I knew you were going to say that.

Thanks so much everyone for all the ideas and input—really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Super helpful and gave me a lot to work with! 🙏

As for the bike that I want to be working on,
TLDR; Vintage Alan aluminum bike.

I currently have a 7yr old singlespeed fuji steel bike that I use for everything (groceries, errands, commute, frolicking around town, etc) I've ridden bicycles throughout my life but never with much thought. One day the idea that I want to learn more about it and build a bike from scratch with components that I want to put into it came to me. So I started out looking for frames. currently I am eyeing on an Vintage Alan frame on ebay - sadly I'm too new (needs 10 posts minimum) to the forum to post links or photos...

Beat me to it.

Another option would be to look for a local bike co-op. Ours had the option to volunteer and had them disassemble the unusable bikes that were donated . separating the different materials for recycling. A good way to get exposer to the different tools,discounts and classes.

Tools, tools, tools, can't have enough of them, too many of them or too good of them IME, nor too many versions of some.

Not a big fan of Park but they do have a tool for most any job and are of sufficient quality, again IME.

Many of them do not feel or fit right in my hands.

Campy not my favorite either but also can be adequate and they are cool no matter what.

The beginner sets are a good pattern for what comes after once one gets a handle on things.

My go to BB tools of choice are Sugino that I've had for 50 years, they work so much better for me, almost never slip and never fail to crack things loose.

I also have several Spin Dr's that have held up fine and are still in regular use, you never know what tool is going to do the trick and allow you to get the too tight apart or the finicky adjusted just right.

Aside from all that plenty of Snap On, Channelock, Matco, Mac, Stanley, Craftsman, Cornwell, Cresent, Diamond and plenty others.

That kit seems to have a thoughtful selection of included tools.

One other tool that you might not even think of as a 'cycling' tool is a good cable cutter. They don't have to be patrticularly expensive; they just need to be designed to cut cables effectively.



Good cable cutters work so much better than diagonal cutters ('Dikes') - not even close.

They will cut both brake and shift cables, both the housing and the cable. Hint: put a scrap piece of cable inside the housing when cutting to keep the housing from being squished.

Have fun wrenching on your bike!

Another consideration when working on C&V bikes is that parts are getting harder to get so ruining parts with the wrong tool is a shame. Ex:

I will not ever use a ball end allen key on a bike. I really don’t need to save the time it enables and it can ruin a fastener because of the poor fit. I’ll even inspect the flat end of an allen key to ensure it’s really flat, square to the sides. Many keys are not. Dress (grind or file) those ends if needed. I want full engagement with the fastener.

+1 about proper cable cutters vs “side cutters” or diagonal cutters. Those are for cutting copper wire.

On C&V bikes you will encounter fasteners with quite thin hex heads. Ex: the cable clamp bolts for straddle cables. Once you round off the corners of that hex head with an adjustable wrench or cheap socket you are dead outta luck. No recourse other than make it worse with “vice grip” pliers. My bike specific set of metric wee sockets (6mm through 10mm) have all had the tapered ends ground off. The “business end” is flat - full engagement with the fastener. Oh, it cost microseconds of time to fit properly but I gottem the time. I’ve ground the side of box end wrenches too so they fully engage the fasteners.

Metallurgy and tolerance of bargain tools is quite variable so be careful. I very rarely touch a bike part with an adjustable wrench. A cheap wrench with a poor fit can round off a hex heads then you’re in trouble. Note: any ole tool will work on a fastener that’s easy to loosen. The issue is with the fastener or fitting that has been tight for decades or corroded and is now REALLY hard to loosen. That’s when you need really good metallurgy and tool tolerances. And 6 engagement faces (IOW hex head) vs two.

Finally, for today, NEVER own just one bike. Best to have, at least three. Then when you run into trouble you can back away and ride another bike while you figure out how to handle the problem. You can go get answers, think it through, consider alternatives, find parts. AND you have time to let chemistry work for you - apply penetrating oil or tri-flow or something to the fitting and leave it over night or for a few days. Let the oil break up the decades of corrosion so you CAN get the fitting loose then take the time to clean everything up and put it back together.

I bought a cheap but broad ranging tool kit that was on sale when starting. The quality leaves much to be desired, but if I had a project I was working on the tool was there. Some of them bent with added force, many I have upgraded from, some I still use regularly. The whole set cost about the same as 2-3 standard park tools. I'd definitely go this route again - it was a great way to see if it was something I'd want to stick with and for the most part I was never without what I needed in a pinch. And now I have a backup set of tools. A decent set of allen wrenches goes a long way, but once you get into taking a whole bike apart and especially hubs/wheels and different cassettes/freewheels it adds up quick.

