of Sugino and a set of really old, can't remember the name of but they still work wrenches. You can still find these Suginos on "auction" sometimes. I clean them and put them back into case when I'm done, so they still look good - my other ones.. well I don't want a picture of those! For the amount of time I use them, what I have works fine for me. I used to work In a bike shop, so appreciate quality tools - but I also need to be reasonable about considering price for home-use tools.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...dbe27e9015.jpg

The first set I got when I got back into repairing bikes 12yrs ago came in a Nashbar set of tools I bought, then I added some Pedro's & Park. I really like the Nashbar & Pedro's better then the Parks, they just hold up better, in fact the shop I help at also bought some Pedro's to replace the worn out Park wrenches. I have had park wrenches round over with some really tight cones in the past. I use my cone wrenches more then most home shops would.

Glenn

If you have a bench vise, you may as well do it right and use a proper axle vise to hold the axle:

https://www.parktool.com/assets/img/...l/AV-1_001.jpg
https://www.parktool.com/product/axle-vise-av-1

Again, just what I needed to find out in this discussion, great help. I have started watching some of the choices available on the bay, but will also check out LBS. It's good to have a brick and mortar in town.

But now I have an additional question. I have found that cone wrenches can be made in a single size jaw, 13mm, or in a double sized jaw , 13mm and 14mm, etc.

Is this a good or bad idea?

How does this work out in practice?

Is it better just to stick with the single size jaw and avoid the stresses put on the bigger jaw located out at the end of the jaw where there is a lot less metal to take the stress of a reluctant nut?

Thanks for your advice and thoughts.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d0235f9edd.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e6a8a625b1.jpg
So here is how I've ended up, but first background on the choices. I started in Vintage bikes with a Nishiki Professional and have since added five more vintage Japanese racing bikes. So when I came across these used, and from pictures in good condition, Sugino cone wrenches, their price and the quality I have found in Sugino components just struck a cord. I have a lead on an additional 15/16 mm cone wrench and will soon have a set of two in each of these necessary sizes.
My thanks.

Those look real solid. I find the 15, 16 and 17mm ones are the ones I most frequently need. Of course, the only time you need to worry about damaging them is when you're first trying to take apart a rusty, crusty old hub or one that someone else has overtightened. (So, yeah, basically every hub I didn't put together myself :lol: )

Funnily enough, I still have the set of Sugino cone wrenches I bought when I was 13 or so. A long time ago. :lol: They are very solid and worth looking for. At the time they were the cheaper alternative to Campy wrenches, but the quality and function is similar. They're just not quite as pretty. It wasn't unusual for shops to use these. Usually there were a few campys, a few suginos, maybe some old VAR.

I dug out the second set I had besides my Sugino's; they're Hozan and a little more worn.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...080a0eec9f.jpg

On the crusty, rusty over tightened that you discover on your new old vintage bike, after one mistake :bang:, I have learned two things, patience and penetrating oil, even second applications of penetrating oil over a couple days.

There's always time, and then too, when that doesn't work, then seek out other's advice, someone at sometime has walked this path before you and figured it out. :50:

I got by for many years with a single 13/15 double sided black wrench from Pedro's together with whatever other wrench I used with the locknuts, but a few months ago I bought this set from Hozan because the price was good.

I measured the thickness of the Pedro's wrench at around 1.8 mm, and the Hozan wrenches around 2.4mm to 2.5 mm. Having duplicates and different sizes is nice. The Hozan set is a pair with 13/14 on one side and 15/16 on the other.

As others have pointed out, having individual wrenches with thick handles is probably important if you work on this stuff full time, but for two hours a year the four-in-one set works fine.