The necessary tools;
- Metric open/box end wrenches
- Metric Allen keys
- Flat bladed and Philips head screwdrivers (I heartily endorse JIS #2 “Philips” head but regular type will work, mostly).
- Cone wrenches *
- Crescent wrenches. (Yes peanut gallery, I’m not really a fan but sometimes they come in handy. Headset top nut for example.)
- Penetraing oil
- Waterproof marine grease
- Pedal wrench is very handy *
- Square taper crank extractor *
- Cable cutters *
- Evaporust
- Chain breaker *
- Tape measure with mm markings
​​​​​​- Digital calipers for measuring

I think ^^ will handle ~90% of most repairs and many of the tools aren’t bike specific so will be useful for other stuff. (* tools are bike specific)

Round 2 of tools starts to get specific to your needs. For example, if you don’t have any freewheel or cottered crank bikes no need for those tools.

A lot of negative comments about Park Tool here but their stuff is easily available, reasonably priced, decent quality and has worked for me.

My 2 cents

Glen's New Complete Bicycle Manual, April 13, 1987 edition. This is an excellent repair manual for vintage bikes of all kinds up to about 1987. You may want to add other repair books eventually but this is very complete and will always be useful. It's very inexpensive when purchased used - $6.36 with free delivery on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Glenns-New-Co.../dp/0517543133

Stay tuned, I have a boatload of really bad advice.

I would recommend, if there is one in your area, go to the local do it yourself workshop. These are hosted by bike shops and community organizations, have all the tools, and are often free or charge a nominal hourly fee. Way less cost than buying quality tools.

Also, there is almost always someone there to help you out and show you how to do something. This is better than YouTube.

Then, if you are still into the enterprise after a few months, buy quality tools one at a time, and remember you can always go back to the workshop for the unusual one. I still use community workshops for frame tools like bottom bracket cutters, eg. I need them once in a while but it is not worth the cost for me. And I still have the first set of Park cone wrenches i bought decades ago.

There is a saying here, "wer billig kauft, kauft zweimal." He who buys cheap, buys twice. You can over-do this idea (it is sacrilegious to suggest this for sure, but no one needs Campagnolo tools, or Park or VAR; there are other good options for the home wrench), but the principle is sound. Double the price of the cheapest option usually saves you money in the long term.

If you already have SAE tools, a 5/8" socket or combo will cover most 16mm needs, just as 7/16" covers 11mm needs and 3/4" works very well for 19mm.

I like a "third hand" brake caliper squeezer for adjusting brake cables.

#0, 1, 2 Philips screwdrivers, plus a few common flat blade screwdrivers

Don't forget, 5/16 = 8mm.

My 3rd hand is a tiny Dewalt bar clamp.

Why didn't I think of that! I've got a small bar clamp...

I'm +1 for a basic set of bicycle tools, and then a (non-bike specific aka marked-up) set of regular mechanics sockets and fixed wrenches.

My Nashbar (RIP) "big tool set" has served me well. Yes, I bought a better spoke wrench, and a Park pedal wrench. But I've only pulled 4-5 cranks, the puller is fine from the set. The chain while works fine. I don't service a ton of bike hubs, the stamped cone wrenches are still fine. Etc, etc. That $50 set meant that when a new job presented itself I was likely to have the tool.

The little clamp is great, mostly plastic so no marring, clamps tight, stays in place and easy to remove, all with one hand.

I've been a mech/tech/hack all my life so pretty much a tool junkie especially as a FoMoCo and ASE Senior Master Tech for 20 years, drag racing MC's for 25 years and much more, now back to bikes for the last 15+ years and still plenty of cars as well.

This is the main box, they're are a few more and a couple of well stocked work spaces, yes its a bit of a mess but lots of tools to get things done.

I can almost always find a tool that works for whatever has gone wrong.

Frank Berto's Upgrading Your Bike is available cheap from online used book sellers. Highly recommended! Not a how-to mehanic book, more of an explanation of the heirarchy of frames and components circa 1987.

https://m.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=667663

RJ the Bike guy has YouTube videos that are very helpful.

A lot of people on here call early 2000's components 'modern', therefore 'vintage' is a broad term used loosely.

Bicycle components have evolved in time, which complicates things when you need to buy tools, as the components (vintage and modern) have gone through several generations and design iterations.

Once you get the bike, post pictures of the components, that way we can recommend the correct tools you require to work on it.

Lots of good advice above. One other thing that's useful - the camera on your phone. Take a few photos as you're stripping a component; it can make reassembly so much easier. We won't talk about how long it took me to put a Simplex mech back together the first time I dismantled one 😉